It has been a week since the grand re-opening of Sweeney Todd's tonsorial parlor. Mrs. Lovett was having a very busy day- Ever since the grand re-opening of the barbershop it seems like people started to notice her bakeshop more. She was more than happy, of course, now that the business is booming; but, considering that she was alone- with no one to help her in serving those customers- at the end of the day she feels like she's going to collapse.
"Oi, Miss! Where's my order?" shouted an angry customer from the back.
Mrs. Lovett's patience was wearing thin- this brute- she just explained to him how he will need to wait for a few minutes to get his order because the pie was still cooking, kept on shouting, wanting his bloody pie.
"OI, I SAID WHERE'S MY PIE!?" the man shouted again but this time he was banging his cup on the table, creating unpleasant noises.
Mrs. Lovett cannot contain herself anymore- she marches towards the man glaring daggers at him then she shouts back jabbing her fingers at the man's chest "I TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR A FEW MINUTES TO GET YOUR ORDER DIDN'T I? NOW, IF YOU CANNOT WAIT AND YOU'RE GONNA COMPLAIN ABOUT IT ALL DAY WELL THEN YOU ARE FREE TO GET OUT OF MY SHOP, NOW!"
The look on the bastard's face was priceless- he was shocked- he stares open mouthed at the baker before he stands up and prepares to leave muttering an apology on his way to the door; and it's as if nothing had happened Mrs. Lovett puts a smile on her face then asks
"Who's in for a pie?"
Upstairs, Mr. Todd also has a lot of customers. He just finishes shaving a gentleman when another one comes in.
"Sit sir, sit" beckons Mr. Todd at the man.
The man sits and makes himself comfortable while Mr. Todd takes his coat and his hat placing it on a nearby table.
"Just a shave, sir" the man says as he closes his eyes and tilts his head back, giving the barber a better angle to shave his face.
As Mr. Todd starts shaving, the man speaks "A friend of mine says that you're the best barber in town, Mr. Todd. You know, I was once a barber like you but, bigger opportunity came and I took it."
Though he doesn't want to converse with his customers, Mr. Todd doesn't have a choice. If he's going to be rude, no one would want to go to his shop. "If I may, what do you do for a living sir?"
"I work for the judge now." The man states nonchalantly.
"Oh" was the only word Mr. Todd could utter- he was surprised by the man's revelation. He decides to ask the man about Turpin but when he was about to speak he was cut off.
"Judge Turpin is a really good person. He helped me and my family a lot, without him we would be nothing." The man says with a gleam in his eyes.
Mr. Todd remains silent- he cannot process what the man was saying. 'Judge? A good person? Maybe, Turpin pays this man a lot of money for him to say he was a good person.' He thinks.
Before he knows it he was done shaving the man. The man pays him and bids him good bye. Once gone, Mr. Todd sighs- he just missed his chance asking the man about the judge.
Mrs. Lovett casts a glance at the stairs and saw the barber's customer was leaving. 'Strange, he looks familiar'. She takes a look at the man again and she finds out why the man looks so familiar. She hurriedly runs towards the barbershop.
"Mr. Todd!" she was panting, catching her breath "that… that man…John… Clinton!"
Mr. Todd cannot understand what she was saying so he grabs her shoulders then directed her to sit towards the barber's chair "Calm down, Mrs. Lovett."
The baker took her time trying to even out her breathing. Seeing that Mrs. Lovett was now breathing normally, the barber asks her. "You're saying?"
"That man- your customer that had just left, He was John Clinton!"
Mr. Todd stands there for a moment contemplating what the baker was talking about. 'Who's John Clinton?' he muses. Then reality hits him- he dashes towards the door intending to catch the man who apparently, his wife chooses to replace him with.
He does not know where John headed but, fortunately he sees him walking down the road which leads to the market. Sweeney runs- determined to catch the man who was twenty feet away from him. John walks fast and it makes it hard for the barber to follow him even though he was running. The man turns right and that's where Mr. Todd lost him- The Market. He reaches the market where John headed. Unluckily, the place was crowded. He walks past the people tearing the whole crowd in hopes to find John but he was unsuccessful.
Mr. Todd has no choice but to go home and waits for John to come back to his barbershop again. He walks angrily back to Fleet Street muttering curses under his breath. He was not paying attention on where he was going then suddenly he collided with someone. It was a boy- he was scrawny and he seems homeless. Anger getting the best out of him he glares at the boy- who looks scared and was apologizing to him. He ignores the boy then he continues to walk on his way home.
Halfway, Mr. Todd notices that his razor was missing. He stops walking and thinks for a while if he just forgot it at home but then he remembers putting it in his holster. Suddenly, realization dawns on him- the boy! He spans around and there he finds the boy talking to a gentleman. 'Probably another one of his victims'
He shouts while running towards the direction of the boy pointing his finger at him. "You, boy!"
The boy slowly turns around and upon seeing Mr. Todd he runs as fast as he can while shouting. "Help me!"
Luckily, there weren't many people in the area, so the barber chases the boy. He noticed that they were already in Fleet Street and the boy was heading towards Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. He smirks thinking 'Wrong move, lad'
The boy was panicking, the man was catching up on him and he has to find a way to get the man to leave him. That's where he finds the baker. He runs towards Mrs. Lovett as he tugs her skirt begging "Ma'am, please, Help me."
Mrs. Lovett jumps, startled by the boy's sudden presence. She pries his hands away from her skirt and kneels down asking "What is it?"
The boy points to the right "that man, he was coming after me."
Looking, Mrs. Lovett saw that it was Mr. Todd that the boy was pointing at. She cocks her head to the side- confused as to why Mr. Todd was chasing the boy. The barber reaches them and without warning he grabs the boy by his collar and drags him upstairs.
"No! Please help me!" shouts the boy while struggling to get out of the barber's grip.
Mrs. Lovett was at lost as to what was happening so she just follows Mr. Todd upstairs in his barbershop.
Reaching the barbershop, Mr. Todd let go of the boy, throwing him into the chair. He was hovering over the boy glaring daggers at him- the boy was cowering in fear.
Mrs. Lovett stands beside Mr. Todd placing her hand at the barber's shoulder "Now, Mr. T, why don't you calm down, love. Tell me, what did he do to you?"
"He stole my razor" Mr. Todd says. He looks like a boy telling his mother that someone had stolen his candy.
"That ain't true ma'am! He dropped it and I was gonna return it to him but the man talked to me and so I wasn't able to return it immediately." the boy explains.
Seeing that the boy seems to be telling the truth Mrs. Lovett says "Come on Mr. T, just get your razor back and leave the child alone."
Mr. Todd considers protesting but thought better of it he simply turns around and walks, stopping by the window- looking outside the streets of London.
Mrs. Lovett kneels in front of the chair and smiles at the boy "Now, what's your name lad?"
The boy looks down and murmurs his name "Toby"
She places his hand on Toby's lap and asks him "Toby, why don't you give back Mr. T's razor?" she stands up and nods towards him.
Toby casts a glance at Mr. Todd then looks at Mrs. Lovett- worried expression painted on his face.
The baker waves her hand motioning for Toby to stand up "Come on, it's alright. Stand up. Give it to him."
He slowly stands up and fishes the razor out of his pocket then he makes his way towards Mr. Todd.
"Sir, here's your razor" he hands out the razor to the barber. Mr. Todd looks at Toby with a scowl on his face. He yanks his razor out of Toby then went back to looking out the window.
The boy moves away to stand at the baker's side. He looks at her then says "thank you, ma'am"
"It's nothing, dearie." Replies the baker as she takes the boy's hand "Come with me down stairs and we'll get you something to eat." Toby beams up at this and follows Mrs. Lovett.
As the two went downstairs, Mr. Todd was left alone to think about his second arch enemy- first would be the Judge- John Clinton.
this is a lame chapter, forgive me. -_-
and yes, John works for the Judge ;)
leave me a review ^_^