Chapter 51 "Someone From The Serpent's Hand"

With only a single hint from her, William could know from which organization she came from. The only one that fits the characteristics of a person like her to belong in a specific Group of Interests is The Serpent's Hand.

They were one of the groups that were aware of the existence of anomalous entities, objects, and phenomena in the world. It was unknown how many of them were in the Serpent's Hand and what they were capable of.

Their ideology was simple. They believed that humans and anomalies could live together without them being bound, restricted, and kept a secret by other organizations like the Foundation. They were a group of people that didn't have any sort of coordination at all, but they were connected to each other through that belief.

Most of the Serpent's Hand members were anomalous activists, but some of them were anomalous individuals that sought refuge for safety in an extradimensional hub, The Wanderer's Library.

A place where all of the Serpent's Hand members could gather from all over the world, a library that is full of books written by the members, containing all of the information across the universe. An equivalent of the Alexandria Library of the anomalous.

William relaxed his body when he realized that she had resolved the issue and the threat was no longer present. SCP-1440 had been completely taken care of by an unknown stranger.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go before it gets worse." said the blonde lady who was about to leave.

William stopped her and asked, "Wait, what do you mean it gets worse? And what did you actually do to the old man?"

She looked at him for a moment and sighed, "The spell that was cast upon him was not a harmful or spell that would erase his entire existence from the world. It was just merely a spell to turn a living being into paper, not to nullify its effect."

"By all means, he is still alive and exists in this world. I have to get out of here and let him out somewhere else that isn't near the general public so it won't bother anyone again." said her as she showed William the book, which had SCP-1440's envelope.

William was perplexed to run into someone who could conduct thaumaturgy in a public place. Something that was rare enough that you couldn't see it every day.

People who have the ability to use magic, spells, and thaumaturgy are known as Type Blues in this universe. They were basically just regular human beings, but they had learned to have these talents.

However, casting a spell or thaumaturgy usually has a drawback for its user. Limiting to what they were able to do depends on both the mental and physical capability of the caster itself.

There are numerous people that could be categorized as a Type Blue all over the world. Some of them joined an organization like the SCP Foundation and some other Groups of Interest. While some simply went off on their own.

With everything that he had shown in front of him, there was no doubt that she was one of the Type Blue from the Serpent's Hand.

"What are you going to do with him?" asked William curiously.

"I could only hold it off for a few hours or so, or he'll return to normal again. I'll try to put him somewhere that is remote and safe for him to continue his life."

She looked at the paper butterflies that were still swarming a random person before, "Oh, I almost forgot."

The paper butterflies flew into her and turned back into small pieces of paper. She turned one of the small pieces of paper into a small origami bird and gave it to William.

"Keep this. Make sure nobody finds out about it. When you need me or something, just throw the bird into the air, and it will lead you to a place." said her as she put a spell on the origami bird.

William was confused as to how anything like this would work, but he realized it was useless because it was totally created using magic, which defies all conceivable logic.

"But why?" William asked as he looked at the origami bird.

"For someone who worked for the Foundation, you don't seem the type of person who likes violence when facing an anomaly, especially when you had a lot of chances to subdue the old man back then." She replied.

She looked down, and her expression changed, "The Foundation was often cold when handling anomalies. As much as I wanted to help them to save people from harm, their methods were absolutely inappropriate."

"That's all I can do. Even if it's not much, there are still things I wanted to help, even for those who were unfortunate enough like the old man."

Before she walked away, William asked her one last question, "What's your name?"

She paused for a moment. Her eyes were looking at the floor as she thought about it for a moment, only to hear it in a low voice, "Elena, that's everything you need to know about me."

After that, she went to the door leading to the outside. Taking SCP-1440 in her hands, she made her final exit from this structure. Everything was done to prevent SCP-1440's anomalous effect from damaging the building.

William thought about it for a moment and looked at the origami bird that Elena gave to him. He was confused about why she gave it to him and pondered when he would ever use it.

The major problem had already been taken care of, but once again, it wasn't because of his own action. William made a minimum effort, and how he would take care of the situation, he didn't even partake in securing SCP-2331 because of this.

With all of his equipment broken, especially the walkie-talkie, he had no way to contact Grace to inform her about his situation at this moment. He ended the day with nothing in his hand and proceeded to walk to the main venue.

The venue was almost empty, with every prop and decoration within the venue were scattered throughout the floor. Leaving the event organizers to clean up the mess caused by SCP-1440's effect and the guests.

Clarence can be seen clearing up the mess with the other crews. There were a lot of things destroyed. But it seemed that there were no casualties nor injured personnel by the looks of it.

The safety of the people was indeed their first priority. Though, it still left them with a problem: the party was canceled, and they suffered heavy damages in terms of financially. They still needed to make up with a follow-up regarding the situation.

Just as he was about to ask Clarence where his other team went, Grace can be seen walking down from the second floor. She looked a bit tired and panted as she finally saw William after searching for him the whole time.

"There you are! I've been looking for you and thought that you were gone or killed!" said Grace as she was catching her breath.

She walked up to him while she was still exhausted from all the running, "What happened? Did you find anything or meet SCP-1440?"

"Yes, I encountered SCP-1440, and his anomalous properties broke my equipment, hence why I couldn't contact you during that time."

"Then, what happened to him?" she asked as she wiped the sweats on her forehead.

William paused for a moment and said, "We had a talk for a moment and came to an agreement that he would leave this place alone."