Secrets (Sweeney Todd)

Chapter 1, Cozy Life

“There was a barber and his wife... And she was beautiful…” I hear the demon singing over one of his victims. I grip the grate above me and slowly lift it.

                Mrs. Lovett’s screams ring through my head. I knew Todd was wrong inside. I knew he was evil. I promised I would protect her… If only she listened to me.

                I climb out of the hole, slowly, not wanting to alert the killer of my presence.

                “And she was virtuous…” Mr. Todd sings, covered in blood and tears. I reach down and grab his blade from the ground. “And he was…”

                I step behind him and drag his own blade across his neck. His blood drips in a red shimmery curtain onto the dead woman in his arms. He deserved this. After what he did to Mrs. Lovett. After what he did to Mr. Pirelli, and all these strangers in heaps by the fire, and in the grinder, and in the pies.

                I drop the stained razor and a sob escapes my throat. I run over to the oven, dropping onto my knees, letting the tears fall freely now. Mrs. Lovett is dead. She is reduced to a pile of ash. My savior, my mum, is dead.

                I sprawl out on the ground and sob.

I walked confidently out of the shop, a tray of meat pies in my hands.

                “Toby, go grab another tray from the basement, these are selling like mad. Mr. Todd will help you.” Mrs. Lovett says with a beaming smile.

                “Anything for you, ma’am!” I say happily, setting the tray I have in my hands onto the counter. I spin on my heel and run down the steps to the basement. The darkness devours me as I jog to the oven.

                I open the hatch and put on heavy gloves. Pulling out a tray, I turn at a sound to find Mr. Todd smiling widely at me, his face and clothes covered with blood. His throat is ripped open into a bright red valley. He pushes me into the fire.

“Toby! Toby wake up!” Johanna says, shaking my shoulders gently.

                I feel my screaming stop and bolt upright. Sweat is trickling down my face, and I am trembling all over.

                 “Nothings gonna harm you…"  She sings softly to me, running her fingers through my hair. “It was just a dream, little one. Everything is fine.”

                I look into her eyes, and she just nods. Anthony and Johanna have taken me in. They have graciously become the closest thing to a mother and father to me that I have ever had.

                That day, after I had ran out of tears for Mrs. Lovett, I slowly walked upstairs, just wanting to get away from the death and despair of the past hour. I had gone into the main shop, only to see a boy sitting on the bench, crying softly. I walked up to him, and he looked up at me. I instantly knew that it was no man, but in fact a girl, in disguise.  A girl maybe four or five years older than me.

                “What’s your name, ma’am?” I whisper, barely audible. Tears pool in my eyes again.

                “I am Johanna.” She says weakly, her tears momentarily stopped. “Who are you?”

                “Toby.” I say. Then I look back at the door leading to the basement. “We should leave this place. Evil lives here…”