Angry, burning red welts instantly rippled across his skin, swelling and sinking in rapid, uneven pulses, as if a swarm of living insects danced just beneath his flesh. The thick veins around his temples throbbed gradually. His eyelids were sealed completely tight, fused together by clotted, tar-like blood. Beneath those sealed lids, his eyeballs shifted grotesquely—not rolling, not blinking, but seeming to violently sink inward, as though they were literally collapsing into the empty depths of his skull.“What the fvck! Adams, what the fvck!” the Commissioner couldn’t stop cursing like an insane person as more horrific red rashes continued to break all over his skin, causing a strange, maddening sensation that compelled him to scratch himself with his own fingernails until he drew fresh blood.The patriarch of the Wexler family was left stunned straight down to his toes. He stood frozen in the yard, watching the absolute horror happening to the Chief Commissioner of Police right now

Meanwhile, miles away at the DiLaurentis Estate… Serena was still awake at this ungodly hour, entirely engrossed in the glowing screen of her laptop. The blue light illuminated her exhausted face in the completely dark, silent room. Her left hand held a sleek pen that was slowly, rhythmically tapping on the dozens of documents scattered across the large dining table. That was when the apartment door creaked open. The sudden inflow cold night air caused her to shiver slightly, the fine hairs on her arms standing on end. She stretched her tired neck to look at the doorway, but her eyes hadn’t adjusted, and she could barely see anything in the darkness of the doorway. “Who is that?” she demanded softly, but only got a response from the evening breeze whooshing in through the gap. The eerie, high-pitched creaking continued, and the door fell wide open, leaving her with a deep, irritated frown. She simply rolled her tired eyes, assuming she knew exactly who was being so careless, and

“Why is there a fourth?”The voice that echoed from the pitch-black silhouette was gravelly, sounding like heavy stones grinding against one another. Even though his face was completely obscured by the shadows, his unseen, suffocating gaze fell automatically upon Rosalie DiLaurentis.Rosalie shivered violently against her bindings. A freezing cold sweat instantly broke out across her forehead. It felt as though physical, literal death were looking straight through her flesh and directly into her very soul. How could a human being possibly possess such a terrifying, dead look?Silent Shadow politely stopped fiddling with his small, gloved fingers as an innocent child might and bowed his head slightly. “It is my fault, Master. She saw me in the light. Shadows shouldn’t be seen.”Rosalie was never on the target list. She was simply a victim of being in the wrong place at the exact wrong time.A low grunt of approval rumbled from the Shadow of Death’s throat. The temperature in the room

“Master Langston? What nonsense!” Tiana’s face violently turned an ugly, flush red.When exactly did their loyal, dog-like experts start referring to the Insolent Expert by that honorable title?Adam Wexler took a heavy step forward, his foot digging into the dirt. “You are really bold to come to my household to spout this treasonous nonsense! Shouldn’t you all be dead somewhere in a ditch by now?” he raised a skeptical, wrinkled brow.There was absolutely no way these twelve experts could have survived. Considering how fundamentally crippled they had become after facing the wrath of Elder Magnus days ago, they should barely be able to breathe, let alone stand tall and issue threats.The lead Wexler expert tightened his fist. “We have served your Wexler family like loyal dogs for years, and put our lives on the line anytime you snapped your fingers,” the expert spat, his voice filled with venomous clarity. “Many of our brothers died that night trying to bring down Master Langston exa

“What nonsense are you saying...?” Tiana stepped forward, throwing her nose into the air as she spoke with blind arrogance. “Elder Magnus has already broken your useless curse with his unstoppable palm strike! We only left for a few days to let the foul remnants of the curse wither away, and you dare to sneak back into our home? Today, you will pay in blood for daring to think you are something against my Wexler family...”“He broke the curse...?”Elijah Langston didn’t even look at her. He simply tilted his chin, his calm gaze drifting past Tiana and falling directly down to the unconscious Commissioner Doyle. The Commissioner had passed out in the dirt at the foot of the stairs, his body completely covered in grotesque, weeping red rashes and thick, black blood from the violent, maddened scratching of his own fingers.“Are you shocked?!” Tiana puffed her chest boldly, entirely ignoring the bleeding Commissioner Doyle on the ground, completely absorbed in her own delusion. “Do you fi