The Price of Freedom

The morbidly obese man stumbles backwards, retreating further into the attic. At the door is I, Catriona Alley, flanked by a pair of beefy orderlies from the reservation. We advance upon the quivering fat man who was once my husband as he shrinks into a corner.

"Cat, Cat, what's going on? Tell those men to go away. Tell them to go away!" The fat man shrieks desperately. I just make an exasperated gesture at the fat man and the orderlies move forward and grab him by the armpits before hauling him out of the attic.

"Its alright, Jacob." I say as gently as possible, "These men are here to help you. They're going to bring you to a place that will make you all better."

Jacob struggles futilely against the pair of orderlies shouting, "I can't go out, you know that! People will kill me! The sun will kill me!"

"That's the reason why we are doing this at night Jacob." I reply tiredly, "You're going away from The City to a place that will be safe. Wouldn't you like that Jacob? It going to be like a holiday."

Upon hearing this Jacob stops struggling and quietens down. The orderlies continue dragging him in silence towards the front door of the Alley residence. As Jacob's body is turned away from me, I take the opportunity to shake my head and let out a sigh of relief. Years. I have been dealing with Jacob for years. And finally the end was in sight, provided by the least likely source no less. I let my mind wander, relieving the events that led up to this day.

.....

I had married Jacob just after the Millennium War. The days during the war were desperate for both of us and everyday might have been our last. The Millennium War brought the angels and demons to earth, and with them came all manner of new diseases. Most civilian deaths during the war were not brought on by violence, but by the various newly discovered pathogens tearing through the human population. Most of the people we knew were killed in this way, as we moved back forth across the changing borders as refugees. Thankfully, by the time the truce rolled around, it seemed that the situation had been brought under control and humans would not drop dead just from contact with either angels or demons.

Looking back, we had rushed the marriage not because we were deeply in love, but because we both wanted companionship with all the death and chaos surrounding us. Marriage was the most convenient choice to fill an urgent emotional need. After marrying, we decided to settle in The City, that was where all the good opportunities were after all. I obtained a position with Unity Academy and began climbing the ranks. Jacob became a fairly successful businessman. It was an unexceptional but comfortable existence.

Nevertheless, within a few years into the marriage I was greeted by a rude surprise. Jacob had become infected with vampirism.

Of course, the first question I had was just how did Jacob get infected by vampirism in the first place. It was common knowledge that vampirism could only be transmitted by physical contact with a carrier. Not that it took much guessing on my part to work out the answer, despite Jacob's refusal to speak of the matter. The spark had gone out of our marriage, not that it ever had much of a spark in the first place. I had known for a long time that Jacob had discovered the wonders of post Millennium War nightlife.

I couldn't be arsed to say anything about it. It was Jacob's money and he was free to do whatever he wanted with it. Jacob was also entitled to serve himself up on the meat market to any passable looking lady vampire. We were both adults after all. More than anything else, Jacob's antics kept him out of my hair so that I could continue climbing the greasy totem pole at the Academy without distraction. Our relationship had settled into a kind of mutual indifference where neither party really bothered the other, much like long-term roommates.

At first, Jacob's new status as a vampire did not seem like a particularly big deal. As diseases go, vampirism had surprisingly few drawbacks, especially when compared to the powers a fully mature vampire had. When we were told of Jacob's condition by the doctors, Jacob was pleased as punch about becoming effectively immortal. The inconvenience of avoiding sunlight was a small price to pay he said. That attitude lasted until the doctors performed a few more tests on Jacob and had him detained by SOPO.

The doctors urgently summoned me and in a closed door meeting, informed me that there were complications in Jacob's condition and he had been deemed incompetent to make any further decisions for himself. Why was that? Jacob seemed perfectly normal just a few days ago. As the doctors helpfully explained to me, while there might be only one strain of vampirism, the disease interacts with the body of each patient differently. How well the patient accommodates the disease determines which of three sub-species of vampire he or she eventually matures into.

When most people think of vampires, what they are really thinking about are Type A vampires. Vampires that have the full power set. Those vampires were exceedingly rare and highly valued by the Legion. They usually rose to a high place in Legion society and the Legion would not hesitate to grant a Type A vampire living outside of Legion territory citizenship in the hopes of enticing him or her over. Jacob was probably hoping for something like this to happen.

More common were the Type B vampires. These fellows would suffer all the weaknesses of their condition, but would only gain one specific vampire power, no more. It was the Type B vampires that caused vampirism to be classified as a disease. In this world where magic was common, being able to turn into a flock of bats was a rather unimpressive party trick especially for the heavy cost paid by the vampire in return. I personally learned better techniques in my time at the refugee camps volunteering as part of the militia for a larger share of food.

Type C vampires led an outright cursed existence. They had the full vampire power set but the disease would gradually destroy their mind, eventually turning the patient into little more than a wild animal. Jacob had been diagnosed as Type C. It was only a matter of time before he went completely insane. That was the reason why he had been detained and responsibility for his fate was turned over to me.

The doctors laid a choice before me, allow The City to euthanize Jacob now, or keep him at my own expense on a lifelong regimen of very expensive medicine used to suppress his condition. Of course, Jacob's condition would be monitored. Any sign that he was a danger to me or the people around him, immediate euthanasia. The doctors also believed that suppressing his condition just delayed the inevitable. Jacob's mind would still decay, though with his vampire powers rendered impotent, he would become a nuisance rather than an actual threat.

The choice I had to take was clear to me. I no longer loved Jacob. Perhaps I never really loved him. But I had chosen to take responsibility for him the moment we married. No matter what, I would see that duty through.

I quickly began to regret my decision. Jacob's medication was expensive and strained our finances badly. He also quickly descended into paranoia, a symptom of the disease attacking his mind. Jacob's worsening mental state made it impossible for him to work, so his business was sold off. The money from the sale and my gradual promotions at the Academy eased our financial situation somewhat, but it was not a solution. With Jacob unable to work, we would soon no longer be able to afford his treatments.

It was at this time I had learned about the reservations. Officially nature reserves, some of these places would, for a discreet donation, accept hosting a wild vampire on their premises. Obviously illegal, but since the reservations were so far away from civilization, no one cared. At any rate, given enough time, wild vampires would grow to physically resemble animals as well. This allowed the vampires residing on the reservations to become something of an open secret.

The problem was the money. I had made contact with one of the reservations and their price was not cheap. They needed to smuggle Jacob out of The City and through the customs at their end of the globe. Wheels needed to be greased. Jacob also needed to be trained on how to survive as an animal in the wild. Keeping Jacob in secret and buying the silence of the zoologists working with him had to be factored into the reservation's price. There was no way I could afford this while paying for Jacob's medicine.

That was when I made the decision to siphon funds from the Academy. By this time I had become the head of administration. The opportunity was there and my position allowed me to cover my tracks. I thought that no one knew. Until I received the email.

The email was anonymously written, the writer, identifying himself as a "friend", just saying that he knew about me stealing from the Academy and I needed to buy his silence by working for him. I was so scared. Discovery would not only destroy me personally, but it would kill Jacob. There would be no chance for him to escape The City.

I waited for days. Then weeks. Then months. Finally the months turned to years. The call I was expecting never came. I dismissed the whole thing as a prank by a colleague who suspected what I did but had no proof.

Then, out of the blue, I received another email from the "friend" saying the time had come. Greer then showed up, throwing my world upside down.

.....

My attention returns to Jacob being dragged out of the front door into a waiting van. I nod in thanks to the orderlies and quickly shut the door. I am sure that Greer has made me an accomplice in some kind of crime. Its clear as day that he has been using me to cover for his more suspicious activities. I had originally thought about just admitting everything to the police and giving Greer up to them. The relief at no longer needing to maintain the deception combined with the look on Greer's obnoxious face as he is hauled away by the police was certainly very hard to resist. Why didn't I just do it then?

It was originally because of Jacob. Greer had made it clear in our first meeting that whoever he was working for was not above taking it out on Jacob if I decided to resist. When Greer later showed up again at my office carrying a bag full of police weapons, the message was clear. Greer had connections to the police. There was no point in me going to them. I was trapped.

But being trapped by my "friend" has also allowed me to regain my freedom from Jacob. The money Greer gave me was enough to buy Jacob a place at one of the reservations. My duty to Jacob has been discharged, and we now no longer owe anything to each other. A long standing problem has been resolved. I just need to keep moving forward, and grasping at whatever opportunities present themselves.

And perhaps one day, I shall be free of my "friend" as well.