The Demon Barber Is Alive!
Chapter 4: Freedom
It was barely past ten in the morning and Mrs. Lovett was already feeling flustered she had been going to settle on her armchair with a small glass of gin but there was a certain issue that plagued her, so as not to feel guilty she dusts flour from her hands and stumbles dizzily to a mirror. She smooths down her frizzy, mess of hair and walks up to Mr. Todd's parlour. He is standing next to his chair holding a razor. She shakes her head at him. Bloody razors! "Lucy…" he strokes the razor. She taps his shoulder, he is ice cold and unresponsive, she taps him again. He half turns and speaks vaguely, "Mrs. Lovett?"
"Mr. T, well, I wanted to talk because...I was uh wonderin'…"
"Out with it!" He is in no mood for her ridiculous conversations. Pie Hag!
"Well, lately, Mr. Todd, I have been havin' a little trouble 'round the shop…so many customers and I've had no help," she mumbled to him.
"So?" He was getting very angry. Why is the hag annoying me? I was having a perfectly good depression session before she came and now she wants to 'talk'!
"You remember Toby, don't you, love?"
"Oh…the boy,"
"Maybe, we could stop feedin' him the pie scraps?" she squeezed his hand.
"What do you suppose we feed him on then?" He mocked.
"Oh Mr. T…he was like my son, I do miss him and he was a hard worker, always doin' just like I said," she looked at him pleadingly and traced his jaw line with her finger and said, "He's been down there a year now…can't we let him out?"
Mr. Todd was a cold hearted man with an unforgiving hatred for Toby but even the demon barber could see the sadness in Nellie Lovett's eyes and although it was not what he wanted he simply said, "Fine," and after a moment, "But keep him out of my way!" He threw her a metal key for
Toby's cage.
"I…Oh Mr. Todd, thankyou!" she throws her arms around him but he doesn't return the embrace and instead shrugs her off.
She races downstairs to let Toby out. She climbs down the ladder into the putrid, stinking sewer below the bake house.
In a large cage, sits a very thin, weak, Tobias Ragg, bags under his eyes and terror set in his soul. He hears footsteps. Is it that vicious Mr. Todd? Come to finish me off!
"Toby, lad, I'm here," Mrs. Lovett's voice echoes through the sewer.
"Ma'am!" Toby finds a sudden spurt of energy and rushes to the door of the cage. Mrs. Lovett takes the key from her bodice and unlocks the cage.
"Mr. T has agreed to let you out but don't go near 'im he's in a foul mood," she says as she remembers him not hugging her back just moments ago. I how I love him…does he even care?
Toby clings to her dress and pleads, "No, I can't go up there! He'll kill me!"
"Nonsense! What a lot of foolishness," Mrs Lovett strokes his matted, brown, spikes of hair, "He wouldn't dare!"
Reluctantly, Toby braces himself and goes upstairs for his first glass of gin and taste of freedom in a whole year.