The Protagonist (who I will call Hermit) was doing their usual night 'job', opening the door, letting people in or sending them away. In daytime, Hermit would check the people they'd let in that night for Visitor signs; dirty fingernails, bloodshot eyes, straight white teeth, bleeding gums, bugs in the eyes, etcetera. At night, he will check the door and decide who to let in and who to send away, but there was this one Visitor who kept reappearing every few nights, they didn't know the name, so he just named it what it was; a Pale Visitor. The Pale Visitor would always try to start a convertation which would always lead to one question, now too;

"Are you alone?"