• He was a man frozen in time.

    His mother kept him locked in their apartment when he was young. "Never go outside," she told him from her grave, "Outside is very bad."

    And so he stayed inside. His mother taught him in his little room and always hovered over him when he walked around their apartment to play with his blocks. It was as if she feared he'd disappear from her if she didn't watch him so carefully.

    Even now, he felt her eyes on him.

    Now he was twenty-seven, still living in the apartment where she had raised him. He paid the landlord extra money to run errands for him so he wouldn't step outside the door.

    He worked as a writer, making short poems that were published in the newspaper everyday just to boost people's confidence before facing the torment of their lives. How can these human beings stand Outside.

    He wasn't stupid.

    He knew about the wars and the crime outside his door. He watched the news and read the newspaper....

    Yet......

    The only place he could ever see outside, was on his balcony. His mother allowed him to stay outside the balcony to see the outside at least once in a while. It was when he stepped out that night that he caught sight of her.

    She was on the balcony next to his. She was wearing a black lacy dress and a black veil over her face. She turned to him and smiled, "Good evening."

    He ran back inside. He never encountered such a creature. His mother harshly told him to beware of women, "I am one, but I am not like them. The vile creatures...The scum..."

    It was because his father ran away with a woman that his mother became a vengeful woman against the Outside world.

    He tried to ignore the image of the woman that spoke to him, the first human who ever did speak to him in person since his mother's death.

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    The next night he crept out to the balcony and saw her again. She was wearing a black dress that looked like cobwebs sewn together as her black veil clung over her eyes. She had a book in her hands, but she wasn't reading it and was instead looking at his direction.

    "Ah you're back. DId I scare you last night?" He couldn't find his voice as she smiled, "You can speak you know."

    "...G-Good evening," his voice husky from its lack of usage came out from his mouth, "I-I..."

    She smiled, "See that wasn't so hard."
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    "NEVER SPEAK TO OUTSIDE WOMEN!" his mother's voice screamed at him as he returned outside to the balcony the next night and then the next.

    Soon he was out on the balcony every night to speak with her.

    His mother's rules began to fade as he began to speak about his fear of the Outside world. The woman listened intently and sometimes told him of how the Outside wasn't so scary as his mother placed it.

    From her mouth he heard of stories about a place called the beach where waters called the ocean swept over the ground, sand, and washed away writing people placed. He listened to her speak of people walking in places called parks where they could have a date or play on the playground.

    These stories soon grew a sudden desire in him.

    He wanted to go Outside.

    "If I....If I gain the courage to go Outside," he said one night, "Will you...Come with me?" The woman smiled and reached out her hand over her balcony railing, "I shall." He reached out his own and soon their fingers were touching.

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    The next night, she was not on her balcony.

    He waited, waited...But she did not show. He grew scared and fearful for his neighbor, where had she gone?

    Soon the pain of not seeing her grew.

    What had happened to her?

    The landlord rang his doorbell that morning to announce that the things he needed from the store were at his door. But instead of waiting for him to leave, the man flung open his door and demanded to learn of what had happened to the woman who was his neighbor.

    His landlord was shocked at his sudden appearance, but soon returned to normal. She was in the hospital.

    The black veil she wore covered her eyes, eyes that contained a disease that soon spread onto her whole body. When a person saw her eyes, they saw sorrow under the entirely red eyes. She wore the veil to conceal her sorrow and instead smiled to hide it.

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    He ran out, he ran Outside. To the hospital he went demanding to see her one last time.

    She was in a room, a white room. He knelt next to her bed as she struggled to speak, "You....You came Outside...."

    She still wore the black veil over her eyes. He shook as the tears fell down his face, "Of course....You promised..You promised that you'd go Outside with me...."

    "I know....Forgive me for not trying hard enough to keep my promise to you...." He shook his head and slowly lifted the veil from her eyes. Her eyes were spilling tears of blood as she coughed and shook, "It's okay...You did enough for me already."

    He placed a kiss on her forehead as she gave him one last smile. He gripped his hand with hers as she whispered something to him.

    He heard a sharp beep of a machine next to her as her hand began to loosen its grip on his and slip silently onto her sleeping body. People in white clothing came in and pushed him out of the room.

    He gripped the black veil in his hand, "Stay Outside. For me," her last words echoed in his mind.