D-1020 reached out his hand slowly, making a movement that he was about to touch SCP-173 with his hand as he was curious about the statue that had been dormant for most of the time.

"D-1020, stop. I know what you're going to do, and If I were you, I would avoid doing that as much as I could." William shouted from afar, reminding D-1020's action.

D-1020 stopped and looked at William, "It's been doing nothing most of the time. I mean, as long we didn't look away or break our contact, it should be harmless, shouldn't it?"

In part of William's thought, he was right. As long they didn't stop looking at SCP-173, it would be harmless most of the time. But then again, William is not that type of person who would take such a risk and just play it safely so that he could get out of here.

William then shouted at D-1020, "Look, man. I hate to be the one who should be saying this, but all you need to do is just clean up what's left on there, and then we can live our life for another day. Being in this room is already such a huge risk, and I don't want to risk myself to put my life even further if anything happens to you."

Distancing themselves from SCP-173 is already an advantage that they have. William knew that SCP-173 could move a few meters away just with a blink. Even if the worst scenario happens, he could still save himself, given the distance between him and SCP-173.

"Here, I'll do it really quickly." D-1020 while folding his sleeve, "Just a simple, nice, and quick touch, then I'll clean up quickly after this."

William felt a slight annoyance about D-1020's action, but if he tries to fight over it again with him, it'll only waste more time for all of them and delay their job. D-1140 didn't dare to say a single word because William could feel that he was frantically panicking the whole time, even when he tried to tell William that he was about to blink.

Nevertheless, there was no objection regarding the whole situation.

D-1020 started to reach out his hand once again slowly. He was going to touch the back side of SCP-173's body with his hand. That small sense of curiosity is what droves D-1020 to do such things, and he'll find out about it by doing that.

Then, he touched it.

*Crack*

In an instant, D-1020's neck was bent. His head was fully contorted to a full 90 degrees to the side, with his bones sticking out of his throat. You could even see blood was gushing and trickling down through D-1020's neck.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" shouted William from a distance.

He was shocked by what had just happened to D-1020. What was more concerning about it wasn't that he knew very well that D-1020 basically just challenged death, but what could possibly be the cause? Neither he nor D-1140 broke any contact with SCP-173, but it caused D-1020's neck to be snapped. What's more confusing is that SCP-173 was still in its current position and didn't make a single move at all.

D-1140 screamed. He was scared of what he just saw. He fell down to his back, knowing such horror and the worst thing that could occur just happened in front of him. There's so much happening at the same time in this situation. They were doing so well until something that was unpredictable happened to all of them.

This really puts William and D-1140 in a bad situation. Not only are they short on personnel, but who will replace D-1020's job now?

William is thinking about a way out of this situation when suddenly he can hear D-1140 was puking on the floor. D-1140 breaks his contact with SCP-173, only leaving William, which sets his eyes straight to SCP-173 now.

"What are you doing, D-1140?! Manage yourself up! I can't just stare at it alone here!" William shouted at D-1140, knowing he was the only one left to look at SCP-173.

D-1140 is still gagging, "I… I can't… this is too much for me…."

"Come on! I need you right now, or both of us will end up in the same fate as that guy!"

Having only two-person that looks at SCP-173 is already a bad thing to encounter, let alone only one person. To make things worse, there's no way for them to go or escape because they were trapped inside SCP-173's containment room.

"I can't… I really just can't…" D-1140 stood up on his feet and then just ran to the gate's exit. He then pressed an intercom that was on the wall to tell the guards about what happened, "Help! We have a problem! One of us had died. Please send someone here and evacuate us immediately!"

D-1140 was sending a distress signal through the intercom. He keeps pressing the button and shouting through the mic for the guards to initiate an emergency protocol in times like this. D-1140 is indeed already at his limit.

On the other hand, William kept his line of vision on SCP-173 to make sure that it didn't move a bit. But his eyes started to feel sore after not blinking them for a few minutes, and he couldn't just blink because D-1140 looked away from it.

"D-1140, it would be very helpful if you could lend me a hand right now. I can't hold it off much longer!"

William kept shouting at D-1140, who was frantically screaming at the intercom for help, but there was not really much a response coming out from the other side. It was helpless as there was no response from D-1140, who were in panic.

Given the distance between him and SCP-173, it should allow William to blink once before it gets too close to him. It's a gamble, but there's no other choice for him.

He took a deep breath and blinked.

*Crack*

William saw that SCP-173 had moved from its original position, but at the same time, that lousy screaming voice of D-1140 just stopped. Realizing that SCP-173 had moved to D-1140's position and broke his neck.

There's only him left in the room. He miscalculated SCP-173's movement, gambled it, and lost to the point his only partner left died in the room just like D-1020.

SCP-173 was standing near D-1140's body and stared at William menacingly. Their distance was not far away now, only a few meters between the two of them. Their eyes meet as they are the only two left within the room. Knowing this, William started to walk backward slowly to create distance.

He arrived at the corner side of the room, near D-1020's dead, lifeless body. He wasn't sure that even at this distance could save him from SCP-173, and there were no signs of the guards coming into the room after D-1140 tried to contact them. But William was already at his limit. He needed to blink because he'd been holding it now for a few minutes.

Should he gamble it again once more? Whether that SCP-173 wouldn't reach his current position by the time he finished blinking or fated to die by an SCP? Neither of them was a good option. William chooses what could be the most logical way out of them, the lesser of the two evil.

He straightened himself up and took a deep breath.

Then, he blinked.