To Everything A Price

Undead_Lives

New Member
Something I wrote in one night, took me a little over an hour I think. I revised and edited it later, and now it should be better.
A quick note, this is a fast paced short story with little detail. Its point is to get the message across fast, but that doesn't happen until the end...oh just read it :p


To Everything a Price

It was just another day, in an ordinary town. John lived a simple life free from crime, violence, and things that usually followed or came before it. John was not married, and was not well connected with any of his family. He lived alone, but wasn’t lonely. He had a few close friends that he enjoyed being with on weekends and some Fridays. When he was alone at home he spent his time reading the local newspaper or a good novel. He rarely watched television.
However, it turns out that this day was not just another day. This day was the day John first met Sally. Sally was a beautiful woman, in her early twenties, a little younger than John. He first met her at a coffee shop that he regularly went to before going to work. She sat down beside him, and greeted him. Before long, they were in a compelling conversation.
Later that day, John arrived at the high rise where he worked. He rode the elevator up to the twenty–fourth floor, where his office was. His secretary, Janie, greeted him on his way in. He walked into his office door, which had a sign on it that read: “Marketing Manager”. Sitting in his comfortable chair, he began to work.
After his long day, John sat down to read his favourite mystery novel for the third time. He decided that he should go to the library tomorrow to get a larger variety of books to read.

The next day, John met Sally again at the same coffee shop. They talked for a long time, their conversation including John explaining exactly what he did for work. Sally seemed extremely captivated, so John didn’t stop. At one point, John had to stop himself from giving away company secrets. Sally asked why he couldn’t go on, but John merely shrugged her off saying that was about all there was to know.
After work John sat down in his favourite chair again at home, reading the novel from the night before. He was nearly finished and getting to the best part when the phone rang.
“Strange”, thought John. No one ever called his house in the middle of the week. He wondered who it could be. Perhaps a telemarketer, but he had a private number so that wasn’t possible. John picked up the phone, now interested in learning who was calling him.
“Hi,” said a familiar voice. It was Sally.
“Hello,” said John. Again, this was strange. He didn’t remember ever giving his number to Sally.
“I just happened to find out your number from a friend of yours. I called to see if you wanted to do something tonight. Are you busy?”
“No…”
“Great, then would you be interested in seeing a movie with me?”
“Um, sure that sounds fine.”
So, John went to the movie, still a little puzzled about how Sally got his number. But he had a great time and quickly forgot about it. Sally also had a great time, and John got a kiss on the cheek.

For a few weeks, Sally and John dated steady. John had never been in love before, but by now he was in ecstasy. He remembered reading somewhere that ecstasy was closely related to insanity. But that didn’t matter, after all he felt as if he could marry Sally any day. And then she asked a question.
“What did you leave out about your job?”
John said he couldn’t tell her. Sally said that she didn’t want any secrets between them. After a while, he told her everything.
It was a revolutionary product. The market for it was perfect right now, and John would have an easy time of advertising and selling it. He told Sally everything about the project, and said it was nearly done. Then Sally asked a strange question.
“Could I see it?”
He asked her why, and she said she had a minor interest in the field. He didn’t really want to show her, telling her was already against company policy, but she reasoned with him that he could trust her. So the next day at work John got a copy of the project and took it home, where he showed her after a dinner that he had made. The next day John woke up, but he had misplaced the copy. He would look for it later, when he got home.
That day, he never met Sally at the coffee shop, the first time since their very first meeting. He wondered if there was something wrong.
A few days later, John still hadn’t found the copy. That night, Sally phoned him up. He realized that he hadn’t seen Sally for the past few days. Sally asked John to meet her at the coffee shop.
When he got there, instead of going inside, Sally drove her car up to him. She told him to get in, and he did. While she was driving, she told John that she worked for a rival company that wanted to have the same product out before his company did. She had taken the copy. But in exchange, her company had awarded her a large bonus. She promised to share the bonus with John, so they could run away together. John was taken aback and a little disoriented because of the confusion. Eventually Sally stopped the car, got out, and motioned for John to get out as well. Sally moved toward a rather large house and knocked on the door. John arrived up beside Sally just when the door opened. The person standing behind it was his boss!
Suddenly, Sally pulled out a gun and aimed it at his boss. Everything happened so fast, and in the next minute, John was holding the gun at his boss in his boss’ dining room. Sally was pleading with him to shoot his boss, who had found out about John’s treachery. Sally promised him eternal love and devotion, and so with a shaking hand and eyes closed he pulled the trigger.
John woke up the next day and realized what he had done. He called up his best friend, Derek, and asked him to come over. When Derek arrived, John told him everything.
Derek was as shocked as John was, if not more so. He couldn’t think of what John should do. Just then, there was a knock on the door. John asked Derek to answer it.
It was Sally. She burst in, demanding to know who this was. Then, Sally pulled out her gun again. She gave it to John saying that he shouldn’t have told anyone, this could ruin everything! They had to cover up the evidence, and that meant getting rid of all witnesses.
John held the gun at his hands and found himself pointing it at his best friend. He started to plead with Derek, trying to make him understand.
“I had to do it, don’t you understand? I had no other choice, I had to do it!”
Derek asked John just one question.
“But at what cost?”

Later, Sally pleaded not guilty in the charge of making John Jones commit suicide.
 
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