"Out of the Shadows"
By Lauren and Charlotte
A Sweeney Todd fan fiction
Chapter 1
Toby wandered wearily out of the cellar of the pie shop wondering what he just did. He couldn't process that every person that he had just saw only a few hours ago, the old hag, the Beadle, the judge, his mother! They're all dead! But he has no regret for killing that demonic barber, he killed all those people, he deserved it. "But why was he holding that strange hag in his arms?" Toby was confused and depressed. Toby wanted answers. He still couldn't believe how stupid he was, blinded by the childish notion of ACTUALLY having a home and a mother who ACTUALLY cared about him. The thought made him loathe with sorrow, and the more he loathed, the more he felt the strange presence like there were shadows, ghosts, surrounding, thirsty for blood. Like that damned barber.
He figured he would find answers to this big mystery in the dreaded place where that devil of a man stained all if the walls with the blood of the innocent.
He walked hesitantly up the stairs up to the bloodstained door. Before he could open it, a very timid looking cap burst through the door hollering, "Anthony! Anthony! Don't let him hurt me!" Toby quietly replied, "Don't let who hurt you, mister?" The timid chap said, "That man! That bloody barber with the razor! He killed Judge Turpin and the old lady! I was terrified! He almost got me too! If it wasn't for that horrid screech coming from below, I would've joined them too." The fellow then crouched down and began to weep.
"It's alright, sir. That man claimed the life of someone I loved too." Toby said. The pitiful man said, "I am not a sir, I am a lady. Johanna, the ward of the judge. But I hated him, and I certainly don't know that hag or love her!" As soon as she said this, a man, Anthony, comes up the stairs and meets us yelling, "What is it, my love? You look like you've seen something dreadful. But, don't worry my dear, Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett will help us, and maybe get a pie to calm your nerves." Toby picks his head up and says, "It's not possible for the dead to help the living, for they do not roam Earth anymore."
Anthony stares at Toby trying to process what he had just said. "What are you saying, lad. I don't understand." Toby responds, quieter than a whisper, "They're dead. Gone. Mrs. Lovett was burned. The barber…well…got cut real bad."