A Different Tale
Chapter One:
Mrs. Lovett's P.O.V

Soon enough, lit'le Johanna wasn't so lit'le anymore, and she caught eye of the Honorable Judge Turpin, just like her mum had. Speaking of Lucy, Johanna knew she was dead, and accepted it, and in Lucy's will, I was to be Johanna's legal gaurdian from then on, which Johanna hadn't mind. She'd call me Aunt Nellie, i'stead of Miss, which was fine by me. It was Johanna's fifteenth birthday, exactly fifteen years after the abcense of Mr. Barker. We were scarce on money, so I wasn't too eligible to but her a great gift of any liking, but I gave her somethat that was always close to me heart.

We sat in the settee room by the fire place, and I held a lit'le box on me lap, wrapped up and ribboned all for my Johanna. She was like a daughter, she was, and oh so beautiful.

"Auntie Nellie, you needn't have given me a gift." she said modestly as I handed her the box, her yellow ringlets falling in her face as she looked down on the box.

"Nonsense, dearie, only the best for me Johanna." I said smiling and holding her shoulder. "Now you open it. I hope ya like it."

Her scrawny fingers unlooped the ribbon graciously, she placed it on the couch, and then she unwrapped the paper away from the box and opened it. Gleaming eyes flickered over the item in the box: a jewel encrusted locket that me Albert gave to me. Rubies shaped in a heart around the heart penant and around it. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled, looking up at me and hugged me.

"Thank you so much, Auntie Nellie!" she praised and hugged me close.

I pulled away from her smiling, "And I have the perfect dress to match. Since we had you fit for a corset, you'll look wonders in it, with me pendant too." I said to her.

She beamed at me, pretty lit'le Johanna. And suddenly, the door opened and in stepped a man. A handsome man, with jet black hair which bore a pale white streak, and only one. His face was sullen and his clothes tattered, yet he shone like a god. An extremely pale, sullen, yet beautiful god. I stood up and patted Johanna's shoulder, then I walked over to him.

"Did you come here for a pie, sir?" I asked, going behind my counter that was clattered and overflowing with plates and pies.

He shook his head, he looked so familiar. His ruined clothes crazily suited him, he was charming in rags, and I could only imagine him all cleaned up. His voice, when he began to speak, was amazing it practically made me swoon. "I'm looking for a woman." he said.

Smirking, I leaned over on the counter and rested my chin on my fists. "Aren't all men? Now how could a nice, handsome man like you be all on his lonesome wit'out a lady friend to..." I walked around the counter and grabbed his arm. "...hold him?"

He brushed me off ever-so casually and sort of scoffed my way. I shrugged it off and walked back to my counter. Johanna strolled in, she had the necklace on that I had just given her. When the man saw her, he gasped and whispered, bearly audibly, "Lucy?"

But at the same time I said, "Times is hard, sir."

His eyes seemed transfixed on Johanna for a bit longer, then he turned back to me. I should've figured, no one could outshine my sweet Johanna.

"If times is so hard, ma'am, then why don't you rent out that room up above?" he asked. "I'd take it."

"I'm not sure you'd want to stay there, sir." spoke up Johanna. "They think it's haunted..."

"Haunted?" asked the man.

"You see," I butted it. "Something, not so nice happened up there. It all started with the barber and his wife, and their daughter," I pointed to my niece. "Johanna."

His eyes widened. "Johanna!" he yelled, and smiled so happily. He ran over and picked her up, spinning around and laughing. Then he turned back to me. "But where's my Lucy?"

Me jaw dropped, and I walked over to him in disbelief as Johanna ran behind me. My eyes blinked a few times, and I started making movements with my mouth, but no words came out, until I spluttered. "Benjamin Barker?"

Johanna's eyes widened and she and she gasped. "Daddy?"

He looked down, and whispered. "No, not Barker. It's Todd now, Sweeney Todd."

Everything seemed so ackward at the moment. We all stood on a disformed triangle, Johanna and I taken back by an overcomming strange feeling, and he seemed as though he was approving Johanna, since she had looked a lot like her mother. I was just taking this all in. Mr. Barker, I mean Mr. Todd wasback from jail, but how? I didn't think his sentence was already up, but it was a comfort to know that he was alive. The years may not have treated him so well, but he was still a god...