Takes place before Sweeney Todd returns to Fleet Street.
Disclaimer.
It was an ordinary night when she finally made her mind up to do it.
Looking back she wasn't entirely sure where she'd gotten such an idea, only that she'd first imagined it upon encountering the young barber, Benjamin Barker.
She didn't know when she'd allowed herself to indulge such fantasies as actual possibility. She did know, however, that he was eating them out of house and home. And with the rising price of meat… Well, she could barely afford to keep herself fed, let alone the bottomless pit he called a belly.
That night appeared to be no different than any other night. He sat at the table, practically salivating with anticipation, and she made his dinner as she did any other evening. With the exception, of course, of one added ingredient she'd purchased earlier that day from the apothecary 'round the corner. "Rats," she'd said, in case anyone cared to notice. (They didn't.) She took extra care to ensure she used the proper dose this time. She'd hate to repeat the same mistake she'd made with poor Miss Lucy.
She watched as her dear, sweet Albert devoured the pie, barely pausing to chew. She watched the looks of confusion, then realization cross his face as the arsenic took its affect. She watched as the last once of life left his distended, bloated form.
Later, when folks would ask, she would say he'd eaten himself to death.
It wasn't really a lie. Not technically.