When Wylie awoke to fire in his face he thought for sure that he was going to die. When he heard ominous chanting he thought that he was being killed in a cult. And then the lights came on. Della and Tiergan were standing over his bed with a cake, candles lit. Fitz and surprisingly Tam were singing happy birthday.

"Happy Birthday Wylie," they all sang together.

"Did you know that you sound like a murder cult?" he asked.

"I told you we should have been more upbeat, it's not every day your boy turns seventeen," replied Tiergan.

"So how do you feel?" asked Fitz.

"Like a whole new Wylie," he said, sarcastically. "I know that it's my birthday and everything, but it's also like six am and I want to go back to sleep." They all left, wishing him a happy birthday on their way out. They did this every year. To everyone, in the family. They would wake up early, get the cake and light the candles and wake the birthday person in the dark.

Wylie sighed and looked out the window. The snow that had fallen the night before, was sparkling on the treetops.

Hours later when Wylie was sufficiently rested, he went downstairs to find that Della and Tiergan had made his favorite breakfast. Pancakes and bacon with some sort of smoothie to drink. Next to the breakfast were a pile of gifts. All addressed to Wylie.

"Oh go on," said Della, "Open them!" He opened the first one, from Della: A golden statue of an animal that could only be described as a dinosaur with feathers. Tiergan's gift was some T-shirts with words on them. Fitz had given him a device that looked strangely like a lockpick. With a note that said, "For when Biana isn't there." Tam had given him a card with the note saying, "Happy whatever birthday to the guy dating my sister." Along with that, there was a hand drawn picture of Tam doing two thumbs up. Wylie thanked them and ate his breakfast in silence.

It was one of Britshire's many traditions to have a festival celebrating the first day of Winter. It also happened to be on his birthday, Almost every year. When he was little he was convinced that the festival was in honor of his birthday, it never worked but always did end up with him getting a free hot chocolate from the drinks stand. Linh, Sophie and Dex were waiting for them by the bonfire. The loss of Keefe had made a great impact on the group and as such, they were not as lively as they usually were at the festival. To be fair, Keefe had usually dragged them out of the proximity of the bonfire and towards the games and all that stuff.

He reached them and Linh snuggled into his side. Even in all of the layers, she was wearing, she was still really cold. Tam on the other hand, was perfectly fine in an old think coat and hat. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"So," he whispered in her ear, "how are you liking the festival so far?"

"Better now that you're here," she whispered back. "Happy birthday, by the way." She handed him a wrapped box. "Open it," she prompted. He opened it to find a smaller box, wrapped this time in golden wrapping paper. He tore that paper away to find a watch. It was gold and when he flipped it over he found that it was engraved, with the words So you'll never be late to our dates babe.

"Babe?" he questioned.

"I was trying something out," she said defensively. He kissed her cheek.

"Thank you Linh, I love it"

"Hey lovebirds!" called Fitz. "Are you going to join us? We're going to go and play some games." They walked over to the group. They had gathered around one of the games where you had to squirt water into a cardboard cutout's mouth. Fitz was up first. He made a real show of lining up the water gun and winking at Sophie as he squeezed the trigger.

"Miss! Miss! Miss!" they all chanted. Well everyone but Sophie who looked really exasperated at everyone. Much to all of their chagrin, Fitz won and got to pick a prize: a goldfish. He gave it to Sophie, with a kiss on the cheek and an I love you.

"What am I supposed to do with a goldfish?" she asked.

"Take care of him, love him and give him a name. I want you to treat this goldfish like your own flesh and blood."

"Like my little fish child."

"Our little fish child. Don't think I'm not going to be involved."

Later, after they had played all the games, They were sitting on logs by the bonfire and eating something called maple taffy. It was maple syrup on snow on a stick. It was really good. Sophie and Fitz were practically sitting on one another, Tam and Dex were debating the best way to solve physics problems and he and Linh were watching them do all this. Keefe may be gone and the wounds may still be fresh but they would heal and they had already started to.

"Why hello, dear citizens of Britshire," said a voice from behind him. Prentice. He was with around six-ish other guys and they all were carrying guns. "Did you miss me?"

Chief Sencen jumped up, "Prentice, Stop in the name of the law!"

"The law," he said, "Please the law is stupid and pointless. Why follow rules when breaking them is much more fun." He raised his gun and took aim at the crowd. "Now where shall I start, with a random person in the crowd or something a bit more personal," he aimed the gun at their small group huddled around the bonfire.

"Stop why are you doing this?" asked someone in the crowd.

"To take back control and to show the people what happens when you elect a woman to be your leader." One of the Periculos behind him took aim at the woman who asked. They pulled the trigger. Bang. Then they looked at someone else. Bang. All the while Prentice was still aiming at their group.

"You can stop these murders, Juline. If you just resign as mayor and give the town over to my associates we will stop killing people. Promise." Wylie could no longer see the man he once called his father. All that was left was this cruel and sick man that stood before him. He moved the gun slightly lower and pulled the trigger. Everyone flinched. Wylie checking himself and Linh, they were both fine. Maybe it had been a blank. Then he heard a gasp. He looked towards the sound and saw Sophie, both hands pressed to her stomach with blood oozing out of her fingers.

Wylie looked for Prentice and the others, but they were gone. When he turned back Fitz was cradling Sophie in his arms.

"Sophie, Sophie look at me okay. You're going to be fine, okay." His voice was cracking and tears were pouring down his face.

"Together till we die right?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"No, No, Sophie you're going to be fine and we'll be together forever and well get married and live in a house by the lake, Okay?"

"I will always love you, Fitz,"

"And I will always love you too Sophie, but you're going to be okay, alright." She was coughing up blood and her face was deadly pale. Fitz was basically sobbing over her. She took one last shallow breath and never took one again.

(A:/N) Allison: not gonna lie, I cried when I wrote that, and I've known that that's been coming for months now. I know that I shouldn't be inraging the fandom more but it's too much fun to kill characters. I know how you feel Carin.

I'm going to go back to my hiding from fangirl spot. Bye for now

Allison.

Carin: Hello. I am also here *waves*