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I thought id try something a little different. I'll write the story than at the end I'll leave an option for you to decide what a character dose. It will start off much as the movie dose but may change quicly depending on your responses. Sound fun? The current decision question is at the end of chapter 4 and ends on the last day of july, so hurry!!
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Sweeney stood on the bough of the "bountiful", the ship he had resided upon for little over a month. Antony, a young sailor with an eternally optimistic attitude stood beside him. "I have sailed the world, beheld it's wonders, from the Dardanelle to the mountains of Peru" He looked out at the dreary, gray toned streets, eyes wide with awe. Sweeney glared at the boy 'why dose he look so bloody amazed?' he wondered. "But there's no place like lundon!!" The boy finished with a contented look.
"No, there's no place like Lundon." Sweeney admitted, that much the boy was right on.
"Mister Todd?" The boy said, looking at the older man. He rarely spoke and was curios what else he might have to say.
Sweeney didn't bother to look at the boy, instead his gazed was fixed outwards at the approaching city, eyes as darkly shadowed as his mind. "You are young." He said sadly, "Life has been kind to you. You will learn." Yes he would learn, there was no way to stay innocent and naive in this dreadful town. He moved forwards to the front of the ship, glaring at the city before he began sharing a bit of his views with the boy.
"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it and its morals aren't worth wot a pig could spit and it goes by the name of Lundon." Antony moved forward, somehow interested in his small speech. "At the top of the hole sit a privlaged few, making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo, turning beauty into filth and greed." His head didn't turn but his eyes finally looked back at the boy. "I, too, have sailed the world and seen its wonders."
His eyes where once again string at the buildings, watching as they seemed to grow with every second. "For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru, but there's no place like Lundon." He scowled.
A few minutes later the ship met dock and Sweeney hurried forward, first one off the ship. Antony followed closely behind and Sweeney couldn't help but think him like a puppy. "Every thing all right Mista Todd?" He questioned, looking questioningly at him.
Sweeny swallowed, looking around. Last time he was at London's docks he had been shackled hand and foot and behind loaded onto a ship bound for Australia. Some where along here Lucy had stood, waving and crying. She hadn't brought the baby, had left her with there landlady thinking all the noise would frighten her.
It took him a moment to realize Antony had spoke and another moment still to gather a response. "I beg your indulgence Antony. My mind is far from easy." He managed, eyes still looking out at the down as dawn was rising. "In these once familiar streets I feel shadows everywhere."
Antony would have pointed out that of course there where shadows, everything has to cast a shadow, its only natural, but deciding he had misunderstood he repeated Sweeney's words. "Shadows?"
"Gohast." Todd cleared up, reminded once again what a simpleton this boy was. 'remember' he thought to himself 'small words when talking to the lad' maybe if he could expkain a bit the boy would understand. "there was a barber and his wife and she was beautiful" Images of his blond wife flitted through his mind. "A foolish barber and his wife." As he spoke he could see her, last time he'd seen her a free man they where out shopping. It was spring and almost every stand in the square was selling flowers.
"She was his reason and his life, and she was beautiful" Antony blinked at the man, wondering why he was being told this story. Did it have anything to do with the ghost? Maybe it was a ghost story? He tuned back in, realizing the other man was still talking.
"There was another man who saw that she was beautiful." Sweeney continued, remembering how they had stopped in the square and he had shown his daughter a flower. His voice became heavy with disgust as he continued the little tale. "A pious vulture of the law, who with a gesture of his claw, removed the barber from his plate." One of his hands rose to the back of his head where the policeman had hit him before dragging him away. "Than there was nothing but to wait." He remembered how even as he was being dragged away the judge had stepped forward to console his saddened wife. "And she would fall, so soft, so young, so lost an oh, so beautiful." His voice cracked with emotion as he finished.
Antony still didn't know what the purpose of the story was and was wondering why there was a vulture in the middle of the story. Had it been a story where the characters where animals like the Flopsey Rabbits? He had to say something though or the older man would think he was ignoring him. "And the lady, sir, did she succumb." In his mind he couldn't help but picture a pretty bunny in a dress smiling at a vulture in a judges wig.
"Oh that was many years ago." Sweeney said quietly. That thought had plagued his mind as well. "I doubt if anyone would know." He looked back at the boy. "I'd like to thank you Antony. If you hadn't spotted me I'd be lost on the ocean still." Or dead. He finished in his head.
The boy ignored the thanks, no one would have spotted him and not had him brought aboard. "Will I see you again?" He asked.
"You might find me again." Sweeney said. "Around Fleet Street, I wouldn't wonder."
Sweeney parted without another word to the boy, mumbling to him self about the filth of the world. His place was slow but picked up speed the closer he got to his destination until finally he saw it. A building with two stories, a pie shop down below and a large glass window taking up almost the entire right side of the roof on the second floor. His old home. His heart ached at the thought.
He hesitated, out side the building. Inside the pie shop he saw someone moving about. His stomach rumbled at the thought of food. Upstairs the window was dingey and dark. But, if his wife was there it might be dark 'cause she was still sleeping. It was quiet early and she had always been fond of sleeping in.