[The Lone Outsider] 9 – Leaving my Cell

Having no idea what to do with the 939s, I threw them a couple of thousand miles away from the humans to prevent conflict and made them a small island they could roam around.

Of course, I threw a dome around them and then rose the island a few miles into the air; call me paranoid, but I'd prefer if they stayed on the island.

To make sure, I manipulated the air currents to produce winds that were going hundreds of miles an hour and directed them around and toward the island.

If they try to jump off or escape, the wind will throw them back on the island.

After all, as they were only souls, I had no idea if they could actually die...again or even be affected by gravity or the other forces of nature.

So, this was as much an experiment as an attempt at containing them and keeping them away from the other souls in my afterlife.

From there, I decided to head back and promptly left my Afterlife, finding myself right back in my cell, where I was surrounded by many of my previous iterations of the Weeping Angel statute, which I promptly threw into my Afterlife for later disposal.

Satisfied after cleaning my room, I walked over to the cell door and tried opening it, finding it locked.

Annoyed, I shifted forms and simply phased through it and out into the hallway.

Surprised to find myself face-to-face with a guard, I decided to ask casually, "What's up?"

Noticing the guard was silent and pale, I shifted back to my human form, regardless of my dislike for it, and asked, "There, is that better?"

He remained speechless, "So...uh, well, if you need me, I'll be wandering around," I told the guard before walking away.

Leaving the guard behind, I briefly glanced above my cell, noticing that it was some random letters and numbers.

'C-79'

Keeping that number in mind so I could return later, I began exploring the facility.

The guard I left behind quickly caught back up with me, faster than I was expecting.

"Wait! Hold on!" The Guard shouted from behind.

I sighed and stopped before turning around to look at the Guard.

"Yes?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

"Y-You must remain in your cell!" The  Guard told me, acting confident even though I could see him quite literally trembling before me.

Glancing at him only for a few moments, I asked, "Why can I not?"

"I can't say," He awkwardly informed me.

"Orders?" I asked, and he nodded.

"Well, I'm not going to stay still, so the best option for you would be to follow me, keep an eye on me, or you could go back to your post and deal with your angry bosses later. Your choice," I told the Guard, knowing the predicament I would put him in.

Not waiting to hear what he said, I turned back around and continued walking down the hall.

It was a bit discomforting how sterile and spartan the halls were. There seemed to be no signs or markers to help navigate the facility, and the doors I came across were metal sliding doors with the Foundation's symbols built into the center.

Most of the doors didn't even have identifying marks other than the numbers and letters above them, much like the one that marked my cell.

"Is this hallway dedicated to containment cells like mine?" I asked the guard following behind me, curious.

"...Yes," The Guard informed me after a few moments of silence.

"Is mine the only one in use?" I asked, curious, only to get silence as my answer.

Curious, I tried to use a new trick I discovered, especially after I started noticing the recently deceased.

I shifted to my Harbinger form and opened my senses, feeling for any and all souls around me.

I grunted in discomfort as countless souls stormed my senses.

How large was this facility? I could sense hundreds of souls, human and not.

In this hall alone, I felt the Guard's soul and four others, so I started walking towards the closest one I felt and gently knocked on the door before switching back to my human form.

The person who opened the door seemed to be a pudgy young Caucasian man wearing a belt with a holstered flashlight, bag, and gun.

"...You wouldn't happen to be SCP 507, otherwise known as the Reluctant Dimension Hopper, would you?" I asked, curious.

"Uh, yeah, can I help you?" The man asked, looking between the Guard and me.

"Yes, I am interested in hearing about your adventures. If you don't mind me asking, how long has it been since your last shift?"

"Nine days," He answers before moving out of the way, beckoning me into his containment cell.

"Ah, wonderful, it's nice to meet you then!" I raise my hand and shake his, "My name is Vale. I happen to be your new neighbor for the foreseeable future!"

"Uh...nice to meet you then! You can call me whatever you like, as I do not like using my real name," He laughed, and I smiled, "Sure, how about...you know what, I'll just call you Casper; it's the first thing that came to mind looking at you."

"Sure! That's another to my list!" He said excitedly.

"List?" I asked.

"Yeah, man! I go by all sorts of names: Tommy, Steve, Bruto, Phil, Alex, Guy, Houdini, and Grabnok the Destroyer, to name a few," He informed me.

I blinked at him; I certainly didn't remember that about the poor guy.

"Say, would you like a sword? Or armor?" I asked suddenly as we sat down at the interrogation table that was in the center of his room, much like my own room.

"Hell yeah! I'd love one! Though, uh, I'm not the strongest of men," He flexed his nonexistent muscles.

I chuckled, "I could help you with that, too, if you are interested," I offered.

"Oh? I would love to have a gym buddy! Though sadly, I don't really have any equipment," He chuckled with an awkward smile.

"No worries there, I should be able to make something for us to use," I told him, mind lost in thought.

"You sure?" He asked, and I replied with a nod, "Well, if you are so sure, I'd love the help. Lord knows I need it with how ridiculous my...uh, trips have been lately," He nervously said towards the end, getting lost in thought.

"Pretty bad?" I asked, curious.

"You have no idea," He chuckled.

"Can't be any worse than some of the places I have imagined or seen," I informed him with a shrug while thinking of Halo, Warhammer, and other various universes undergoing hell.

"You never know," He answered in kind.

"You know what, if you happen to find Jump near me, I'll see if I can come with you. Get a look at these dimensions you find yourself in," I offered.

"Ha, If I could sense when I jump, that is, for me, it feels like it's random," He informed me.

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "You don't? I can; based on your soul, I would assume you have about 10 more days before you jump," I informed the man as my eyes examined his soul.

It was strange. I don't understand how, but I could see that part of his soul was fueling whatever his ability was. It was as if his soul was a container, and his power would use about 30% of his soul's...essence? The building block of his soul to fuel the power. My guess is once his soul is fully recovered, he will 'Jump,' so to say, that or his soul was damaged in his last jump.

That...that was strange, how did I know that?

I looked up, and both the Guard and Casper were staring at me, baffled.

"What?" I asked.