A quick this is a short story, and it’s short on purpose. If you’re craving a longer read, the full-length version is coming next year.

Miranda returns home to spend what might be her last Christmas with her father. Hoping for a quiet holiday filled with memories and forgiveness, she agrees to housesit for a couple she’s known all her life. But the peace she expects never comes.

Instead, a secret admirer begins leaving her handwritten notes, each one with two names and a simple choose one to receive a gift. Miranda believes it’s strange but harmless.

She’s wrong.

Each name she chooses marks a life to be taken, and every “gift” comes wrapped in guilt and blood. Someone from her past is out there, playing a deadly game of revenge.

This Christmas, giving and taking mean the same someone always pays the price.