I slowly blinked the sleep out of my eyes and took in my surroundings.

  White... An endless white plane that seemed to stretch on forever.

  "Hello." A raspy voice whispered inside my head.

  "Wha— Who's there!?"

  "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I'm about to give you a present."

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  "A present? What kind of present?"

  "I'm going to make the pain go away... Would you like that?"

  The thought of the painful needles sticking in my arms made me shiver.

  "Yes, please make it go away!"

  Before my eyes, six silhouettes appeared. Each one looked like a different animal my mother read to me about from the book with big words.

  "Pick one."

  "Will it really make the pain go away?"

  "Yes, it most definitely will."

  "Okay..." I stared at the six silhouettes. "I want that one!" I said loudly as I pointed to one of the silhouettes.