What if the razor found the other throat?
She said she'd never let anything harm him.
If there's one thing Mrs Lovett has learned it's that almost anything can be endured by taking things one step at a time. So she follows Mr Todd through the labyrinth of sewers, half of her hoping that they'll find Toby, the other half praying that they won't.
She focuses on the facts instead. Her and Mr T walking together. Sometimes, when it's slippery or the bricks are crumbling, he takes her arm. His hand doesn't feel like a killer's hand, even as the other is gripping one of his friends. She allows herself to believe that they are married, that Toby is their son and they are calling him in for supper.
Her voice is high with nerves as she calls for Toby. Higher, next to Mr T's gruff one. He doesn't sound like a murderer. Then again, she doesn't sound like a woman who bakes people into pies for a living. Cats perhaps. Not people.
They find Toby exhausted, terrified and alone; all the fight in him long gone. It's over in one quick flash of silver.
She said that she'd never let anything harm him: now nothing ever can.
(200 words)