The confirmation email arrived almost immediately. Too fast. Clean. Impersonal. No name. No signature. Just instructions and a barcode. It read less like customer service and more like a command—brief, efficient, unquestionable. Alyssa remembered feeling rushed. She had not expected such a swift solution, not at this time of year.
She had told herself she was lucky. That the system had worked in her favor for once. There had been no waiting. No arguing. No gate chaos. But sitting here now, she wondered if luck had anything to do with it, or if there had been some darker purpose in placing her here.