Demons'll Charm You

Chapter 1: Return to Fleet Street

No one ever escapes the terrors of darkness. The talons of fear that fester within it keep victims tied down to it perpetually, but there are few who are able to run away before it consumes them completely. There was once a young boy, one who encountered unspeakable terrors, and unknowingly partook in them. He fell into that darkness where a face so horrifying haunted him and a fallen angel lulled him to sleep with her song. A shining blade of hope was his only way of escape. Unbeknownst to this boy, however, was that he didn't run away far enough from the ghosts and demons of his past...

Tobias Ragg stood before the small barred window of his dreary room of stone, cold to the touch. He was finally getting out of this wretched place, the asylum, though it was the only place that truly felt like home in his entire life. Well, second place. At any moment, he was going to be told it was time for him to go. It was almost bittersweet.

He turned away from the window and looked at the uncomfortable wooden bed that he had slept in for the past ten years. His roommate, another young man named Porter, was seated at their small table in the corner near his own bed, watching Toby with eager eyes.

"They'll be coming for you soon, Toby," Porter said as he glanced toward the barred door to their room. "Are you nervous?"

Toby let out a heavy sigh and left the window, going over to sit on his bed, the harsh wool blanket scratching the tips of his fingers as he did so. "I am nervous, Porter," he began, "But I've been waiting for this day for a very long time." Toby never thought he would be released. Toby was a boy of only fourteen years when he witnessed the murder of Nellie. Lovett, whom he had learned to love as a mother. He had witnessed the barber, a man he never trusted, Sweeney Todd, throw her into an open oven, and her screams as she was being consumed by the flames were something that ended any innocence and child-like wonder left within Toby. That same night, Toby also found dismembered limbs in the meat grinder, where the successful pies of Mrs. Lovett had been made. He had seen the brutally slaughtered bodies of Beadle Bamford, Judge Turpin, and a beggar woman. He knew Sweeney Todd had killed them all, and Mrs. Lovett encouraged it. The horrors he had witnessed had numbed him, leading up to the very moment he murdered Sweeney Todd, a moment he can't even remember clearly, He remembered the way his hands trembled, yet the murder of Mrs. Lovett's death fueled him with a calm rage that allowed him to do what he did. He fled the scene once it was over, but after that, all he remembered was darkness.

Toby was told that he had stumbled out of Mrs. Lovett's pie shop, and a few policemen had been arriving at that time, having been notified of the screams being heard from within the shop. Toby could not speak and he was in shock. It was clear he had seen something he shouldn't have, and it was deemed that instead of an orphanage or in the care of a family, Toby should be sent to an asylum. During the first few weeks of his stay, Toby's appetite had vanished, his mind tricking him into seeing limbs and thumbs in the gruel they were served. At night, he would cry hysterically for Mrs. Lovett and swear to avenge her, even though he had already done so. He frequently prayed for the damnation of Sweeney Todd's soul and hoped that he was paying for what he had done.

The sudden flashbacks of memories were the worst of it all, which caused Toby to have terrible terrors in both the night and day. Toby couldn't remember what happened during these episodes, only that within his mind, he was back there again. These terrors would cause him to lash out violently at the other patients by threatening them or shouting at them. All patients, young and old, began to fear the young boy and because of this, Toby was usually kept in his cramped cell and not let out, even for meals. He had shared that cell with another boy, who was also deemed to be a danger to himself and others, by the name of Match. Match, who had been named by other patients, had a fascination with fire and somehow always found matches, which had to be confiscated from him constantly. He shouted nonsense about all going up in flames, and Toby feared that one day he would awake to find his bed on fire. He constantly begged to be moved to another room, but his cries fell on deaf ears. Match did cause a small fire in the asylum during a quick escape, but it was put out before any damage could be done. After the day, Match mysteriously vanished and the patients were told that he had died in an accident of his own doing. Toby wasn't certain if he believed that.