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. Check out “SCP - 096 - The Shy Guy” and “SCP - 5000 - The Suit” for more tales from
the SCP Foundation’s deepest, darkest archives.
