He blinked. But nothing really happened.

William is still alive even after he blinked, but more importantly, SCP-173 doesn't go or straight move at him. Instead, it just went to the middle part of the room, facing a wall like he usually does.

This confuses William. Why don't SCP-173 attack him like it snapped both of his colleague's necks? Why did it just act neutrally and didn't even engage at him? There are so many questions as to why SCP-173's behavior at this moment.

He wasn't really sure about what had just happened. He thought it was just pure luck that SCP-173 didn't act aggressively, or there could be a reason behind it. He thought about it for a moment. Could it be that SCP-173 was attacking them because it caused SCP-173 a disturbance? D-1020 touching SCP-173 and D-1140 making a lot of noise that might bother SCP-173?

That probably wasn't the case because William knew that SCP-173 was extremely hostile. It would kill anyone in sight, without any exception, whether that person is disturbing SCP-173 or not. That was out of the question, but what could possibly be the real reason for it?

He couldn't think of anything, and William nearly reached his limit again on holding his blink. There wasn't enough space for him to evade SCP-173 if it really started to engage at him. But, what if that's really its plan all along? When he thought about it, there's a probability that he has been outsmarted by SCP-173.

Distance is the only advantage that William has. By creating a big distance between them, it would allow William to blink and open his eyes again before SCP-173 could reach him due to the speed it was moving. The bigger the distance, the better for William. But what if that distance slowly reduced to the extent that it could move anywhere it goes within that blink time window?

By putting itself in the center of the room, SCP-173 could move to anywhere it wanted within that window. It might have been realized that SCP-173 wasn't able to reach him if their distance were that far. Now, SCP-173 was already in the center of the room, and William didn't have enough room for him to create a distance like before.

William bit his lips, knowing that his situation got even worse than before, and there was no escape from it. Was it really the end for him? His eyes were already itching to blink. He couldn't hold it much longer. There was no other choice.

He took a deep breath and then blinked again.

It moved. It moved near to the wall and looked at it. It doesn't really show any aggression or interest in William after he just blinked. He was alive and well after risking his life, thinking that SCP-173 was finally going to kill him.

But this doesn't explain its weird behavior of not engaging to William, and he was still confused as to why SCP-173 hadn't made any hostile action toward him, not to mean he was willing to die or asking for one. But then he thought of something that could probably be a foolish decision.

He blinked once again.

SCP-173 moved to another position away from William. It doesn't even look at him in the eyes. It seems to be just wandering around the containment room without even paying attention or bothering William. It was evident that SCP-173 was aware of William's existence because it can't move due to William was looking at him, and they had stared at each other before.

William blinked multiple times to see SCP-173's behavior, and it was proven that SCP-173 didn't seem to pose a threat to him. It just wandered around the room mindlessly without caring about William at all.

He then sighed a breath of relief, knowing that SCP-173 wasn't going to attack him. But it was a pity that two of his colleagues, D-1140 and D-1020, were brutally killed because of it. He would consider himself lucky in this situation because of how bizarre it is.

Just when everything was going well, the lights above the gate were on, and the interlocks started to move to unlock the gate. It slides slowly to the side. William can see from the end of the room that a group of people is waiting for the gate to fully open.

It was the security guard's personnel, and there were half a dozen of them with their guns pointing at SCP-173 and William from the entrance. They were keeping their distance and sights on both of them, making sure that everything didn't go off track.

One of the guards that looked like a captain in the middle of the row shouted at William, "D-1092, move away from SCP-173 and start to walk out of the room."

William was relieved that the guards came to rescue him, that the job had finished because there was a problem within SCP-173's containment room. He doesn't waste any more time and then just runs toward the guards, knowing that he'll be safe from there on.

He arrived at the big room again, with guards covering him. One of the guards waved his hand, and the gate started to close. It seems that they'll be taking care of that matter later. All they had to do was to make sure everything was normal.

As the gate was closed, all of the guards put their guns down and relaxed. Everything seems to be working as the emergency procedure intended. After that, some of the guards looked at D-1092, knowing he was the only sole survivor within that room.

The guard's captain looked at him, "Consider yourself lucky because things could go wrong very badly." Said the captain in a menacing tone, pointing to the other guards, "You two, escort him to his cell, grab another 3 D-Class to take care of it. I'll report the situation to the boss."

His hands and legs are once again cuffed and then escorted outside the room. It seems that his job for today is already done, but that was just Day 1. Who knows what more horrors and terrifying SCPs he had to encounter later in the future?

He was walking down through the hallway guarded by two guards. But then he saw a weird-looking person who seemed to be covered in a lot of blood stains on his shirt and seemed anxious about his surroundings. But no one around him in the hallways seemed to be worried about him, whether that be the researchers or the guards, despite something was wrong with that person.

He then tripped over something on his walk, lost his balance, and knocked his head into a wall near William. He fell down to the ground, with blood gushing through his head. William took the initiative to stop and help the man get onto his knees.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look too good," asked William to the man.

The man then looked at him and grabbed his hand, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about. It's always been like this."

William saw from close that the man had a lot of stitches and even zippers on his body. It was pretty bizarre.

"Are you sure?" He then asks again.

"No worries, I can take care of myself. Thanks for worrying."

Both of them stood up from the ground. Somehow, the wound on the man's head was gone, and the blood stopped flowing. As if nothing really happened.

==========

You can read up to 18 Chapters before its release on patreon.com/Enachia !