A quiet hum filled the basement, echoing off it's walls and filling your ears with its deep melody. Your heart beats reflecting its soothing tone. Originally, the song was foreign to you. Over time, however, it had almost become a part of you. Stuck in your head, occasionally you were tempted to hum along with its beautiful melody. You stopped yourself every time though, in fear of catching the origin of the song's attention if you were to reply.

From the safety of your desk you studied the said origin. His face was almost completely hidden by the hood if his cloak with only the end of his beak-like mask poking out from underneath. His hands buried wrist deep in the latest deer carcass provided to him for what he considers to be his research. Though it is truly for our own.

You waited patiently for his procedure to come to an end so that you can rewatch another animal "resurrect". You weren't convinced that any instance of SCP-049-2 was actually alive. They seemed to only have basic motor skills and were extremely aggressive. So in turn it was very difficult to test to see if they had remaining cognitive function, even a heartbeat was difficult to determine. So most of the time any instances of SCP-049-2 were immediately shot and their bodies burned.

You tapped the pen gently against the desk adding another soft beat to his serine melody. His bloodied scalpel reflected the bright light from overhead. The surgical procedure seemed to stay relatively the same between his victims. He would start by cutting them open, pulling out various organs generally beginning with their stomach or large intestines. However each time he pulled them out in different orders and placed them back in seemingly jumbled spots.

Despite this, the victim will in most cases still be able to function enough to walk, attack, and in all cases of SCP-049-2 they will take orders from SCP-049. Your stomach turned watching SCP-049 pull out the deers liver. The ligaments still clinging desperately onto the severed organ. His hums slowed while he jammed his surgical scissors into the animal, freeing the organ. To anyone else it would look as if he was arbitrarily dismembering a dead animal he found on the street. To him though, he held his head high and moved with confidence as if every tiny cut he made had some higher purpose.

You took in a deep breath filling your lungs and working to keep your lunch in your stomach. Your eyelids felt like they could droop down at any given moment, even so you didn't dare take another sip of your coffee fearing it would immediately come back up. Your sleep schedule wasn't helping you either, running on at most 5 hours of sleep on a daily bases never did anyone any good. You had a speck of hope though, tomorrow was Saturday, the one day you could sleep in. Not that you are complaining too much though, staying up in the lab with SCP-049 has shockingly become one of the most enjoyable part of your day.

With that said you have been feeling considerably more comfortable in your position. Despite your gut occasionally screaming at you to keep your distance from the entity.

Minutes passed before SCP-049 stitched the animal back up. Methodically placing each stitch across the deceased animals abdomen. After his job was finished he stood, turned and heading back to his chair leaving the motionless creature on the table. It only took him a moment to pull out his notebook to scribble down what you assume to be his procedure and preparing to document the results.

With that said you were preparing your own documentation. Waiting patiently you studied both the animal and SCP-049.

Small twitching turned into full leg movement's. Shaky the deer finally rose from the table, mangled and seemingly weak. It nearly slipped off the table only the fall perfectly onto its feet. It slumped around the room its eyes were wide and clouded over as if there was no life behind them. Its movements were clumsy at best.

A small, grumbling man pulled you away from the scene. You had almost forgot that Dr. Ogami was there. He glared down at the small, wobbly deer now classified as SCP-049-2.

You tried your best to block out his disdain for the situation. Instead focusing on the little deer cautiously sniffing SCP-049's outstretched hand. You're face turned back to your desk when Dr. Ogami's signal caught your eye.

"Get rid of it."

The sound of the containment chamber door opening followed by a loud bang. You looked back up to see a trail of blood leading outside of the containment chamber. SCP-049 stared at the door where the little deer had been dragged out, his attention slowly returning back to his journal. His hood covering his eyes, masking his expression.

A twinge of pain struck your heart. A part of you was confused by the pain and the other part knew exactly why. You again fought to ignore it, you had limited choices in your position. Plus that deer was already dead to begin with.

Time passed by slowly after the brief experiment. The results ending as usual with the animal resurrected, killed, and a large work load of paperwork accompanied by a distant SCP-049.

Despite this the soothing humming started again. Your heartbeat slowed listening to his song, your buzzing thoughts focusing back on the job at hand.

-----

Your eyes stared weakly at the closed elevator doors beside you. Silence surrounded you in the ascending elevator. You took in a deep breath when the door slid open letting you out to continue the same daily routine. Though today you had stayed at work later, only coming out in time for dinner. Stepping out you barely made it into the hall before a familiar voice called out to you,

"Oh! (Y/N)! I thought I'd find you here!" A chipper Chloe threw her arm around you for a sideways hug.

The sudden touch was enough to make you jump out of your skin.

"Hi, Chloe" you squeaked, awkward you halfway hugged her back. She was quick to move away and nearly bounced in front of you.

"You remember that finger I told you about yesterday?" She started her excitement fading at your confused expression.

"Ummm.. I'm sorry," you must have been too distracted by something. Or maybe she thought she told you but actually told someone else?

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes. She began to walk beside you towards the lunchroom. "Well to refresh your memory a couple of D-class ended up in SCP-106's alternate dimension, and one actually made it out alive! Not just that but he found a backpack in there, when he brought it back we searched it and found a severed finger!" She explained, a bit too excited.

"Cool?" You replied unsure of how to take this information. You honestly had thought that no one could survive SCP-106 after what Chloe has explained before.

Not only that but, you glanced at the infamous camera above you, was she allowed to talk about this?

"Yes it's cool! But that's not why I came to find you."

You met her bright blue eyes that now held a hint of seriousness in them.

"We also tested the fingers DNA to see who it belonged to and any other information the finger could provide."

Her silence stopped you in your tracks. She wasn't acting herself suddenly. She looked around only to pull you into an empty study room nearby.

"This might be hard to hear but I thought you deserved to know." She whispered.

-----

Your burning eyes were buried deep into your cool bed sheets. After your talk with Chloe you had quickly locked yourself back into your apartment. Your deep breaths sounded shaky and weak, barely making it to your lungs.

Your heart and stomach ached and the pain pulsated throughout your body. Your jaw clenched tightly together as you let another tear escape from your tired eyes. Minutes passed and again, you had run out of tears to cry. Leaving you trembling hiding under a makeshift mountain of blankets and sheets.

Your breathing calmed after a while and you dared to poke your head out from under the safety and warmth of your blankets. The clock beside you read 10:00 pm. You wished your brain was tired enough to sleep. You needed sleep. Your eyes trailed up to the picture frame beside you. You and your mother stood there together, her holding your shoulders close and smiling. It was only the two of you after your dad left for work, only to seemingly disappear. And now- Tears threatened to fall again. You couldn't stay in here anymore.

Despite the sleep you needed you sat up heading for the bathroom. You washed your face, brushed your hair and daringly applied a few layers of mascara and foundation to somewhat look like you had not been crying for the past three hours.

The hallways thankfully were fairly empty at this time with only a few guards and other scientists, buried in their own paperwork, were tucked away in their offices. You passed by the lunchroom, you had done a horrible job of eating well today. Tomorrow, you told yourself you would do better.

You grabbed a cup of coffee on the way out. It was really late for the drink, yes but it was a comfort for you. Warm and familiar. You needed that right now. You hesitated before leaving. You knew where you were headed and you had never offered before, so last minute decided to grab a second cup.

----

The two cups slightly burned your hands making you race to set the two on your desk. Flipping your hands over to examine your red palms. You closed your fists and ignored the slight sting.

"You're back." The voice relaxed your shoulders and a slight smile crept onto your face.

"Yup," You turned to SCP-049 who was now standing on the other side of the glass close to where you stood.

You glaced at the cup beside you nervously fiddling with the cuff of your lab coat. With a trembling hand you awkwardly picked up the coffee.

"Umm, I brought you a coffee, if you would like some?" Your voice came out hushed and your nerves all too exposed. You silently cringed at what you decided had been an embarrassing interaction.

He watched you with interest for a moment. Only for him to nod.

"I'm sure it wouldn't hurt for me to have a cup, thank you," he said, sincerity in his voice.

You brought the cup over to a small hatch in the far corner of his containment cell. Opening it you left the coffee sitting on a ledge for him to take from the other side.

"Be careful though, it's hot," you said quick before he could pick up the steaming coffee.

You watched him close, you had never actually seen him drink anything nor eat anything either. He stood close to you although the glass was thick your heart couldn't help but race at the way he towered over you.

You turned away to your desk, you felt like someone was squeezing your chest tight. The painful news from earlier caught up with you. You bit the inside of your cheek in hopes that alone could keep you from breaking down again.

"Are you alright?"

You nodded facing away from the entity. Maybe you were being too dramatic.

"Hmm, do you want to talk about it?"

You flinched turned back to him. Unsurprisingly he saw through your lies, again. You hesitated before heading back to the glass, did you want to talk about it? And not only that, but with him?

"I- I guess so. It's a little long though,"

He looked at you, close enough to see a small spark of curiosity in his golden eyes. He nodding for you to continue. You stoped yourself rethinking your decision. You never liked opening up to others, it was scary to you. You didn't know what they would do, or when you finally told them something you were upset about they just wouldn't care. But here, you needed someone.

You sucked in a deep breath and made your decision.

"My father uses to be a scientist a lot like myself, and not only that but he encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. Signing me up for science classes, introducing me to his work, he would smother me with all his expectations,"

You leaned against the glass beside you. Appreciating it's cool touch

"I hated it, not so much the science part, but just the feeling that I will never amount to anything unless I conform to 'his way' it made me want to hate science, biology, chemistry, or anything that he wanted to throw at me,"

You paused for a moment refusing to let any tears find their way out from your eyes.

"I couldn't have any opinion or dream opposing his plans for my life. He told me that nothing would make him happier or more proud of me. And trying to fight against him was out of the question."

You bit your lip and continued pushing the memories aside.

"12 years ago my dad disappeared. We got a letter from his job that he had been killed by an experiment gone wrong." Your voice began to waver.

"I was devastated at the time, I mean at the end of the day he was still my dad. Regardless of all the stress he put on me. But as horrible as it sounds.. I was almost hopeful at the same time, I hoped I would be free of his expectations," you felt sick after admitting that.

"Then I found out that my father decided to prepay not only admission but a full four years! Just for me to enroll into one of the 'best science colleges' out there, Stanford University." You cringed at the memory. As nice as the gesture was, how much others would have loved it, it was bittersweet to you. You didn't want to fail him again. Like you had with everything else he did for you.

"At that point I couldn't say no anymore. It was one of the last things he ever did, and there was no way without his income that me or my mom was going to make it and even think of me paying for college. So it was my only chance to ever go anywhere. It made me feel like I was being suffocated,"

You sighed and continued.

"As great as it sounds and as big of an opportunity it was I still was stuck. So even in death he was not going to let me go."

You shook your head, "But, today. I got news from a friend that my dad who had supposedly died all those years ago had only died recently if at all." Your legs felt weak, giving in you slid down and sat leaning against the glass.

"Do you know of SCP-106?"

SCP-049 followed your actions sliding down and resting on the other side of the glass. "I believe so, isn't he the fellow who can walk through walls?"

"Yes, he can also pull others into his own pocket dimension. And a few days ago a D-class found a backpack and a finger in that dimension. They tested the fingers DNA and it turned out to be my father's. The one who forced me into all of this, who smothered me and made me who he wanted me to be despite what I felt. He had worked here all this time." A bitter feeling ate from deep inside you, why would you ever wish for your own child to work at such a place?

"The finger was fresh too, and because of the corrosive nature of SCP-106's pocket dimension it should have been completely gone or at least unrecognizable. I guess in theory he could still be alive, but it wouldn't be wise to get my hopes up. Honestly I don't know how I would react if he was alive," You stopped and glanced over at SCP-049 he seemed fine, quietly listening to your story.

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just rambling on now." You grabbed your left arm tightly with your right hand.

"It's fine. Is there anything more that you need to talk about?" He offered.

You looked back up at him, you were close enough that without the glass barrier the two of you would be back to back. His mechanical breathing close against your ears.

"Not really, that was about it. Are you doing alight?" You finally flipped the question in him, you got a small, deep laugh in return.

"Yes, I'm fine."

You relaxed against the glass unsure of what to say after you had just spilled out a chunk if your life onto the creature behind you. Guilt rose up in your stomach. You guessed he didn't seem to mind to much though, thankfully. He did ask if you wanted to talk.

Your eyelids began to fall again and your head rested against the glass behind you. All the tears and lack of sleep was hitting you hard.

"SCP-049?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you,"

"You're welcome, doctor. Anytime."

A small smile crept onto your face for a moment and unbeknownst to you your eyes dropped shut and the world went silent around you.

----

Thank you all for reading! And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!