Simon Welch is dead. Twenty years of friendship ended in blood on Matthew Klein's living room

floor. Shattered glass raining down as Detective Davenport's bullets tore through a man who had become

something else entirely. The lion mask lies discarded nearby. the same mask worn by Simon's son, Zach,

the same symbol that keeps appearing wherever Zervon's influence spreads. Matthew's arm throbs where the

ice-pick pierced clean through. Annika trembles in shock, nearly a victim herself, and somewhere in the chaos, the Advent calendar watched it all unfold, its eyeless, carved

face bearing witness to another prophecy fulfilled.

The glass shards from Door 15 found their meaning in the window that exploded above declines

as they lay on the floor, showered in fragments

and blood. Father Olsa named the beast, Zervon, the ancient demon whose worship culminates

on December 24th. But knowing its name has not weakened it. If anything, the demon grows bolder

with each passing day, reaching further into Marshport's

population, turning friends into weapons, fathers, into killers.

First, Zach.

Now Simon, the Welch family has been consumed entirely by whatever darkness the calendar

carries.

Who will be next?

The hooded figure still lurks at the edges of tragedy, glimpsed but never caught.

Mason has seen the boy made of embers whispering lies.

And Detective Davenport, the man who came to interrogate Matthew, has now witnessed something

that defies every rational explanation

he's ever trusted.

Eight doors remain.

...