When Sweeney Todd died, whether he was hanged for murder or at a ripe old age in his bed, Mrs Lovett knew his soul would be damned to Hell. She hadn't been sure before, but now, now he had killed a man, and she had seen the body with her own eyes. She had been helping him plot a murderous revenge on the Judge for a while now, but she had always half assumed nothing would ever come of it. But now she knew. He was going to Hell.

She had done some bad things in her time, but never anything to keep her out of the pearly gates when she finally popped her clogs. Some of her neighbours called her the Devil's wife, and the children thought she was a witch, but in reality she had never done anything concrete to earn that reputation.

Hadn't she admitted defeat when Benjamin Barker chose Lucy over her, and quietly married Albert instead? Hadn't she cared for Lucy when Benjamin was arrested? Hadn't she warned her not to go to the judge's house? Hadn't she tried to stop her taking the arsenic? Hadn't she tried to stop them taking little Johanna? Hadn't she tried to get Lucy taken to a hospital instead of the mad house? But all her neighbours saw was a widow who couldn't cook, living alone in a haunted house.

But now Benjamin, or Sweeney as he now called himself, had gone mad. She had seen it in his eyes. He had killed the Italian man, and he had been so close to killing her. And as he had pressed the cold metal to the soft white flesh of her throat, she had been spurred to think of what would happen if she were to die. Lucy had attempted suicide, she would go to the eternal furnace, and now Sweeney was a murderer, so he would end up there too. And Mrs Lovett was not prepared to let the two of them spend eternity together.

So she needed to be evil. She needed to do enough bad to get herself sent to the fiery pit. And if what she did got him to love her at the same time, then she would be killing two birds with one stone.

And so she voiced the idea that she had dismissed before. It was evil, pure evil. Putting people into pies. Making money from murder. It would get her hanged if she was caught. It was a question of Heaven or Hell, but Nellie realised, it wasn't as simple as that. Heaven, to her, was wherever Mr Todd was, so if Mr Todd was going to Hell, then that was where she wanted to go too.