Esteemed Malevolence

XXXIV: Hide and Seek

It was like the clouds over London had sensed the morbid tension between the people below, and they turned a disgruntled black, the rain already ruthlessly spilling down to batter anyone unlucky enough to be outside.

Eva skidded to a halt by the bottom of Mr Todd's staircase, her breathing ragged from running - or perhaps from the canivorous urges she was desperately trying to control. When her reddened eyes laid upon the sight of Eleanor Lovett half way up the very stairs she'd just approached, she frowned and roared out a "No!" to which Eleanor emitted a startled gasp.

Before the baker had time to persuade the girl to calm down, Eva had stomped her way up each stair, lightly growling beneath every puff of air that she pushed out. She balled her hands into fists as she stopped dead to squarely face Eleanor.

"Down." she instructed shortly in a shuddering bellow - her tone was sinister but her wide eyes looked as if they were sadly pleading for Mrs Lovett to kindly co-operate. "Go down. Stay inside. It's not going to be safe up here."

Eleanor frowned and opened her mouth into a gawp, "W-Wot?! Wot d'ya mean - ?"

"It doesn't matter, what I mean." Eva snapped, clenching her teeth as her body jerked forwards towards her... but she stopped herself - it was like she resisting something. "Please... I need to speak with Mr Todd... alone."

"With wot I've jus' seen ya do?!" the baker shrieked, her body tensing defensively as she stuck her chin out towards the girl. "Not bloody likely!"

"Well, I'm not going to eat him, if that's what you're worried about, Mrs Lovett." Eva quipped, rain droplets dripping from the brim of her hat. "We could stay out here all night, but one of us would surely catch a death of cold."

Eleanor huffed out in surrender, no longer wanting to stand out there in all that rain to argue with the frustrating girl.

"Fine." she stubbornly replied, narrowing her chocolate eyes as she brushed a sheet of water droplets from her sleeves. "But if I 'ear anythin' untoward then I'll be up 'ere faster than you can say chocolate teapot."

Internally, Eleanor was already praying that Mr Todd wouldn't be there. Or at least, wouldn't be harmed. After all, seeing Eva's gruesome attack earlier, she wasn't sure what side the girl was on anymore.

Now that Eleanor had backed down and retreated down the stairs, cautiously, so she wasn't to slip over; Eva swivelled around, rushing up the rest of the staircase, eyes focused dead ahead.

As she approached the barber's door, worried thoughts flew around her head - then again, when she'd given in to biting into that infernal pie, she'd had her wits about her to the point of paranoia.

But she wasn't concerned for herself.

She was concerned for Mr Todd.

Concerned that there was something in that barber shop that connected him to the now deceased Beadle Bamford. Once she got something irritating in her head, she had to get rid of it at once. So there was no time like the present.

She carefully pushed the door in, slipping through stealthily... which had been completely pointless because the bell rang out and announced her presence. She gritted her teeth in annoyance, maddening eyes quickly surveying the place for an ominous barber...

To her surprise, the shop was completely vacant, apart from a suspended gas lamp, which was still flickering away to give the room an otherworldly glow. From that, it was clear that Mr Todd had definitely been there recently.