SCP-053 - Young Girl

The Young Girl stood silently  in a room full of corpses,   staring off into the distance. She was in  a trance, seemingly unaware of the carnage   that'd just unfolded around her. Some of the men were shot or stabbed or beaten, others had no apparent cause of death whatsoever. 

But the Young Girl was unscathed. She was wearing a yellow summer dress and looked like she  couldn't have been more than three years old. She awoke from her trance, still paying no  heed to the violence in the room, and left. This is the story of SCP - 053,  the Young Girl. Her strange and terrifying  life before containment, her thrilling capture, and the part she played in one of the most  dangerous SCP Foundation cross-tests of all time.

She had no name. The Young Girl could never  spend enough time around someone to be given one. It was her terrible curse that she could  never stay in one place for too long, or something truly awful would happen to everyone  around her.

She'd been drifting for years, but never grew to look older than a child. Her  memories were long but formless - divided mostly   into ten-minute increments. The Young Girl  kept on moving. It was all she could do. In 1993, when the Young Girl had already  been alive for a very long time, she found   herself in Illinois after days of trekking on the  roadside.

She would scavenge what little food she   needed from the trash, and drink from lakes,  rivers, or even puddles when she needed to. Deep down, the Young Girl knew that even if  she grew hungry or thirsty, she would not die.

In her travels, the Young Girl had managed  to scrounge together a few dollars, and though she knew her contact  with people had to be limited,   there was one thing she wanted that felt worth  the risk: A candy bar. It'd been a long time   since she tasted chocolate, and she found the  idea of tasting it again too enticing to resist.  

When she reached Chicago, she entered a small  corner store with her handful of dollars,   selected a candy bar from the rack, and  approached the counter. For reasons even   she didn't fully understand, she kept her eyes  down as she placed the money on the counter.

You see, SCP - 053 was always a special  child. As we briefly mentioned earlier,   you might even say she was cursed. Whenever  she was around other people for too long,   terrible things tended to happen. Unspeakable  things. And as a component of this strange,   unexplainable curse - or perhaps as a  means of keeping her safe from it - the   Young Girl was doomed to never understand  the nature of her predicament. It was like   there was a mental wall between her and  the horrors her presence could cause.

All she knew was that it was best to avoid eye  contact, stay away from large groups of people   at all costs, and never spend any longer than  ten minutes around anyone. Ever. That's why,   as she waited for her chocolate bar at the cash  register, she kept her head down and waited to go.

The cashier looked down upon this strange girl  with apparent concern. It'd been a slow day,   all in all. A few listless patrons milled  around the store, window shopping. His   brain was practically on autopilot, until he saw  this child.

She looked filthy, in a dishevelled   dress and was totally alone. What on earth had  happened to this child? The more he looked at her,   the more he sensed a creepy vibe exuding from  her. Something about this girl was wrong. He spoke softly to her, introducing himself  as Miles, and asking her where her mommy   and daddy were.

The Young Girl hesitated for  just a few seconds too long for his liking,   before simply saying that they were at home.  Any parent who'd let their three-year-old kid   just wander around the South Side  of Chicago alone was either crazy,   neglectful, or both.

He asked her politely  to remain in the store, while he gave the   police a quick call. He'd even let her have  the candy bar for free while she waited. Immediately, the little girl became uncomfortable.  She'd already been in here for a few minutes now,   and while Miles called the police he expected  her to wait around even longer.

Again,   she couldn't even tell you why she knew  waiting around like this would be so dangerous,   but she had a nagging, instinctual awareness  that she needed to get out. Around the store,   the few patrons still inside started to get a  strange feeling, like someone was watching them.

Soon, what seemed like mild paranoia  was quickly becoming white-hot anger.   Pure rage. They felt almost like they  had to kill someone. But not just anyone.   Someone particular. They  had to kill the little girl. It wasn't long until the police arrived. Two  officers, Holiday and DeWitt, entered to collect   the apparently neglected little girl.

It was  a story they'd sadly heard all too often - a   tragically common occurrence in the big city.  When the two of them approached the Young Girl,   she was looking down at the ground. They tried  to speak to her but she was unresponsive.

Miles   looked on, concerned, but deep down,  he felt the same bizarre progression   all the other store-goers were feeling: Confusion,  irritability, and finally... violent rage.

The corner store was a powder keg,  all it needed now was a spark. And that spark came when Officer Holiday reached  down, and took the Young Girl by the arm.   His bare skin touched her's, and it was all over.  The cop twitched, his mind washed out in murderous   insanity, as he reached for his side-arm.

Officer  DeWitt opened his mouth to protest, but he didn't   manage to get a syllable out before Holiday turned  and shot him. In a fraction of a second, the quiet   corner store exploded into a violent bloodbath,  as the patrons and cops slaughtered each other.

All the while, the Young Girl  just stood there in a trance. Everyone was dead within minutes, except Miles  and the Young Girl. He shakily rose to his feet,   his mind carved out by madness, and reached  for Officer Holiday's discarded pistol. Outside of the store, The Young Girl appeared,  walking out as if nothing had happened.  

Inside, Miles's body was  sprawled over the counter,   clutching his chest as if  his heart had just exploded. This was the true nature of the Young Girl's  curse. Anyone who meets her eye, touches her skin,   or spends over ten minutes around her is  destined to slip into a state of murderous   insanity.

They'll go into a kill-crazy frenzy,  and attack anyone around them, until all that's   left is them and the Young Girl. At which point,  they'll try to kill her, too - but the mere act of   attempting to kill her is also fatal, killing its  victims with a massive heart attack or a seizure.  

The second part of the girl's curse  is that she herself can never die. She keeps coming back, unknowingly causing  more misery and death along the way.   Until, of course, a certain  secret organization took notice. That night, the Young Girl sat in the cavernous  interior of a local abandoned warehouse,   quietly eating her hard-earned candy bar. 

Suddenly, she heard a quiet "crack" in the   distance. She tried to move her left arm, but  found it was numb. She could barely move it.   The Girl turned her head, and saw a tranquilizer  dart sticking out of her skin. Instinctively,   she got up and began to run, limping as her  left leg started to lose all feeling too.

Suddenly, she was surrounded by footsteps,  as masked men in SWAT uniforms emerged out   of the darkness on all sides.

The last thing she  remembered before slipping out of consciousness   was a blindfold being pulled over her eyes, and  tiny metal handcuffs clasping over her wrists.

When she woke up, she was in the nicest room she'd  slept in in years. It was sixteen feet by sixteen   feet, with toys, books, and games. Standing  across the room from her was a stranger in   a full hazmat suit, connected to a long, steel  cable leading out of the room. He spoke calmly   and politely.

A timer on his wrist counted down  from ten minutes. The stranger explained to the   Young Girl that they would be taking care of  her now, and would provide her with all the   toys and games and treats she wanted, provided she  cooperated and submitted willingly to some tests. Compared to living out on the  streets with no food or comfort,   this seemed like an excellent compromise.  

She would live in what seemed like luxury, and  every so often, she'd be taken to a testing room   with a stranger in an orange jumpsuit. After a few  minutes of waiting, the stranger would inevitably   go feral, and attempt to kill her - and then  always die in the process. The strangers in the   hazmat suits told her that all of these tests were  helping them learn extremely valuable things about   her, and that soon, they'd have a very special  job for her.

It would be a wonderful surprise. It was in the spring of 1994 that the Young  Girl, now officially designated SCP - 053,   finally received her special mission. Several  strangers in full hazmat suits, wielding rifles,   escorted her out of her usual bedroom. She asked  where she was being taken, and was told she was   going to meet a new friend.

She was taken  to one of the recreational testing rooms,   and pushed inside. Out in front of her, she saw  something terrifying: A giant, reptilian creature. She retreated from it instinctually, hiding  behind a chair in the containment area.  

The giant reptile didn't move. It just  sat there. Eventually, she plucked up   the courage to go and touch the creature, before  retreating again. No reaction. Little by little,   the Young Girl gained confidence, and continued  to approach and pat the creature. It exhaled   through its huge nostrils, and the Young Girl  literally jumped for joy in her amusement.  

She began to play with the docile monster,  hugging it, even drawing on it with a crayon. The observers were truly baffled. What the Young  Girl didn't know was that she was playing with   SCP - 682, one of the most hateful and aggressive  anomalies under the Foundation's watchful eye.  

And yet, in her presence, the creature  was like an overgrown puppy dog. After the test phase, the Young Girl was removed  from the Hard-To-Kill Reptile's presence,   immediately causing the creature to become  violent and murderous once again. After   being separated from her strange new friend, the  Young Girl was seen crying for several minutes.  

According to all accounts, the Young Girl  is eager to see her friend again some day,   though considering the Reptile killed  several guards after their separation,   the Foundation isn't eager to grant her that wish. SCP-053 was classified as Euclid and  continues to be held in containment,   with her toys, books, and games  rotated out on a regular basis.  

Seeing as she shows no sign of aging, this  ongoing containment is likely to be the sad,   strange fate of the Young Girl. An anomaly that  never wanted to hurt anyone - but an important   and cruel reminder that what we want doesn't  always influence the world in the way we want.