December.

She was curled up in a ball when I got there.

No key, and she wasn't answering the bell. I called out, "Sam?" with no response. Cajoled a hearth spirit with a little wining and dining and magicked open the door with a spell of passage. All the lights were off.

The shower was running. The bathroom door wide open and filling with steam. Curls on the pillow, black in the shadows, like blood.

"Sam?" I knelt by her. She was sobbing. "I'm here, I'm sorry...for everything Sorry..." she didn't answer.

The stone around her neck. The Bloodstone.

I fumbled for it and she hissed. Sam hissed and drew back. Blood flowed from the stone, wrapping itself like smoke around her body. She disappeared as Sanguine took over.

"Back!" she commanded, now in full dominion. I felt my skin flush and my heart seize in my chest. Her hands clawed at me and pushed me back. Every muscle was pulled tight as my flesh rebelled, submitting to her will. The hearth spirit crouched on the bedpost, leering at me. I caught its eye and spoke its true name three times.

"The choker..." was all I could get out through clenched teeth, trying not to bite my tongue off as my body spasmed in pain. Cursing, the imp leaped down and snagged the clasp of Sanguine's choker, pulling it free. The sound was terrifying. A scream like I've never heard, like the cry of a wounded bird. She writhed on the bed, her red lace and bandages flowing across bare skin and disappearing back into the depths of the stone. The imp was gone and I was free. Free to grab the necklace and throw it across the room.

"Sam?" I gasped. "What the hell -- " And then I saw it. The mark on her throat. I held her hand and felt ice and silence. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry." I held her tight to me, this beautiful dead woman. She cried blood tears into my shoulder.

Red light flickering in the room, cutting through the steam and the darkness.

Red tears staining my skin, red light painting itself on my skin.

The silence. Ice cutting through me.

Her scream.

The perfect circle in the windowpane, spidering the glass.

Her scream, and my last thought is that yes, this is the end of the world. She's gone. I'm gone.

The bullet strikes true. My blood spatters the wall. The world ends. The world begins again.