1
A young Jack Bright and his older brother, Mikell (later known as O5-6), are lost in a prairie in Nebraska on a horse. The two have a small conversation where Jack asks if Mikell thinks their mother had her baby yet, Jack obviously having mixed feelings about having a little sister. Mikell stops the horse and tells Jack to look at a circle of cattle, all lined up head to tail.
2
Jack looks out at the front lawn, and so does TJ, his younger brother (Later known as SCP-590), in response to hearing Mikell fall and hit his head on the pavement, having just fallen off the roof. TJ rushes outside and Jack gets up to do the same. TJ grabs Mikell's arm and screams, accidentally absorbing the gash from Mikell's head. Mikell wakes up, now alarmed at what had just happened.
3
Jack is in a phone booth, trying to call his father. When he loses connection, he tries calling his mother, only to be told he'd have to leave a message. Jack tells a story about TJ falling off the roof while helping Mikell shingle. He states they're in the hospital and that TJ needs stitches and will be kept overnigtht.
Jack felt like saying something more, but decided not to.
4
Claire, Jack's little sister, wakes Jack up in the middle of the night to tell him she needs to go to the bathroom. Jack asks why she can't get Mikell to take her and she tells him that Mikell isn't there. Reluctantly, Jack gets up and takes her hand, walking her to the restrooms.
When they are halfway back to the room, Claire stops walking, to the surprise of Jack. Jack asks her what's wrong, to which she responds with telling him not to hurt, and that she doesn't want her to leave. Jack, confused, tells her he isn't going to leave, and Claire asks him to promise he won't get sick. He asks what she means, and she restates the question, to which he makes the promise.
After she gets back to the room, she soon falls asleep, and Jack uses this as an opportunity to sneak out of the room to go look for Mikell, who he finds on the sidewalk outside, smoking.
Jack tells Mikell that their mother would kill him, to which Mikell says that she won't if she doesn't find out. They then begin to talk about if they know where their parents work, and Mikell reveals that he not only knows where they work, but he works there too. This escalates into a conversation about people who will keep an eye on things they don't find 'normal'. He reveals that TJ used to be able to control whenever he wanted to heal somebody, yet seems to not be able to do that anymore.
Jack asks if Claire is special in the same way, and Mikell suggests she might be able to see the future.
51
TJ is described as being a pale, freckled child with red hair and having a frame that is wiry. It is said that onlookers often comment that he looks like Mikell, but to Jack, they seem worlds apart.
So when the two want to discuss the tendencies of TJ's powers, they wait for him to fall asleep first. Mikell and Jack both grab beers from the fridge, though Jack is not yet of age.
Over the dining table, the two come to a compromise. Mikell grabs another beer as Jack finishes his to keep himself from becoming violent to Jack.
Next week, before sending him to school, Jack outfits TJ in long pants, sleeves, and a pair of gloves.
6
In late April, Mikell recieves a promotion. When TJ and Claire are asleep, he shows Jack two revolvers.
Jack is unable to describe the objects, but he knows they're special in some way. Mikell picks them up and Jack realizes that the handles are not pearl, but are polished bone.
7
Mikell leaves for work in late May and doesn't come back in two days as he'd promised.
Jack spends more time sleeping than he has before, and dreams more than he has before.
Jack wakes up, feeling guilty. He goes and sits at the kitchen table, restlessly angry. After an hour of sitting there, he goes to the garage to continue making the moonshine he usually sells.
The man that usually buys from him asks if he's alright, and if his brother is back yet. Bright replies saying that he isn't, saying he is on a business trip.
Mid June, Mikell finally comes home, immediately going to his room and falling asleep.
8
Mikell has been riding a horse as long as he can remember. Jack never knew what he found quite so entertaining about herding cows on horseback.
Mikell always got excited about cow horse runs. Jamie, the owner of the ranch Mikell worked for, was always happy to let Mikell ride his horse around while others looked on and cheered. And, though he wasn't very familiar with the topic, Jack knew that he was good at it.
When Mikell was 16, Jamie taught him bull riding, and encouraged him into joining his first rodeo.
Jack never thought his older brother's job and hobbies to be too entertaining, but realized he would, in fact, enjoy seeing his brother get thrown off of a bull.
But Mikell was good, and Jack got annoyed at that.
One day, Claire tagged along with Jack to watch Mikell ride at a rodeo. But this bull had been particularly violent, and it was obvious that Mikell was nervous. Claire started shouting at Jack that he shouldn't be let in.
But when the buzzer went off and Mikell and the animal went into the ring, the bull didn't buck. Instead, the bull walked back into the chute. Blood trickles from Claire's nose.
9
When TJ runs over to hug Mikell, Jack doesn't stop him. When Mikell touches TJ's neck with a bare hand, Jack does not stop him.
TJ's breath hitches and he falls limp in Mikell's arms, and Jack helps him load his younger brother into the back of a car.
10
Claire starts playing with other kids over time, as Jack sits at the dining room table, thinking.
On a stormy day, Claire asks Jack if she can go play with the girls across the street, jumping in mud puddles. Jack tells her yes, but to stay where he can see her.
Jack didn't understand why he couldn't do anything right. He doesn't want to die, but he doesn't want to live.
11
When the agents came, like Jack knew they would, he grabs the revolver off the top of the fridge.
Claire tells Jack that somebody's at the door, and he urgently tells her to go to her room.
When they take Claire away, Jack did not shoot. They immediately threw him to the floor and knocked him out. When he woke up, he wandered around the house, looking for someone he knew wasn't there.
Dream Sequence:
Jack gets up from bed, and rushes to the bathroom, grabbing his father's razor. He doesn't take it apart, feeling like he shouldn't. He takes it to his arm, striking it three times.
Jack washes off the razor and passes out due to blood loss.
Jack wakes up, just as Mikell picks him up off the bathroom floor. He brings Jack to the couch, wrapping his arm in bandages after sanitizing the wounds.
Mikell pulls out a phone Jack has never seen before, dials up a number.
12
Jack wakes up again from the sound of thunder. Mikell is sitting next to him, starting to reprimand him for letting Claire get taken. Jack responds by telling him not to smoke in the house.
Jack sits up as his older brother tells him to.
Jack asks about TJ, and he and Mikell start arguing. Jack starts packing his things up, and Mikell taunts him, announcing that he's running away. Jack tries punching Mikell, but Mikell catches his fist, forcing him to the floor.
Bright manages to scramble away from his brother and grabs the bag that Mikell had placed on the kitchen table, and Mikell pulls out his revolver. Mikell orders Jack to put it down, and Jack refuses.
Mikell pulls the trigger and his gun jams. He slowly lowers the gun.
Mikell orders Jack to leave, and he does, dropping the box.
13
Jack Bright looks down at the piece of metal impaling his body. Briefcase open, the artifact rolls to a stop against his skin.
14
The Present
Instant message logs show Dr. Jack Bright and Dr. Charles Gears talking about Bright having to wait before taking another flight, and Gears proposes that Jack could stay at his old home, where he said he'd had family. Jack expresses that he doesn't really want to, but he decides to go back anyway.
15
When Mikell had his first heart attack, it was Jack that found him just in time to get him medical attention.
On new years, Jack and Mikell don't watch the ball drop.
On January 1st, Jack sits down and trembles, following the containment breach that had happened at Site-19.
For the first time in Foundation history, there were no survivors.
And, because he wasn't at the site, the blame fell on Jack.
So when the decision had to be made to 'formally contain Site-19 director', Mikell voted 'Aye'. His brother was no longer thriving, no longer living in a way that Mikell had never seen his brother before- so why force him to try.
So a few years later, when Mikell had his second heart attack, he was alone, and not so lucky. Because the universe gives Brights, and takes them as it pleases.
And that is the story of how Jack Bright survived.
Because some people are just meant to.
Item #: SCP-963
Object Class: Safe
Laconic Containment Procedures: SCP-963-1 is to be kept in a safe-class containment locker. Flesh to artifact contact is not permitted.
Laconic Description: SCP-963-2 is Dr. Jack Bright, a researcher who was experimenting on an anomalous amulet (SCP-963-1) and was killed while holding it. He now has the ability to steal the bodies of the people who touch the amulet which makes the "host" brain dead. Jack Bright was formally contained following the containment breach at Site-19.