From that day on, Iris and I pretty much stopped talking to each other. No morning salutations for us upon waking in the morning! Every morning we ate breakfast together without fail, but now our breakfasts were silent as we stuffed the cereal into our mouths, refusing to so much as look the other in the eye.
Despite our rocky relationship, for some odd reason, Iris pushed off her usual obligations to constantly hang over my shoulder. She was in a rotten mood the whole time, barring any hope of working things out with her silent brooding.
Whenever Iris saw the Eye Pods, which would affectionately race toward me if I entered their line of sight, she would chase them away with threatening behavior such as stomping her feet or yelling at them. When I asked what would possess her to do such a thing, she refused to tell me. I was getting the royal silent treatment.
As she grated on my nerves more and more, our relationship grew increasingly strained. The air between us was constantly heavy. Clueless how to repair our failing relationship, things grew so brutal even the high-handed Dr. Bright asked, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” out of concern.
The mere memory of these never-ending bleak days was enough to make me feel depressed… After roughly two weeks passed, my long fight with Iris suddenly came to an end.
✦ ✦ ✦
Iris and I returned to our room at the same time that day. Dr. Bright had discontinued all testing until such time as our relationship returned to normal. If ordered to continue the tests while our relationship was still unstable, there was no telling what sort of accidents could ensue. That was the official excuse Dr. Bright offered, but I bet they simply didn’t want to get caught in the awkward atmosphere we created. Our Dr. Bright was the type of person to alter the schedule for important tests over such trivial personal whims.
As a result, I spent day in and day out in a mindless daze… At times like this, the hands on the clock seemed to move at an agonizing crawl. It felt like this was one of those “times that try men’s souls.” Even though I wasn’t really doing anything, I felt completely drained.
Iris was in no better shape than I; it wasn’t unusual to find faint rings hanging under the usually energetic girl’s eyes. But our relationship was so chilly that I couldn’t even bring myself to show concern.
Darn, I hoped we wouldn’t stay like this forever… Now that I had lost Iris and the Eye Pods—the two things that set my heart at ease—harsh reality suddenly came crashing down upon my shoulders all at once.
What was going to become of me? Would I have to spend the rest of my life in this shady research facility? What was my family doing? If I continued to skip school, would I be forced to withdraw? Even if I wasn’t kicked out, wasn’t it just a matter of time before one of these dangerous SCP objects took my life, anyway? The more I thought about it, the darker my prospects seemed. I couldn’t help but drop my head despondently.
I wanted to recover my peaceful life. If I couldn’t have that, I wanted something to lighten my heart, even if only a little. I was reaching my limit—on the verge of bursting into an unwarranted fit of tears.
“Gah…! I can’t take it anymore,” Iris suddenly groaned.
Turning toward Iris out of curiosity, I saw she was sprawled across her bed on her stomach, kicking her feet wildly. It looked like she was practicing the flutter kick.
“It should be fine now. Yeah, this has extended well beyond the prescribed timeframe. I’ve personally determined the problem has been resolved,” she whispered nonsensically to herself before lifting her head up.
Realizing I was watching her, Iris broke into a broad grin and apologized, “I’m so sorry!”
Uh, what…?
Sitting on her knees atop her bed, Iris’s face turned bright red as she trembled in anger. “First, hear me out! The inhumane way that I, Iris Thompson, have treated you these past two weeks was under orders by Dr. Bright and by no means of my own accord!” she cried.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “inhumane…” But hold up! What was going on here?
“That’s what I’m telling you!” Iris fervently insisted, pounding the bed several times like a child throwing a tantrum. “I stopped greeting you first thing in the morning, holding decent conversations with you, and overall ignored you! I threw out the Eye Pods when I knew you’re fond of them! But I didn’t do any of those things because I wanted to!”
Iris practically tumbled off her bed and walked up to me. While I stared at her dumbstruck, she grabbed my hand and held it tight. It was a painful, bone-crushing grip.
“Please believe me! I care for you greatly!” she insisted.
Simply hearing that was enough to make me forgive and forget all that transpired. As I felt the warmth of her body, I strived to fully understand the weight of her words.
“I realize you might find this strange since we haven’t even known each other for a full year yet, but you’re my family! You don’t mind if I think of you as family, do you?” Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at me straight on. “I no longer have a real family. I was torn from them when I was identified as an SCP object, and I can never reach out to them again. But you and I are like two peas in a pod. We stay in the same room and dine at the same table—we’re family!”
Family. They were part of my distant normal life now… I guess the same was true of Iris as well. Branded an anomalous entity—an SCP object—the normal, peaceful life she enjoyed was ripped away from her.
“The two of us are bound together by the name SCP-105! The concept of ‘SCP’ that stole everything from me now serves as a bond between us! And that honestly, really makes me happy…!” Unable to hold it back any longer, Iris began sobbing.