Black tendrils crept into your vision.

You turned around in blind panic, startled by the creature you had now recognized so. It didn't grab you like you expected, but instead stared at you. It's black, sticky tendrils hung by its sides, and its confetti looking things also hung from its sides, swaying to the left with a light breeze.

You identified the breeze as coming through a small hole in the wall... But that didn't matter. It was there. Standing right in front of you.

Beads of sweat dripped down your face. Your lip quivered, and you brushed your (H/L) (H/C) hair out of your eyes. You tried to hide the fear in your eyes by adjusting your posture and straightening up, but you weren't sure if it was working.

You looked down at the piece of metal you kept in your sweaty palms. You read the name again, looking at each letter.

"Tiberius.."

You looked up at the creature, wide-eyed and shocked.

"That's.. you." You addressed it, hoping for a reply.

You weren't expecting an intelligent reply, or a reply at all from the creature. But what it said had surpassed your expectations.

It made a small gurgling noise. You furrowed your brows in confusion, not knowing what it was saying... If it was even saying anything at all.

It looked back up at you and appeared to nod its head. You moved closer to it, inspecting its mass, and its tendril-like appendages. You place your hand on its chest, only for some smaller tendrils on its front side to wrap around your hand. They were loose, allowing you to move your hand once again.

You ran your fingers through your hair and paced back and forth in front of the creature.

"Tiberius.. that sounds like a more masculine kind of name." You pondered... You looked back at the creature.

"Are you of the male gender?" You asked it, making odd gestures with your hands while talking.

It made an odd gurgling noise again, identical to the one you had heard before. You assumed that meant yes, bringing a closure to a question you had in mind for quite a while now. You brushed dust off your knees and cleared your throat.

A strange feeling overcame you. A pulling feeling in your stomach.. you felt nervous. You didn't know why, and you tried to brush it off. However, it wouldn't go away.

Tiberius took a few steps towards you, his tendrils protruding from his back. Two of them wrapped around your left arm, and another wrapped itself around your waist. You were surprised by its actions, but didn't do anything to stop them. It walked back outside the exit of the cavern, and you followed suit.

You smiled. You didn't feel as lonely anymore, having someone by your side again.. even if he wasn't human. It didn't feel like having a pet to you.. it felt different. It felt just as though you had a human friend... Even better than that, you thought.

It got darker in the cavern for a few moments as you walked away from the light behind you. After those few moments passed, you saw another light at the end of the tunnel in front of you. It was dimmer than before. Almost... Flickering.

You furrowed your brows, this time in anger and confusion. It wasn't flickering before.. so why would it be now?

You thought of all the possible reasons it could be happening. Were clouds covering up the sun?

"No, that's not it.." you thought. "It was cloudy when I came in here. There's no way it's less cloudy than before, and darker now."

You paused and squinted your eyes.

"It might be snowing harder."

As you approached the flickering light more, it confirmed your suspicions. You saw what appeared to be a blizzard. Snow was flying in the wind at incredible speeds... It amazed you.

A cold breeze came in through the exit, and hit you. You shivered. You could feel the cold in your body, as your teeth chattered.

You looked at it though and rolled your eyes. You've been through a shit ton worse than a blizzard... That wasn't a reason to not fear it, though. You tried being optimistic.. it wasn't too hard with Tiberius with you.

You didn't want to admit it.. you never did, but the foundation wasn't as good as you convinced yourself that it was. They were cold and abusive. You lied to yourself and said they were taking care of you. You told yourself that you often go through rough patches with those who care about you the most.. but they didn't care about you. You were disposable.

Tiberius gave you an escape. He saved you, as you thought. Without him, they would've killed you in the most horrible ways... You never even knew why they kept you in captivity. They said you were on death row, but you couldn't even imagine committing a crime that hurt another person. The thought of it made you tear up...

As you and Tiberius approached the blizzard, you felt a lot more confident than you did before. Tiberius would keep you safe. This is where he's been living for what you presumed had been thousands of years... he knows how to survive.

As you exit the cave, the cold hit you like a runaway train. You shivered and rubbed your arms. Tiberius noticed your discomfort and wrapped his tendrils around your body. You were definitely confused at first, but then eased into relaxation as Tiberius lifted you up into its presumed arms. Its black appendages were warm to the touch and helped you regain your stamina and comfort quickly.

Tiberius' steps were much larger than an average persons and got him where he needed to be, quickly. Instead of travelling the path he had created, he shortcut through the forest. You weren't sure why, but you assumed it was for a reason you didn't understand... you wanted to understand, though. You wanted to understand everything...

But you were only human. Perhaps you could learn if you practiced.. his language was different. You figured the difference in speech despite his understanding of human language was due to a difference in vocal chords. Maybe he didn't even have any.. you had certainly seen more crazy things than a creature without internal organs.

As Tiberius and you made your way up the mountain, you noticed something strange... Gravity didn't seem to affect him on the same level as you. He could walk up what was basically a flat wall without falling.. it was incredible.

You looked behind you, seeing just how high up you were. You were never good with estimations, but making a rough guess, you thought that you might've been at least 30 feet above the ground. You looked forwards again, and saw the entrance to the cavern that Tiberius may have called... "Home".

Tiberius and you entered the cave, finally sheltered from the blizzard outside. He gently loosened his grip on you, allowing you to step onto the ground once again. You landed your foot on the terrain and looked around the cave, examining any difference you noticed.

You noticed a few rocks out of place, and.. a hole in the ground?

You walked towards it to inspect it further. You kneeled down, and as you suspected, it had water in it. It was just a puddle... Great.

However, you could see your reflection in the puddle. You ran your fingers through your hair and felt the texture. It felt greasy... Splitting between your fingertips.

"Gross.." you thought to yourself.

As you figured you wouldn't be coming across a magical bottle of shampoo soon, you thought it would be best to put your hair into dreadlocks. You figured you had never tried dreadlocks before since you couldn't remember how to create them.

You thought it might be a good place to start if you put your hair into several small braids... You hoped it would hide the grease and grime in your hair, at the least.

You grasped a strand of your (H/C) toned hair and split it between your fingers in two. You found another small strand of the same size and styled the strands into a small French braid. When you had finished the braid itself, you took the last two inches of unbraided hair, and tied them into an intricate knot.

You decided the knot was secure enough and moved on the next one. You smiled.

How your fingers twirled around your hair and twisted the strands around each other felt familiar, somehow.

Tiberius looked in your direction and cocked his head. He looked confused... You chuckled. A creature so intelligent that it understood every language in existence, yet wasn't didn't appear to be culturally educated.

"He's intelligent in his own way." you thought.

"Not understanding one thing doesn't make him stupid."

You looked over at him and smiled.

"I'm braiding my hair." You said. "Have you ever seen something like that before..?" You asked.

Tiberius shook his head.

You still tried to wrap yours around the fact he could communicate. Not through a language you understood, but through actions you recognized.

You grabbed three strands of your hair and pulled them closer to each other.

"I'll show you."

You repeated what you had done with the previous braid, wrapping each strand around the other, but... It looked like Tiberius seemed interested in what you were doing.

"You know... I'm glad you're here with me." You said.

Tiberius looked at you, a warm feeling almost radiating off him.

"I can't remember much from my life before the foundation, but I'm sure nobody even cared about me."

You felt your smile fade, and your shoulders tense. You swallowed.

"Some other Class-Ds told me I wouldn't be worth anything. They were abusive... And always had something new, and even more hurtful to say." You admitted.

Tiberius noticed your sadness. He walked in your direction while you still looked down at your lap.

Tiberius sat down beside you and wrapped his appendages around you. At first, you resisted... Thinking you weren't worth the hug he was giving you. However, after a few you moments, you gave in. You let yourself relax into Tiberius and lean on him.

You continued fiddling with your hair, braiding more strands until the majority of your hair was in several smaller braids.

You looked up at Tiberius. You felt odd butterflies in your stomach, like you were nervous to be close to him. Your eyes darted left to right as you twiddled your fingers together.

"What I'm trying to say is... I'm glad I'm not alone."

Tiberius appeared happy. He held you closer to him, his tendrils wrapping tightly around your torso.

You blushed a reddish-pink color, as your hair fell into your eyes. Being fair, the cold already had your cheeks rosy, but you felt them heat up even more when Tiberius held you close to him.

You decided to think back to the things you had seen back at the foundation. You saw quite a few horrific things.. at one point, they had shown you a sketch of what you assumed was another SCP. It's face was pale, and devoid of any pigmentation. So we're his eyes, having no pupils, or an iris. His jaw was horribly disfigured, opening several inches wider than a normal persons mouth, as well. You didn't know what it was, but it scared the piss out of you.

Later on, you were sent for cleaning the cell of another SCP. You remembered the creature as SCP 173, a creature that could only move when not in direct sight. It looked like a fucked up Marsh fly, its presumed eyes being green, and touching its forehead. Its body was made of stone, with paint in a complicated pattern on its face.

You despised that SCP. You had seen several deaths, multiple escape attempts, and you personally had a near-death experience with that fucking creature.

The foundation didn't care, though. You were talking about the sketch you had been shown earlier that day, when one of the other D-class piped up.

"I know that one.", He said. "His body is nothing more than bare flesh on a fucking skeleton. I'm pretty sure that thing doesn't even have organs."

You continued staring at SCP 173, alerting the D-class to your left whenever you needed to blink. The D-class cleaning around 173 began talking again.

"Me and some other guys were sent into that guys cell, once. They told us what it was, and then told us to put a bag over its head." He continued.

"Turns out they only allow the Disposable ones to handle him now, after an incident with the Mobile Task Force. You can't look at his "face". Whatever the fuck he is, he'll tear you to shreds."

He paused for a quick moment, before continuing.

"You said it was a sketch, right?"

"Yes." You replied. "Shit... Am I gonna be okay?"

"I think you're fine." He sighed. "If you weren't, he woulda killed ya about three hours ago."

You sighed in relief, and alerted the other Class-Ds before blinking.

You felt cold.

Did the foundation really care about you?

The memory ended almost as soon as it began.

You felt cold, as beads of sweat dropped down your face. Your hands were twitching, aching you pull out your own hair.

You sighed. "It's gonna be okay.." you thought. "It's all over now... It's all over."

The storm outside grew more violent, sharp winds and fast snowfall made even the cave feel cold...

Tiberius held you closer, keeping you warm... But you couldn't help but feel suspicious of something outside. Something you saw in the distance. You wondered if Tiberius could see it, too... You swallowed, and held your breath.

You sunk into Tiberius mass, pulling yourself closer, hoping to feel safe.

What you saw in the distance was a dark silhouette, fading in and out of your vision... Standing still in a blizzard.

It looked at you with pleading eyes.

(A/N:

Thank you guys so much for enjoying this story so far! I never thought that anyone would read this, but look at where we are! To everyone that reads this book.. thank you so much. I love you all, and I hope you have a spoopy Halloween! ^_^)

(Ps: had to unpublish the chapter for a minute due to a mistake I made. I apologize for any inconvenience..)