"No." said the murderer, shaking Max's body. "No, no, no, NO! No, please don't be dead, please, please, don't..." He collapsed, clutching Max's corpse, and the ring slipped off of his finger and thudded to the ground.

It had all been an accident. That's what he kept telling himself, that's what he had believed the whole time. He mistook people for his real target, or they saw him, or they tried to fight back, and he was forced to do it, and then, after he'd had the ring on for a few days, he'd lost control...but he'd never meant to kill anyone innocent. So why had this happened?

He thought back to the beginning. Glinda, that was where the disaster started, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he'd mistook her for someone else. Mortola was trying to shoot him, and he'd had to take care of her to keep her from killing him. And the Queen, at least, he hadn't killed- his guess was the golem or whatever the creature's name was had done it to get at the ring. Then there had been Sirius, but how was he supposed to know Sirius was coming in the pantry? They'd given him no indication which person it was. And after that, he had killed the creature when it found and attacked him, and then he'd taken, for some odd reason, the ring. At first, it had been great- it was a much better way to stay invisible. He'd even been bold enough to steal several of the weapons and hide them under Oz's bed to try and put everyone on the wrong track. But then came the next day, and the four murders in one day. Eowyn he'd killed to keep the others from finding the creature's corpse (he'd been listening in on their theories, and he wanted to dodge suspicion as long as posisble). Tom had run into him, and the murderer had surprised himself by not running, but fighting with a savagery he'd never felt until he put on the ring...and then he'd tried taking it off, but Oz had seen him and he'd had to kill Oz, too. And to make things worse, Fenoglio had heard him and followed him, and the murderer had had no choice.

He didn't know why he hadn't stopped there, but some part of him had decided, if he'd had to kill eight people to get his true target, might as well make it worthwhile. Still, he'd laid low for a bit with the ring on (a bad idea, in retrospect, as it'd messed with his head and he'd found himself following Max around, stalking him, thinking minemineminemine) until Katniss had discovered him and he'd been forced to kill her to survive. Although, at that point, things begun to get a bit foggy. He didn't know why he'd killed the Hatter, except that he'd seen him and wanted him dead, just as he'd killed Prim for no real reason. He did know why he'd killed Malfoy, after attacking his Max, and Felicity died to get Dylan and Max out of their room, and Dylan, Dylan was his true target all along, oh yes, he knew exactly why he killed that sorry excuse for a bird kid, because the killer was in love with Max and Dylan had ruined everything.

Fang Ride let Max's body slip from his arms and slowly sat up.

And now Max. Max, who was everything to him, who died knowing he'd failed her, who he'd shot for no other reason than he saw her move. Max, who he no longer deserved, because he'd killed her, and so many others, Max, who he could never talk to or touch or laugh with or plan with or be with again-

-because Fang was fairly sure, if he died now, he would not be going anywhere Max went in the afterlife. But what other option did he have? How could he live with himself after something like this? What else did he have left?

And, worse, what if these...new instincts didn't stop after he left the house? What if he was broken now, and he would kill, no matter where he went?

Fang knew how it had to end, had known for a while. He had no other choice, and even if he did, he wasn't sure he wanted to live in a world without Max, knowing he'd killed all these people. Fang picked up the gun off the ground, staring at it for a second. Then, he put it up to his temple and fired.

A/N: Thank you so much to all the readers and reviewers who stuck with this story! And about the ending, it occurred to me while writing that it might not be as good of an ending as I thought it was four years ago...however, I did try to throw in as many clues as I could. Thanks again for reading and I hope to hear your reactions in the reviews!