NEW WORLD NEW BLOOD (sequel to meat pies and razor blades) PART ONE

Raine was a bit surprised to see the man sitting in the booth beside the door as she walked in. She noticed Mrs Lovett watching the man in a daze as he gulped down a mug of her warm ale. The glazed look in her eyes alarmed Raine a bit but she ignored it and pegged it on the fact that Mrs Lovett’s business was a failure and she must be giddy that she finally had a customer.

Raine looked down at the man and scanned his features over as he lowered the mug and grimaced. He was very handsome even with the gaunt look about him. He was haunting. Pale pallid skin with perfectly chiseled features. He had the darkest eyes that she had ever seen. Nearly black. His hair was uncropped, mad and unruly but suited him. Jet black curls covered his dome. His long bangs swept to the side with one stark white streak screaming against the ebony.

Any typical girl would not be blamed for swooning over this handsome stranger upon lying eyes on him. However Raine Gardener was far from the typical girl. She was a torn soul. For nine long years her life was nothing but tragedy after tragedy. Her spirit was broken and she had nothing left to loose but for the time she spent staring up at Judge Turpin’s house for a glimpse of her Johanna. She no longer took pleasure in things such as admiring a fetching man.

Which is why it surprised her to find herself doing just that. The small twinge of a blush that touched her pale cheeks was so unfamiliar to her, so foreign. She quickly disposed of it however and regained her composure. It felt wrong to her. Any form of happiness no matter how small was unknown to her now.

The only bit of it she allowed was for the times she saw Johanna…or for those memories of times now long lost….but even in that happiness misery was soon to follow once the cold reality set in. That reality being that her life would never be the same. And she had no hope of ever getting her daughter back, or her lady Mrs Barker back………..
At least…..not on her own…..

She noticed that the man was looking her over as well. She could feel his dark eyes scan her over. Normally she never allowed a man to openly stare at her. But for some reason she sensed that denying this man anything would not be wise. She flushed slightly as his eyes met hers and locked sending a minute chill through the leangth of her spine.

Not knowing what else to do she simply offered the man a small smile…or at least the closest thing to it that she could manage to feign.

"Aye the taste is awful isn't it Sir? Come Sir, ale alone won't get that out."
Raine was a bit worried to find her voice so soft. She bareley spoke unless to Mrs Barker anymore. Or perhaps a few words to Mrs Lovette every now and again. It was a bloody wonder that she hadn’t lost the damn thing entirely from lack of use. She couldn’t help but to notice the man’s expression darken a bit before she turned to lead him to her and Mrs Lovette’s quarters.

As she walked off he heard his foot falls thudding behind her on the wood floor. Then of coarse Mrs Lovette’s clacking heels. Those annoying old shoes of hers that needed fixing. Loose nails in the heels boring themselves out of the soles to click on the floor.

Raine Ignored the stairs to her left as best as she could. Which wasn’t very good at all. She offered a small sigh as she glanced at the door up top and kept her pace. Unnoticed to Raine however was the fact that the mysterious man also found in him the need to look up that stairway and glance dismally at the door. The door which led into a world of hurt. A whole realm of pain and suffering for both their souls. Behind that door was a one room flatt in which too many things had happened. …………..And so much more was yet to take place……..though this was unknown to Raine.

Once in the living area which also searved as a bedroom for both Raine and Mrs Lovette, she poured the man a glass of gin and handed it to him as he sat before the fire. He looked at the glass and swilled the liquid around a bit before allowing some to pass his lips.

“Things as hard as they are…why don’t you rent out the flat up top?”

Mrs Lovette, who’s stareing Raine had only noticed too well sighed.

“Tried. Cant. You see rumor has it that its haunted.”

‘Haunted?”

“Yes. Silly really. But they all think its true…And whos to say theyre wrong?…A few years back something happened up there. Something not so nice…”

At that Raine found herself a seat in the corner farthest from them. She knew the story that was to pass Lovette’s lips. She wanted nothing more than for those recallections to never again haunt her. But it seemed that she would never know how that would be. The years past haunted her like a deamon determined to drive her into the deapths of madness.

“What happened?”

If Raine were not so buisy trying her damndest to tune out Lovette’s words she would have heard the dead tone in the man’s voice. And she of all people would be able to recognize that tone as akin to hers. Full of pain and agony. The voice of a torn sole. The voice of a person who has lost all. And is desperate for a new beginning that they know will never come.

“You see…there was a barber…started a new life with a pretty little wife…they lived up there. In the flat. Started a family…he worked for them. Cutting hair, shaveing whiskers. All up there. Proper artist with a knife he was. Such a handsome man too.”

“His name?”

“Benjamin. Benjamin Barker his name was.”

“What happened to him?”

 

“Judge Turpin. Transported him for life. Over into Africa over the sea.”

“On what charge?”

“Foolishness…That man had everything that he had ever wanted. He never saw it comeing because he didn’t think that anything could happen to him.”

Raine was of coarse and understandably diminished to tears by Lovette’s story. It was all that she could do to not collapse to the ground in hysterrics. Raine sat silently as the salt of her tears burned her eyes and ran through her lashes and down her cheeks. She hunched over in pain and wrung her hands in her skirts. Hopeing that Lovett would simply finish soon.
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