The town had its normal gathering at the church, as they had after most town births. In this small town, if even one person didn't show, it wouldn't go unnoticed, so everyone was in attendance. Debby found a seat in the back and waited for her mother and her sister to come back from picking up coffee. The golden morning sunlight shined in through the windows as the rest of the town's residents filed in and took their seats. As the beginning of the meeting approached, Debbie looked to the door, wondering what could be holding up her mother and her sister. Then, the front door opened, and the two walked in. Debbie waved them over to where she had been sitting, and the two strolled over to her. Debbie examined her bubbly older sister Nicole, whose face beamed as she walked over with two coffee cups in hand. Both girls had inherited their mother Amy's red hair, but only Nicole inherited her slender frame. Debbie wasn't obese, but she certainly wasn't slim either. Nicole handed Debbie her coffee as she and her mother took their seats.

As the clock struck 8am, the mayor took his place at the pulpit, next to a fishbowl full of slips of paper sitting on a stool. "Good morning everyone" the mayor said, "as I'm sure most of you know, Sarah and Michael had their baby yesterday. Just past noon, Sarah gave birth to a healthy baby boy, weighing eight pounds, nine ounces." The townspeople clapped as Sarah and Michael stood up, holding their newborn in their arms. They looked so happy to have started their family. "As you also know," the mayor continued as Sarah and Michael again took their seats, "this town has a policy of zero population growth. No one has volunteered since the notice of Sarah's pregnancy went out nine months ago, so we must once again pick a towns-person at random." The crowd chattered among themselves for a moment. "Quiet please, quiet please" the mayor shouted, and the townspeople again looked to him attentively. "Now, as you know, this bowl to my right contains a slip of paper with the name of every towns-person over the age of eighteen, including my own. The only people who have been excluded are Sarah and Michael. I will now pick a name at random" he said, reaching his hand into the glass bowl and feeling around for a moment. He then pulled a slip from the bowl. The entire town was on the edge of their seats as he slowly unfolded it. "Debbie Jameson" the mayor read allowed. Debbie nearly spat out the coffee she was sipping as she came to the realization that, yes, the mayor really had just called her name. "This can't be happening, this can't be happening" she thought, as everyone in the town turned to look at her. "Well Debbie," the mayor said, "as you know, you have until eight pm this evening, or the sheriff will be forced to do it for you. Everyone, be sure to thank Debbie for her sacrifice as you leave." With that, everyone in town got up and slowly filed out of the church.

Debbie sat catatonic for a moment, not even realizing the look of pity her mother and sister were giving her. For a moment, she thought about her father, who volunteered while Amy was pregnant with her, because he felt it was unfair to ask that a second towns-person die for his family. Nicole told stories about him sometimes, she always sounded proud when she talked about how dignified he was when he went to the noose. "Excuse me?" Debbie was snapped out of her trance to see Sarah and Michael standing over her, holding their baby. "We just wanted to thank you for making this sacrifice for our family" Michael said. Debbie was frozen for another moment.

"Your welcome" Debbie finally replied.

"This is baby Daniel, the one you're sacrificing for" Sarah said, with a proud smile on her face.

"He's a beautiful baby" Debbie said.

"Yes," Michael replied, "and when he grows up we're going to tell him all about Debbie Jameson, the wonderful young woman who gave her life so he could be here"

"Thank you" Debbie responded, then getting up and leaving the church. Amy and Nicole followed close behind. The other townspeople looked at Debbie awkwardly as she left the church. Some thanked her for her sacrifice, others expressed condolence to her and her mother. Most, just stared at her with looks of pity.

"So, are you going to do it the way dad did?" Nicole asked once they were out of the church.

"Can we just go home," Debbie asked, "I want to go home before we talk about this."

"Of course we can sweaty" Amy said, sympathetically putting her hand on Debbie's shoulder. The three women then piled into the family truck, and drove back to their farm. Debbie stared out the window and watched as the town, then the green farmland rolled by, savoring the view, as she knew it would be her last look. Debbie looked away from the window, to see her sister staring at her from the middle seat. In that moment, Debbie hated her sister. First she got to have a father, then she got to be the thin, attractive one, and now she got to live. Debbie quickly pushed this thought out of her mind, and instead focused on all her happy memories with her sister as the truck turned onto the driveway of the family farm and up to the house. Debbie again looked out the window at the rolling hills outside.

When the truck came to a stop, the three women got out in silence and walked into the house. They gathered around the kitchen counter. "So...have you thought about how you're going to do it?" Nicole asked again, trying not to be insensitive.

"Yeah" Debbie responded, looking at the ground, "I'm going to do it how dad did it."

"Are you sure? We still have his gun, and there's no rule that says you have to do it a certain way" Debbie's mother offered.

"Yeah, I'm sure" Debbie replied in monotone.

"Alright" Amy said, sighing, "is there anywhere in particular you'd like to do it?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, I wanna do it here, under the big oak tree out in the grazing field" Debbie said. She loved to sit under that tree and read or take a nap, or just look at the beautiful landscape surrounding her home. She loved that spot so much in life, it seemed a fitting place to end it.

"Are you sure," Nicole asked, "you're allowed to do it in the church if you want, we can invite the townspeople." Debbie shuddered at the idea of dying with an audience.

"Yeah, I'm sure" Debbie said.

"Alright, do you want...do you want to invite any of your friends?" Amy asked.

"No," Debbie replied after thinking for a moment, "I just want it to be the three of us."

"Okay...when do you want to do it?" Nicole asked.

"Now" Debbie replied.

"Are you sure honey? We have another eleven hours, you could wait, have a last meal, you could get drunk first" Amy offered.

"No, I wanna just get it over with" Debbie replied. The three stood in the kitchen in silence for a moment.

"I'll go get a rope" Amy said, leaving the room.

"I'll get a milking stool and a ladder from the barn" Nicole said, also leaving. Debbie was left alone in the kitchen to think about her life. Many of her memories played like a film in her head. She thought back to playing in the yard with her sister. She remembered family road trips. She thought about the first time she got intimate with a boy. "I'd have done that more often if I knew this was coming" Debbie thought.

Suddenly, Debbie's phone began vibrating almost continuously. She pulled it out of her purse and looked at it, to see that all of her friends were frantically texting her. "I am so sorry" one said, "I'm here for you if you want support" offered another. Debbie quickly thumbed through them all. Finally, Debbie decided she had received to many texts to reply to individually, so she created one group message containing everyone on her contacts list. She texted them "I just wanted to say goodbye," then turned off her phone. Debbie wiped away a single tear as her mother came back into the room holding a thick hemp rope. "You're sister's already outside with the stool and the ladder" she said. The two then went outside, and piled back into the truck. Nicole drove out into the grazing field, and up to the oak tree Debbie had mentioned, as Amy sat in the middle seat and tied a noose at one end of the rope. Debbie tried her best not to watch as her mother did this.

The truck came to a stop a short distance from the tree, and the three women got out. Nicole retrieved the ladder from the bed of the truck, and set it up next to a sturdy looking limb of the tree. As she did this, Debbie and her mother sat on the hood of the truck, watching. Nicole then got the rope, and tied the loose end around the branch. She then set the milking stool just beneath the noose, and put the ladder back in the truck. Debbie stared at the noose, swaying in the breeze as her sister approached her again. "It's ready when you are" Nicole said. Debbie nodded silently, and stared at the noose a moment longer. She then got up and hugged her mother and her sister one last time, then walked to the trunk of the tree. Amy took off her shoes and her socks, then slipped off her shirt and her jeans, laying them down, neatly folded, at the base of the tree. Finally, she slowly removed her bra and panties. Then, she stood on the milking stool, facing her mother and sister, who were watching her prepare. She took the noose in her hands and, fighting back tears, she slipped it over her head. She took care to put her braided pony tail through it, then tightened it down on her neck. Once she was satisfied the noose was secure, she put her hands by her sides. She stood there for a long moment, breathing deeply and taking one last look over the beautiful countryside she loved so much. Then she closed her eyes and faced the sun, enjoying the warmth on her skin.

"Do you want me to pull the stool for you?" Nicole asked.

"No...No I'll do it" Debbie replied. She stood there a moment longer, gathering her courage. "I just want you to know, I love you both" Debbie said, then she kicked off from the stool. Debbie fell only a few inches, and the noose snapped tight around her neck. Her eyes shot open so wide they seemed like they might pop out of her head. Evey muscle in Debbie's body tensed, and her hands clenched in fists so tight that her nails dug into her palms. At first, her arms were pinned to her sides as the initial pain reaction made her freeze. Then, as the panic of asphyxiation set in, Debbie began to kick and flail with all her might, and her hands rushed to her neck. Her fingers tried desperately to get between her throat and the noose, to no avail. "Oh god, I hope I pass out soon" Debbie thought, as her vision blurred not from asphyxiation, but from pain. "Why did I do this? I could've just shot myself" Debbie thought, as she looked down at the sad expression on her mother's face. To her surprise, Nicole was actually grinning. "What the fuck you crazy bitch" Debbie thought, as her legs kicked frantically trying to relieve the pressure of the noose. Nicole quickly faked a frown in case her mother turned to look at her, but Debbie could tell that something about this spectacle still excited her.

Just then, the edges of Debbie's vision went dark. "Oh god, this is it, why didn't I just shoot myself?" she thought. Her limbs began to feel numb and cold, and her lungs burned for oxygen. Her fingers were still desperately trying to pull the noose away from her crushed throat. Debbie looked back to her mother, who had a concerned frown on her face. Debbie kicked and squirmed desperately, knowing all the while that her efforts were utterly futile. "Why the hell did I do this?" Debbie wondered again. After a few moments, her head began to bow slightly, and her eyes began to close. Debbie could feel herself dying, but this realization kicked her fear reaction into overdrive. She kicked and flailed with a renewed vigor. She looked back to her sister. Nicole was pouting, and she looked genuinely sad, but Debbie saw a lust in her sister's eyes she had never seen there before. Debbie was slowly becoming more fatigued, losing her battle with the noose. She eventually became so exhausted that her hands fell away from the noose, and hung limp by her sides again. By this point, Debbie's face was a bright shade of red from the blood forced into her head. After a few more minutes of twisting, kicking, squirming and gagging, Debbie's head slumped, and her body went limp. She was sure it was all over when suddenly, her body jerked one last time, from the most intense orgasm she'd ever experienced, or ever would, and again went limp. "Glad I didn't shoot myself" she thought, as her eyes closed, and the darkness overcame her.

Amy and Nicole stood staring for a moment longer, as Debbie's still twitching body swayed in the breeze. "Come on, we should call the sheriff to cut her down" Amy said, and the two women got back in the truck and drove away, leaving Debbie hanging under the oak tree.