"Mama! Daddy! No! Please, PLEASE! Don't go! Don't leave me! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME- ah!" I woke up dripping wet, only to see an angry face glaring down at me.

"Get off my porch!" growled the old man, holding a now empty, bucket in his hand. I sat there, still groggy despite my recent soaking. "Get out of here or I'll make you!" the man yelled yet again, clenching his fist.

I quickly stumbled up and hurried down the street. I turned the corner onto Fleet Street. It didn't look like a very cozy neighborhood — in fact the entire street seemed to be dripping with a dark, ominous gloom — but there were plenty of alleyways to sleep in, and I was still tired.

Ah well beggars can't be choosers, I thought as I strolled into one of the dingy alleyways and sat myself down on the damp ground, getting the rest of my tattered skirts soaked in the process, and slowly fell asleep.

"Heh, heh, heh, now wot have we got 'ere?" I blinked stupidly, trying to focus on the person before me. I looked up to see a greasy-haired blond boy, no older than seventeen, leering at me.

"You's trespassin' on our territory, you knows." I blinked a few more times and noticed that there were about four or five boys behind him. I also realized that the sky had grown dark. I must've been out of it for a while. "You knows wot we does ter trespassers?" the boy asked, smirking.

"No, I can't say I do," I said harshly, standing up and brushing myself off. I hoped that I sounded braver than I felt — though I was annoyed, these boys were all bigger than I was, and they outnumbered me.

"We're expectin' yeh ter pay us, since we're so kind to let you sleep on our property."

"Well then, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have any money on me," I replied, adding venom to my voice and lifting my chin. Maybe they'd let me go if they realized that I had nothing to offer them; it was a slim chance, but I was holding onto it desperately. I could never fight my way out of this.

"I wasn't talking 'bout money, Miss," he said, his smirk widening even more.

Before I knew it my wrists were thrown up against the brick wall, scratching the backs of my hands, and the boy started reaching up my, still damp, skirts, all the while being cheered on by his lackeys. I tried to scream out but the boy hit me hard across the cheek.

I was worried (and at the same time, hopeful) that I was going to pass out when suddenly the boy was thrown back by a tall man with dark circles under his eyes and a large white streak running through his hair.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" the man yelled, his eyes glinting furiously. The boys stayed where they were, cowering. The mans hand shifted towards his pocket, where I saw something glisten. The boys eyes widened in fear. "Get." The man repeated, not loudly, but with enough venom in it to kill.

The boys' eyes widened even further and darted between the object in his pocket and the man's expression which was, like his tone, murderous. The man let out a low growl and, thoroughly terrified, the greasy-haired blond signaled to the others to leave and ran out of the alley as quickly as possible.

I let out a sigh of relief then tried to peek over to catch a glimpse at what it was that had scared the boys so much, but the man quickly covered it up and turned towards me, causing my stomach to jump up into my throat yet again.

"You all right?' he asked gruffly, looking like he didn't really care what the answer was. I forced myself to nod and hid my bleeding hands behind my back, looking down at my feet. "We should get some bandages for those Miss…" he continued reluctantly, glancing back the way he'd come.

"Alice, just Alice sir. I don't have a last name, I haven't for quite some time actually." I said, trying to recall just how long ago my parents had left me.

"Right then," the man said, ignoring that last comment and walking off. I wondered if he'd even been listening. "Those bandages."

"Right sir. . . . Oh!" I exclaimed, heading after him.

"What?' he asked, turning around.

"I never learned your name, sir." I pointed out.

"It's Sweeney, Sweeney Todd."

Author's Note:

thank you for reading!! i'll try to get the next chapter up soon this is my first fanfiction so i'm new at this.

uber thanks to forestwater for pointing out potential mary-sue-ness and smoothing out a lot of the rough spots and also to Meggi for coming up with a fantastic title! XD ((i'm never good at naming things))

until we meet again!