Nearby, some men dressed in Santa costumes were singing carols, while families hurried past on their way to the stores. Beth, however, merely shuddered and looked down at her phone, reading the message for the thousandth time that morning: If you’re serious, meet me at the Bowley diner at 9am on Christmas Eve. Terms as outlined in advert. Luke. “If you’re serious,” she muttered, trying to work out what that meant. Was it a trap? Was it an attempt to lure her into doing something awful? What were the rules of entrapment again? Or was it – and this was an option she was taking equally seriously – some kind of mistake, or perhaps even something she was imagining. All the possibilities rushed through her mind, although after a moment she realized she was simply trying to distract herself from the one thing that scared her the most. She shivered again. “What if it’s real?” she whispered. She paused. Had she actually whispered those four words out loud, she wondered, or had she imagined whispering them, and merely thought them.
