Six years ago, when I was fifteen, almost sixteen, my boyfriend and I were going to run away together. Anthony was going to save me from my guardian, the vile Judge Turpin.
The Judge wrongly sent me to Fogg's Asylum, supposedly for my own protection, after I refused his marriage proposals. Anthony went to his barber friend, Sweeney Todd, who gave Anthony a disguise as a wigmaker's assistant. Anthony rescued me from the asylum and took me to Todd's barber shop on the upper floor of 186 Fleet Street.
Anthony left to call a cab. While he was away, the local beggar woman came to the shop, looking for Beadle Bamford, so I hid in a chest by the door. Todd came in after her, he panicked as the Judge approached, and I heard the woman fall through what I now know is the "death chute" to Mrs. Lovett's cellar, where she cooked her meat pies.
The Judge and Mr. Todd were talking about me, and then Todd offered the Judge a shave. Todd gave the Judge the closest shave he ever knew – and slit the Judge's throat. He, too, went down the chute.
I shifted around uncomfortably and tried to open the lid of the chest to get some air, and Todd found me. I would have been killed, too, if Mrs. Lovett hadn't screamed, and Mr. Todd hadn't gone to see what was going on.
I tried to sneak and see what was going on in the cellar. At first, I got lost in the parlor, since I couldn't tell which door was the back door to the shop and which door led to the stairs.
I made it just in time to see Mr. Todd throw Mrs. Lovett into the oven. Then he knelt down next to the beggar woman. He called her Lucy, my mother's name. It was all I could do not to make any sound as I realized that they were my parents.
Mrs. Lovett's shop boy, Toby Ragg, climbed out of the sewer and killed Mr. Todd with his own razor. Then the boy pushed past me and ran out of the cellar.
In the three years since, nobody has seen or heard from Toby the shop boy, at least not that anyone will admit. I haven't seen Anthony much. He's been on the run and can't visit me too often. Because of his association with Sweeney Todd, Nellie Lovett, and Judge Turpin, he's been charged with killing the three of them, Beadle Bamford, and the beggar woman, as well as the disappearance of Toby Ragg and the disappearance and supposed death of the Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli. Anthony hasn't visited much, and he hasn't asked me to come with him, since he says he doesn't want a young lady to be on the run with a fugitive.