I saw today the scariest thing I've seen in my entire life, to the point where I had to sit down and take a breather. Will elaborate later but imagine a fallout ghoul missing 1/3 of their face.

Okay I'm really not trying to be insensitive here, honestly I hope this guy is okay and is as happy as one could be in such a state and I feel bad for him. But it's just so insane and screwed with me so much I can't NOT talk about it.

So I'm at work at the cash register, just doing my thing. It's a pretty slow day. I'm looking down and stretching or something and from my peripheral view I see a customer come up so I look up and greet them, as always.

Well, you kind of expect everyone coming through your line to look at least moderately normal. This guy had a GAPING HOLE IN HIS FACE. He was wearing a medical mask so I didn't even see the full extent of it, but he was definitely missing his nose and I think the hole extended to his cheekbone/eye too but I was not about to study that. It wasn't like an open wound, it was healed up, but it was a significant portion of his face and it was deep. He was fairly old too, so his skin was not exactly in pristine condition.

I got the biggest shock I've ever had in my life, man. It took everything in me to not pass out. I couldn't look up at the dude. He gave me his money and left and once he was gone my brain flew out the window for a bit. I took the next customer and handed them their stuff and then just started shaking uncontrollably, I had to go sit in the backroom for a good five minutes just to recoup. From my perspective it was like I had just seen a walking corpse and it was as if nothing was wrong. The kind of thing that you think someone could only hallucinate.

It's one thing to see someone with a brutal disfigurement like a burn victim or even a dead body in context... You know what you're getting into and your brain has at least a little bit of time to prepare. I've seen photos of dudes losing half their faces to bear attacks and shit but I knew going in that it was going to be gruesome. With this situation, there was just no preparation. It might have even been different if I saw him in the distance walking toward me but just the fact that I looked up fully expecting a regular person and saw something borderline impossible just fucked me up big time.

I don't know if anyone else has this experience, but sometimes I will see something out of the corner of my eye and assume it's one thing with the limited information I have. When it comes into full view, if it's not the thing I assumed it was I get startled and it's like, heavy flight response. It'll sometimes happen with people carrying their dogs and I think it's a baby they're holding but then when it comes into view I see it is a dog but my brain goes into panic mode and it startles me.

This was just like 10x worse man because it wasn't a dog, or a fire hydrant I thought was a person, or something like that. It was harrowing. I really don't think I'm going to be able to forget that. And it's like, again, I feel bad for the guy and you still have to live your life, and holy shit more power to him because most people would probably crumble trying to live like that... But I hope I don't see him again. I am not equipped for that. I think there's also a certain point where you know, it might be better to cover things up just out of a social obligation to those around you. Fuck, man. Brutal and sad and kind of inspiring on one hand, to go against all odds of the cards you're dealt. Absolutely horrifying nightmare fuel on the other hand.

Cc @freeusspeechus