Life After Death

Chapter 7

The stranger comes and joins me on the bed, taking up most of the space. I stand in front of him and stare him down. The first thing I notice is that the man is tall. Despite sitting and being hunched over, I can tell his height is greater than mine. I had always considered myself tall, but my perspective is beginning to change. He must be seven feet tall, at the least! I didn't know that was possible.

The next thing I notice is how he's covering himself up. He's wearing a large blanket around his body, covering up all but the lower bits of his legs, which are covered by pants and shoes. The pants cling onto his skin, they must be a little tight for someone of his frame. He's also wearing a mask, though I'm not sure if I can call it that when there are no eye holes. It's just a large piece of colored fabric going over his face and hair. Well, that's one definition of a mask, so I suppose it fits.

"Sorry for the full disguise. It was Cinthia's idea." He says.

"I suppose it's alright. So, why are you hiding from the world?"

"Ah, well, I have been told the way I look is 'disturbing' and 'absolutely terrifying' in most cases. But I don't mind staying in the house all the time. It's nice and quiet and I don't need to throw this on constantly. Except now, obviously."

"Hm. That's pretty rude of someone to say. The way someone looks shouldn't matter. It's their fault they have a problem with you, not yours." I say, completely disgusted by how rude people had been to the man. I would have thought the townsfolk didn't care about stuff like that. Then again, I hardly knew anyone in the town.

"Uh, well... It's more complicated than that, I can assure you. I'm happy to both show and tell you why, this is just a precaution. Cinthia thought it'd be better to let you know me before making assumptions."

I nod. I suppose I can understand that if there have been bad experiences before, he'd want to take a bit of time. 

"Oh, right, I'm sure you already know me, but might as well make it official. I'm Erina, nice to properly meet you."

"Same to you. I'm Adam." He says.

I have to wonder why he's hiding. I was curious to meet him just because he was hiding. Now all I want to do is get to know him better, even if he's still hiding, in a way. He doesn't seem like a bad person as I had been expecting. If he's only hiding because people have been rude, well, I'd have something to say about that. Maybe with my cane. It could send a message. 

"Well, are you sure you're ready? Like, absolutely positive? Because this never ends well. Never. Even when people were completely prepared, they still reacted poorly. By the way, you don't have any weapons on you, right?" Adam says, rambling a bit. He seems pretty nervous. He had sounded ready to tell me, but maybe actually doing it is harder than just the idea of it.

"Completely ready and... no?" I say, a little confused. Weapons? No wonder Adam is nervous. Had people attacked him before? That's fucked up. I mentally prepare even harder. I don't want to even flinch when Adam shows his true self. He deserves a good reaction.

Adam gave two thumbs up before reaching to remove his mask. I have no idea what to expect. I almost don't feel ready to know. I'm afraid to give a poor reaction and ruin his confidence. I'm afraid to offend him. He lives in the house, the same as me, so I'd have to learn eventually, but I want to be his friend. I don't want to ruin this.

Adam removes the mask, the fabric getting a little stuck in his hair. The blanket falls off his shoulders, and I get to fully see the man, now understanding everything a little bit more. The man has long and straight black hair, falling from the mask and tumbling to below his shoulders. His clothes have somewhat been sewn together using the fabric of other shirts. It's quite impressive. That must be how he gets clothes in his size. I wonder who sews his clothes, perhaps he does? Aside from his hair and clothes, nothing else is normal about him, and even his clothes are pushing it.