Jen woke up with a start. Everything was tinted in light blue and the car had stopped. The endless chatter and bickering of her two little brothers, Michael and Alex had also stopped. She even noticed that there was a semi truck dangerously close to their minivan that was frozen in time. Everything appeared to stand still just for her. She rather liked this. Nothing was done exclusively for her.
A tall, pale man in a military coat and sunglasses appeared on the floorboards in front of her. He said in the deep, raspy voice of a lifelong cigarette smoker "Okay, okay. Curb your enthusiasm, kid." Jen remained silent "Let me explain this to ya."
"Explain what?" she managed to finally eek out, a single tear rolling down her acne-covered cheek. She hated to cry out of fear. It made her feel weak, like she should be able to simply choose not to cry. She quickly wiped it away with a shaking hand.
"Explain" The strange man said, sitting down cross-legged on the floor in front of her seat "what makes today the best day you'll ever have on this planet." She gave him a quizzical look "You see, kid, this truck," he explained, gesturing to the semi that hung mere inches from her window, "...this truck, well...um, jeeze, this doesn't get any easier the more I do it. You're going to die...today... NOW."
"What!?" Jen shouted, covering her face and sobbing into her palms.
"Jennifer Ruby O'Reardon, this truck will kill you. It will be relatively painless. A sharp jolt and you'll be gone. But..." he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, "I have a proposition for you. Tell me what you think of this: You choose a person within arm's reach. You can unbuckle your seat belt if that helps. So, you choose someone and instead of letting you die, I let them die."
The girl looked at him in silent terror. He explained further "For example, if you choose...um...your mom, all you have to do is touch her and then she gets killed by this truck and you aren't hurt at all. Sound fair?"
Jen tapped a finger to her chin in concentration and muttered faintly "Well, if I pick Alex, mom and dad will never be the same again. I'll have to live with them always talking about how great he always was and how he probably would have accomplished more than me when he was alive. Same goes for Michael. If I kill him, it's all mourning all the time and everything's about the innocence of childhood and how they were taken before their time. And if I pick Mom or Dad, the everyone else is going to be really upset. But then they'd be upset and we'd be orphans."
"Take your time. This is an important decision."
"Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to have to make this choice!?"
"I've been taking life from anything that had it since before time began. The moment living creatures developed the ability to think for themselves, their culture exploded with poems, books, films, nightmares, religions that told them things about me: 1. That I'm cruel and take the lives of innocent people unfairly and 2. That I wreak havoc mainly on very young children. I knew it would make no difference, but I decided then and there that any time someone who is a child at heart is in mortal danger, I will give them a choice before taking a life, as the person whose life it is makes no real difference to me. So now, Jennifer O'Reardon, after 14 years, 2 months, and 11 days on this harsh planet, I'm afraid to say that it's your turn to make the choice. Will you save yourself or your family?"
She was sobbing by now "So, let me get this straight...if I choose someone, nobody else in the car will be hurt?" She hoped sincerely that this was the case.
"Yes. That's correct."
"I guess I'll cut my family's losses. I'm the only one whose funeral wouldn't get the 'innocence of early childhood, just brought into this world' speech and whose absence wouldn't be missed too terribly. I don't have any kids to raise. I don't have a lot of interest in anything, so I won't amount to much of anything. I'm ready to go. Beam me up, Grandpa!"
"Last chance...you shouldn't base your decision on that. I promise they'll miss you. The families always do."
"No. Just do it fast. I want to do this if it saves my parents the heartache of losing a biological child."
"Okay, if you're sure..."
There was a bright light, but it wasn't like Jen saw a bright light. It was like she was the light. She was floating freely in a place she was sure didn't exist. It was just pure white. After a few moments, though, she realized that the room wasn't white, but rather, her eyes hadn't adjusted to it. In all actuality, the room was violet-her favorite color- and completely empty. She could faintly hear the soothing beat of a song that she had heard before. The familiar voice cracked through an invisible PA system: "Jen! Welcome to your new home. This is where you'll live until a suitable creature is born for Karma to resurrect you as. It may take a while, but don't worry. Just think about what you want and you'll have it. Just remember, though, when you're reborn, you lose all that you have here and begin again as an infant. Spoilers: the next life's better!"