At Site 19, many anomalies are kept secure. One, however, does not fit in with the rest. He is a caucasian man of around fifty-five
years of age, who at first glance seems normal in every way. He’s average height, average weight, and
dressed in business attire. Calling himself Gustav Nobel, he seems to
be a perfectly pleasant American man who seems deeply out of place compared to the hundreds
of other objects and entities kept at the largest SCP containment facility. So why is he so closely guarded? What secrets are kept inside this man’s
head? To understand why SCP-657 is so important,
one has to go back to his recovery. Mr. Nobel worked for years as an undertaker
at a funeral home in the United States, not raising any attention. But there was a man who worked for him, and
they didn’t get along. They argued frequently, and one day SCP-657
had to correct the man’s work, something that he had to do frequently. They argued, and suddenly Mr. Nobel got angry. He yelled out “What does it matter? You’ll be dead before the end of the week!”. There were multiple people present, and they
all thought Mr. Nobel must be losing his mind. That is, until it came true. Three days later, the man was working on his
home when he slipped and fell from his roof. He was killed instantly, in what would seem
like a tragic accident. There was no evidence pointing to another
cause of death, but many people remembered Mr. Nobel’s outburst at work and reported
him to the authorities as a possible killer. That was enough for the police, and they arrested
Mr. Nobel. They were never able to find any physical
evidence linking him to the case, but they questioned him relentlessly. While he never indicated that he was responsible,
Mr. Nobel did make similar comments about one of the arresting officers also being close
to death. That man met his own end two days later, when
a suspect fatally shot him during an apprehension. The two deaths seemed unrelated, but the police
didn’t believe it - and neither did the SCP Foundation. The police were convinced that this normal
looking man had somehow been involved in the officer’s death, and they made a request
for federal assistance as they investigated. While they didn’t understand what had happened,
they knew they wanted to see the man pay for his crimes. The justice system moved quickly, and Gustav
Nobel was put on trial for both murders. In near-record time, he was convicted of one
murder and of conspiracy to commit the other, and he was sentenced to death. According to the officers who apprehended
him, he would soon be facing the death chamber and justice would be done. But it was all a lie. The SCP Foundation is quite experienced with
extracting prisoners. Condemned prisoners are one of their best
sources for the recruiting of D-Class Personnel, and they know how to remove a prisoner from
incarceration and leave the authorities no clue that anything went awry. They used those procedures to retrieve Mr.
Nobel before his date with the executioner - but unlike most inmates the Foundation plucks
death row, this one wasn’t headed for D-Class duty. The Foundation believed he was much more important
than that. They knew that this man, who would soon be
classified as SCP-657, had a unique link to death itself. Once secured at Site 19, SCP-657 was debriefed
and investigated by Foundation officials, which is when they became aware of the full
extent of his abilities. SCP-657 has the ability to predict the time
of anyone’s death - sometimes with terrifying accuracy. All it takes for him to make a prediction
is for him to make physical contact with the person, which can be something as simple as
shaking their hand. The prediction is involuntary - as soon as
he makes contact, he gets the information about how much longer they have to live. He was able to predict the deaths of the two
men he made contact with down to the day - but when exposed to some D-Class Personnel who
had already been slated for termination the next day, he was able to make predictions
down to the minute. But there’s one weak spot in SCP-657’s
predictions. The closer the person he makes contact with
is to their moment of death, the more accurate he is. But that works in reverse as well. If he touches someone who is still far away
from their time of death, his predictions get fuzzier. He can still predict the general time of death,
but if it’s a decade or more away, all he can see is the year with no more details. No matter how accurate the time he gives is,
he never gets any other information - such as the cause of death. All he gets is a number inside his head. But while the details might be unclear, they
are no less accurate, and every prediction SCP-657 has made about the time of death has
been proven true. SCP-657’s powers seem to work the same on
every living person, although there are a few odd exceptions. When tested on a select few SCP Agents and
Doctors, he claimed that his abilities came up empty. He simply couldn’t see a time of death for
them, and investigations and testing proved he was telling the truth. This indicates that future investigations
about these flukes should center not on SCP-657 - but on the individuals who seem to be immune. So far, though, no common link or explanation
has been found between them other than the fact that they all work for the Foundation. What does stay consistent is the reaction
people have to SCP-657. When encountering him, people will nearly
always report that they find him strange, unpleasant, or “Creepy”. They may be sensing his abilities, even if
they’re not aware of them. But when they’re informed that he can predict
the time of death, the unsettling feeling seems to escalate. When they don’t know, they simply can’t
identify what causes them to have this disturbing feeling. Could this be a milder but similar effect
to that caused by SCP-053, a small child who makes otherwise stable people feel compelled
to act violently? Right now, the reaction people have to SCP-657
is not considered a source of concern, but the foundation is keeping an eye on it. SCP-657 is an unusual specimen in other ways
too though, and that requires unusual protocols. SCP-657 is one of the lowest-security residents
at Site 19, with his living quarters being a large room with a queen-sized bed and any
reasonable amenities he requests. He’s not considered a threat to escape and
displays no hostility, so the main concern is keeping him healthy and stable for future
testing. His nutritional needs are taken care of, with
the staff providing him with daily meals and vitamins, along with medication for his arthritis. His quarters look closer to a hotel room than
to a cell, and initially he was able to move around Site 19 as he wished as long as he
was accompanied by a staff member of proper security. So why did this have to change? Nothing differed in SCP-657’s behavior and
no attempts to escape or security breaches were made. However, what did become clear was that SCP-657
freely wandering around the facility was a danger - not to others, but to himself if
he encountered the wrong being. This stems from an experiment where SCP-657
was introduced to SCP-076, better known as “Able” and he is one of the most volatile
SCPs in Site 19. SCP-076 consists of two separate entities,
a black cube of engraved stone, and the humanlike, heavily tattooed male figure that resides
inside it. While Able spends most of his time dormant
in a deathlike state, he occasionally awakens and seeks out the nearest human being - which
he then seeks to kill unless he himself is terminated. When killed, he eventually reincarnates within
the cube. SCP-076 is a puzzle to the foundation - and
they thought SCP-657 could help them answer it. SCP-657 was introduced to SCP-076-2, as the
humanoid Able is officially designated, under pretenses of having him join Mobile Task Force
Omega-7 - an experimental team consisting of some powerful but controllable SCPs. This was really a way to see if SCP-657 could
answer any questions about SCP-076-2’s lifespan. Given the being’s supernatural nature and
unique resurrection process, it’s not a huge surprise that the answer… was no. What was a surprise was how SCP-657 reacted. The process of determining someone’s lifespan
is usually quick and easy for SCP-657. The numbers will usually appear in his mind
in just seconds. But when he touched SCP-076-2, things went
very wrong. His eyes immediately rolled back into his
head and he collapsed. There was no physical cause for this, but
he fell into a coma and didn’t wake up for over a week. After he woke up, he was examined for any
lingering health issues and interviewed so the Foundation could learn what he experienced. It turns out the answer was that he experienced…
nothing. He had no memory of the events, or of even
meeting SCP-076-2 at all. This indicates that either SCP-657’s abilities
won’t work on anything that’s not technically human - or that SCP-076-2 simply doesn’t
have a lifespan and will continue to reincarnate forever. It was clear that SCP-657 had an Achilles’
heel. Exposure to humanlike but ultimately inhuman
SCPs had the potential to mess with his abilities and create serious adverse side effects. While this time he had recovered in only a
week, no one knew if the next time would cause lasting damage. It was determined that security measures needed
to be increased. SCP-657 would be confined to his quarters,
with two security staff members stationed outside his door at all times. As SCP-657 has no unusual or dangerous physical
abilities, security is still minimal compared to other SCPs, and the foundation has instructed
the site to grant all reasonable requests for entertainment and furnishments to ensure
his mental health stays stable. But there is one other thing the foundation
is still trying to avoid. The staff has been ordered to keep their distance
from SCP-657 and avoid physical contact unless absolutely necessary. This is because accidental contact, giving
SCP-657 access to the death information, could be stressful for both parties. The knowledge of someone’s pending death
has been shown to weigh on SCP-657, as seen in his initial outburst against his employee,
and not everyone wants to know how much time they have left. Minimal physical contact is the best way to
preserve SCP-657’s use to the SCP Foundation. So what are the long-term plans for SCP-657? There are still many unanswered questions
about his ability. While he has now been prohibited from interacting
with other non-human SCPs for his own safety, he could still be used by the Foundation to
learn vital information about Foundation agents and the danger posed to them on upcoming missions. One question is - can the death date be altered
with advanced knowledge? For instance, could an agent who is slated
to die in two days on a mission be switched off that mission to change their death date? Or would this create a time paradox, potentially
upsetting our reality by trying to change it. These and many other experiments will likely
be tried by the Foundation in the future, once a safe method for testing them is developed
and approved. The research continues though, since the best
chance the SCP Foundation has at answering the great mysteries of death may just rest
in the unassuming older man in Site 19. For more on another unassuming older man with
unique abilities, check out “SCP-662 - Butler’s Hand Bell”, or watch “SCP-053 - Young
Girl” for more on that strange case.
