My husband's job is watching an empty room

My husband works in a large, windowless room with a single chair in the center of it and a small table beside it. On the table is a monitor, a speaker, and a keyboard. There are several cameras in the room, and each one catches the chair from a different angle. There is also a camera behind the chair, and it points at the wall opposite it.<br><br>The wall opposite the table and chair is all screens. A dozen or so monitors of varying size, arranged with no cohesive pattern or order. There's a couple big ones near the top, a couple long skinny ones near the bottom, but all in all it's an odd jumble of nothing.<br><br>We know all this because we see it through the camera behind the chair. The feeds for each camera in the room are sent to the same computer my husband uses to watch the monitors.<br><br>My husband's job is to pay rapt attention to these screens at all times. He is never allowed to look away, never allowed to blink, never allowed to close his eyes. He is very good at his job. He was born with all four of his limbs, but he had them surgically removed when he got the job. It cut way back on his living expenses, and he says it makes it easier to focus.<br><br>He can't tell me what's on the monitors. That's part of his contract, and the punishment for violating it is death. The contract also specifies that if he blinks more than twice in a minute, or looks away for more than five seconds, it will be considered a violation. He is, again, very good at his job. He has worked there for more than fifteen years without a single infraction.<br><br>The contract had a lot of very specific requirements for his living space. Since he doesn't have any limbs, the only thing he really needs is a way to get to work, so we rent a single room. There is a double-wide door on one side of it, and a forklift that the movers use to get him to and from work every day. There is a small table on the other side of the room, with his PC and a camera to monitor him when he isn't at work. He spends almost all of his free time playing video games, which is why I know him.<br><br>The contract specifies that the table cannot be more than fifteen feet from the door, and that any obstructions between the two are strictly forbidden. It also requires a small fridge. The fridge has to be at least three feet tall, and there is a small padlock on the door to keep him out. It's locked because the fridge is part of the contract, and he isn't allowed to open it. We haven't even ever even plugged it in.<br><br>The contract doesn't specify anything about the rest of the room, so I have tried to make it as comfortable as possible. I set up a small reading nook in one corner, and a TV in another. The only thing we really can't do is hang anything on the walls. Apparently that counts as an obstruction, because the sign the movers brought with them when we first rented the room specifically mentioned that exclusion.<br><br>We met in an MMO. He was playing a paladin and I was a warlock, and we were running a dungeon together. I was impressed by how well he worked with me, and he was complimentary of my skills in return. After the dungeon finished, we stayed in contact. We formed a guild and recruited other players, and we would often voice chat together when we played.<br><br>As much as I would have liked to, I couldn't ever bring myself to ask him out. I had heard horror stories about asking people you meet online out on dates, and I didn't want to destroy a good friendship. I also didn't know too much about him. I knew he didn't have any limbs, but he was always cagey whenever I brought it up.<br><br>One night, I finally worked up the courage to ask him why. He told me that he worked in an office where he wasn't allowed to take his headset off, and he didn't want someone he didn't know very well to see inside his house.<br><br>I admitted that I was asking him out, and he laughed. He agreed, and we made plans for him to come over to my house the next weekend. A couple days before our date, he asked if I had read the horror stories about people meeting their online friends in person. I said I had, and he said he hadn't. He asked me to Google it, and I told him I was busy playing a game. He said it was very important, and he wouldn't come until I had.<br><br>I looked it up, and the stories ranged from "nothing happened" to "they tried to kill me." I figured that if the date went poorly, I would just ask him to leave. I told him I had looked, and he agreed to come again. Friday, I cleaned my house and made sure it was perfect. Saturday, the movers came right on time.<br><br>They were the ones who told me about his contract. I was furious, and when he arrived I told him I couldn't go out with someone who would try to deceive me. He said he hadn't been trying to deceive me, and he told me he had been trying to give me a way out. He said he knew it wouldn't work, and he would ask me to marry him instead.<br><br>A week later, he came back with a ring. I said yes.<br><br>We've been married for almost ten years now. We had to get a special license, because he can't sign his name, but we made it work. We rent the same room we got when he first got the job. The movers come at the same time every day, and we've never had any problems with his contract.<br><br>I work from home, too. I used to have a job in accounting, but after we got married I just didn't have time for it. He needed a lot of care, and I couldn't afford to hire anyone so I did it myself. I was finally able to quit my job when I started getting commissions from my artwork. I paint, and I make enough money from that to support us.<br><br>I don't get out much anymore. It's hard to find the time, and I don't like going anywhere without him anyway. I love him more than anything, and I couldn't bear to part with him for very long. I used to feel bad about it, but he's used to being alone all day and he says it doesn't bother him. He's actually the one who keeps telling me I should go out more often. I don't, though. Almost the only time I leave his side is when I have to paint something that isn't in our room.<br><br>I do still play video games, though. I don't have as much time as I used to, but I still get on when I have a chance. My friends know that my husband doesn't have any limbs, and they can see him in the background when we're in voice chat. They know him well enough that they'll sometimes tell jokes just for him, even if he can't answer. He always laughs, and that means a lot to all of us.<br><br>He also still plays, although never as much as he used to. He prefers single-player games, because they don't cut into time he spends with me. He also likes to watch me play. That's his favorite thing, and he loves watching me work on my commissions.<br><br>Last night was different, though. Last night, I was playing *Overwatch* with my friends when he started screaming at me to stop. I pulled off my headset and looked at him, and his eyes were wide with fear. I asked what was wrong, and he said, "Look at the camera feed."<br><br>I pulled up the camera feed on my PC, and looked at it. One of the cameras behind him had caught a man standing in the room. He was tall and thin, and there was something standing next to him that looked vaguely like a woman. She was tall and imposing, all sharp angles and jagged edges.<br><br>I didn't recognize either of them, and I asked who they were. My husband started to cry, and he said, "I think it's the movers."