Three months passed and during those long instants much of the problems with which the family had seen itself had disappeared. The budget of Mrs. Lovett seemed to have increased, and since the reopening of her meat pie shop the success and the changes were visible.

Sweeney Todd's saloon still needed something to cheer up the environment, but Mrs. Lovett's meat pies shop seemed more animated since the customers have increased.

The Baudelaires, along with Toby, helped Mrs. Lovett in the shop, especially at night when the customers were more

Klaus was already sick of asking Mrs. Lovett : "Where do you buy your meat, Mrs. L?", but she simply answered "At the fair!" then she asked "Who's up for a nice mat pie?", then Toby answered enthusiastically "I do! I do! I do!"

Anybody who went to the shop at that time would say that they were a family with no troubles, at least in business and financial matters, and sometimes you could hear one and another speaking of a certain affair between the barber and the baker.

Violet was quite relieved, as she saw that the business was progressing and there were more tasks and chours to be done. At that moment she just wanted something to distract her of the matter that bothered her. She felt relieved when she helped Mrs. Lovett placing equipments to the pies in the basement, and when she helped around the shop. But now that that she was there, with nobody around, she couldn't but to think of the problem that haunted her frequently in her dreams.

"Ah, ah, ah!"

She could still hear his ironic laughter echoing in her ears. Several hands were grabbing her. She yelled and yelled with all the strength in her lungs. She wanted to be saved. And only he could save her…

"Ah, ah, ah, ah!"

And yet he was there laughing at her despair.

"You're so naïve Violet Baudelaire!"

They haven't established any type of personal contact ever since that happened months ago. He kept going to the meat pie shop whenever he could, but the two of them ignored each other if they were alone.

"Who would want anything with a girl like YOU?!" he laughed while his eyes shined more than Count Olaf's eyes

"Don't do this to me Anthony!" she yelled as she felt the hands around her ripping her clothes

On the next moment the hands has disappeared, and she was kneeling with Anthony standing right in front of her. She felt naked. Her clothes were ripped in pieces.

She stood up covering most part of her body with her hands. She didn't knew what was worst: the silences between them or the fact that she was practically naked in front of him that moment. She felt weak as she headed for him lumping.

"Anthony…" she said with a weak voice stretching her hand in his direction

And then he suddenly spat in her face. She backed, touching the place where he spat at her.

"You disgust me!" he laughed "You're pathetic! Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic…"

The word "Pathetic" kept echoing through the air as Anthony suddenly turned into Count Olaf, with his one eyebrow and his evil shining eyes as he launched himself at her and laid himself over her

"You will be mine again!" he said evilly as he started to rip the rest of her clothes.

She yelled with pain, despair, fear, horror, every kind of feeling invading her right now

"Violet! VIOLET!"

When she came to herself she was with her head on Mrs. Lovett's shoulder.

"Violet! Are you listening to me?" asked Mrs Lovett looking like she was about to cry any moment

"Oh Mrs Lovett…" said Violet with a calm yet forced voice tone "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for causing you such concerns"

"What's happening to you sweetie?"

Violet took a deep breath.

"It's Anthony boy! Isn't it?" assumed Mrs Lovett

Violet nodded

"Mrs Lovett I… I don't know how he feels about me…"

"Ohhh, child…" said Mrs Lovett petting her head "I know darn well how that can be complicated…"

"He hasn't changed a word with me in three months…" said Violet sadly

"But… Are you mad at each other?"

"No, we…"

And Violet eventually told her what happened

"He needs some time to think… You better let time pass until he clears his mind."

Violet didn't knew anything else to think.

"Go fix yourself child, you still need to try the new suits I bought for you…" said Mrs Lovett standing up "Oh, me bones…"

Violet noticed that Mrs Lovett seemed weaker than usual, but she didn't say anything.

"I've been putting on a little weight lately…"

"How the heck can that be possible Mrs L?" asked Violet forgetting about her problem that moment

"Dunno, strange metabolism I have…" said Mrs Lovett fixing her dress

Violet noticed that Mrs Lovett's dress was large. Perhaps too large for her. The skirt looked like a skirt you would only remember to bring in a Victorian ball.

"Go, child it's almost 8 eve! I want to see you in your suits and the customers opinions…"

And Violet walked toward her room without another word.

"That lady over there has been hanging around the street these days…" said Toby glancing intensely at the window

"What lady?" asked Klaus joining Toby

"Oh, you didn't came in time to see her!"

"But how is she?"

"Heck if I know…" said Toby ironically "A beggar, a delirious one… She came to me the other day saying something about a witch and an evil spell, something like that… She looked like a lunatic singing!"

"Does everybody have to sing around here?" laughed Klaus looking himself in the mirror "What do you think of this suit?"

"The girls will be all around you Klaus!" laughed Toby

"You also look like you're hitting on someone tonight, eh Toby?" Klaus laughed back

"These suits could do for a ball… But I think we have to cause a good impression on the customers!"

"More and more rich people are coming here, yeah…"

Violet suddenly entered the room where the boys were.

"Oh, I see the costumes fit you like gloves…" she smiled as she came in

But they just stood there looking at her shocked

"Violet…" asked Klaus stupefied to see his sister wearing an incredibly provocative dress "Why did you choose that dress?"

"It was the cutest, and besides…" said Violet spinning "I made some modifications to make it more charming"

"And why all that makeup?" asked Toby also looking shocked

"Well, ehe…" said Violet blushing "I don't think the customers would like being attended by an ugly maitress!"

Klaus and Toby looked at each other, then they busted into laughs.

"What's so funny?!" yelled Violet

"Is that all for Anthony?!" laughed Toby

Violet felt embarrassed.

"What are you saying?!" she said becoming redder than her makeup

"It's because he's coming to eat here with his crew tonight, eh sis?" laughed Klaus

"You're crazy! I hate Anthony, of course I wouldn't fix myself up for him!"

"Yeay, yeah we sure can tell how much you hate each other…" laughed the boys like drunk maniacs

"Honestly why do you have to be so childish!" said Violet exiting the room furiously

Klaus and Toby looked at each other after she left

"She's the one being childish, only a little girl would prep herself that way" said Klaus laughing with Toby as they went down the stairs to get to business.

"Ready boys?" asked Mrs Lovett cheerfully "Oh, you little gentlemens…"

"Thank you ma'm" said Toby blushing lightly

"Toby, to the door! Klaus, to the inside tables! Violet serves outside!"

And so the meat pie opened. Toby sang at the door to call attentions while Klaus went and came to the stand to get bandages filled with fresh meat pies to the customers.

"Mrs Lovett…" said Klaus looking hungrily at the pies waiting in the stand

"No Klaus!" said Mrs Lovett "We're in service don't forget about that!"

Klaus looked down and kept with his duties.

Meanwhile Violet had came with a bandage in a table where a crew of sailors, including Anthony, was eating animatedly. It's unnecessary to say that the change of looks was intense.

"Aye, doll face, wanna come and sit on me lap for a little while?" asked one of the sailors

"Ummm, wouldn't you prefer me serving you a nice meatpie?" asked Violet

Suddenly he stood up and headed toward her. He looked a little older than Anthony.

"I'll have something with meat allright!" he said suddenly gropping Violet's backside

Anthony suddenly stood up and pushed his friend.

"Ullrich the wine has already arrived on your head, control yourself!" he said calling him out loud

"Oh, com'on Tony!" he said visibly drunk "That's why you don't 'ave any love life! You gotta be relaxed jus' like Me! Come on…"

Suddenly Violet felt herself being pushed by the arm, by Mrs Lovett. She watched as a glass of wine and gin was put in front of Anthony but she didn't see if he drank or not.

"Violet, please change me that dress and take off all that makeup!" said Mrs Lovett with a face somewhere between angered and embarrassed "This is a meat pie shop, not a porn theater!"

"But…! Violet was going to say

"I know you want him to make up his mind, but it's not by changing your look that you're going to make it happen faster! Now go put yourself decent, too much people are looking already!" said Mrs Lovett firmly

"Ok Mrs L…" said Violet heading upstairs sadly.

Mrs Lovett watched her as she pitied for her.

Klaus ran to answer to a customer, when he saw something peculiar. A customer heading up the stairs to meet Todd in his barbery. Suddenly it came to his head countless situations on which many customers went up. But why couldn't he ever see them coming down? He had heard hundreds of times people saying on the streets that there had been countless disappearances of gentlemen, all of then seen last time on Sweeney Todd's barbery.

"Klaus you're thinking too much!" he said to himself

"Toby! Throw the old woman out!" he heard Mrs Lovett yelling as Toby threw somebody out

Toby passed by him next.

"Keep an eye on that woman Klaus, she was the one who came to me the other day!"

"Right Toby…" said Klaus getting back to business

Violet had already washed her face and picked a less provoking dress to keep on with her service. She couldn't take it anymore, the silences between her and Anthony. The dreams she had with him were too confusing. But if there was anything that wasn't at all confusing were her feelings:

She Loved Him…

She was sure about it! She loved Anthony too much to suffer like that with him. Suddenly she found remembering her very first kiss with him…

And she cried…

For the first time during all that time, she cried.

"Oh Anthony…" she sobbed all alone in the bathroom

It was a heavy silence inside. A little window allowed her to hear the animation going on outside.

Violet looked at herself in the mirror

"Maybe he's not destined to love me…" she said to herself

Suddenly the lights went out.

An evil laughter echoed.

"Poor child…" said a strangely familiar voice

Violet felt herself tense and paralyzed by fear.

"That insolent boy doesn't even try to earn you…But I… I make the possible to have you as mine…"

"To have our fortune, you mean!" said Violet loudly

"Oh Violet…" whispered a voice right behind her

"Don't touch me!" yelled Violet

"Violet, Violet, Violet…" whispered the voice again laughing evilly "Why do you continue to deny out destiny… together…"

"Never! It will never happen!" said Violet feeling the urge to call for help

"You should never say never my dear… Once Sweeney Todd is out of the way and you in my guardianship , you will be once again my bride and the fortune shall be mine at last…"

"Don't you dare approach Mr T!" said Violet showing bravery

"Kill him? Oh, no, no, no, no…" he said laughing evilly

And she felt freezing when he whispered in her ear one last time:

"I guarantee you one thing my dear: he will deliver you to me himself…"

When Violet decided to turn around to face him and exclaim: "What are you saying?!", he was gone

She felt completely scared.

"He will deliver you to me himself…"

She wandered through the hallway completely freaked out. She couldn't understand. What was his plan after all?! Could that be the reason why he was making friends with her new guardian.

All the doubts were still installing in Violet's head, when she crossed with Todd precisely when she was about to enter her room to change her dress.

"You're here?" he asked seeming slightly surprised

"Ye-Yeah…" said Violet not looking at him "Mrs Lovett thinks the dress is too… provoking…"

Next she looked at him. He looked in his eyes and she looked into his.

"He couldn't do it…I don't believe it…" she tried to convince herself

"Hurry up then, it's crowded today…" he answered

"Yes, Mr T…" she said opening the door of her bedroom and glancing once again the eyes of her guardian as she thought

"Or could he…?"

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