Top 20 Creepy and Weird SCP Stories

it's one o'clock in the morning on a work night  and the last of the bar Hoppers and Club goers have long since turned in at the End of the Street  the last bar is finally closing down for the night or it would except that the bartender is  having trouble getting rid of a customer sitting at the bar an old derelict is demanding  yet another drink the bartender grumbles in annoyance this derelict is sloppy drunk and  the bartender just wants to go home Closing Time browse the bartender just one m

ore  protests the derelict shaking his Empty Glass for emphasis I've got money he laughs at  his own words his Giggles ending with a loud belch that glows a cloud of aromatic vapor into  the bartender's face that's it this derelict has been hanging out at this bar causing trouble  all night and the bartender has had enough get out of here says the bartender as it hustles  the wobbling derelict out the door you're done the derelict creaks and tatters as he stumbles out  into the street the night'

s festivities are really hitting him it isn't so often that he's got the  money to burn but when he does he likes to spend it here the prices are right and the conversation  is minimal which is just the way that he likes it the derelict turns around fire in his eyes he's  raring to fight and he doesn't care that the bartender is quite a bit larger than he is right  now all he can see is red don't tell me why I've had enough he slurs raising his fists as he  prepares to lash out but the bartender

has already slammed the door in his face defeated  the derelict turns his back on the closed bar and starts to slow stumble down the street stupid  bar thinner mutters the derelict turning up his collar against the cold bite of the night air he  wishes that he just had one more drink to warm his stomach against the Chill he's so out of it  that he doesn't stop to think that the bartender did him a favor by refusing to fight there is no  way that the derelict would have won that battle even if h

e was in his physical prime even if the  bartender wasn't twice his size the derelict is in no shape to fight his vision is blurry and his  head is swimming in fact he can barely remain upright if he had any sense he would probably  stumble home and sleep this off but the night is young and he's not ready to give up yet he walks  down the street eyeing every storefront in hopes of finding another bar unfortunately every window  has a closed sign in it he swears under his breath what a run of bad

luck what's a guy supposed to  do in this town he wonders just when he's about to give up hope he spies something glinting in  the reflective Halo of a Street Lamp he stumbles closer to get a better look and he can hardly  believe his eyes finally his luck is changing someone has abandoned a half-empty bottle well  hello there little friend says the derelict he struggles to focus but the world is spinning in  his confusion he could swear he's seeing things but no he can feel the heft of the gla

ss bottle in  his hand and he knows that it is as real as he is we'll left you behind who would leave a perfectly  glue bottle just sitting out here he recognizes this brand there's only about three fingers  of liquid left but that's better than nothing some people might balk at drinking out of a  random bottle that you found on the street but the derelict doesn't give it a second thought  he tips the bottle back and slurps it all down it burns going down just as it should he thinks  he sighs in

contentment as he feels the harsh liquid warm his stomach perfect that really hit  the spot but what happens next surprises him so much that he can't believe his eyes there's  still liquid in the bottle he blinks wondering if maybe his adult brain is Playing Tricks on  him but he shakes the bottle cautiously and is rewarded with The Telltale swish of liquid That's  No Illusion he takes another Swig guzzling it down normally he dropped the bottle to the ground  and stumble on but something makes

him pause he maintains his grip on the bottleneck and raises  it again to take another look and sure enough there's still more left in the bottle the derelict  cannot believe his luck he feels like he must have won the lottery he's found a never-ending bottle  already his mind is reeling with possibilities that version really thinks he's so smart he  mutters to himself as he weaves unsteadily but I don't need him anymore see if I ever go  to this stupid bar again he just lost his best customer

now that I have you a little bottle  to pay for drinks ever again it's the best day of my life crows the derelict raising his arms  in Triumph he's barely able to stagger back to his home a seedy apartment on the bad side of town  before he passes out on the floor the morning sun Rouses the slumbering derelict and he rises with  a groan his whole body aches and his mouth feels dry and parched that's par for the course after a  night of drinking but somehow this hangover feels different he puts t

hat thought out of his mind  as his mind returns to the strange never-empty bottle that he discovered the night before it's  lying on its side on the floor next to him he reaches for the mysterious bottle only to find  that in fact the previous night was not a dream the bottle still contains just as much as  it did the night before he can't explain it but the derelict isn't about to question  his good fortune he lifts himself to his feet and walks slowly into the bathroom he's  feeling a hangove

r like he's never felt before his head is pounding and his throat is dry his  tongue feels swollen and sluggish inside his mouth but he knows how to handle it a little hair of  the dog is all you need to help with the hangover he takes another gulp from his bottle but this  time it brings little relief and he notices something else strange too it's his scalp the skin  on his head has started to itch and he can't stop scratching he feels like he's got the world's  worst dandruff problem he should

probably take a shower he thinks he strips down and steps into  the tub turning the hot water on full blast and letting it wash over him the shower only brings  him temporary relief afterward as he dries himself off the towels feel rough and abrasive against his  skin his skin comes off in big flaky patches and his nails leave red trails in their wake what's  that is that blood he examines his fingers to see that his nails have grown into ragged claw-like  Talons with a frightened Yelp he bites

them off it's easy to do although they look formidable  his fingernails are weak and brittle almost as if he's dealing with a sudden Calcium deficiency  what could be wrong with him he remembers all the warnings he heard back in school when they  used to March everyone into assembly to listen to lectures from the local police at the time  he scoffed at the long lists of scary sounding consequences of a lifetime of drinking but now  he's not so sure it's probably nothing he says as he examines h

imself in the bathroom mirror  his skin looks blotchy and infected it doesn't take long before his hair and nails are out of  control his hair grows down to his shoulders but comes out in big ragged clumps if he runs his  fingers through it his claw-like fingernails are constantly breaking and cracking until his  fingertips are bloody and his quick is itchy and infected if his habits had left him looking worse  for where before he really looks awful now for the next week he barely leaves the apa

rtment he pulls  the curtains and Keeps the Lights Off afraid that someone might see him when the landlord bangs on  the door shouting at rent is late and demanding that the derelict hand over the money he doesn't  answer he waits the landlord gives up for now that's good thanks the derelict it'll give  him time to think time to figure out what to do about his disease he knows that something is  not right many of the local bartenders are by now probably wondering where he's gone it's not  like t

he derelict to stay away he's practically kept the bar industry in this town afloat all  by himself it must be something major indeed to keep him away from his favorite poison luckily  he still has the bottomless bottle to comfort him during this trying time the derelict is certain  that he's caught some bad bug but he thinks that he can wait it out all he needs to do is make it  through the next week and everything will be fine sipping free drinks helps him to pass the time  in a pleasant stupo

r as he waits for his health to return unfortunately things are only going to  get worse for him his hair and fingernails keep growing to the point that he has trouble lifting  the bottle without his Twisted Nails getting in the way his dry flaky skin is changing as well  becoming thick and leathery and hanging off him in great folds like the height of an elephant  or a rhinoceros his skin continues to grow until the folds flop over his knees and gradually hang  lower and lower until they touch

the ground moving is harder now that he's carrying so much extra  weight he thought at first he just had a nasty bug but he's clearly picked up some weird skin  condition and even this derelict sought it as he might be suspects exactly where he got it got to  be that crazy bottomless bottle you can't think of another reason even so he can't bring himself to  part with this little gift from Heaven even in his Darkest Hour a few sips of liquid courage always  helps to calm his nerves he considers

lumbering down to the free clinic in hopes that they might  be able to cure him more at least tell him what's wrong with his skin but he thinks better of this  option what if he's got some weird Alien Parasite that no one has ever seen before it might lock  him away in some government lab or something no he reasons it's better to wait it out he'll sleep  it off swear off the sauce for a little while and maybe it'll pass in desperation the derelicts  drags himself across the floor hoping to at le

ast find some Solace away from Human contact he locks  himself into his bedroom while he's still able to manipulate the lock on his door the extra folds of  skin are hanging off of his hands and arms making it hard to do anything the extra skin is so heavy  that he can't walk much carrying all that extra weight he lies on the floor of his bedroom away  from everything and hopes that tomorrow when he wakes up this will just be a fading dream the only  thing that brings him Solace is the never-end

ing bottle which even now in his Advanced State  of Decay he keeps close by him after all he reasons the damage is already done what could  possibly be the harm in enjoying a nice drink a week later his condition has not passed the  landlord is back and this time he's not taking no for an answer the landlord isn't supposed to enter  his tenant's apartment without permission but he doesn't care he uses his own key to unlock the  door and go inside the condition of the apartment is appalling the f

urniture is broken the floor is  covered with unidentifiable filth and there's a rotten stench in the air the landlord wants to  throw up as the full weight of the musty smell hits him in the face it's as if someone has been  living in here without any ventilation with all the windows firmly closed and sealed a sudden  noise from the bathroom draws his attention of course thanks the landlord that old bum is hiding  in there he thinks I won't find him the landlord steals his resolve and heads tow

ards the bathroom  determined to get the money that he feels is owed to him but what greets him when he steps through  the door isn't the derelict anymore it isn't even human the creature in the bathroom is a massive  pile of ambulatory skin folds the skin flaps have grown so large and cumbersome that the derelict  within can barely move they sprout all over his body covering him so that he looks more like some  kind of alien sea cucumber now than any human the landlord stumbles backwards scream

ing in  Terror at the site unable to comprehend what he's looking at improbably the creature reacts  to the noise and a ripple of movement spreads across its surface it starts to move despite not  having any legs the landlord is so terrified that he doesn't notice the glass bottle that suddenly  drops from between the creature's skin folds as it starts to move toward him the same bottle  still with three fingers of liquid inside how could something like this happen what parasite  or disease did

the derelict contract from the miracle bottle he found sadly this never-ending  bottle isn't a boon but a curse and the man who found it that night became just another victim of  what the SCP Foundation has classified as scp-420 scp-420 looks like a perfectly ordinary bottle  of a certain popular libation even to the point that it Bears the label of a common brand  the bottle always contains a small amount of a mysterious liquid known as scp-420-1 if this  liquid is poured out scp-420 will alway

s replenish itself when scp-420-1 is potent it is physically  chemically and molecularly indistinguishable from ordinary whiskey although drinking will have an  effect far greater than even the strongest liquor when scp-420-1 is poured out of scp-420 though  it undergoes a strange transformation eventually losing its potency and changing until it is  indistinguishable physically chemically or molecularly from urine consuming potent  scp-420-1 instigates a bizarre physical transformation called s

cp-420-2 in six stages  in stage 1 beginning 12 hours after consumption the subject will start to have difficulty  speaking resulting in slurred speech that is not consistent with normal alcohol inebriation  their fingernails toenails and hair will start to grow at an accelerated rate but also become  brittle and prone to breakage nail breakage to the quick often leads to bleeding and infection  the foundation has had some success in curing scp-420-2 if it is caught when still in stage  one trea

ting it as if it is an aggressive form of cancer with radiation and chemotherapy as well  as a constant intravenous supply of Formula 420 a09t-t174b victims thus treated have a 73 recovery  rate but a 21 fatality rate from Phase 2 onward this protocol can slow the spread of scp-420-2  but will not stop it entirely in stage 2 beginning one to two weeks after stage one the subject's  skin begins to show similar properties to those exhibited by hair and fingernails in stage one  becoming dry brittl

e and prone to cracking as old skin flakes off the subject's new skin begins  to grow at an accelerated rate eventually forming thick leathery folds all over the subject's body  skin flaps growing inside the mouth interfere with speech and eventually render subjects mute  but do not appear to impede breathing or eating indeed subjects in stage 2 exhibit A Renewed  interest in eating possibly because the subject's body requires additional nutrients and  calories to build the increasingly heavy ar

mor of thickened calloused skin stage 2 subjects will  eat anything that they can get their hands on and many die after attempting to eat poisonous  or inedible objects in stage 3 beginning three to six weeks after stage two nerves in the skin  layer grow uncontrollably but no longer connect to the victim's central nervous system genetic  testing of the skin in this stage reveals that its DNA has become so mutated that it can no longer  be classified as human it is in fact a separate and very in

human organism that almost acts as  a parasite growing from the human host the skin May develop tumor-like growths which appear to be  analogous to human muscle and secretory cells hair and fingernails Sprout randomly from the mass of  skin by stage four beginning three to seven days after stage three the skin has become a mass of  thick leathery folds completely covering the human hose to the point that they Disappear Completely  the skin begins to exhibit random twitching movements as though i

t is indeed a living organism  finally coming into its own as a life form and testing out its new body the human subject within  the skin continues to eat although brain scans reveal that they are no longer in control of their  mouth instead the skin entity forces the mouth to move by moving the attached skin small holes begin  to form in the skin eventually growing into narrow tunnels or throats that lead back to the now  trapped body of the helpless subject the subject is still consumed with a

ravenous hunger and will  eat anything that they can get in their mouth in Stage 5 beginning one to two days after stage four  the skin begins to move in patterns indicating rudimentary intelligence the skin although still  attached to the original subject is now completely and distinctly non-human it is its own organism  it can move of its own accord dragging the trapped host along for the ride and it moves and feeds  much in the manner of an extremely large amoeba it feeds by excreting a dige

stive enzyme onto  foodstuffs and then enveloping the nutrients with its skin folds again like an amoeba surrounding  its food the food is taken into the throats these tunnels connecting the outside of the skin  to the now completely subsumed host are now directly connected to the host circulatory system  and function as additional mouths they can consume nutrients which are moved down their length  by bristly hairs and further broken down by grinding keratinous plates before being taken into  t

he host's body most hosts will remain in Stage 5 indefinitely although there Still Remains  a much more dangerous stage six yet to come at this time it's unknown what factor triggers  scp-420-2 to develop into Stage six little information about stage 6 is available at this  time although it is known that it involves even more accelerated skin and keratin growth  resulting in a sudden increase in size and Mass perhaps the most terrifying part of the entire  transformation is that the host remains

alive for the duration of the process and sometimes  even after scp-420-2 has settled comfortably into its new life at stage five mercifully  most hosts will have completely succumbed to Insanity by this point although some are shown by  brain scans to still be self-aware and quite calm perhaps fading into a zen-like state as they  accept the inevitability of their fate scp-420 is contained in a storage locker at an undisclosed  site maintained by the foundation and it is only to be removed fro

m this Locker by SCP staff with  level 3 clearance or higher it has been given the safe class because despite the horrifying nature  of its effects at least it doesn't move anywhere samples of scp-420-1 not in use by testing should  be stored in the container marked scp-420-1 Decon in locker 1014-420 until they lose potency at  which time they can be disposed of as biohazardous liquid waste victims infected with scp-420-2 are  not contagious and should be contained in standard solitary d-class s

ecure confinement on reaching  phase 3 subjects should receive double rations due to the extreme danger of phase six any subjects  who reach phase 4 should be closely monitored for signs that the condition may be advancing further  in which case they are to be immediately destroyed by incineration knowing the Fate that befalls  victims of scp-420 should make anyone think twice about drinking out of a random bottle that  you just found in the street though personally I think that's just common se

nse a young woman steps  onto her bathroom scale she holds her breath and squeezes her eyes shut afraid to see the results  as she listens to the dial spinning when it slows to a stop she opens her eyes and looks down she  balks at the result 150 pounds that's unacceptable in her eyes she steps off the scale and examines  her reflection in the full-length mirror in truth her weight is far from out of control but when  she looks at herself she can't help but see flaws the subtle ring of pudge aro

und her middle the way  her butt sticks out just a little too far for her liking the very faint thickness around her cheeks  and Chin that hint at her history of snacking as she leaves the bathroom  she reflects on her situation of course she's gaining weight how could it be  any other way for the last two years she's been in lockdown during a pandemic and she's barely  left her apartment she let her gym membership lapse and instead of cycling to work she's instead  taking the easy way out by ju

st driving and it's not like she gets much exercise in her free time  either during these last two years of isolation she's mostly stayed in and watched television  she's discovered a particular love for trashy daytime talk shows and Court dramas intellectually  she knows that they're the equivalent of junk food but at the same time there is a certain mindless  charm to them she would be embarrassed to admit it to any of her friends but she does enjoy just  turning off her brain and absorbing so

me silly talk show about professional stunt dwarves or  Satan worshiping furry Juggalos that sort of entertainment has been a boon to get her through  the tough times nevertheless it's time to make a change she promises herself that she's going  to get into shape today instead of vegging out on the couch she's going to make an effort she's  gonna go out and get some exercise and she tells herself she's going to watch those extra pounds  melt away right before her eyes she hopes that her old gym

clothes will still fit her after all  she's definitely put on some extra weight since her last trip to the gym after rummaging through  her drawers she finds what she's looking for her spandex gym shorts and sports bra she quickly  changes her clothes and is relieved to see that although they might be a little snugger than she  would like they still fit her pretty well that's a good sign she probably won't even have to work  very hard to get herself down to her ideal weight it's all a matter of

willpower she tells herself  I was fit before so that means I should be able to do it again all I have to do is avoid Temptation  I'll just have to make sure I stay active instead of watching trash TV all day after all I don't  want to rot my brain too much on the first day she actually does an admirable job of sticking  to her plan she Cycles to work enjoying the fresh air and the reassuring post-workout burn in her  legs that let her know that she's making progress she throws away all the junk

food in her  refrigerator and goes shopping for healthy fruits and vegetables and most important of all she  limits her television time she knows that trashy TV is probably her biggest addiction even more  than junk food so she needs to be careful of that on the second day though she notices something  strange she starts off with a simple healthy breakfast just some granola and a glass of  juice it's barely enough to satisfy her but she knows that she has to make sacrifices  if she expects to a

ctually lose any weight after breakfast she decides to go out for a jog as  she's out on the street she's overcome with sudden hunger of course that's to be expected she's on a  diet now so it's going to take some time to adjust to these smaller meals she puts her hand to her  rumbling stomach and grimaces she's never felt this hungry before if she didn't know better she  would think that she hadn't eaten for a week with the amount of pain that she's feeling in fact  she's actually starting to f

eel a little woozy and she has to lean against a light post to keep  from fainting she shakes her head to clear her thoughts okay she thinks I must have misjudged how  many calories I need to get me through a morning her eyes straight to a nearby coffee shop she  sighs in her Leaf she thinks to herself I'll just pop in there and get myself a small snack just  a little something to keep my blood sugar up she walks into the cafe and gets in line as she waits  she can't help but stare at the rows o

f pastries on display under the glass they all look delicious  and she is really hungry she fully intends to only get a bagel with a little smear of cream cheese  but when she gets to the counter she finds herself ordering way too much food I'd like two scones  three danishes and a bear claw she says also a large super raspberry Frappuccino with extra syrup  and whipped cream the words just tumble out of her mouth almost as if it's not her saying them but  rather some other voice speaking throug

h her mouth what the I didn't say that she stammers the  clerk behind the counter eyes her strangely and the young woman feels too embarrassed to protest  further she steps aside and waits for her order pondering this strange event that just happened  she possessed she's not a superstitious person but she can't think of any other explanation  for what just happened she can admit to herself that she has broken down and lost to Temptation  over a tasty snack in the past but this this is ridiculous

eventually when the clerk hands her  the order she rationalizes the whole thing away I must just be having a hunger hallucination she  says to herself obviously I need to be a little more careful about not being so strict about my  diet I'm sure if I just eat sensibly I won't have an experience like that again her stomach grumbles  again reminding her of the original reason why she stepped in with this coffee shop she retreats  to a table in the corner and tears open the bag she wolfs down her

pastries with gusto and slurps  at her rich creamy drink when she's finished she sighs in satisfaction although the uncomfortable  full feeling in her belly reminds her of her predicament she only meant to eat enough to keep  her from fainting but instead she's eating herself silly and it's only day two of the diet this  does not bode well okay she tells herself this is my last cheat from now on I'm gonna be serious  about this diet she stands up and leaves the cafe ready to complete the rest of

her jog but then  something even stranger happens on the television the matriarch of the family is furious she has  forbidden her daughter from marrying The Gardener because she believes that he is too low class for  her Highborn daughter but what she doesn't realize is that her daughter is in love and that she is  determined to make it work the daughter and the gardener have eloped and The Matriarch is hiring  a private detective to track them down meanwhile the matriarch's long-lost twin brot

her whom she  thought died in a plane crash in the tropics has actually been alive the entire time he has been in  a South American Hospital recovering from Amnesia but now he returns to the Family Estate ready to  claim his share of the inheritance these events are all noted by the family's Shady lawyer  who has big plans to usurp the family fortune himself unbeknownst to the family he is actually  secretly working for their mortal enemies and business rivals to destroy them the young woman  la

ughs shoving a handful of potato chips into her mouth oh man I wouldn't want to be in their shoes  now that lawyer is playing them all like fiddles suddenly she startles as if she's just waking  up where is she wasn't she just in that coffee shop how was it that she's at home and why is she  eating potato chips she was sure that she threw out all the junk food in the house she must have  bought a bag on her way back home from jogging but she literally cannot remember it and what is she  doing no

w watching television and eating junk food in disgust she grabs the remote and shuts off  the TV she was supposed to be jogging and instead she's sitting at home and watching stupid soap  operas the thing that worries her the most is her apparent blackout she remembers nothing about  her trip home from the coffee shop although the evidence of the potato chip bag indicates that  she must have stopped at a convenience store or Supermarket on the way home how could she forget  something like that I

really must be having a blood sugar issue she tells herself reassuringly  even though deep down she knows that can't be the case she had the blackout after eating the  pastries at the coffee shop so that can't be the cause but she really doesn't want to think  about that so she puts it out of her head with a renewed promise to commit to her exercise and  fitness program over the next few days she makes a valiant effort to keep her promise she Cycles  when she can she jogs when she remembers and

yet the blackouts continue and no matter where she is  when she loses her memory she always recovers in the same place back home on her couch always in  the middle of eating some fatty junk food always staring at the television set sure she's always  had an unhealthy television habit and she knows that trashy talk shows and silly soap operas are  her biggest weakness but it doesn't make any sense that she would be seeking them out when she's in  some kind of Fugue state right as the weeks Roll

by the young woman finds that her weight keeps  Rising when she steps onto the bathroom scale she's shocked to see that the dial points to 200  pounds she's doing everything right she thinks how is that possible how is it possible that she's  ballooned up an extra 50 pounds since deciding to slim down she can't fit into her old gym clothes  anymore she can barely tug the spandex shorts up to her thighs and even if she could she's afraid  that they're going to split apart in desperation she switc

hes to an old stretchy sweatsuit it's  the only thing that she owns that still fits her this is just a temporary setback she tells herself  as she stares at her bloated reflection in the bathroom mirror I just have to work harder and  she does or does she when she goes to ride her bike she finds that it's no longer strong enough  to support her weight she can't perch on the seat comfortably in the steel body frame starts to  Creak when she rests her full weight upon it she steals a resolve sure

it might be embarrassing to  go out in public wearing an ill-fitting sweatsuit and riding a bike groaning under her Ball but  she really has no choice this time she's going to do it and she probably did ride her bike to work  right she's not sure the next thing that she knows she's back at home spread across the couch basking  in the comforting glow of the television the floor is covered in empty bags and cartons and her face  is slathered with crumbs and sauce the last thing that she remembers

is that she was just about to  go for a bike ride but now she's back at home and it looks like she just completely ruined her diet  she lifts her arm with some effort and stares at her watch she's lost almost a whole day that's  the longest blackout yet she must have gone out cycling and made her way home where she decided  to reward herself for her strenuous efforts with a little snack that's the only logical explanation  she tries to reassure herself that maybe she's past the worst of it but s

he finds that these  mysterious blackouts keep happening they happen while she's at work while she's at the gym while  she's out cycling but she always comes too in the same place sitting on her sofa at home in front  of the TV surrounded by the debris of a massive meal again she wonders if maybe she's having some  sort of reaction to her new low-calorie diet maybe she's been cutting back so far on her food intake  that she's starting to have fainting spells maybe her diet food is Tainted in som

e way but that  doesn't explain why she keeps gaining weight the scale in her bathroom doesn't lie it keeps  reporting higher and higher numbers and as much as she tries to reassure herself that it must  just be broken her ever-tightening clothes and ever widening reflection tell her otherwise her  trips to the gym become less and less frequent as she finds that other patrons have started to  stare and Whisper about her are they laughing at her for not being able to control her weight are  they

Whispering about how her new flab is spilling from the confines of her sweatsuit she can't even  run on the treadmill for more than a few minutes without being completely winded and she's too  wide to balance on her bike now the young woman has grown absolutely massive to the point that  she completely fills the whole couch she chews her way through yet another bag of potato chips  her eyes never Strang from the ever-chattering television set she barely moves from this spot  her tremendous girth

sinking into a permanent Groove in the cushions as the couch Springs groan  she barely notices however because she's much too intent on enjoying herself she loves to eat  and every bite brings her Untold Joy your taste buds tingling with delight she is constantly  full so much so that she feels slightly sick so bloated that she feels like she might just  burst but she's powerless to resist the siren Call of junk food she scarfs down entire boxes  of cookies and cartons of ice cream without a th

ought having turned into the very definition  of a Mindless eater only occasionally does she Rouse herself from this stupor of gorging to  reach for her telephone to order more takeout or more grocery delivery always choosing the  most calorie-laden options other than eating her attention is completely devoted to her television  set she watches a constant stream of daytime talk shows laughing along with the studio audience as  the hosts parade out an assortment of society's biggest freaks someti

mes she'll switch the channel  to watch soap operas becoming so wrapped up in the ridiculous plot twists and melodramatic acting  that she completely forgets the passage of time her bicycle stands propped against the wall in the  hallway completely forgotten and untouched now for months at this point all thoughts of losing weight  have utterly evaporated and all that she cares about is satisfying her appetites for junk food  and junk television one day she suddenly shakes her head and looks down

at herself in horror as  if seeing herself for the first time what the she says in disbelief she drops her half-eaten carton  of ice cream and grabs at her fleshy Middle with her hands as if to make sure that it's all her and  not some kind of crazy dream her hands sink deep into her new flesh and she realizes to her shock  that indeed she has eaten herself into morbid obesity how is this possible I can't be this big I  was only only her words Trail off as a sound of an organ Sting from the soa

p opera on TV diverts her  attention within seconds her eyes have glazed over and her hands move to pick up the dropped carton  of ice cream her worries about her growing size forgotten she's now only concerned with watching  until the next commercial break it might seem unbelievable that someone could undergo such a  startling physical and mental transformation but what that young woman experienced has led to her  being classified by the foundation as scp-2611 scp-2611 is as you might have expe

cted a young  woman currently weighing approximately 500 pounds her Mobility is limited due to her weight  although SCP staff encourage her to take light exercise whenever possible in hopes of preventing  her Mobility from deteriorating further she also suffers from several health issues related to her  weight and lifestyle including diabetes for which she is receiving treatment by Foundation Personnel  her awareness of her situation and surroundings is severely limited as she spends most of her

  time in a stupor but when she is lucid she believes that she is in a special facility  receiving treatment for her weight problem in reality scp-2611 is under observation because  of scp-2611-1 scp-2611-1 is a massive sentient fat located on scp-2611's left side scp-2611-1  has become integrated with several of scp-2611's vital organs making it too dangerous to attempt to  remove scp-2611-1 via liposuction or other means scp-2611-1 has gradually exerted increasing  control over the mind and ac

tions of its host to the point that scp-2611 is only fully conscious  for one to two hours daily the rest of the time scp-2611-1 is fully in control of Its host's  Behavior prior to coming to the SCP facility scp-2611-1 influenced its host to consume massive  amounts of calories leading to the mysterious and sudden weight gain that we observed earlier this  was possibly an attempt by scp-2611-1 to increase its own size and influence but as of yet its  reasons as well as how it exerts control ove

r its host are unknown when in control scp-2611-1  can speak through its host communicating in standard American English scp-2611's access to  food has been limited since her arrival at the foundation so as to prevent her weight gain from  accelerating to dangerous levels other than eating scp-2611-1's main interest appears to be daytime  television attempts to communicate with scp-2611-1 have so far met with little success due to the  anomaly's limited attention span for anything other than the

minutiae of daytime television  in a conversation with one researcher however scp-2611-1 lets slip that it preferred daytime  television to the programming watched by quote that other guy suggesting that it lived inside  a different host before it eventually took up residence within the body of scp-2611 at another  Point while in the middle of a conversation about a court drama scp-2611-1 suddenly announced  kill it kill it now I don't care if I die staff believe that this might not have been 

scp-2611-1 at all but rather the voice of scp-2611 trying to break through the hypnotic  control of her parasite to call for help at this time no drastic action is recommended until  further observations can be made scp-2611-1 does not appear to be contagious and the way that it  bonds with the host is unknown so it is currently classified as safe at the moment scp-2611-1  is the only known instance of its kind however considering Rising levels of obesity worldwide  it is not unfathomable to thi

nk that there could be countless other instances influencing the  behavior of other hosts to dedicate their lives to consuming food and television who knows it's not  like most of us would need that much convincing it's the last day of sixth grade and there are  only seconds left before the final bell rings and school is officially out for summer an excitable  11 year old girl sits at her desk bouncing her leg in anticipation and watching the clock soon  she'll have three glorious months of free

dom but more importantly she can take her mom up on a  life-changing promise they made a deal when they moved to this new town if she could get through  sixth grade with Straight A's and good feedback from her teachers she could finally get a pet of  her own there were some stipulations of course the pet can't be too big can't make a lot of noise  and needs to be something she can take care of by herself it was hard work but she buckled  down studied hard and even found a math tutor the time is

now in five four three two one the  last bell of the Year rings and the class erupts into cheers Summer's here she shoves her  books into her bag and runs out the door so quickly she barely catches her teacher's parting  words of have a great summer vacation everyone the Halls are swamped with kids all rushing toward  the buses their parents cars or their final walk home of the school year she's right there with  them the promise of the day putting an extra spring in her step many of the faces i

n the hall  are still unfamiliar after a year of being the new kid in town she hasn't made many friends but none  of that matters now she's going to get a special friend today something all her own that she can  nurture play with and won't ever have to worry about impressing it's only a short walk to the pet  store and then an even shorter walk to her house as she makes her way down the sidewalk the sun  beaming down on her smiling face the girl lets her mind wander what kind of pet should she g

et a  dog needs to be walked that might be too much work a fish maybe but you can't play with a fish can't  head a fish or at least it won't be happy if you try she remembers a pet tarantula her eccentric  aunt once had and shutters no spiders definitely not she wants something friendly something small  enough that her mom won't complain but something she can cuddle and really bond with whatever it  ends up being she's going to take great care of it the walk feels much longer than it is the  ant

icipation stretching the minutes until they feel like ours she spots the sign in the shape of  a dog playing with the ball and her heart skips a beat she's reached the pet store inside there  are an overwhelming number of options she walks through the reptile section pressing her face to  the class of Tanks housing iguanas slithery snakes tiny darting lizards with brightly colored tails  nearby there are fat green tree frogs and bumpy toads with huge watery eyes she briefly pauses  at the fish e

nticed by their vivid colors and the Staggering variety of shapes and sizes but  a fish is such a boring pet she thinks what can you even do with a fish she moves on looking at a  litter of fluffy tabby kittens they romp and roll around on top of each other flicking their tails  and stretching their Soft Paws they're adorable and her heart melts but then she thinks about  having to scoop a litter box and decides to move on there are roly-poly hamsters and Sleek looking  rats tiny white mice with

pink eyes and gerbils running on Wheels suddenly a sign catches her eye  exotic pets it reads what could be over there she tiptoes into the section almost feeling like she's  stumbled into somewhere she shouldn't be there are ferrets wiggling around and playing with a ball  fluffy chinchillas that look impossibly plush and soft to the touch little sugar gliders peeking  out of cloth pouches with wide eyes there's even a skunk blinking at her curiosity but nothing feels  quite right none of thes

e pets seem like the one she has to bring home then out of the corner  of her eye she spots something curious a row of small cardboard packages covered with inviting  cartoonish text advertising something called a custom pet she picks up one of the packages  and reads the description it sounds impossible too good to be true just buy these packaged eggs  place them anywhere in your house and a perfectly matched pet will hatch and fit right in it will  become exactly the kind of pet that you need

she looks for any sort of fine print something  that might indicate this is a toy or some kind of joke but it looks real could it be Chile  the girl takes one of the packages up to the cash register the employee goes to scan it but  there's no barcode did you bring this in with you the cashier asks she shakes her head okay well we  don't sell these so I guess you can just take it the girl's eyes go wide really she can just have  it for free the cashier is already waving her off beckoning the nex

t customer to come check out  not wanting to question her good luck she takes off without a second thought the run home from  the pet store is a total blur of excitement all she wants to do is get inside make a peanut butter  sandwich and figure out where to put her new Pet's egg before her mom gets home from work not that  she's doing anything wrong it's just easier if she takes care of things before her mom can ask  too many questions she's doing them both a favor really taking care of all the

logistics so her mom  doesn't have to worry about it she pulls her house key from her pocket and unlocks the door with  shaking hands it's almost time forget the sandwich the sandwich can wait she needs to get upstairs  to her room right now and start her life with her new pet whatever it ends up being she throws  her backpack on her bed and sits down on the floor tearing open the cardboard packaging inside  there are six tiny eggs sealed in plastic she just wants one pet so she'll start with o

ne egg for now  of course if the pet ends up being lonely maybe it'll want a friend she shakes off the thought  she can figure all of those details out later she's just about to puncture the plastic so the  egg can breathe when she stops where should she put it she was so excited to leave the store she  forgot to pick up a tank or terrarium or somewhere a traditional pet would live the packaging says  these pets can live anywhere but do they really mean anywhere if she does something wrong  and

her new pet is hurt or doesn't hatch at all it'll just break her heart then she spots a  potential solution an old dollhouse frilly and pastel pink and surprisingly spacious inside sits  next to her bed she hasn't played with dolls in a while insisting she was too old for them when  she started sixth grade but now she's thrilled that she didn't get rid of her dollhouse just  yet even if the dolls don't live there anymore maybe now it can be a home for something new for  whatever hatches out of t

his strange little egg carefully she breaks the plastic seal on the  egg and places it inside the dollhouse all of the doll furniture and little plastic choking  hazards are gone leaving only a pretty pink Victorian style enclosure where the egg can  safely hatch now all she has to do is wait later that night the girl wakes from a deep  sleep to the sound of something moving inside the dollhouse a skitter of tiny legs the rustling  of something inside the formerly vacant dollhouse she sits up an

d is about to go peek inside when  a chill of fear runs down her spine what if it's something horrible she doesn't know what kind  of eggs those were she'd never seen anything like them before what if it's a spider or a worm  or some other awful monstrous thing she can't even imagine she brought it into her home to where  she and her mom sleep without even questioning it she sits for a moment the only sound the rustling  of the thing in the dollhouse and her own short panicked breaths then there

's another sound  light and sweet like a little bird chirping it's coming from the dollhouse curiosity finally  gets the better of her and she opens the dollhouse lifting the roof off inside she spots it her new  pet feathery soft fur pastel pink and white covers a little animal which is currently exploring  its new home delightedly it flicks around a poofy little tail that looks a bit like a lavender  feather duster and stops to Blink up at her with two large friendly purple eyes slowly she rea

ches  a hand down to pet the animal and it nuzzles into her Palm body vibrating with something like a  kitten's purr any tension she felt before melts out of her body as she realizes the packaging was  not lying she put the pet in an environment that was comforting sweet happy a piece of childlike  joy and it had become the living embodiment of those things for a brief moment she wonders how  she'll explain this new addition to the household what she'll need to feed it and what her mom  will say

but then her new best friend chirps happily again and all she can think is this is  going to be an amazing summer things worked out very well for the girl meanwhile other families  across town were screaming in horror as a tiny fire-breathing creature set their drapes Ablaze  and another slowly dropped down from the ceiling on a silvery thread blending into the Shadows this  girl was not the only child to bring home one of these miraculous pets and Hatchet in her home and  other children were m

uch less careful about where they put the eggs of course the children weren't  lame here the blame lay with whoever was behind the design and widespread release of these odd  little animals also known as scp-1550 scp-1550 is a species of artificially synthesized creatures of  unknown classification who are highly adaptable to Any Given environment their larvae will develop  grow and change to fit whatever setting their eggs are placed in though adult specimens vary  greatly in appearance they al

l have markings on their underbelly that read a doctor wondertainment  trademark because of their highly adaptable nature it is uncertain exactly what the original form of  these creatures might look like scp-1550 eggs are one centimeter long beige in color and stored in  airtight plastic packaging that prevents them from hatching until they are exposed to the outside air  the SCP Foundation first discovered scp-1550 after a collection of bizarre cardboard packages were  found in the exotic pets

section of a pet store none of the workers had ever seen these packages  before and had never even heard of scp-1550 prior to being asked about it the packages were  brought into containment immediately and were found to each contain six scp-1550 eggs in  airtight containers the original packaging also contained an instruction leaflet which I've  managed to get my hands on a copy of it reads hey kids your parents aren't letting you get a  dog or cat don't fret buy a Dr wondertainment Custom Pet

a doctor one detainment's Custom Pet  is far superior to an ordinary and boring cat or dog due to their original adapto eggs packaging  a Dr wondertainment invention just leave your Custom Pet adapto eggs around the house and  when they hatch they'll fit right in perfect for apartments to get your very own custom pets  is easy kids just put an egg in your house and break the plastic seal to give your new pet some  air so it can hatch your new pet will be perfect for where you live wherever you

live if your new  Custom Pet seems lonely just add another adapto egg and get him a new friend Dr wondertainment is  not responsible for injuries or death caused by this or any other product One Entertainment custom  pets are shipped out prefixed who exactly is this Dr wondertainment a person a corporation a highly  intelligent octopus with a penchant for toy design the identity of the force behind the trademark is  undetermined but whatever Dr wondertainment is one thing is certain the toys the

y create are highly  unusual dozens of wondertainment's Creations have been contained by the SCP Foundation  including scp-2855 scp-2396 and scp-111 they range from useful to Whimsical to downright  destructive and the motives behind each invention are currently unknown scp-1550 is just one in  a long line of anomalous toys from the shadowy toymaker and so like they have with so many other  wondertainment products the research staff at the foundation decided to perform some exploratory  tests on

these supposed custom pets first one scp-1550 egg was placed in a tank of seawater and  left to hatch when it did it produced a specimen with gills all along its upper back behind its  eyes an array of flat and Broad Tails it could use to swim efficiently further examination of the  creature revealed that it excreted special mucus to protect its eyes from the salt water and a  swim bladder that was discovered during dissection the skin of the creature was a modeled blue giving  it natural camou

flage in its seawater environment next the team decided to place an egg in fresh  water and see what different adaptations were produced a tank was filled with water  from a river behind the testing site and the Egg was placed inside until it hatched  interestingly this specimen of scb-1550 did not possess any gills suggesting similar circumstances  would not necessarily produce the same adaptations Instead This specimen had enlarged lungs and  a thin streamlined body for more efficient movement

next the team prepared a terrarium meant  to simulate the ecosystem of a temperate forest and place the next egg inside when it hatched It  produced a specimen of scp-1550 covered in a layer of ground fur with a ridged underbelly resembling  that of a snake it also had a tail consisting of large tentacles along the ridged underbelly  there was a smooth patch of skin with the Dr wondertainment logo printed like a tattoo the  team prepared a different terrarium that simulated a desert ecosystem a

nd allowed an egg to hatch  inside the resulting specimen was cold flooded Tan in color to blend in with the sand and skilled at  burrowing quickly to protect itself from outside stressors it was also notably one centimeter  larger than the previous specimens the final terrarium was made to simulate the environment of  an average Urban apartment the egg that hatched inside produced a creature with leathery skin and  eyes placed similarly to those of a chameleon the demeanor of the specimen was n

oticeably friendlier  than its predecessors and it acted more like a domesticated house pet than a wild animal its most  impressive adaptation was its method of eating behind the specimen's jaw there were strands of  baleen like those found in Wales which allowed the creature to filter feed on dust and Crumbs from  the terrarium floor after these experiments proved successful the research team decided to test the  eggs in more extreme environments one egg was placed in a vat of molten iron it pr

omptly burst  into flames and was completely destroyed the head researcher responded well what did you expect to  happen which seems like a fair point the next egg was placed inside a vacuum chamber which was then  depressurized the egg promptly exploded covering the inside of the chamber in an unidentifiable  slime these two less than successful experiments led the research team to the conclusion that  scp-1550 eggs cannot survive in conditions that would be uninhabitable for any other animal t

here  are limits to the creature's adaptability but what would happen to an egg placed in a hostile  environment filled with something recognizable a vacuum chamber was filled with seawater and  an egg was placed inside the chamber was then pressurized to 15 750 PSI this time the egg was  not destroyed but instead was able to successfully hatch the resulting scp-1550 specimen bore a  heavy resemblance to several deep-sea creatures most notably the anglerfish like the anglerfish  the creature had

a bioluminescent lore dangling from its forehead it also had gills dark gray blue  skin flat and webbed fins and enlarged eyes twice the size of those found on other specimens its  teeth were sharp and ridge similar to those of a shark the head researcher made a note on this  portion of the experiment log asking just what kind of child Dr wondertainment is trying to  sell these things to that they could live in conditions where a creature like that could be  kept as a pet all adult specimens of

scp-1550 are kept in a sealed 5 meter by 5 meter terrarium  which simulates desert conditions this terrarium is monitored via electronic surveillance and  each of the specimens is implanted with a tracking device if one or more of the specimens  escapes the area is locked down until all of the creatures have been captured and placed back  in their terrarium all scp-1550 eggs are kept in their packaging unless being used for testing  as the foundation does not want the population of adult specim

ens to exceed 20 at any given time  excess specimens are terminated honestly that makes me a little sad I'd be happy to take them in  if the research team can't keep them but I digress having a pet is a big responsibility and some  people just can't handle the risks and rewards that come with caring for an animal especially one  that can become an accidental weapon if you're not careful if your child is begging you for a pet  maybe you should start them out with a goldfish first a goldfish never

burnt the house down though  I suppose there's a first time for everything the car screeches to a halt the door swings open  and the doctor tumbles out he lands on his hands and knees in the dirt and throws up the few  remaining drops of stomach acid left in his system he's put his hand in something sticky  he can feel an insect wriggling under his palm behind him the door slams and a pair of boots  walk around to his side of the car the translator accompanying him does not offer a hand to help

  him up it had been a long car Journey with many similar stops fortunately this was the last the  doctor gingerly gets to his feet and takes in his surroundings he finds himself in a small village  hidden amongst thick trees he's not sure what time it is anymore the flights time zones and car  Journeys wrought havoc on his circadian rhythms he knows he is in China somewhere very remote and  very rural he tried to look it up with the maps on his phone during the journey but he'd lost signal  a l

ong time ago one thing is clear however it is the middle of the night the car's headlights are  the only light source in the village no one comes out to greet them the doctor brushes himself off  and turns to his translator the man nods towards a small Hut near the back of the village just beyond  the headlight's reach his translator is a man of few words both ironic and deeply unhelpful the  doctor does not know a word of Mandarin himself in Silence the two men approached the Hut the  doctor re

aches out to knock but his translator has already pushed the door open inside there is  just the dim light of a lamp almost everything is covered in Shadow it is almost dark enough  that they can't see the cobwebs almost soaking strings drape themselves over every  surface wall and item in a little Hut it's impossible in places to even see what item of  furniture is hiding beneath all of the webs the translator reaches out to touch one of the  webs in Fascination but the doctor grabs his hand sh

aking his head he hands the translator a  face mask and a pair of disposable gloves annoyed the translator takes them but does not put them  straight on choosing instead to walk deeper into the Hut after a second the doctor follows only he  can't help the feeling that something's not right something's missing here says the translator it  is the first word he said in hours he's standing behind a little curtain looking down at something  as the doctor joins him there and almost wretches from the s

tench lying in the bed is an emaciated  man he looks like he hasn't eaten in days his wrists and ankles are bound tightly to the bed so  tightly in fact that his circulation has been cut off the doctor can see right away the telltale  signs of gangrene spreading across his palms but they're too late the man isn't moving his bony  chest isn't rising or falling worst of all he must have been dead for a while now there are sheets  of spider webs draped over his sallow skin like some kind of deathly

funeral shroud the translator  mutters something in Mandarin it doesn't take a PhD to pick up on the evident frustration in his  voice a whole night of driving out to the middle of nowhere for nothing the translator kicks over  a wooden stool the sound is muffled by the thick layer of cobwebs as he storms out of the hut but  something is wrong here the doctor can't walk out just yet toxicology that's his field poisons  toxins infections bites but that's the thing there are no bites anywhere on

this man's body  head to toe under the layer of spider silk there are no welts bruises or puncture marks the only  darkened veins standing out are on his fingertips as they rot away from stagnant blood nothing to do  with poisons but there's something else too a Hut holding a dead body full of spiders webs but yet  no spiders a scream fills the Hut the bed rocks violently the doctor looks down in horror to see  the dead man is not as dead as he'd appeared he thrashes this way and that straining

against  the ties on his limbs the doctor calls out for the translator who appears at his side almost  immediately the translator shouts something in Mandarin trying to be heard over the dying man  screams but it's the man throws his head this way in fact trying to bash his chin into his own chest  or hit the top of his skull against the nearest wall it is no use the man opens cloudy eyes  that stare wildly around the room searching for something anything that could help him break free  from his

restraints without thinking the doctor grabs the man's head and holds it steady he peers  into the man's weeping eyes bizarre if he didn't know better he'd say they almost looked as if  they had spiders webs built up beneath the eyelids clouding out the man's Windows to see the world  small silvery balls of thick liquid Gather in the corners of them too dense too murky to be tears  from somewhere beneath the haze the man's pupils find the doctors in an instant his body falls  still it is almost

as if he relaxed completely a guttural murmur comes from the man's throat  the doctor looks to the translator for help free me the doctor looks down at his patients  this is the part of medicine he had always hated the most at what point do you let someone go at  what point do you say it's too late is it even right for him to make that decision looking at the  man lying in front of him a wave of sadness washes over him his initial assessment had been right it  is too late even if he could treat

the gangrene in the man's limbs with amputation there's still  starvation and dehydration to deal with and then the apparent Venom from the spiders except there  are no signs of Venom perhaps it isn't too late after all with the right treatment there may be  a chance to the man's risk snaps becoming a loose glove of broken bone that's easily pulled from  the restraint a foul stench of exposed rotten flesh hits the doctor like a slap in the face he  reels back in horror as the man pulls his othe

r decimated hand free too Unbound by his bed the  man lets out an animalistic Roar sitting up in the bed he tips his head back and starts pounding  at it with what is left of his hands Jagged wrist bones barely housed by paper-thin skin slam and  repeatedly into his forehead harder and harder with each hit the doctor is frozen to the spot  staring as the man smashes his own head skin splits revealing white bone bone cracks then with  one last effort that seems to take every remaining morsel of t

he man's energy he turns and crunches  his fractured skull against the wall caving the front half of his head in like a deflated  basketball silence more terrifying than any sound fills the Hut the doctor stares at the body in an  almost comical image pops into his head the head looks like just a red plastic bag that someone had  left on the floor full of shards of broken pottery he almost Smiles but then the spiders appear  just one at first then ten then a stream then an eruption spewing out o

f the gaps in the man's  head like water shooting out of a collapsing Dam the tiny pink spiders flood the room shooting up  the walls into every crack and crevice writhing and Rippling around their feet that breaks the  doctor's paralysis he and the translator Sprint for the door they crashed through it and cover  the length of the village in seconds grabbing the door handles they hauled themselves up  into the 4x4 the translator slams it into reverse and almost crashes into a tree as he  turns

them around and back onto the dirt Trail they drive all through the night not talking  the doctor gets control of his breathing but his heart does not stop hammering the whole time  it cannot shake the images that fill his head spiders tiny pink spiders everywhere the sun  is just Rising when the driver suddenly pulls over sharply his eyes are wide his face deathly  pale he doesn't say a word as he sits forward reaches down the back of his shirt and pulls  out one tiny pink spider the doctor yel

ls in shock and hurriedly grabs a sample pot for the  man to throw the spider into the two men sit there in the front of the car in the warm Morning  Light staring through the glass at the arachnid looks soft that's the most bizarre thing about  it rather than having a hard dark exoskeleton like other spiders this one looks fleshy no that's  not quite right it looks fatty looks squishy like parts of the body that get exposed and traumatic  crashes wrinkles and folds of pink mushy cells with fatt

y deposits except it cannot be made from  those kinds of things it's a spider as they watch the spider seems to recognize their attention  stands up on its back four legs and raises the remaining ones in the air it looks almost as if  it is doing some kind of mating dance for them it turns its back to them revealing a pattern  of brightly colored dots across its abdomen the doctor drags his eyes away from the dance  the sun is gone night has fallen again his stomach stabs at him in hunger but th

at can't  be right it was sunrise only a few seconds ago the headache had started as he sat down on his  flight now five hours in and somewhere over an ocean he knows he's not going to sleep tonight  he can't get the image of all those spiders out of his mind he needs to report this and he  will definitely but not yet a spider crawls up the seat in front of him his heart stops and  he sits back violently in his seat eyes wide on the floor of the plane pink spiders everywhere  there real they're

not real just his imagination he needs some rest that's what he means he'll  fly home wait for the headache to pass then he can call someone but right now he just feels  too groggy to do any of that the adrenaline of his hallucination passes as quickly as it had  come he can feel the glass pot in his pocket tapping occasionally begging for his attention  his head aches he runs a hand through his hair that can't be is he really growing gray hairs  already in frustration he reaches up and TAPS at

his forehead much to his surprise the headache  disappears almost instantaneously if anything it feels good he sits there for several minutes  drumming a couple of fingers against his forehead and before he knows it he's fast asleep  all his fears and anxieties long behind him only they are not behind him once he touches down  he goes straight home to his apartment no spiders to be seen why not shouldn't there be more spiders  he certainly wants more spiders his headache comes back he drinks wat

er takes some medicine goes for  a nap and turns off all of the lights but nothing seems to work even the tapping stops working  more spiders a call lights up his phone screen an international number he takes a long time to  answer it it's his translator the man's voice is shrill panicked far beyond what the doctor had  ever heard before even when they'd been running from the spiders the translator is not making much  sense his words are slurred and his sentences stop and start seemingly at rand

om none of it makes  sense the doctor turns the volume on his phone down it's too loud for his headache way too loud  government knows should have worn gloves too late the pain the pleasure using a hammer none  of it makes any sense the doctor looks down at his phone screen the call is gone his phone  is dead hadn't it been on full a moment ago what time is it and where are the spiders punches  himself in the head a smile spreads across his face he's in bed now something red around him  his pill

ow it is soaked red could that be from his head the sample pot sits on his bedside table  only now it's empty how did that happen wasn't he standing in the kitchen a moment ago he's losing  time he runs a hand through his hair webbing clings between his fingers he sits under his desk  with a hammer in his hand Euphoria washing over his body just once more eight more times he hits  the hammer against his forehead endorphins flood every cell of his body so powerful he almost  passes out as the ple

asure chemicals crawl inside of him oozing silk through the pores of his  skin webs hang all over his apartment now just one more hit eight more hits that feeling it's just  so his wrists his ankles how many limbs four not enough that light where is he figures crowd  around him it is hard to see them something's in his eye everything looks blurry and far away  the pain the pain is back his head someone please he screams and pulls against the bindings on his  limbs the pain it's it's impossible h

e needs to make it stop just one hit just one more hit from  the hammer that'll be enough something's behind his eye he can feel it something crawling on the  back of his eyeball but that doesn't matter none of it matters except getting his pain to stop no  more headaches just one more hit that's all he needs the hospital staff have never seen anything  like this before they're out of their depth here in the dead of night they arrange for the doctor  to be transferred to a specialist facility in

the back of an ambulance it is a challenge to get him  out of his bed as the spider's web secreting from his skin have all butt tied him to the linen as  fate would have it a drunk driver gives the doctor his final wish not seeing a red light the driver  plows full speed into the side of the ambulance sending it spinning off the road and down a hill  killing everyone inside including the doctor when police arrive at the scene in the early hours of  the morning they find the driver sitting on hi

s own staring at some small insect by the wreckage  the driver is unharmed by the incident his only complaint as he spends the following night in  police custody is that he feels a mild headache coming on anyone experiencing that headache is  likely already too far gone from their exposure to scp-632 an anomalous species of Cognito hazardous  arachnids nicknamed intrusive arachnid thoughts unconfirmed reports of mysterious spider  colonies have been springing up across Asia particularly in rural

China for several  decades in connection with this anomaly in 1972 the population of an unnamed town in the  unhui province were found to have been almost entirely wiped out an entire town of corpses each  with their heads caved in brain matter missing with 106 Dead with 23 injured this case is to  this day the deadliest confirmed scp-632 breach strange as it may be physiologically speaking  scp-632 could be considered cute their bodies are Squishy in texture bright pink and are in  fact made u

p of human tissue brain tissue to be exact coated in a layer of protective  fat as happened to our unfortunate doctor scp-632 reproduces parasitically within the human  skull the exact mechanics of this process remain unclear It is believed that scp-632 infects  its human host through a selection of sensory triggers those infected have each testified to  having been exposed to the following firstly viewing the pattern on scp-632's abdomen exposed  during the dance that the spiders often do under

observation secondly making physical contact  with scp-632 and lastly through exposure to as yet unidentified chemical compounds secreted by  the older scp-632 instances this is where luck was not on our doctor's side he was smart enough  to wear gloves during his encounter with scp-632 in China which may have been enough to protect him  from being infected however upon his arrival as he fell out of the car his hand landed directly in  an scp-632 web housing a solitary live spider if he had rem

embered his car sickness tablets this  could have all been avoided within three hours of initial exposure to scp-632 the subject will  start to experience mild headaches followed by an uncanny Sensation that their skin is growing  silk during this period MRI scans have found that small filament-like structures start to form  within the host's brain tissue as these filaments multiply and spread throughout the brain the  subjects report developing an obsession with spiders the brain tissue steadil

y deteriorates  leading to changes in personality and mood as well as irrational Behavior over the coming days  the headaches grow more severe as the filament cells press against the blood vessels lining the  inside of the skull subjects find that they can relieve this sensation by tapping or hitting  their forehead replacing it with a pleasurable feeling as the filaments release endorphins upon  impact this is part of the Sinister Final Act of scp-632's reproduction after six to seven days as 

the host's headaches worsen they find they have to hit their skull harder and harder to alleviate the  pain and get that chemical High eventually driven mad by the pain inside their head they crack  through their own skull at this point all of the gestating spiders that have been forming within  the filaments in their brain estimated to number between 80 and 200 can escape through the opening  because of its unique containment difficulties caused by its Cognito hazardous properties scp-632  has

been given the Euclid object class there is currently one live colony of scp-632 stored in  the biological containment wing of site-52 the colony is housed in a small enclosure measured 20  centimeters by 40 centimeters by 20 centimeters and sustained on a diet of insects and water  supplied through a vacuum Chute all Personnel that work in proximity to scp-632 are regularly  screened physical contact with any scp-632 is strictly prohibited and all Personnel are  required to wear protective equi

pment and respirators at all times while handling live or  deceased specimens they keep a close eye on anyone developing any symptoms especially headaches the  feeling of silk on the skin or intrusive arachnid thoughts the final Bell Rings signaling the end  of a new class's first day as Middle School a girl exits the building her backpack slung over her  shoulder body hunched under its unfamiliar weight it's been a long and tiring day her family just  moved to this small Oklahoma town from the

big city and of course she spent every minute since  then trying to adjust to her new surroundings it's never easy to be the new kid in town right now  all she wants to do is to get home and relax she doesn't want to think about school and its related  anxieties for the rest of the night as she walks down the stairs she notices the school bus parked  at the curb thank goodness she thinks I can't wait to get out of here this day can't end soon enough  but for some reason something about this bus

sets her nerves on edge what is it that just seems  off there's nothing blatantly wrong with the bus but when she looks closer she realizes that it  definitely looks a little strange the different parts of the bus just don't add up some parts  are new clearly just off the factory floor While others are battered and bruised from long time  wear some parts even seem to come from different makes and models of bus I guess it's not that  strange she thinks after all her old school always had a measly

budget you could practically see the  road through Holes in the Floor sometimes her new one probably just has those same issues aren't  those problems all over the country after all the school probably just had to buy a dilapidated  old bus cobbled together from random parts to make ends meet and besides she thinks as she watches  her classmates pile onto the strange bus without a second thought none of the other kids seem  to think that there's anything weird going on this must all just be in

my head she thinks I'm  probably just being weird because I'm so tired can't let myself become the new girl and the  weird girl the girl is startled as she hears a voice behind her hey she turns and sees a boy that  she recognizes he sits behind her in class they haven't spoken before now but he seems friendly  enough you're the new kid in school aren't you he says yes my family just moved to town she tries  to talk to him but she can't help but keep getting distracted by the weird boss right ri

ght the  boy glances at the bus as if he can sense her discomfort with it you're worried about the bus  I was pretty nervous my first time riding it but I don't worry about it anymore you get used to it  he tells her uh right she says the girl feels her cheeks going red with embarrassment she doesn't  want her classmate to think that she's scared of riding a bus what if he tells the other kids  that she's frightened of a bus ride they're all going to think that she's some kind of silly baby  I'm

not scared of the bus it is just a bus right the boy grins as if he knows something that she  doesn't know the girl doesn't want to admit her fear and so with the defiant step she climbs the  stairs and enters the bus once she's on board her unease doesn't go away the first thing that she  notices is that there is no one in the driver's seat that's weird but the driver just step away  to use the bathroom or something seems pretty irresponsible to leave the boss unattended there's  a line formin

g behind her though so she doesn't have time to think about this she takes a seat  and stares out the window keeping to herself the boy from her class follows and takes a seat next  to her it's a little wild at first but trust me you'll get used to it fast in fact some of us  think it's kind of fun now the girl blinks in confusion who is this weirdo that gets such a kick  out of riding the bus she almost wants to snap at him to tell him that of course she's not scared  of riding the bus she's ri

dden the bus hundreds of times back at her old school but at the same time  there's definitely something weird going on here and as much as she's trying to play it cool she's  clearly not able to hide her feelings this boy can easily sense that she's uncomfortable suddenly the  boss lurches into action and pulls away from the curb but wait how can this be she never saw the  driver get back on board the bus can't be driving itself can it she stands up in her seat and cranes  her neck to see her e

yes bulge from her head in fear and surprise as she realizes that in fact  there's no one driving the bus at all the driver's seat is empty and the wheel is turning by itself  as the bus careens down the road who's driving the bus she shouts but the other kids barely even  react to her Outburst most of them are chattering amongst themselves and only one or two turned to  look at her briefly before shrugging and turning back to their own private conversations A Chorus  of Giggles behind her alert

her to the fact that she's just completely embarrassed herself what's  the matter you scared calls an older boy from the back of the bus go falling loudly of course no  one's driving don't you know anything leave her alone says the boy in the seat next to her it's  her first time she's never ridden the bus before she's too panicked to correct him that yes she has  been on the bus before but not a bus like this one what's going on we're gonna die she cries  clutching at the seat in front of her

in Terror despite her fear though she can't help  but notice that the bus isn't simply speeding into Oblivion the bus obeys all the traffic  laws stopping at stop signs and signaling before turns it's almost as if the bus itself is  alive and aware of what it's doing that's just how it is says the boy next to her in a matter  of fact voices if he's anticipated her question apparently this is a normal day for kids here  in this Oklahoma town the girl doesn't think she could ever get used to a bus

that drives itself  but what comes next is going to prove to be even stranger but you might want to close your eyes  for this next part says the boy the girl asks him what he means by that but before he can answer she  feels a strange wave of sudden nausea overcome her her vision goes hazy and the whole world seems  to waver in her sight but the sensation passes quickly and everything is quickly back to normal  or is it she turns to look out the window the city passing by is familiar she can re

cognize many of  the same buildings that she passed on her way to school this morning but now they seem strangely  altered the structures are in advanced states of disrepair with broken windows and boarded  up doors the gutters are filled with trash and debris and the streets seem to be abandoned the  bus takes a left turn down a side street and the girl catches a brief glimpse of the town city hall  in the distance gasps City Hall is on fire great counts of hot red flame pouring from the shatte

red  Windows Sirens echo through the air the sky above is an ominous red filled with angry storm clouds  with Jagged bolts of dry lightning dancing between the thunderheads and she can see the funnel of a  distant tornado making a touchdown in the Hills the boss briefly comes to a stop in front of  the library dutifully obeying a flickering traffic light the library's windows are dark but  she can vaguely see shapes moving about inside electric Sparks shoot from malfunctioning Street  lamps and

downed power cables flail like angry snakes in the street it looks like some terrible  natural disaster has hit the city but what could it be surely she would have heard some warning  while she was at school it wouldn't have just carried on as usual in the classroom while the  world outside burned she turns to the boy next to her a fearful question on her Trembling Lips  he seems to know what's going on otherwise how could he be so eerily calm while everything  outside the bus is falling apart o

r on fire was there an earthquake no we would have felt  it was there a hurricane every possible disaster scenario runs through her head as she desperately  tries to think of an explanation but what happens next reveals to her that there's no natural  explanation for the strange sites that assail her eyes as she watches through the window a  squadron of armed soldiers marched down the street toward the darkened Library suddenly the  doors fly open and people pour out screaming as if they're bein

g chased by some unspeakable evil  the girl expects that the soldiers must be here for disaster relief but she is horrified when  instead of helping the escaping Library patrons they instead opened fire upon the crowd the girl  screams in Terror but the other kids barely even notice they're too busy talking or laughing one  kid is so disinterested in the spectacle outside that he's playing with a handheld game console  rather than watch the Carnage unfold how can this be happening has the whole

world gone crazy  she's filled with Terror as she wonders is the whole town Under Siege is her house still standing  are her parents safe where is his boss even taking her I told you that you might want to cover your  eyes says the boy next to her the bus continues on its route passing all sorts of terrifying  sites a parking lot has been transformed into a mass grave she watches as uniformed police  line up peaceful citizens against a brick wall to brutally execute them by firing squad Mass  ri

ots are taking place in the town's Central Park people are yelling obscenities and pounding  one another into pulp while armed Law Enforcement Officers sweep in to escalate the situation  the air is thick with screens gun fire and the smell of burning bodies The Shopping Mall is  overrun with giant spiders which Chase screaming shoppers out of the exits she sees rats as big  as cars scurrying out of the Alleyways grabbing random people with their talent to pause and  biting their heads off with

their long sharp incisors on the distant Hills she can also make  out the outlines of even stranger creatures that you cannot identify dinosaurs aliens demons she  doesn't come from a particularly religious family but the sites that she sees today definitely make  her think that she might be seeing a glimpse into the maw of Hell itself the girl has never  seen anything so awful in all her life to her surprise several of the other kids cheer as  the bus drives past a gaggle of walking corpses the

y're mutilated and half decomposed but somehow  still mobile shambling down the sidewalk in how can the other kids be enjoying this yeah  yeah yeah chant the kids zombies that rules maybe we'll get to see them eat some brains for  once cries the older boy in the back of the bus with sudden Glee what is going on repeats the girl  it's just the usual bus ride says the boy next to her don't worry I felt the same way when I first  started at this school but it's really not so bad I mean it's kind of

cool isn't it the girl opens  her mouth to respond but she's suddenly overcome with that familiar feeling of nausea the world  Quivers briefly in front of her and suddenly everything is back to normal the sky is clear  and blue the buildings are no longer dilapidated people are bustling in the streets going about  their usual business there's no sign of any of the horrors that she just witnessed no fires no  soldiers No Monsters and no zombies the boy next to her commented that they must have b

een reaching  someone's stop from around the bus she hears several other kids groan in frustration they were  hoping that they would get to see some exciting zombie carnage but it looks like that show will  have to wait for another time the bus slowly comes to a halt and the girl tenses as she hears  the hiss of its air brakes the door opens and the girl realizes that the bus has stopped in front of  her house she's relieved to see that her house is standing and she can see her mother gardening

in  the front yard safe and sound was it all a dream this is my stop says the girl standing up as if  In A Daze uh the first time's always a little wild says the boy that she leaves don't worry tomorrow  will be easier the girl steps onto the curb and away from the bus the doors closed behind her  and the bus pulls away continuing on its Journey do you enjoy your first day of school today asks  the girl's mother the girl can only stare in shock as the bus drives away what just happened did a  se

lf-driving bus just take her on a tour of Hell before bringing her right to her own doorstep or  did she really just imagine that whole experience as you astute Foundation veterans have probably  already put together this new girl at school didn't imagine anything she just saw that girl  just had her first encounter with scp-3583 at face value scp-3583 resembles an ordinary School  Bus albeit one composed of completely random Parts all held together by some unknown Force the bus  is self-driving

and in fact resists any attempt by a human to sit in the driver's seat at some point  scp-3583 became attached to a particular School in an undisclosed Oklahoma town for reasons the SCP  Foundation still doesn't understand every school day at 3 45 PM it appears outside of the school  just as the school day comes to a close the bus can hold up to 56 children and up to eight adults  if it judges that not enough children have boarded scp-3583 will begin to honk its horn the horn  has a peculiar hy

pnotic effect on all children within hearing range they will be compelled  to drop whatever they are doing and board the bus meaning that the bus has some innate Cognito  hazardous properties if the bus still feels that it hasn't reached its quota it will increase the  volume of its horn until it has attracted enough children that it can begin its route depending  on how many adults have ported scp-3583 has two distinct patterns of behavior if four or fewer  adults are aboard scp-3583 enters Beh

avior pattern one in this pattern scp-3583 will dematerialize  and enter a parallel reality called scp-3583-a scp-3583-a superficially resembles the normal  geography of the same Oklahoma town with some minor but very important changes the typical City  landscape is replaced with a hellish alternative full of crumbling architecture marauding monsters  shambling zombies fires and natural disasters and instances of military violence and civil  unrest scp-3583 will travel through this terrifying he

ll Dimension along normal bus  routes studiously obeying all traffic laws and pausing to re-enter our own reality only to  deliver kids to their own homes interestingly scp-3583 only offers door-to-door service and  ignores all conventionally posted bus stops if five or more adults are aboard scp-3583  enters Behavior pattern 2. in this pattern scp-3583 will travel to the sites of mass casualty  events seemingly arriving in the days or weeks preceding the incident where it will Circle  the area

for approximately 45 to 100 minutes after this it will enter pattern 1 delivering  each child passenger to their home before then delivering its adult passengers home as well known  mass casualty sites visited include Pompeii Nan King and the World Trade Center in New York  passengers inside scp-3583 can take photos or video through the bus window and all footage  shot from within scp-3583 matches exactly with archive footage taken at the mass casualty site  at the time that scp-3583 supposedly

visited however scp-3583 itself has never been reported  by Witnesses at any site or seen in any archive footage of any site luckily scp-3583 has proven  to be a boon to this struggling School District the school principal noted that scp-3583 has a  better safety record than any human driver in addition it never calls in sick and is never late  for a pickup or drop-off every student that has received a ride in scp-3583 has arrived safely  if a little shaken at their home destination and best of

all scp-3583 is saving the school  a lot of money on both driver pay and vehicle maintenance money that the school has used to hire  a new music teacher the general consensus of the local community is that as long as scp-3583 wants  to work as a school bus and continues to do a good job who are they to look a gift horse in the mouth  although it still might behoove some of scp-3583's more sensitive Riders to shut their eyes and  plug their ears until they get safely home the SCP Foundation first

became aware of scp-3583  when students began posting cell phone footage of their rides online although the foundation has  successfully scrubbed information about scp-3583 from the internet it has been less successful in  figuring out what to do with the so-called school bus from Hell Foundation field agents are so far  unable to explain scp-3583's motive or operations conventional attempts to contain scp-3583 such as  impounding the boss or Towing it to the junkyard are feudal scp-3583 will i

mmediately dematerialize  falling apart into a rubble of disparate bus Parts as the force binding it together appears to  abandon This Plane however scp-3583 will always return the next school day ready and willing to  begin its afternoon shift agents have considered closing the affected school but feared that would  only move the problem as scp-3583 would simply attach itself to another school the SCP Foundation  is currently monitoring the situation and has several agents embedded within the s

chool district  posing as regular staff because of this immense difficulty in containment scp-3583 has been given  the ketter object class considering the number of SCP anomalies that involve horrific bodily harm  being done to their victims it's honestly a breath of fresh air to be dealing with one this  seemingly benevolent a little post-traumatic stress disorder aside of course and while hellbus  may be what most around the foundation have taken to referring to this particular anomaly I'm goi

ng  to stick to my own name the tragic School Bus the early morning sun rises casting its Radiance  over the field the shepherd stands guard watching his sheep graze It's a beautiful morning the  shiver quiet and his loyal dog is at his side but the shepherd is perturbed he is certain that there  are sheep missing he wanders through the field counting the Sheep off one by one but no matter  how many times he counts he simply cannot make the numbers gel there are definitely five sheep  missing ho

w is this even possible his family has been in the Sheep herding business for Generations  they survive on the money that they make from shearing selling and spinning the wool from these  sheep they can't afford to Simply lose sheep that's money directly from the family wallet food  directly off The Family Table but even worse it's a matter of Pride he likes to think of himself as  a Good Shepherd who cares about his flock losing a single sheep is a failure of his responsibility to  his charges

and he can't stand it he knows that if he returns to the farm without those five missing  sheep he's going to be in big trouble he's already thinking about the lecture he's going to get from  his father and that's if he's lucky one missing sheep might be forgiven but five he'll be lucky  if his family doesn't throw him out of the house for his failure it's imperative that he find them  and bring them back he Pats the head of his trusty sheepdog every Shepherd Of course has a sheepdog  to help th

em keep their flock safe his dog has been with him for many years and she has never  failed in the past she keeps watch over the flock as if they were her own puppies so the shepherd  thinks it very strange that his dog didn't bark to sound the alarm when the missing sheep started  to wander off could something more Sinister be at play here maybe someone stole his sheep if a thief  came during the night to sneak away with the lost sheep that might explain why they were able to get  away without

his dog knowing they might have been clever enough to cause some kind of distraction  to keep her busy the shepherd notices that the fence at the edge of the field is broken this must  be how the missing sheep got away he examines the splintered wood it's not a natural break because  the wood is sturdy and far from rotten someone or something must have broken the fence sometime  last night clutches at his Shepherd's crook his brow set in determination this isn't good it's  looking more and more

likely that thieves are behind this disappearance he needs to track them  down you will have to be careful sheep thieves are usually desperate men they might resort  to violence to protect their ill-gotten gains a glint of sunlight flashes against something  shiny caught on the fence catching the shepherd's eye he Scoops it up and examines it closely it  looks like a scrap of fabric could it be that the thief snagged his clothes against the fence as he  made his escape the fabric is thin and bri

ttle and doesn't look like any sort of material that the  shepherd has ever seen before it more resembles a scrap of snake skin than a scrap of shirt but it's  his only lead so it'll have to do he holds the scrap to his dog's nose and allows her to sniff it  she Snuffles at it and then immediately raises her ears alert He commands her to follow the scent  and she obeys she puts her nose to the ground and starts to track he follows her the dog leads  him out of the field and across the way he was

surprised to see that she is leading him toward a  nearby Forest he gulps in sudden fear he's never been into these woods and in fact his family has  often warned him to stay away everyone in his village loves to repeat rumors that this Forest is  haunted filled with every sorts of scary monsters and demons why would the Sheep Thief Brave these  cursed Woods on the other hand that would make sense though wouldn't it a thief would need a lair  that was hidden and difficult to approach so that th

ey wouldn't have to worry about getting caught  these Woods would be a perfect hiding place still he can't help but Wonder his dog lifts her head  and whines at him indicating that he should follow he steals his resolve and continues on his fingers  clutch tightly to his staff his knuckles going white with fear and tension he's almost convinced  that he might see a monster here in these woods and he's ready to defend himself from the worst  eventually his dog leads him into an unexpected clearin

g the shepherd blinks in amazement standing  at the center of the Glen is what appears to be the remains of an ancient Temple he hasn't given  much thought to the history of this place to all the people who lived here in ancient times and  to what monuments they left behind the crumbling ruins are overgrown with vines and the columns  look like they might disintegrate at a touch he wonders what ancient civilization might have built  this lost Citadel and what strange rights they might have perfo

rmed here but he doesn't have time  to wonder about that because his dog is barreling ahead right through the Ancient Temple Archway and  into the interior of the building he wants to turn and run everything that he's ever heard about  these cursed Woods makes him think that this is a very bad idea but he knows he can't return home  without those sheep just as he's about to enter the temple himself he suddenly hears loud barking  followed by whining and whimpering he rushes inside and a terrifyi

ng sight meets his eyes  indeed it seems like his family was right when they said that these Woods are full of monsters  because his dog has cornered one right here the creature looks like an overgrown lizard with  scaly skin and a long whip-like tail immediately the Shepherd surmises that the scrap of fabric  that he found earlier didn't come from a person's clothes after all it's obviously a piece of shed  skin no doubt from this creature that long tail definitely looks especially snake-like s

o it's no  surprise to think that this thing might also shed skin just like a snake would in the Gloom of the  temple he can see his missing sheep standing in the corner perfectly still and perfectly quiet  be surprised to see that they're still alive what kind of Predator kidnaps its prey and then  keeps it alive instead of devouring it instantly it's also very odd that the Sheep are being  so still but it's probably just that they're petrified with fear the good news though is  that if it's ch

eaper alive that means he can rescue them the creature spreads a large frill  around its neck as it hisses apparently hoping to intimidate the shepherd's dog the dog is not  frightened though and only barks louder she's bravely guarded the shepherd's flock for years  and she's never been one to back down from a fight even when she's threatened by a bear or wolf so of  course she's not going to back down from a lizard Shepherd feels nervous being so close to this  creature simply because it's so

strange but the truth is that it doesn't look like it could do  that much damage that hissing feels like bluffing because realistically what's it going to do bite  the shepherd is no expert but he's never heard of a venomous lizard he steps forward to get a  better look and the creature tenses it's obviously nervous it's not even that big dog is way bigger  than this creature and shouldn't have any trouble taking it in a fight he's seen his dog fight off  rats bigger than this lizard the creatur

e spreads its frill again and hisses even more sharply but  that only makes the shepherd even more confident in his assessment it's trying to look bigger than  it really is he realizes it's trying to intimidate him well that's not going to work but then to  his astonishment his dog stops the dog and the creature stare at one another so intently that the  shepherd thinks they are actually gazing into each other's eyes after holding its gaze for a beat  the dog suddenly collapses the shepherd Yelp

s in fear and confusion his first instinct is to run  to his dog to see if she's hurt but suddenly the creature turns its Gaze on him he stands Frozen  the creature's eyes almost seem to cast a spell on him he feels mesmerized unable to move or even  to think all his thoughts drain away and the whole world starts to fade nothing is real except  those two malevolent red eyes the shepherd is absolutely paralyzed it's not just Terror he finds  that he can't move a muscle he can only watch as the st

range reptile approaches his Frozen dog and  suddenly bites her on her exposed flank it lashes out like a snake would when it injects Venom into  a victim the shepherd was sure that there weren't any venomous lizards in this area but now he's not  so sure when he's watching this scenario play out he expects his dog might start to convulse or  spasm if she's been poisoned but she remains completely still suddenly he sees something so  shocking that he's certain he must be losing his mind could it

be the area around the bite is  starting to change color becoming a dull gray but as he watches he realizes to his horror that he's  not just watching a color change this is something more his dog is slowly petrified pardoning her  first stiffening into stone she is literally turning into a statue right before his eyes he  can't move but his eyes flick to the corner of the room where his sheep are still standing now he  understands it was hard to tell before because of the darkness and also bec

ause the very idea was so  Preposterous that it didn't even occur to him but the reason that the Sheep were so still and quiet  was because they weren't sheep anymore they were mere statues somehow this creature was able to  turn things to Stone with the force of its venom he wants to scream he wants to yell he wants to  break free and run away but he's powerless to move fear Wells up inside him as he sees the creature  turn its attention from his rapidly petrifying dog and start to move toward

him he hisses again  and Strikes Out sinking sharp needle-like teeth into his leg the shepherd is so Frozen that he  can't scream not even at The Unbelievable pain as those teeth sink deep into his flesh but the  pain doesn't stop when the creature retracts its teeth he can feel the pain spreading outward from  the sight of the bite spreading down his shins and up his legs through his whole body his body is  hardened and fast making it hard to breathe and impossible to move but even as he turns

into a  statue we can still see everything around him still sense the presence of the creature still  think his thoughts aren't affected at all other than being nearly out of his mind with Terror  what could be next the shepherd is frightened but all he can do is wait he's not sure how long  he waits because time has no meaning here in the Gloom of this Ancient Temple he's not sure if it's  day or night he idly wonders if this Temple was built for this monster by people who worshiped it  for its

great and terrible power or by people who feared it and hope that maybe this Temple would  keep it contained or is it mere coincidence that it's taken up residence here just as bats might  Roost in an abandoned building he has no way of ever knowing the only indication of the passage of  time is the coming and going of the creature which even if he can't turn his head to see its movement  he can hear it shuffling and hissing occasionally he hears a sound that frightens him even more  a sound th

at can only be described as statuary shattering and he wonders if that will ultimately  be his fate his question is answered one day and it seems that hunger has driven the creature to  dig into its Larder of petrified Prisoners the creature approaches him and he can feel it gnawing  at his feet with its big ugly Peak it's pecking at him harder and harder until suddenly the shell  breaks and it's chewing on the Flesh of his leg once again the pain is unbearable the shepherd can  do nothing but w

ait at least he thinks it will all be over soon better a quick end at the jaws of a  monster and a slow death trapped Frozen in stone he thinks it's the very best that he can hope for  that Shepherd had just run afoul of a creature that appears to come straight out of medieval  mythology matching the description of the deadly monster known as a cockatrus or basilisk but the  SCP Foundation knows it as scp-1013 a nasty little piece of work with quite literally a paralyzing  stare scp-1013 is a sm

all reptile resembling a lizard but with several key differences that set  it apart from any other animal in this order it was recovered in Egypt an interesting coincidence  since medieval bestiaries often regard that region as the ancestral home of the Basilisk however  Foundation agents believe that since no other specimens were found in the area that scp-1013  is not a naturally occurring animal and might have actually been bioengineered while scp-1013  itself is only 60 centimeters long its

abnormally long tail measures nearly 121 centimeters long  it can use its tail to distract prey it has a wide frill around its neck that it can't extend  at will similar to that of the Australian frilled lizard its head does not look like any other  known lizard though with a serrated beak and a distinctive head waddle that many researchers feel  gives it the appearance of a rooster its beak is filled with long needle-like teeth but Stranger  than its appearance is its hunting methods when it sp

ies potential prey s cp1013 will extend  its neck frill with a sudden snapping sound the frill appears designed to attract the tension  and encourage victims to look into the eyes of scp-1013 because its eyes are of course where it  holds its real power the mythical cockatris was said to be able to turn a person to Stone with the  power of its gaze similar to the petrifying powers attributed to the Gorgon Medusa of Greek mythology  and scp-1013 is very similar to its legendary namesake in this r

egard anyone or anything making  direct eye contact with scp-1013 will experience stabbing pain in most major muscle groups followed  by full paralysis setting in within three seconds and Lasting up until 8 minutes it is currently  unknown how scp-1013 achieves this paralyzing effect once its prey is paralyzed scp-1013 will  bite its victim with its needle-like teeth thus initiating a process of calcification the  victim will gradually stiffen and Harden almost as if they are turning into a stat

ue the  process will begin at the site of the bite and gradually work its way through the body so that a  full-grown adult will become completely calcified within 15 minutes as of yet there is no known way  to stop or reverse the process the calcification process only affects the outer layers of the  victim extending about three centimeters into the body leaving all organs and internal tissues  intact it also does not affect the eyes or mucous membranes this means that victims of scp-1013 are  s

till alive but cannot move or react perhaps even more horrifying scp-1013 then eats its victims  alive scp-1013 feed by breaking the hardened outer layer with its beak much like a young chick  would break its way out of an egg and then feeding on the soft tissues preserved Within the victim  will experience excruciating pain as the creature eats them alive but they cannot resist they  cannot even scream to give voice to their pain scp-1013 has a voracious appetite and will consume  nearly twice

its body weight at each feeding victims usually die of blood loss before scp-1013  can complete its meal scp-1013 does engage in caching behavior and has been known to store  petrified victims for later consumption it prefers mammals as prey and will attack livestock and game  just as readily as it will attack humans in times when mammal food sources are not available  desperation may drive scp-1013 to turn its paralyzing powers on fish birds or even insects  but it will only do this if it is ne

ar to starving scp-1013 is hermaphroditic and unlike other  reptiles does not reproduce sexually but instead undergoes a process similar to budding or basic  cellular division before reproducing scp-1013 will increase its feeding gorging on food and  growing rapidly in size eventually it will develop cyst-like structures in its abnormally long  tail Each of which contains a juvenile scp-1013 juvenile scp-1013 hatch after only 48 Hours parent  scp-1013 will typically release hatchlings within cal

cified prey providing a ready food source for  the juveniles until they can hunt on their own juvenile scp-1013 will seek out cool dark places  like caves or abandoned buildings and begin rapid molting doubling in size every six hours until  reaching full adult size once they have reached adulthood scp-1013 will set out on their own and  quickly establish their own hunting territories scp-1013 is extremely aggressive and will attack  and attempt to calcify anyone that enters its enclosure making

it extremely difficult to contain  for this reason combined with its deadly powers of calcification scp-1013 has been designated object  level ketter any staff entering the containment area are to wear the ar-68 armored variant hazmat  suit staff exiting the area with damaged suits are to be remanded to quarantine for one hour staff  becoming paralyzed during cleaning feeding or testing Cycles are to be immediately removed and  remanded to Medical custody until five hours after recovering scp-1

013 is to be fed daily with one  small mammal however any calcified animal remains are to be removed from the 1013 containment  chamber and incinerated for safety reasons one zero one three is a frightening reminder  that while many entities have piercing gazes comparatively few can end your life few however  does not mean zero it's June 15 1995 and it's also one of the most exciting days of the year for  a very select group the Cedar Creek Parish Bible study group field trip a band of 10 friend

ly  faithfuls of all ages shapes and ethnicities borrowing the church bus for the weekend and  heading out to the Wilderness to admire some of God's creation what's the point of spending all  your days with your nose in the good book if you never appreciate the Bounty of nature as it was  said in Genesis 2 15 the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep  it the group drives three hours out of town along with hiking and camping gear to a semi-mountainous  region

that the head of the group insists is a beautiful picturesque location that will feel like  a perfect break from the musty old church function room it would be a wonderful place to remind them  all what it was all about the splendid World God put them all on and all the gifts he gave them  then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the  fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the Earth and  over eve

ry creeping thing that creeps on the Earth as it was written in Genesis 1 26 the group  makes their way through corridors of tall Lush Evergreens like pillars that hold up the sky  it's a strenuous walk but it sure does get the blood pumping they walk with trekking poles Munch  granola bars and take frequent sips from their canteens nobody wants to get heat stroke after all  they admire the birds perched above the clutches of wildflowers and the skittering things in the  undergrowth everyone is

on the lookout for their first deer but one member of the group a young  man suddenly notices something out of the ordinary it looks like a balloon but one made out  of creamy nut brown deer Pelt it's tied with several strings to a small notebook with no  identifying markings perhaps part of some strange Forest arts and crafts project very strange indeed  while the others move on the young man fueled by his curiosity and comforted by the fact that his  young legs could easily catch up with his E

lders decides to use his trekking Pole to fish the  balloon out of the tree branch the book falls down to the ground with a quiet thud he picks  it up rushes off the dust and stows it away in his backpack it'll make some wonderful Fireside  reading when they all set up camp for the evening as the hours drag on and the study group finds  themselves deeper in this natural Paradise than ever before they find themselves in a clearing  which they decide is a great area to make camp some of them start

setting up their tents While  others head out into the trees to hunt down some kindling for the campfire when they return one  of them is clearly shaken when others inquire as to why they simply force a smile and say it's  nothing just my eyes playing tricks on me been a long hot day within the hour they're crowded  around a roaring campfire some toast marshmallows others hot dogs one of the Elder members of  the group has somehow materialized an acoustic guitar to the belt out in obligatory Ku

mbaya or  two everything is as it should be the young man enjoying the warmth of the fire and his companions  decides to finally take a look at the book he'd rescued from the tree earlier that same day it's  certainly strange there's no titles and it isn't attributed to any kind of author nor are there any  chapter headings it's printed not hand written on thick high quality paper but the content of this  book is what's strangest of all he starts to read solely out of morbid curiosity mostly we 

are currently approaching the precipice of an exciting New Age one in which we can finally take  our well-earned place among the pantheon of great ones we see walking among us every single day  while there is still a ways to go before we reach this Nirvana Rejoice for our goals have never  been more attainable we have served for so long we have done our part beasts of Burden meat milk  hide bones to glue and gelatin eyes and horns to Medicine we have always played our part and now we  are given

the power to transcend it's in our hands now friends we have sat at the sides of the great  ones protected their homes been honored by a place on their dinner plates with these next steps we  shall be granted seats at their table eye to eye equal speaking in their beautiful tongue and being  heard and understood for so long this has been a fantasy an unattainable dream glinting and distant  like the echoing lights of long dead stars but through our work Everything Has Changed we will  deliver y

ou from the darkness and into the light in the shadow of the tower we will leave  behind our old flesh and Elevate ourselves God built the great ones in his likeness they are  his chosen people but God in his infinite wisdom has given us the tools to choose ourselves like  job all the suffering all the subjugation all the sacrifice has been merely a test of faith  and have we not proven ourselves Faithful Friends but the sacrifices are not yet over only  through death and rebirth can we truly tr

ansform many of us have already made this leap of faith  but it is through death that you must deliver the others it will be hard it is in their nature  as beasts to try to survive against all attempts to take their lives but it but it must be done  these instincts must be squashed if ever they are to be more than beasts pardon your hearts  and rejoice despite the troubles my brothers the time of great change will soon be at hand  but first it is imperative that we cleanse the world for the grea

t ones the tower knows the  tower is your Shepherd and it must be followed simply remember whatever goes upon two  legs is a friend whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is an enemy everything  we do we do in reverence of the great ones the young man Shivers and closes the book  something about it felt so sacrilegious it read like an essay written by some kind of  fanatical Maniac whose ideology seemed like a bizarre mix of Christianity and some other strange  unknowable belief system he loo

ks up and sees that many of the others have already turned in for  the night perhaps he ought to do the same almost involuntarily he throws the thin volume into  the last of the fire it goes up quickly claimed by the orange tongues of flame until it goes  black and crumbles into Ash he has a moment of guilt about burning a book even one as strange as  this but perhaps it would be better off that way the young man has trouble going to sleep that  night he knows deep down that it's probably just b

ecause that strange book put ideas in his head  but he could swear he sees something moving in the trees just beyond the fire's Dying Light something  human-shaped but decidedly not human Everything feels a little easier the next morning the Sun is  bright and the air is crisp and clean they're all ready for another day of walking even deeper into  the forest they clean up their campsite and press on further into the heart of the Wilderness as  the group walks the young man still can't shake the

strange feeling he got from reading that book  last night had it all just been some strange prank perhaps that's the conclusion he settles on Just  for some peace of mind the last thing he wants to think about is some crazed cult hiding out in  the woods he and his fellow Bible students are currently hiking through the kind of people who  are strange enough to staunchly believe that the most effective method of preaching is Distributing  religious literature via animal Pelt balloon the young ma

n is so wrapped up in his worries  that he doesn't notice how much time or distance they're passing before he knows it he looks up  and sees something dark and Tall cresting out of the ground several hundred feet in the distance  it's a great twisting metal Tower in a clearing Mark just like it had said in the book something  glows around its base a number of strange openings in the ground like mine shafts he can vaguely  spot more strange shapes moving in and out of it at the base of the tower

more of those  things that are shaped like humans but aren't and above that above even the tower little  dots in the sky more balloons carrying books but none of the others seem to notice that instead  they're looking off to the side staring at a large buck with tall proud antlers standing amongst  the trees some are gasping others are taking pictures the young man is desperately trying to  turn their attention towards a tower that looked like it had come straight out of a fantasy  novel but the

y only had eyes for the deer the thing that the young man hoped they would  all see though would soon be demanding their attention a pair of strange figures Sprint out  of the forest their grotesque nightmare cyborgs flesh that had once been animal Twisted into the  shape of man held together by spinning cogs wires and pulleys terrible affronts to God's creations  their faces are disgustingly flat dripping with drool and home to Wild swiveling eyes staggering  unnaturally on their two hind legs

the mere sight of them elicits screams from the group they jump  onto the buck like a pair of vicious Predators one grabbing it around the neck and the other  leaping onto its back striking squeezing biting and clawing their attack is horribly ferocious  but mercifully quick the buck is soon on the ground as it's two abominable attackers wrench  the light from it all the members of the study group including the young man are too horrified  to move they watch as the creatures finish off the buck

then lift its limp body like two paramedics  carting off a stretcher carrying it straight back to the Tower in the distance the group finally  returns to their senses and begins to run in the opposite direction even the oldest among them  find the kind of energy they haven't had in years they clear the distance that had taken them  a day and a half before in mere hours but by the time they make it back to the bus that  brought them here it's still almost Nightfall as they pile on only the young

man looks back  in the dimming light of dusk he sees small dark shapes in the sky above the trees more balloons  each one carrying a strange little book He's left with the question he'd never know the answer  to what is going on in those deep dark woods of course that question would only remain until  Personnel from the SCP Foundation would come and wipe it from his mind in the midst of so many  dangerous anomalies that the SCP Foundation needs to contain from pathogens and parasites to  malicio

us entities and even lethal Concepts it's sometimes easy to forget but there are plenty  out there which pose no active threat to humans that being said an anomaly doesn't necessarily  need to be harmful to humans to be extremely strange and disturbing and scp-962 also known  as the Tower of Babel is a perfect example of that exact phenomenon in action this anomaly and  its peculiar effects will not harm you in fact it will go out of its way to Revere you and the  concept of humanity as a whole

but once you know about the Tower of Babel it's likely to haunt  the dark spaces in your mind for a considerable time to come as the name suggests scp-962 is an  impressive metal Spire currently recorded at 281 meters in height which is over half the height  of the Empire State Building it is located in the woods near a mountainous region in a location  that will for security reasons remain undisclosed the Spire occupies a surface area of 2575 square  meters and has the distinctive characteristi

c of twisting and tapering off as the tower gets higher  like a giant corkscrew most of the tower is opaque and featureless though the top third is partially  transparent and appears to be empty current tests show that the tower is comprised of a variety of  metals though steel seems to be the most common perhaps the most prominent question is who builds  and maintains a structure like this in the middle of the Wilderness the short answer is that the  tower which itself seems to be a Sapient bei

ng is in charge of its own ongoing construction  and maintenance but as you can probably tell from the frightening and pitiful creatures The  Unlucky hikers encountered it doesn't do all this work without its special little helpers scp-962  has the anomalous ability to open up apertures anywhere on the structure for the purpose of  releasing balloons or what the foundation has officially dubbed scp-962-1 but what many have  taken to calling by their nickname serviters these servitors were once n

ormal non-anomalous animals  indigenous to the area prior to conversion in the heart of scp-962 like something out of the island  of Dr Moreau conservators have undergone anomalous surgical procedures that make their bodies into  grotesque parodies of the human form cybernetic implants have been added that force them into  bipedal positions remove snouts keep their bodies shorn and furless electrodes have been implanted  into the nervous systems of the servitors allowing a remote Source strongly

believed to be the  tower itself to work their bodies like puppets encouraging or inhibiting certain behaviors as  it pleases there are currently around thirteen thousand five hundred known specimens of these  entities and the tower appears to be making more on a consistent basis conservators fulfill a  wide variety of roles and service to the tower some mine ore in the extensive network of mining  Caverns beneath the tower then smelt it to create more metal for expanding the Tower or creating 

more cybernetic implants for future servitors others work in the capacity of repairing their  fellow servators or the tower itself some have more Sinister work making their way through the  surrounding Wilderness and killing any non-human Life by any means necessary and then dragging  their bodies back to the tower for conversion into serviters there's a great deal of sophistication  to the electronic augmentation of the servators despite their aesthetic unpleasantness each type  of servitor ap

pears to be designed perfectly for their specific task whatever that may be as  was alluded to earlier the servators never harm humans ever even if a human was putting their  life at risk they would not defend themselves to the detriment of a human attacker approximately  60 times a day one of the many apertures in the tower will open and release a hydrogen-powered  balloon made from the skin of one of the animals brought in preservator conversion these balloons  are always carrying strange manu

scripts believed by the foundations who have been written by the  tower itself the manuscripts take a variety of forms novels poems essay collections the majority  of which are written impeccably while the content of these manuscripts can vary wildly consistent  motifs tend to be a high degree of optimism and reverence for Humanity occasionally the tower  will depart from its usual written eloquence and instead offer a deranged disjointed rant that  seems to suggest a great degree of mental stra

in while the exact meaning is often unclear due to  the Frantic nature of the writings they generally appear to Heap fawning preys on mankind which it  refers to as the great ones the following is an example of one of the tower's stranger published  rents cleanse the world for the great ones cleanse the world for the great ones who greater than you  your majesty your Sublime nature great ones do I do right the Flesh and would serve you Unite  with the steel you love do you love me too I am what

you love great one see as I do my duty  passion forgive the slow pace the steal takes time did you like the servants they were the best  of the cleanse only the best for you great ones made like your form you assume here on  a world to clean to honor you do appreciate please please I will complete the cleansing soon  and you can take me away in your ships of fire and I can love you and you will love me while  the foundation has yet to discover how all this strangeness started given the current r

ate of  expansion it's clear that the tower is no more than 20 years old the foundation is also unsure  of what its intention May someday be but it's not hard to draw certain interpretations due to its  unpredictability which leads to the foundation to expand not inconsiderable resources on its  containment scp-962 has been given the Euclid containment classification and because its huge  remote and immobile the foundation has made no attempt to Move It from its current location and  instead hav

e rerouted all containment resources to studying the anomaly and building a perimeter to  prevent public interference anyone who attempts to enter the exclusion Zone will be turned away by  perimeter guards under the pretense of avoiding a hazardous nuclear waste containment facility  anyone found within scp-962's restricted area is given Class A amnestics to prevent any sensitive  information spreading beyond the quarantine in order to prevent the tower and its servators  from expanding the pur

view of their operations the foundation airdrops four live cattle and  two tons of Timber every week so the tower is never short of raw material within its current  parameters any balloons released by the tower are to be shot down and burned and their manuscripts  collected and filed at a secure SCP Foundation site for further study if an escaped balloon  is found by civilians it is to be collected and those civilians are to be given Class A amnestics  anyone at the foundation is permitted to re

ad the manuscripts produced and distributed by the tower  but they are required to file a formal request with the scp-962 Project Director first I've spent  a few evenings myself reading them over a cup of tea and they're certainly stimulating if a little  tragic they represent one of the anomalous world's greatest examples of the grass always being  greener on the other side since after all why would anything aspire to be human don't humans  have enough of their own problems to attend to a symp

hony of police sirens cut through the  Silence of the cold night accompanied by The Barking of canine units and bursts of gunfire all  this noise is for just one man a man on the Run he runs through the trees clutching a handgun with  a sweaty shaking hand gritting his bloody teeth he wheezes exhausted from the chase his hair is  messy and matted with dirt and grease his stolen clothes stained with mud a rivulet of blood runs  down his forehead from a deep gash just below his hairline the place

where his head collided with a  steering wheel he planned the breakout so well how did it all fall apart someone must have ratted him  out that's the only thing that could have happened no honor among Thieves is more than just a  phrase it's a fact searchlights pierced the darkness shouts of he went that way and get him  abound as do more barks of angry dogs who grumbles under his breath and hide behind a tree trying  to collect his hurricane of thoughts there's no doubt about it the convict is

a bad man he's taken  plenty of lives and he doesn't regret any of them not one bit the only thing he regrets is that  he was caught three hours ago he was crawling out of a secret tunnel and escaping from Angola  a place known on paper as the Louisiana State Penitentiary but better known as the farm the  Angola Plantation or most evocatively of all as the Alcatraz of the South a Maximum Security  Prison complete with a death row and a reputation every bit as fearsome as its inmates and the  con

vict had certainly earned his place there a long resume Written in Blood had gotten him locked  up and sentenced to death after a speedy trial things had already gotten violent during escapes  like this the first hours are the most crucial a contact on the outside had left him a handgun  ready to be collected from a hidden spot inside of a tree near the roadside that gun also functioned  as his vehicle or at least his ticket to getting one he'd flagged down the first car naive enough  to stop fo

r him and shoved the gun into the driver's face and demanded he exit the vehicle  and hand over both the car keys and his wallet he'd driven for almost two hours when the  heat finally started to rise the convict had just passed through the borders of Saint  Landry Parish Louisiana when the classic rock station he was enjoying on his victim's radio was  interrupted by a sudden report on his own Escape they knew he had gotten out they knew he was armed  they even knew the type of car he was drivi

ng it wouldn't be long before The Telltale blue and  red flashing lights of a police cruiser would appear in his rearview mirror one car chase and  a spike strip later and that same car is halfway through the wall of a gas station the convict  is scrambling out of the dented door firing off a couple haphazard shots in the vague direction  of his pursuers and fleeing into the darkness of a nearby swamp and that's where he is right now  feeling the Noose tightened around his neck as he prepares fo

r his final standoff it's not like  he has any choice in the matter he'd rather go down in a hail of bullets in a swamp than go back  inside they're so close you can hear their heavy booted footsteps now and the Ragged breaths of the  dogs tugging at their leashes his heart pounds in his chest all he can do is go deeper deeper  deeper the convict flees into the dark of the swamp reluctantly breathing in the feted stink of  the old mud and rotten vegetation the dark swamp is his friend though sin

ce the glow of police  flashlights behind him means almost certain death he struggles through undergrowth clamoring over  roots and Fallen trees feeling the squelch of his stolen shoes sinking into the thick wet mud  the last thing he expects to hear in this God forsaken place is a whisper from the dark and not  just any whisper it's the voice of a little girl just hearing it almost makes his heart stop he  freezes in place and turns to see her emerging from the dark she can't be any older than

10 or  11 this little girl with a tangle of messy hair in these frantic feral eyes it's hard to tell  what she really looks like because almost every inch of her is covered in a thick coating of mud  as though she's just sprung out of the Earth on any other occasion his Instinct might be to run or  even something more drastic but instead he doesn't move he stands there as she speaks listening even  as the police get closer the little girl tells him that she knows the perfect place for him to hid

e  somewhere that the police won't catch him they'll have no idea where to look all he needs to do is  trust her and follow her deeper into the swamp if he does as she says he can finally be free he nods  and follows her what else can he do really the girl reaches out with a muddy hand and the convict  takes it as she leads him into the all-consuming dark of the swamp the searching police officers  suddenly hear a short but blood-curdling shriek come from the depths of the swamp 40 men and  mult

iple canine units scrambled trying to find the place where they heard the man cry out but  they can't find a single trace of him they set up a perimeter around the swamp trying to guard every  possible exit placing checkpoints on every road he might be traveling and when daylight finally  Dawns they search again and again and again but they're unable to find him for all intents and  purposes the man is a ghost now at least for a few months the authorities don't give up though  after all a danger

ous convict could still be out there somewhere just waiting he's armed deadly  and clearly intelligent enough to avoid police capture chances are he's halfway across the state  by now if he's even still in Louisiana or even the United States at all for that matter so it comes  as a surprise to everyone when he's finally found sitting at a bus stop in a small City in Louisiana  the man isn't moving he's just staring off vacantly into space the translucent rope of drool  hanging from his bottom li

p there's something very wrong with the convict that much is clear even  from a glance his face seems a little longer as though the shape of his skull has changed he  has heterochromia now with his left eye changed to a completely different color from before and  when his shirt is finally removed a crisscross of extensive surgical scarring is mapped out  along his back far from the sharp lethal criminal portrayed by the media in the aftermath of his  escape this man is borderline catatonic he ta

lks in short simple sentences like a very young child  and his attention seems to drift easily when being spoken to this same man who had mounted such a  daring escape from prison and then managed to evade all his pursuers does nothing to resist  The Men Who come to arrest him at the bus stop he's returned to the prison and held in the  medical Bay for evaluation however a mere 10 hours after first being admitted and after giving little  to no useful information during questioning his health beg

ins to take a sharp decline he complains  about his insides burning and asks for something cold to drink when he's given water he spits it  back out soon after and begins to sob he says he wants his mother though he can't recall her name  there's very little he can recall about anything the next morning he breaks into a series  of severe seizures before passing away his autopsy shows significant brain damage as well  as the failure of several of his major organs the coroner though found it impos

sible to explain how  any of this had occurred a month later a pair of hikers making their way across the same swampland  where the police chase ended would call into the local authorities terrified claiming they found  a dead body near a sinkhole when officers are dispatched to look into it they can't believe  their eyes despite being significantly damaged the body is clearly recognizable after all his  face had been on every newspaper and TV screen in Louisiana for quite some time now it's the

  convict wearing the same clothes he'd escaped in the same clothes that had been taken off of him  and burned and he'd been recaptured at the bus stop none of this made any sense the convict's  body was exhumed from the prison cemetery and given a DNA test they found with some surprise  that the body did not genetically match the DNA they had on file for him the DNA which had  incidentally convicted him in the first place when the body retrieved from the swampland had its DNA  tested they also

found something strange the DNA was so damaged that it was impossible to make any  conclusive determinations as to whether it was a match it was the strangest mystery anyone involved  had ever seen and sadly for them they would never know the answer as to what happened to the convict  in that swamp the answer of course is scp-1692 but before we go any further I must first allow  you to indulge me for just a moment since I have a special announcement as you know I have been  seeking assistance in

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nordvpn for their support in shining a light on  the most secretive anomalies like scp-1692 which is an anomaly consisting of three parts that  is confined to a few kilometers of swampland in St Landry Parish Louisiana something you learn  after studying many of the anomalies in the files of the SCP Foundation is that the question why is  often a dead end the best you can expect is half an answer to how with the only definitive answers  available being something more in the neighborhood of how

can we stop it is scp-1692 just such a  case let's start with scp-1692-2 which is the heart of the anomaly scp-1692-2 is a sinkhole  of unknown depth filled with mud and water while you were right to assume that these are  quite commonly found in Louisiana swamps since 2014 this particular sinkhole is different in  that it has played a host to at least 31 sets of human remains as well as 24 different sets  that turned out to have belonged to animals despite constant monitoring by the foundation 

to ensure that nothing else has entered the pit since it was brought under containment new bodies  will still sporadically be discovered in the muck with their exact origin remaining unknown but  the bodies themselves are often quite easily identified in fact 14 of the human remains  recovered have been confirmed as belonging to people who were reported as having gone missing  between the early 1900s and the mid to late 1950s but before we get too much further into that let's  return to the how

of this anomaly's operations when a human being enters the area near the  sinkhole it becomes increasingly likely that an anomalous entity will manifest which the  foundation has designated as scp-1692-1 while scp-1692-1 will most likely take the form of  a young girl appearing to be perhaps 12 or 13 years old it has also been seen taking the form  of different local mammals or even the form of one of the people reported missing whose last  known location was known to be in the area near the si

nkhole regardless of the form it takes  though once scp-1692-1 appears it will act as a kind of lore beckoning the Lost individual  further and further into the anomalous Zone it is unknown how they are able to convince the  victim to follow them deeper into the swamp and it is suspected by Foundation researchers that  there may be some memetic influence at Play though it is also just as probable that  scp-1692-1 is simply capable of utilizing strong non-anomalous psychological persuasion  to en

tice them once the person being led into the swamp crosses Beyond a certain point they will  completely disappear leaving no Trace whatsoever any clothing or other objects they dropped or  left behind will dematerialize and even their Footprints will vanish in the hours days or even  sometimes weeks that follow the third component of the anomaly finally activates known as  scp-1692-3 this new entity will manifest in the area and attempt to leave if leaving is  even possible based on their modifi

ed physiology that's because while scp-1692-3 is a copy of  the latest individual to go missing crucially it is always an imperfect copy it will appear  altered deformed or mutilated in some fashion and certain elements seem to be recurring for example  scp-1692-3 will often now be missing some or even all of their limbs or organs but there will be  no sign of an amputation having been performed they will also often be observed to be suffering  from hydrocephalus the dangerous condition where fl

uid builds up in cavities within the brain 84  percent of all recorded scp-1692-3 instances have displayed other major physiological differences  from their original counterparts such as having different hair skin or eye colors or different  blood types and the changes present in these entities are not limited to just physical  ones dissociative Amnesia is always a foregone conclusion for scp-1692-3 specimens which means  they have no knowledge of their recent history and they will often also ex

perience depersonalization  reporting the feeling of being in a dreamlike or unreal state of being they will also possess  knowledge that the original had no way of knowing such as being able to speak in foreign languages  the original had no previous fluency in and there will often be improvements or impairments of  the general mental faculties of the original to put it in layman's terms the scp-1692-3  specimens come back wrong and save for two notable exceptions which we'll get to in just  a

moment the severity of the alterations often cause these specimens to die shortly after they  leave the Saint Landry Parish anomalous Zone the foundation's knowledge of scp-1692 began all  the way back in 1938 after they were alerted to a string of child disappearances in the Saint  Landry Parish area thankfully for the local parents all of these children eventually returned  home however they all came back different some were missing fingers while one somehow had an  extra finger others returne

d with different hair and eye colors a number of local police officers  were sent to search the local swampland in search of a perpetrator and some of these officers also  went missing and returned in a state of profound alteration Foundation field agent soon arrived and  took over the investigation cordoning off the area around the swamp to hopefully prevent anything  else entering or exiting the presumably anomalous area they conducted their own independent search  into the Saint Landry Parish

Swap and it didn't take long for them to discover a mutilated  corpse in an extremely unnerving condition the body appeared to belong to a small child  but it was difficult to identify since most of the head above the jaw was missing both legs were  also gone though strangely it appeared as though skin had grown over the wounds leaving no sign of  a removal either pre or post-mortem a search into the local police vials revealed that both the body  and clothes perfectly matched those described i

n a missing person's report for one Bobby Dunbar  a child who had gone missing 25 years prior but there was something strange about this  file the case had been closed since Bobby had actually returned to his parents shortly after  he disappeared this meant that by All rights this corpse had no reason to exist how could Bobby  Dunbar both be alive and a corpse in a swamp the foundation needed to find out so  they placed the body into cold storage and continued the investigation seeking out  the

now adult Bobby Dunbar for questioning naturally this was a frightening ordeal for Mr  Dunbar he had already lived through the traumatic experience of going missing as a child and  then returning home with no memory of the event left to constantly wonder about just what had  happened to him out in that swamp as he tried his best to move on with his life but now here he  was being approached by strange men in dark suits or telling him that a corpse had been discovered  in that same swamp where he

had gone missing and that it appeared to belong to him Bobby Dunbar of  course had very little to offer on the possible nature of the body other than vaguely recalling  quote the other boy on the wagon unfortunately he was unable to provide any further details  on the matter other than this cryptic phrase the foundation peered further into the rabbit  hole of the Dunbar case and soon learned that after Bobby had returned home there had been a  rather strange custody battle investigations into t

he local Court archive revealed that the case had  been between the Dunbar family and another local man named William Cantwell Walters Walters claimed  that the boy believed to be Bobby Dunbar wasn't Bobby Dunbar at all but was in fact actually a  different boy named Charles B Anderson the son of a woman who worked for Walters Walters pursued  every legal Avenue available to him but after the boy himself identified Mrs Dunbar as his mother  the Court ruled that he really was Bobby Dunbar and gra

nted full custody to the Dunbar family this  put an end to the whole matter at least in the legal sense and the boy lived out the rest of life  as Bobby Dunbar eventually passing away in 1966 but that wasn't the end of Bobby's story decades  later in 2004 the SCP Foundation took another look at the Strange Case of Bobby Dunbar equipped now  with the technology to perform accurate DNA tests the foundation discovered that the man who lived  his life as Bobby Dunbar actually bore no relation to the

Dunbar family at all but if this wasn't  Bobby Dunbar then who was it and was that his body that had been discovered in the swamp all the way  back in 1938 unfortunately the DNA from the corpse in Foundation custody had been severely mutated  by a process known as hydrolytic deanimation and results were inconclusive which means  that the actual fate of both the real Bobby and the child known as Charles B Anderson  remains unknown by 1939 enough incidents like the Bobby Dunbar case had transpire

d that the  foundation saw fit to fully quarantine the area but they still continue to find new instances of  scp-1693-3 within the swamp among those collected by the foundation was a woman missing her left  eye and exhibiting extensive stitching across the left side of her jawline she was able to  provide the foundation with reliable testimony that revealed the existence of both scp-1692-1  and scp-1692-2 and upon the foundation locating the sinkhole they discovered two more corpses one  of whi

ch bore a strong resemblance to the woman interestingly it had several portions missing from  its head including its left eye socket as could be expected this distressed the woman considerably  and she vehemently denied any connection between herself and the corpse that was found within  the sinkhole in the swamp the woman was kept in Foundation custody in order to observe her  until she inevitably expired but unlike the other scp-1692-3 instances her health didn't appear to  falter when the fou

ndation was confident that they had gained all they could from studying her they  provided amnestics and released her into the world with an adequate cover story much like the man who  called himself Bobby Dunbar she too would go on to live a normal life without further incident but  in another turn that was eerily similar to the Bobby Dunbar story posthumous DNA tests showed  that she too did not genetically match any of her family and tests on the corpse taken from the  swamp which resembled h

er were also inconclusive the foundation has fully fenced off the 2.77  square kilometer area inhabited by scp-1692 with chain link and barbed wire outposts observing  the area are positioned at 500 meter intervals with Foundation guards posing as Park employees  frequently patrolling the area in groups if ever civilians infiltrate the guards are instructed  to prevent them from venturing in further through non-lethal means and turn them back around  thankfully containment of this particular ano

maly has become more effective as technology  has advanced reliable live video surveillance was established in the anomalous swampland of  Saint Landry Parish and this has led to anomalous activity declining significantly especially  with regards to new human scp-1692-3 specimens the majority of scp-1692-3 entities discovered  as of late have instead been slightly mutated animals due to the strange and unpredictable  nature of scp-1692 its containment needs have been a consistent work in progres

s earning at  the Euclid object class any member of foundation Personnel at level 2 clearance or above is  privy to knowledge about this anomaly and that's excellent because this is one that should  stir up a few important questions in all of us after all life is a long and Winding Road  how well can you remember your childhood and perhaps even more importantly how can you be  sure that those memories really belong to you it's the grisliest crime scene the detective has  seen in years photograph

ers wince as they capture it all in a succession of quick Stark flashes CSI  technicians do what they can to pick up the broken pieces posted at the gate a rookie doubles over  and throws up while his older partner gives him a sympathetic pat on the back he can't hide his  own discomfort at the things they've seen today the call came in the middle of the night from a  pair of concerned hikers on the outskirts of town they were halfway through their nightly walk down  an Old Country Road when the

y heard screaming from a nearby Farm when officers finally made their  way down to The Farmhouse it was too late everyone there was dead nobody to save all that's left to  do is pick up the pieces and figure out what the hell actually happened the detective leans under  a yellow Garland of crime scene tape and asks an attending officer what they know so far the cop  who looks pale and clammy swallows over a lump in his throat and says looks like the old farmer  snapped and went postal whole fami

ly's dead we found his body in the barn he heads inside to take  a look at the Carnage it's a veritable House of Horrors the farmer's wife is dead in the kitchen  the children were both murdered in their beds the detective can't say he's ever seen a murder done  in such Cold Blood so detached for a man with no History of Violence to do something so terrible  to his loved ones for no reason the detective shakes his head and walks upstairs sliding on  rubber gloves to avoid contaminating the scene

he goes room to room making fastidious notes about  anything suspicious he's got a Keen Eye for this kind of thing the man's a 20-year veteran of  the force he's seen some terrible things but as he lays his eyes on the bodies of the victims  he can't help but feel a chill tip-towing down his vertebrae in the master bedroom where the  now deceased farmer and his wife once shared a loving marital bed he hits some Pay Dirt a diary  in the bedside cabinet he flips through early on it's all mundane

scattered thoughts for the  day at hand and little to-do lists for the next one but the last three entries contain a marked  shift from what came before the first one reads he seemed shook up when he came back from  the barn today he's awful quiet about it said something like I heard something I shouldn't have  in the barn don't know what that could mean but I decided not to press stressed enough already  he didn't say much to the kids during dinner kept looking over his shoulder freaked me out 

something terrible I don't know what did it but whatever it was you put a scare in him the second  reads I'm starting to worry about him it's been a few days since whatever he heard in the barn and  he ain't gotten any better in fact I think he's getting worse he won't shower something about  the bathroom mirror he just won't go in there he hasn't been eaten worst of all he doesn't  sleep I'll wake up in the middle of the night and see him sit and bolt upright staring at the  bedroom door not s

aying a word not even blinking the third and final entry reads he's ain't the man  I married anymore there's something wrong with him scaring the kids and it's scaring me he started  bringing his gun to bed every night doesn't sleep just sits there with it he never sleeps when I  asked him what's happening he told me something's coming but it's okay he won't let it get us no  matter what I don't understand I'm gonna take the kids and go stay with Mom for a few weeks while he  works this out but

I'm afraid of what he'll do if he realizes the gun is always loaded the detective  size and slides the diary into an Evidence baggie it was sadly a tale he'd heard all too many times  the terrible things we can do to the ones we love when we're not ourselves though it now seems cut  and dry a mental break snowballing into a massacre one detail is still gnawing at the detective  what did the farmer hear in the barn that day when the detective enters he orders everyone  else to leave he needs some

time alone in here as the people file out he approaches the farmer's  corpse he's laying in the straw head a bloody mess bludgeoned beyond recognition and yet he's  the one holding the blood-stained hammer and in his other hand he's clutching something  even stranger a rusty old cowbell of all the things to be holding in your last moments on  Earth the detective thinks as he reaches over something about the Bell draws his eye why  after murdering his entire family would a man head out into the

barn and presumably try and  fail to hammer a cowbell to Pieces as he picks up the Bell he runs his gloved fingers along the  rust other than the wear and tear of age the Bell shows no signs of actual damage it's such a  strange innocuous object what's the significance is internal musing is interrupted when a large  spider the kind that liked to make their homes in straw-filled Barns suddenly crawls out from  inside the bell and onto the detective's hand he drops the Bell an involuntary shock re

flex  and it hits the ground with a brassy gong the sound lingers in the air for far longer than  it should seems almost like it's getting louder the detective feels his heartbeat speeding up his  breaths getting heavy and labored the sound gets louder it feels like someone is sitting on his  chest he falls to his knees scratching at his swelling throat his heart pounds is he having  a heart attack he claws at the dirt and straw beneath him trying desperately to get a handle on  things as the wo

rld around him seems to go dark the toll of the cowbell gets louder and louder  eventually he's able to force out a scream and collapses to the ground when his eyes open he's  being carted away on a stretcher to a nearby ambulance parked just outside the crime scene  when a paramedic asks him if he's okay the only thing he can stutter out through his dry mouth is  don't touch the Bell don't let anyone touch the Bell the doctor who treats him will later tell  him there are no signs of any physica

l ailment in all likelihood the detective had experienced a  severe anxiety attack when the detective tells the doctor that he has no history of anxiety attacks  and that this is far from the first violent crime scene he's encountered the doctor purses his lips  and knits his brow in concentration very strange the doctor says perhaps just take it easy for the  next few days work stress can sneak up on a person especially in a career as high stakes as yours  it can sometimes manifest in rather st

range ways that night the detective is at home brewing  himself a soothing cup of herbal tea on his doctor's recommendation he's still racked by  a strange uneasiness from earlier in the day you see one of the keys to being a good  detective is pattern recognition you're able to detect obscure links between pieces of  information that other people in the stress of the moment may not correlate as the detective  sips his tea he remembers the first entry in the farmer's wife's diary when the farmer

's downward  spiral started it began with him hearing something he shouldn't have inside the barn the detective  doesn't know a lot about what happened to himself in that Barn either but he can safely say he  heard something he shouldn't have heard too he sighs no point in psyching himself out like  this after all it's just the post attack Jitters and turns to his kitchen window hoping to look out  at the night sky and feel a little more at peace instead he sees something out of a nightmare a  t

all figure standing behind him somewhere in the ballpark of human but also somehow not it's tall  fleshy and emaciated its face is too smooth with bulging eyes and a large mouth being the only  features it reaches for him with huge spindle fingered hands mere centimeters away from the back  of his head for the second it sees him looking at it it turns and begins to run the detective's  mug Falls and shatters on the ground he turns with an involuntary Yelp to track the creature but  it's already

gone his kitchen is empty and silent of course one question haunts his mind what the  hell just happened he's no fool he knows the mind can play funny tricks on you after all who hasn't  seen something out of the corner of their eye that gave them a momentary fright before realizing that  it was just a trick of the imagination but this wasn't just a flicker playing on a paranoid mind  the detective would swear on his mother's life that he truly saw this thing some bizarre humanoid  monster stand

ing behind him in his reflection he doesn't know which possibility scares him  more that there really was something behind him or that he's starting to lose his mind either  offered a number of frightening possibilities but the detective does what he does best applies  logic to a situation he'd spent the day around a particularly distressing crime scene read  something unnerving in the Diary of one of the victims and suffered a panic attack in the  barn all of this was just a suggestion implante

d in his mind connections being threaded where they  shouldn't a natural side effect of a brain wired to register patterns and strange data clusters  the detective does his best to remain calm for the rest of the evening fear is the mind killer  Panic only ever makes a situation worse these are both things he believes but he can't seem to  shake that creeping feeling of dread he's being watched for the first time in his adult life  the detective decides he doesn't want to sleep in the dark all t

hose shapes in the Blackness  put him on edge he thinks that a good night's sleep will probably have him right as rain by  tomorrow morning everything passes eventually as his mind drifts and his eyes begin to flutter  closed he starts to wonder if he always left that bathroom door open or whether it started to open  very slowly as soon as his head hit the pillow sure enough he wakes up gasping Long Cold fingers  abnormally long in fact and cold as death have closed around his throat he's gaspin

g in vain  for breath as the hand clamps tighter his eyes jolt open and he sees it again that tall thin  monster lingering over him strangling him its face is split into a wide sadistic tooth bearing  grin or something so thin it's impossibly strong the detective can't move he can't scream he  can't do anything but as he slips from sleep to true wakefulness the monster is gone it wafts out  of the room with all the ease of a gust of wind sits up heart pounding lung strained skin slick  with swea

t he's never been so afraid in his life he's been calmer during the active shootouts of  his beat days all those years ago the thing that was strangling him it looked exactly the same  as the monster from the reflection they weren't just similar it was exactly the same thing is  he being stalked then it Dawns on him another fragment of information swimming in the mess  of his Consciousness an article he'd read a couple years before about a phenomenon known as  sleep paralysis it's when people su

ddenly wake up during REM sleep their body remains paralyzed  while their Consciousness activates giving them one foot in reality while leaving the other in a  nightmare in this state people can believe they're being attacked by monsters or demons and one of  the major factors causing sleep paralysis stress the detective signs he feels like an idiot there's  nothing he's experienced today that doesn't have a completely logical explanation so why does  he keep jumping to such absurd conclusions t

wisting facts to suit theories rather than  theories to suit facts that being said he still doesn't sleep another wink that night he  pours himself a few cups of coffee subconsciously avoiding anything reflective and sits in bed  until sunrise just watching his bedroom door better safe than sorry he keeps repeating  in the empty corridors of his adult brain he drives to work the next morning like he always  does sitting at a stoplight a car pulls up next to him and he catches something in the re

flection of  the car's window it's that Monster again sitting next to him reaching out towards him with one  of its huge hands the detective gasps and spins around his eyes flaring with panic but of course  it isn't there just some children on the sidewalk on their way to school maybe it's the fear maybe  it's the sleep deprivation maybe it's both but in that moment he feels like crying little does  he know things are going to get so much worse over the following days the frequency of the  sight

ings increases anytime he finds his eyes meeting a reflective surface that monster is there  approaching him but of course it runs away before he can ever look at it head on the people at work  keep giving him funny looks he grits his teeth he can't say anything if he tells anyone what's been  happening to him they'll haul him off to the funny farm to spend the rest of his life in a padded  cell but he knows he's not crazy it's too real to be the product of human insanity this isn't  some halluc

ination that thing is really there it's always waiting always watching even when he  can't see it he can feel its eyes on him since its malicious intent it's even worse at night every  time he tries to sleep it attacks him he feels its hand clasping around his throat he feels  its bald fists pummeling his body he feels his long fingernails scratching into his skin he can't  sleep anymore he's too scared and that too takes its toll every feeling every emotion every thought  starts to take on an o

dd flat quality like nothing is quite real he starts to subsist on coffee  energy drinks and anything else that will give him a buzz of alertness he started to carry his  service pistol around with him everywhere he hides it under his pillow at night he can never be too  careful he knows that the creature is always out there always watching always waiting he knows on  some level that it won't stop until it has taken everything from him he's taking the subway to work  again he's messy disoriented

his clothes stink his bloodshot eyes are couched in unsightly bags he  Shivers slightly a nervous twitch put simply he's not the man he used to be he can't drive anymore  his nerves are too wrecked and he has to take the bus to and from work that's when he sees it not  behind him this time but on the other side of the street as he waits for his bus it stands among  the other pedestrians all seemingly oblivious to its presence it Just Smiles mocking him this  time the detective is ready the dete

ctive won't have it in a single fluid motion he unholsters  his pistol and begins firing at the creature the street erupts into screams as people scattered  to avoid the Frantic volley of gunshots but the creature doesn't move it just keeps grinning as  the detective fires the rage and sleep deprivation throwing off his aim he hears the sound of  the Bell again it's toll Rising it's deafening he needs to kill it he needs to get closer the  detective walks toward the creature firing bullet after

bullet the creature doesn't care he Roars  an animal Fury the bell toll Rises a sudden light illuminates the creature's terrible Smile as the  detective realizes that the sound he's hearing isn't the toll of the bell at all he turns just in  time to see the bus but not in enough time to get out of the way the cowbell the detective found in  the barn that day seemed innocuous enough but this old cowbell corroded and covered in Rust which no  known methods chemical or mechanical seem to be able to

remove would soon have a name scp-513 it  was discovered by an SCP Foundation agent during containment re-established procedure mu at a  classified containment site where its interior was covered in duct tape to prevent it from properly  making a sound there was also a paper note attached to reading you've seen it now he can hear  you you've touched it now he can see you never ring it if you hear it he can touch you and this  is a warning worth heating because ringing scp-513 invariably results

in death the question is just  how much mental and physical anguish it puts its victim through before that end point when the bell  is first rung anyone with an earshot will begin to experience extreme anxiety including physical  symptoms such as heightened heart rate and raised blood pressure they will also report feelings of  dread and may claim that they can feel themselves being watched within about an hour this worry  is confirmed scp-513-1 is the less than Charming creature hounding the u

nfortunate bellringer  and will begin to stalk the affected individuals it will appear to approach individuals from  behind but quickly disappear if ever the subject attempts direct visual contact it will also stage  non-lethal physical attacks on its victims during their sleep in order to induce greater levels of  psychological Terror though it disappears quickly upon waking the stalking thread will only Elevate  over time leading to increased psychological disarray for the victim scp-513-1 wil

l eventually  induce paranoia aggression hypervigilance and depression ending in a distressing and violent  death because of the immense danger posed to anyone who hears the sound of this cowbell tolling  scp-513 has been given extensive containment precautions extensive enough to Warrant giving  it the Euclid containment class classification reserved for things that are often unpredictable  in containment scp-513 is suspended in a one cubic meter block of gelatin and contained within a  soundpr

oofed climate-controlled cell the gelatin is inspected daily for any degradation or loss  of Integrity an emergency inspection is carried out immediately following any earthquake  explosion or sonic event grade 2 or higher Personnel performing the inspection wear  earplugs and active noise canceling earmuffs at all times while inside scp-513's cell  to avoid any kind of accidental exposure if the gelatin Cube shows any signs of degradation  such as rips tears splits liquefaction or mold scp-513

will be immediately removed and suspended  within a replacement Cube by a team of surgically deafened class D personnel no other Personnel  are to enter the cell during this procedure any sentient beings exposed to scp-513 are to  be monitored by at least two security Personnel at all times under absolutely no circumstances  May exposure victims be administered sedatives or allowed to fall unconscious any victim who does  fall unconscious is to be terminated immediately class D Personnel are to

be terminated at  the first sign of mental degradation all other exposure victims may be terminated  at their request if possible scp-513-1 is to be apprehended on site but sadly the  foundation hasn't managed to get their hands on this unpleasant creature yet but be  careful ringing any mysterious old Bells you find or else he might just get his hands on you  it's not every day that the SCP Foundation opens a brand new site and appoints a new site  director but today is one of those days work i

s about to begin at site 41 in the respected  senior researcher has been appointed director of the brand new site he hasn't been told much about  it yet but he knows a few things for certain some sort of new highly volatile anomaly was discovered  a site was constructed around it and his many years of loyalty to the organization have finally  been rewarded with a promotion as he takes his morning shower his mind races turning over the  possibilities that this new chapter might bring is he up to

the potential challenges just how  dangerous is this new anomaly what could possibly necessitate the building of a brand new site  just to contain It Whatever It Is these years of securing containing and protecting have prepared  him he's seen bizarre creatures first places and objects that defy the laws of physics whatever  awaits him in his new position he can handle it he ridges the shampoo from his hair letting his  Jitters flow down the drain with it and switches off the water he climbs out

of the shower and  turns to the foggy mirror he sweeps a palm across the glass and meets his Reflections eyes his  serious expression catches him off guard and he can't help but let his mind wander back to someone  else who looked at him that way with those Stony gray eyes such a long time ago he and his brother  had never gotten along though they shared the same face the same hair and the same eyes they couldn't  have been more different he was the screw-up the one who couldn't focus in class

and was always  bumbling through life like a bull in a china shop his brother was the Golden Boy the star student  who could do no wrong as the boys got older he tried to climb out of his brother's Shadow and  tried to live up to their parents expectations but anything he did his brother could do better he got  into a great College his brother got into Harvard he got a job his brother got a more impressive one  he got a Honda his brother got a Mercedes he fell in love with a girl and his brother

married her it  seemed like he would never stand on his own never be anything but the Lesser version of a perfect  man a nasty little homunculus who just happened to be wearing the Graven image of something greater  than himself on the night of his brother's wedding the festering resentment had finally come to the  surface he remembers the night and bits and pieces a harsh word a fifth drink a broken champagne  glass his brother said something that went too far cut too deep without thinking he

shoved him  just a bit too hard he watched his brother fall watched his head hit the corner of the table and  then he was still silent he thought about turning himself in but then another thought crossed his  mind why ruin two Futures at once his brother was gone there was no coming back from that should he  really spend the rest of his life in prison over a tragic mistake it didn't seem fair instead  he planned for once he was grateful for the similarities between him and his brother their  han

dwriting for instance he forged a note to his brother's new bride telling her that he couldn't  take the pressures of his life anymore he was leaving fleeing to Europe to start a new life with  a new name and leaving all of his old ties behind then he packed his brother's body the one that  looked so much like his own into a suitcase he drove out into the woods to a place they had once  gotten lost as children and he buried it so deep no one would ever find it he'd never forget how he  felt that

night laboring away in the dark Forest face an unpleasant mess of snot and tears the end  of his shovel piercing the dirt again and again until he'd made a big enough hole to consign the  case that now held his own brother's mangled body every shovel full of dirt that He piled back  on hiding his sin felt heavier than the last what had he done what the hell had he done  but by the time the Grim deed was concluded rationalizations had smoothed out the hard edges  of his crime there were a millio

n reasons this was okay this was justified it was an accident  of course that much was clear but didn't his brother also have it coming for flaunting his  perfect life in his face for all these years and who was the worthless chunk of dead meat  now the scales were balanced once more no one would ever know what he did no one but him in  those moments where he could see his brother in the mirror reminding him of his greatest  shame no matter how hard he tried to forget but that moment is long gon

e he's back in the  present now grounding himself with a splash of cold water on his face he shakes off the memories  and dresses for the day it's time to get to work when he arrives at the facility he's shocked by  what he sees it's a castle Grand and imposing even if the years have not been particularly  kind to it the foundation did not build this structure though they've set up shop inside now  his reminiscence has made him late and he hasn't even had a chance to look over his paperwork yet 

when you're a site director what does it even matter if you're a little late you're the boss the  head honcho the party doesn't start until you walk in just the thought of it is enough to make his  chest swell with pride he will have to ask someone to fill him in an eager subordinate who won't mind  going over the basics of the new facility and what they are here to study like clockwork a young  assistant researcher scurries up to him holding a clipboard and practically vibrating with energy  s

he clearly hasn't been working here long there's still light behind her eyes he thinks to himself  the things you see here will snuff that out soon enough my dear the assistant researcher leads him  inside the castle its guts ripped out and replaced with Sleek modern technology a stone staircase  has been swapped out for a row of elevators marble busts exchanged for security cameras and  monitors they enter one of the elevators and the assistant presses the button for the lowest  possible floor

they are going deep into the bowels of the castle into the belly of the great  Beast with a ding the doors open and they step out the air down here has a peculiar smell musty  and dull with a sharp metallic Tang of dried blood along the wall you can see a row of prison cells  eight of them to be precise all shut tight they're rusted and old they've been here for quite some  time the foundation didn't put these ear of course he realizes with a sinking feeling in his stomach  that he can't quite e

xplain these cells themselves must be the anomaly he's here to supervise the  containment of he should have read the file before arriving shouldn't have let himself get distracted  then he would know what he's walking into so here we are the assistant chirps startling the man he  had almost forgotten she was standing next to him shall I give you the Grand Tour she won't last  long here with such a chipper attitude he thinks but he nods just the same she walks ahead of him  referring dutifully to

her clipboard As She Goes this is the first cell as you can see all of them  are currently inactive we'll be performing some tests later though and you'll hopefully get to see  them in action it's really something she continues walking to the second cell there are a lot of  potential applications for this anomaly that once we understand it could be incredibly promising  he's only half listening as he Trails behind her as they near the third cell the assistant glances  back at him I really look

forward to working with you sir I've heard such great things he opens his  mouth to brush off the praise to feign humility for hersig when a sound startles him the grind of  metal against metal the Screech of a long disused door the third cell is opening on its own the  assistant flips through her notes growing pale this isn't supposed to happen this shouldn't be  happening she stammers but he barely Hears A word he's staring transfixed at the darkness Within  there's a rattling sound like chain

s being dragged across a stone floor what is about to be Unleashed  from this prison he braces himself remembering all of the near-death experiences he's faced  down in the past nothing could prepare him for what years a pair of iron shackles attached to  lengths of chain shoot out from the Shadows headed right for him a shackle clamped suddenly around  each of his wrists the cold metal tight enough to cut off the circulation digging into his skin then  an invisible force on the other end of the

chains begins to pull he fights it the shackles cutting  into him as the assistant screams for help but his efforts are futile whatever wants to pull him  closer whatever is trying to lock him away it's far stronger than he could ever be the chains  yank him inside the cell and the door slides shut behind him with a crash thanks for just a  moment that he did he see his brother laughing then he's gone leaving only an empty  cell and a traumatized assistant behind sometimes the sins of the Past

come back to haunt  you and unfortunately for this particular man there's no statute of limitations when it comes to  scp-567 or the dungeon in case the nickname wasn't clear enough the dungeon is not the sort of place  you would ever want to be confined scp-567 is a series of eight cells located beneath Foundation  site 41. each cell has a designated number from scp-567-1 through scp-567-8 most of the time the  cells are inactive and indistinguishable from any ordinary prison cell however when

someone that  one of the cells deems to be guilty of a specific offense enters their proximity the anomalous  properties of scp-567 become abundantly clear each cell punishes a specific horrible act  scp-567-1 targets those who have committed theft two punishes sexual violence three  and four punish various types of murder five punishes adultery 6 and 7. I'm afraid I can't  quite make out what it says someone appears to have deliberately scratched out the text in  the file as for scp-567-8 whate

ver wrongdoing it chooses to penalize is still unknown and it is  never activated in the entire time the foundation has none of it every other cell is completely  empty at 567-8 contains one single antique wooden chair in the center of the room nailed to  the floor the purpose of this chair is unclear when an individual who has committed one of the  aforementioned acts comes within 2.5 meters of their corresponding cell door a pair of shackles  will shoot out from within the cell seemingly mater

ializing out of nowhere these shackles will  then lock around the individual's wrists and drag them inside at which point the cell door will  slide itself closed and lock and the Prisoner and shackles will disappear multiple researchers  have compared this anomaly both in its function and its methodology to scp-1002 or demisers and  scp-2701 or true solitary confinement which I have discussed at length before since the foundation  first contained scp-567 only two prisoners have ever reappeared a

fter being taken 68 hours  after he was first placed inside scp-567-3 d-903912 escaped and was found collapsed on the  ground just outside site-41 he died only moments after reappearing before any medical intervention  could take place an autopsy showed severe injuries including lacerations internal bleeding and burns  on his wrists and ankles the second subject to ever return was d-937122 who was found 157 months  after being locked in scp-567-6 in spite of her injuries which included head trau

ma missing  fingers and the same burn marks on her wrists and ankles this subject had a great deal more  energy and attempted to attack the foundation Personnel that found her she was subdued by  several guards restrained and interrogated by an unnamed agent thankfully an audio log at the  interview was included in the file giving us a sense of what transpired please date your name  the agent began d-937122 did not respond please state your name they repeated again no response  the agent sighed

heavily and changed tactics look I'm very sorry and I want to help you but  we can't give you medical attention unless you cooperate with us so please please state your name  for the record at long last the d-class responded with an intense Outburst my name you want to know  my name screw my name there is no name there is no anything but but there is I escaped I got  the metal off none of it and here the audio was corrupted to the point where I couldn't understand  what was being said after the

interference clears d-937122 could be heard shouting I should be free  Let Me Go a struggle followed as she attempted to escape custody the agent then replied in an  attempt to calm the d-class down I apologize but now we have the opportunity to screw your  opportunity there is no opportunity there's only Escape you called me a monster maybe I am one  but the nightmares did she briefly broke down into unintelligible mumbling before returning  to normal speech compared to their crimes I've done n

othing wrong nothing at all I haven't done  anything wrong nothing at this point the d-class became inconsolable all coherent speech dissolving  into sobs the agent attempted to calm her down but she remained hysterical after several moments  of sobbing the d-class began to gasp as if she was having difficulty breathing she clutched her  chest and began to go into apparent cardiac arrest the agent attempted to administer CPR but it was  unsuccessful and after a few minutes she was dead an autops

y was ordered following the interview  which revealed the apparent cause of her death her body was covered with tiny punctures and  a toxicology report revealed an unknown poison in her bloodstream though only two people have  ever emerged from scp-567 they were not the only organic life forms to break out of the dungeon  cells every so often the doors of a cell will open and an entity will emerge these creatures  are given the designation scp-567-9 and they are always aggressive they do not usu

ally match  the description of any existing animal instead appearing to be some sort of undiscovered  creature once an instance of scp-567-9 has escaped itself it will attempt to leave the  dungeon and attack anything that gets in its way the first instance of scp-567-9 observed  by the foundation was a four-limbed creature approximately two meters in length it walked  on all fours that had human-like hands on its front limbs complete with opposable thumbs and  sophisticated enough Mobility to o

perate machinery it was highly intelligent and used this intellect  to take out 14 Foundation operatives before it was contained the details of scp-567-9-2 have been  stricken from any official documentation the only thing I can surmise from the file is that nine  Personnel were killed after it appeared and one of the agents that helped contain it requested  and received psychological counseling for what they experienced during the process so whatever  it was he encountered it wasn't anything go

od during a round of routine testing with scp-567-4  while the cell door was open an instance of scp-567-9 appeared attacking and killing the  researcher leading the tests The Entity was not contained but after seven casualties was  lured back towards its original Self at this point the cell deployed its shackles and the  creature was pulled back inside the most recent instance of scp-567-9 emerged when the door to  scp-567-7 opened and closed spontaneously this was spotted on the CCTV footage b

ut none of  the security monitoring the video could see anything leaving the cell two weeks later an  agent assigned to the dungeon was found dead in his home still in bed the circumstances of his  death were virtually identical to those attributed to scp-966 a nightmarish species of creature  known as the Sleep killer which I've discussed here on the channel before when the escaped entity  was found in site-41 it was found to resemble an instance of scp-966 with only a few variations  it was su

ccessfully contained when the on-site security cameras were upgraded to prepare for  future anomalies like it though many specifics are missing from the file including the exact  appearances of the creature that emerged from the cells I have deduced one thing wherever scp-567  is transporting those it deems guilty it is a prison for Monsters of all species humans are not  the only ones it wishes to hold accountable for their crimes as I was reading about the dungeon  and the various tests involv

ing it a rather morbid question came to mind what would happen to a test  subject guilty of more than one crime which cell would claim them well fortunately for my curiosity  and unfortunately for him one d-class found out d-834200 was used as a human test subject during  initial studies of scp-567 he was placed in front of scp-567-6 and 7. almost instantly the cells  rattled open and the shackles shot out to grab him his left wrist and Ankle were ensnared by cell  six it is right we're trapped

by cell seven then he was pulled into both cells well part of him was  at least how can I best explain his fate without causing too much distress have you ever held a  wishbone in your hand at a family dinner while you're a sibling or cousin held the other side and  you both pulled until it broke it was a bit like that SCP Foundation psych-41 has been established  in the abandoned castle that contains scp-567 in order to prevent any civilians from coming across  it the entrance to the dungeon is

kept sealed at all times and the doors to each of the cells  are monitored via CCTV if any door is opened without authorization task force Delta 9 also  known as hacks will be deployed to contain the resulting instance of scp-567-9 if for any reason  it cannot be contained the task force is permitted to terminate in order to prevent the unnecessary  loss of any Personnel all applicants to join task force Delta 9 must have a clean criminal record  have never committed a crime at all even at the

behest of the foundation have a strong dedication  to the law and show loyalty to the social contract and the feelings of others a robust moral compass  is considered a vital qualification to work near scp-567 unless they become simply one more victim  added to its long list of tortured penitence the foundation has encountered many anomalies  over the years that could pose a danger to the organization itself scp-567 is no exception  Untold numbers of foundation operatives have committed terrible

acts in the service of  the greater good they have lied stolen and even killed in order to protect and contain the  secrets locked away in files and behind heavily guarded walls a great deal of caution should  be used when dealing with the dungeon no matter how Justified a person thinks their past sins  might be after all there's no chance to plead your innocence in the very prison that plans to  hold you is also the judge jury and executioner the high priest adorned in the finest purple  cerem

onial robes stands before the great bull-headed statue in the darkened Belly of  the castle the year is 850 CE masked worshipers whisper chants of holy reverence on all sides  he is in his element everything they do they do in service of the great God Malik all around them  banners bearing the Sigil of the Brazen heart hang it's a celebration just a few hours earlier their  forces had invaded an enemy Church in the Hills they'd slaughtered most of the congregation in  a sudden Whirlwind of blood

y violence staining their swords in the great Malek's name but as the  high priest had ordered some of these blaspheming Christian churchgoers were taken prisoner and  brought back to the castle for questioning here the high priest would deal with them himself  a sadistic tooth-bearing grin crosses his face at the very thought of it soon after the ceremony  the high priest descends into the dungeon which he'd taken with a certain flourish to calling the  game room here he keeps his private colle

ction of torture tools from around the world Each  of which he takes great pleasure in using against the worms refused to bend the knee to  his bloodthirsty God in the game room the air is suffused with a stink of blood and sweat  the prisoners who still have tongues start to scream when the high priest enters knowing  that everything is about to get so much worse for them he's cultivated a certain reputation  as a man willing to do anything to ensure the superiority of his Infamous cult the Bra

zen heart  if ever you fell into his terrible clutches Escape was out of the question the very best you could  possibly hope for was a mercifully quick death in the corner of the room one unfortunate captive  was twisted and shattered against a breaking wheel but still torturously alive in the corner across  from him another prisoner bleeds from the inside of a grimacing Iron Maiden that the high priest  had overseen the construction of personally but that was only the very beginning of the  hig

h priest's collection of terrible instruments prisoners Teeter in agony on Judas cradles and  Spanish donkeys skin is stretched and bones are cracked on racks some are pierced as they sit  on the Monstrous iron chair While others simmer away in great Vats of oil some scream as they  hang from their wrists on the 10th round of strapado lead sprinklers Spanish ticklers thumb  screws crocodile shears choke pears melee boots Heretics Forks bastinato sticks scolds bridles  scavengers daughters the hi

gh priest has all of them and he's Adept at using them but they  all pale in comparison to his favorite piece a prized possession gifted from the bosom  of Malik himself the Liar's cradle such a perfectly ingenious tool for physical pain and  mental Terror it's positioned at the very center of the game room just so every other prisoner and  every other device can see him using it and know that it's their eventual fate a mighty Stone  furnace with huge metal grates on either side as the high prie

st approaches he can see a  terrified prisoner already writhing within the machine when the prisoner sees him the fear only  gets worse the high priest would have no mercy for him he'd spent 10 hours on the breaking wheel  before this and that felt like a pleasant sleep in a comfy king-sized bed compared to what he was  about to endure two of the high priest's sadistic acolytes Jabet him through the greats with red-hot  pokers the high priest Grins and asks the prisoner what village he hails fro

m when the Villager  surrenders the information the high priest gives a sagely nod he asks how old the prisoner is and  the Prisoner says 27 again the high priest nods he asks the prisoner whether he would  like to leave and be with his family again and of course the prisoner replies yes  he has no idea that they're all already dead the high priest smiles and says just one  more question then and you'll be free to go what is my true name The Prisoner pauses for a  moment which earns them another

jab with the poker he tells the high priest that he doesn't know  he's jabbed again and again and again he begins to cry and starts apologizing he doesn't know the  high priest's true name how could he possibly tell him no matter how much he's tormented the high  priest says well just give me your best guess who knows perhaps you'll be lucky the game room  Falls silent all eyes on the prisoner in the Liar's cradle his lip trembles knowing from the  Dark Legends what will happen when he answers

he breathes a ragged sigh accepts his fate and  guesses incorrectly suddenly The Prisoner screams as he catches fire the high priest watches with  unrestrained Glee as the prisoner Burns he does so for around a minute the fire burning far  more intensely than it possibly should have by the time it's done the pile of Ashes that  was once the prisoner falls through the grate in the bottom of the Liar's cradle the high priest  turns to the rest of the room and asks who's next of all the many adject

ives you could use to  describe scp-2128 also known as the Liar's cradle Humane certainly isn't high on the list this  antique Stone furnace was discovered deep in the dungeons of an undisclosed Castle believed to be  a former Refuge of a fringe occultic group known as the Brazen heart a cult of worshipers of the  Canaanite deity Malik an entity mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible among the deities most  notable traits is its bull-like appearance and the fact it requests burned human sac

rifices this  feels extremely relevant given the fact that the Liar's cradle is all about giving its victims a  fiery end while the thalmaturgic methods used by members of the Brazen hand to create the Liar's  cradle is unknown what is clear are the cradle's capabilities and functions when a human being  is placed within the cradle and asks questions a single lie will lead to them being anomalously  incinerated and the device's purview 4 lie is frighteningly wide a victim will be incinerated if 

something they say is factually untrue regardless of the victim's personal knowledge in other  words ignorance as an excuse will not save you while the Brazen heart was wiped out hundreds of  years ago by soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition the SCP Foundation has been able to glean some  background information about the Liar's cradle from a surviving document a sheepskin scroll  known as the ignis manuscript this revealed that the Cradle was invented around the 9th century  CE before being wall

ed up in 1021 CE and during its Heyday it was used as a torture device by  Brazen hand members against their enemies While most torture is actually incredibly ineffective at  getting information Studies have shown that under states of extreme duress victims will simply say  what they believe their captors want to hear in order to make the suffering stop the Liar's cradle  is an excellent method of bringing information out of captives well aside from the fact that one lie  means the captive is im

mediately reduced to ashes you see scp-2128 works on a true or false  binary operating system that seems to imply an innate awareness of all knowledge if you  have enough captives to burn and know the right deductive or inductive questions to ask it's  possible to know almost anything in enough time it's believed the Brazen heart used the Liar's  cradle both for practical purposes and their own Twisted Amusement victims would be placed  in the device and had their feet prodded with hot pokers wh

ile they were asked a series of  increasingly probing questions about their life being forced to divulge extremely dark and  personal secrets or meet their doom on the pyre it was a depraved combination of physical and  mental torture if even hearing about all this makes you feel a little queasy nobody could blame  you for that the SCP Foundation however looked at the Liar's cradle and saw incredible potential  as mentioned earlier the Liars cradle bases its judgment on Raw factual knowledge not

the  knowledge of its particular victims so anyone with enough people to burn can conceivably work  their way towards discovering any binary answer and given that the SCP Foundation has an almost  unlimited number of d-class personnel at their disposal it didn't take long for them to realize  all the knowledge that was up for grabs they just need to make a few sacrifices along the way  hoping to save more people in the long run Malik himself would probably be proud it was this  somewhat morally

dubious Chain of Thought that led to the creation of experimental protocol 37 spara  fusel the foundation's plan to utilize the Liar's Cradle to discover more information that would  assist in their mission to contain anomalies and protect the human race the protocol is outlined  in a five-step procedure that is as follows one one d-class employee referred to as  the Messenger will be laid inside scp-2128 2. the Messenger will repeat statements as  instructed from the prepared list three after

each statement if the messenger Remains unharmed  the statement is to be marked as true four as soon as the messenger is incinerated a new messenger  is to be provided the statement that triggered the incineration is to be marked as false 5. a  new Messenger will be assigned repeat as needed while the total extent of these tests remains off  the Record the official files on scp-2128 have some fascinating supplementals about some of the  results of experimental protocol 37 Sparrow fusel the first

set of tests was designated  ep37 spara fusel-22 ketter checkup and was conducted on January 10 2014  the messenger in this case was d-6238 the first statement this d-class was Fed was the  human race is in danger of extinction right now seeing as d-6238 didn't immediately go  up in Flames this was found to be true the second statement was the danger comes from  an item in Foundation custody much to the relief of the d-class this was also found to be true and  he lived to make another statement

this statement was the dangerous item in question is located at a  site in North America this was sadly the d-class's last words as this statement proved to be false  and he was immediately burned to death for his troubles the next messenger brought in was a woman  now known as d-6239 after she committed an armed robbery that killed several Innocents and landed  her on death row her statement was the dangerous item in question is located at a site in Europe  This caused her to be immediately in

cinerated the SCP Foundation then continued to narrow  their focus on this matter over the next 13 d-classes with the information they gained they  were able to narrow down that scp-752 a subspecies of humans who are eager to displace and replace  non-anomalous Humanity would be the cause of a Containment Breach that could potentially end the  human Race's dominance if they weren't stopped d-6253 was given the statement scp-752 would  breach containment within the next month the answer was true

next came scp-752 will breach  containment within the next week also this proved to be true d-6253 would finally meet their  maker with a false statement scp-752 will breach containment tomorrow but this opened the door  for the final correct answer delivered to us by d-6254 that scp-752 will breach containment  today armed with this Vital Information in the nick of time the foundation dispatched MTF News  7 also known as hammer down their largest and most well-armed mobile task force to the sit

e  in question this quick thinking allowed them to quell the threat at the exact right time and  save the world from an SK class dominance shift scenario that would have left Humanity in the  dust using the Liar's cradle the SCP Foundation had just saved the world as we know it and all  it had taken was a handful of d-class lives so naturally the tests with the Liar's cradle  didn't stop there next came ep37 sparrafusel-23 knowledge measure as the name suggests this test  hoped to ascertain the

extent of the knowledge the Liar's cradle possessed seeing as it could  continue to come in handy for foundation purposes the first messenger was d-7784 who has fed  the statement scp-2128 knows everything this turned out to be false and led to the  d-class's immediate incineration however the lead researcher on the case decided to take a different  approach perhaps he thought the Liar's cradle didn't accept the numerical designation that the  foundation had placed on it the next messenger d-778

5 LED with a statement the Liar's cradle  knows everything which proved true because that allowed him to live long enough to be incinerated  by his next statement the Liar's cradle will tell us everything after his incineration d-7786  stepped up to the metaphorical plate first saying the Liar's cradle will tell me everything  I need to know the Cradle judged this to be true it did not however take kindly to the Liar's  cradle will tell the foundation everything they need to know declared this s

tatement  false by immediately incinerating the d-class after this incineration the ep-37 sparathusal  project was out of its daily allotted d-classes and decided to call it a night their next test  was the mysterious and controversial ep-37 sparafusel-24 Sunday school song which utilized  d-7891 as its messenger she was fed the statement Jesus loves the little children all the children  of the world the results of this particular test have been permanently expunged from SCP Foundation  records

next came ep37 sparrafusel-25 Pinocchio Paradox which was an experiment intended  to see how the Liar's cradle would react to logical paradoxes spoilers it doesn't involve  as much incineration as you might expect first came d-8232 Who provided the statement telling  the Liar's cradle of paradox is dangerous to Foundation Personnel this was proven to be false  and ironically he was burned alive immediately next came d-8233 with a statement the Liar's  cradle is going to kill me right now the Lia

r's cradle bent its own rules by declaring this  false but only incinerating the d-class enough to permanently disfigure him rather than killing  him d-8234 was shoved into the Cradle after that making the statement the Liar's cradle is going  to burn me right now this was proven through empirical observation to be false ten seconds  passed without incineration however when d-8234 exited the Cradle he complained about sustaining a  small cut on one of the rocks that made the Cradle while climbin

g out of it this caused d-8234 to  rapidly succumb to a previously undiscovered form of gangrene and pass away in minutes finally  d-8235 entered and said the Liar's cradle is going to inflict physical harm upon me right now  this was proven false and d-8235 climbed out of the Liar's cradle unharmed at this point however  he began to cry and scream out the word goodbye before dying via altogether more unpleasant means  that I don't wish to discuss in great detail here the last experiment we have

on record here is  ep37 Sparrow fusel-26 subjective opinion which intended to see if the Liar's cradle liked to  turn logical gray areas into logical charred black areas messenger 1 d-9224 made the relatively  uncontroversial statement golden retrievers are cute the Cradle seem to disagree immediately  incinerating him the next messenger d-9225 delivered the Counterpoint golden retrievers  are ugly and just like that he was up in smoke however when messenger 3 d-9226 delivered the  wildcard sta

tements golden retrievers are tasty everyone in attendance was surprised to find the  Liar's cradle completely agreed with this windy 9226 delivered the completely understandable  reaction wait what that's freaking nasty he was immediately reduced to ashes by the cradle's  Flames with this line of questioning concluded in the strangest manner possible the new messenger  d-9227 was brought in before becoming a member of d-class personnel his name was Stephen Kemp  a cannibalistic serial killer wh

o'd murdered and eaten 14 women before being captured tried  and put on death row for his crimes he delivered the statement I'm a good person surprisingly  the Cradle felt this was true and let him live however when Stephen decided to get cocky and  chime in with jokes on you jackasses apparently I'm Mother Teresa he was immediately incinerated  due to the fact that he was not in fact Mother Teresa his ashes were soon accompanied by  that of d-9228 who made the statement the Liar's cradle is som

etimes incorrect before being  burned to death next came d-9229 who allowed for the longest streak of unbroken statements in the  history of tests performed on the Liar's cradle he said the Liar's cradle speaks only infallible  empirical truth true he said the Liar's cradle is hungry truth he said the Liar's cradles hunger can  never be satiated no matter how full it becomes true he said the Liar's cradle would  like to incinerate me right now true he said the Liar's cradle is growing  impatient

true he said the Liar's cradle sees delicious warm meat on its plate  and would very much like to be fed true he said the Liar's cradle is angry  that it is continually denied its meat truth he said people meet is delicious true he  said I am delicious true he said my skin is warm true he said the crackling of fire upon boiling  drips of fat and rapidly cauterizing flesh gives the Liar's cradle pleasure true after such  an incredible streak that also allowed for a frightening insight into the a

pparent personality  of the Liar's cradle d-9229 was withdrawn alive he was replaced by d-9230 who said the Earth  is round and was immediately incinerated it's widely believed that this outcome came from  the Liar's cradle maliciously interpreting Earth as dirt rather than the planet Earth just  so it could incinerate the subject just because the Liar's cradle is largely objective doesn't  mean it isn't incredibly Petty it would seem because of the static nature of scp-2128 it has  been given t

he rare safe object class containment site 403 has been built around the castle that  currently holds scp-2128 and a healthy supply of d-class personnel is regularly siphoned off for  ep-37 spa refusal the sadistic Sorcerers of the Brazen heart may be long gone but in a strange and  disturbing twist of fate the researchers of the SCP Foundation are keeping the spirit of their  work alive even today It's a beautiful morning in Hollywood and the agent is already chattering  on his mobile phone as

his limo pulls up to his office he considers himself a power player in this  town where image is everything so he's never not talking on his mobile it gives him an aura of  importance something that's extremely important in a career where what people think you can do  is often more important than what you can really do he exits his limo motioning dismissively for  the driver to take it around to the garage but he never stops talking babe babe it's like I told  that director he said barely notici

ng that he cuts off an arriving delivery man as he sweeps  through the doors of his office building if he wants you to be in his next movie he's gonna have  to treat you like the star that you are of course I said that I've got your back don't I who loves  you babe hold on a sec I have to take another call the agent lowers his sunglasses to peer at the  caller ID and smiles broadly his favorite client is calling he switches lines quickly with an  expert flick of the thumb and immediately starts

talking to this new client as if he never even  broke conversation the truth is that this agent is struggling to survive in the shark eat shark  Waters of Hollywood he's losing clients left and right because he's actually not all that good at  making deals his fast talk is good at convincing naive young actors just arriving in town that  he's the guy to know the guy who has all the connections that can get them into the movies but  the truth is that he's little more than a huckster he's confiden

t that's going to change very soon  the actor that he's speaking with right now is a hot commodity in this town and he's sure that his  career is about to go through the roof and that means big bucks for The Savvy agent who snatched  him up right when he stepped off the bus into town as he opens the door to his outer office he  barely even pays any mind to his secretary who is studiously transcribing yesterday's meeting  so that the agent can review them later but she cringes as she catches sigh

t of the agent they  say that you can judge a man's character better by the way that he treats his employees than by  the way he treats his friends and if the agent's relationship with his secretary is any indication  this agent is not a very nice person at all she's used to being berated for every little mistake  even when it's not her fault to the point that she starts to sweat and Shake as soon as she  sees her tyrannical boss arrive she heaves an audible sigh of relief as the agent passes by

  her without a word but her feelings are premature before the agent enters his inner office the  client whom he's speaking with drops a bombshell what's that says the agent stopping dead in  his tracks and the color draining from his face you're leaving me you're signing with  a different agent babe come on you can't do this to me I need you I mean I was gonna make  you a star you can't do this to me Furious the agent screams as he throws his phone at the  wall in impotent rage the cell phone s

hatters into a million pieces broken bits of casing  and bent microchips littering the carpet he turns toward his secretary with a snarl on his  face and points an accusatory finger at her what did you tell him did you tell him he could  get a bigger percentage with another agent you did didn't you I always tell you not to talk to  the clients but you can't keep your big mouth shut the secretary tries to stammer out of Defense but  she's too nervous before she can say anything the agent turns aw

ay from her still fuming I'm gonna  take a coffee to get over this he grouses removing his extremely fashionable sunglasses and rubbing  his forehead and frustration when I get back that mess better be cleaned up oh and make yourself  useful for once and get me a replacement phone the secretary doesn't waste any time in grabbing  a dustpan and broom from the supply closet and cleaning up the destroyed cell phone she knows her  boss is in a terrible mood and she's worried that he's not going to b

e much better when he returns  and then he's probably going to just yell at her some more she needs to move fast because she knows  the agent won't be gone long and even though it's obviously completely ridiculous to expect that  she'll be able to find and buy a new cell phone for him in the few minutes that he's gone she's  sure that he'll still take out his frustrations on her moments later the agent returns still  grumbling to himself and clutching a hot coffee in his hands he glowers at her

over his sunglasses  I see you're still sweeping up huh God you're so slow and did you even get me a new phone yet I  can't be expected to do my job if my clients can't reach me the secretary opens her mouth to respond  but before she can say a word they're interrupted by the ringing of a telephone both agent and  secretary turned a look at the source of the noise there on the edge of the secretary's desk  is an ancient cordless telephone it doesn't look anything like the Slick modern phones cur

rently  being sold in stores it looks like it's a leftover from the early 2000s so low Tech that it might as  well be a rotary phone the agent sneers that's the best you could do that thing is ancient I'm not  going to use a cordless phone I said I wanted a cell phone what kind of joke is this the secretary  doesn't know what to say she didn't buy that phone she's pretty sure in fact that she's never even  seen it before the maintenance staff must have replaced her phone overnight and she just d

idn't  notice it because they haven't received any phone calls today but wait a minute she sees that her  regular black telephone is also still on her desk in this case maybe the new phone is intended for  her boss well aren't you gonna answer it ask the agent pointedly as the telephone continues to  ring um yes yes sir says the secretary nervously she grabs the phone and picks it up she vaguely  notes that something feels wrong as she hefts the phone in her hand her eyes randomly Trail along  t

he Contours of the phone noting that the seams of the phone seem to have been welded together huh  that's strange but she doesn't have the time to ponder this for long because she's got to answer  the phone quickly while her boss glowers at her she holds it to her ear as the agent watches  a grin on his face he can't wait to hear how upset the client will be to find out that he's  no longer getting the agent's personal attention the secretary introduces herself and states the  name of the talent

agency how can I help you she asks her face quickly goes pale and she  starts to tremble tears welling up in her eyes what who is this she cries what's going  on oh my God are you are you is that the agent quirks an eyebrows skeptically what's  going on here is this some kind of prank the voice on the other end of the phone is loud he  can't make out the words but it almost sounds like someone is shouting hysterically he can hear  other loud noises coming over the wire crashes and shouts and a

loud buzzing that almost sounds  like the revving of a chainsaw meanwhile what the secretary hears chills her to her core the  voice on the other end of the phone is shouting and panicked it's a woman but the secretary can  barely hear her over the noises in the background she heard the ominous Clank of Machinery in  the crackle of fire what is going on they're torturing us cries the woman on the phone her  voice cracking as she descends into frantic sobs secretary doesn't know what to think but

she  can tell that the fear in the woman's voice is very real the secretary can hear screams  and shouts in the background and her mind is instantly filled with visions of the most  horrendous sorts of Torment she thinks of innocent victims mowed down with machine gun  fire or garotted with wire or even subjected to the most Insidious of medieval torture  devices like the Rack or the breaking wheel she imagines a whole facility dedicated to nothing  but the senseless torture of innocent victims

for no conceivable purpose except perhaps the sick  curiosity of the psychopathic torturers themselves she shakes her head desperately trying to clear  the awful images from her mind I'm sorry where are you says the secretary hurriedly she blunders  at the drawer on her desk pulling it open and desperately searching for a pen and paper hoping  that the frightened woman on the other end of the phone might still have the presence of mind to  tell her an address maybe if she can figure out where t

his is happening she can call 9-1-1 and  have them send the police to investigate from the sounds of things he'll need to send some  paramedics as well and as much as she hates to think about it they'll probably need to send some  hearses too her fingers fall upon a pen and pull it from the drawer she clamps the phone between  her chin and shoulder and grabs a steno pad ready to scribble down any info that she can get her  boss is staring at her an amused smirk across his face he clearly thinks

that this silly secretary  is just overreacting to nothing but he can't hear the woman's voice he can't know the depth of  her Terror please tell me where you are begs the secretary her fingers are trembling so hard that  the pen leaves a squiggly line on the paper but the voice on the other end of the phone is barely  parent now all her words degenerating into a long drawn-out scream of absolute gargling Terror okay  that's enough of that says the agent Crossing his arms across his chin and reg

arding his shaking  secretary with deep and obvious skepticism you think this impresses me I've seen better acting  in an elementary school play of course he would immediately think this this is Hollywood after all  and everyone has Hollywood dreams of someday being in a movie every waiter and bus driver by day is  a frustrated actor by night so even though his secretary has never before expressed any interest  in becoming a movie star he of course suspects that this is an elaborate setup to con

vince  him of her acting talents she turns to look at him and one look at her pale face is enough  to convince him that she's not acting at all her face is ghostly white and she's shaking like  a leaf she looks like she might simply faint right here from Fright now the agent smug annoyance  turns to anger maybe his secretary isn't trying to fool him but someone on the phone sure is it  must be some kind of prank call and his secretary is simply the one person in Hollywood dumb enough  to fall fo

r it there's someone in trouble crisis secretary dropping the phone from her ear she says  that they're being tortured we need to get them help the agent rolls his eyes of course it would  be a prank call he can't believe that his stupid secretary is actually taking this seriously kid  you have a lot to learn about Hollywood he snaps his fingers in her face it's clearly just some  random loon trying to trick you and over the phone doll I'll handle this it's not fake Babel's  the secretary in a d

ays I'm sure of it it's real she hesitates afraid to hand off the phone for  reasons that not even she can articulate the agent grants an annoyance snatching the phone from her  hands nothing's real here kid it's all just smoke and mirrors maybe if you weren't so stupid you'd  already have figured that out the secretary turns away devastated by the insult and buries her face  in her hands the agent meanwhile holds the phone to his ear listen punk I don't know who you think  you are but I'm a big

deal and his words suddenly cut off and the secretary turns as she hears the  cardboard coffee cup explode against the floor the agent is nowhere to be seen it's like he suddenly  vanished in an instant she blinks in Surprise and confusion it happens so suddenly that there's no  way the agent stepped outside without her knowing the dropped coffee cup on the floor serves as  chilling proof that something extraordinary must have happened to him the other thing left behind  sitting in an ever-expa

nding puddle of spilled coffee is the mysterious telephone she stares at  it in disbelief wondering how this strange phone can be responsible for this crazy situation and  then even as she stares trying to make sense of what just happened the phone immediately begins  to ring and new answering a ringing telephone is an almost instinctive response for most of us but  if anything this situation shows why sometimes it might be a good idea to resist that urge after  all you never know who might be o

n the other end and while usually the worst consequence  of answering an unknown caller is that you'll be subjected to a lengthy and boring pitch for  life insurance or solicitations for political donations this story shows that there are some  things much worse than a Spam caller instead you might be receiving a call from scp-145 for  all intents and purposes scp-145 appears to be a standard 2002 model cordless telephone handset of  Alcatel brand on its standard issue charging base the charging

base has been defaced the Jack inputs  are sealed with resin glue and the power input to the device has been torn out with a sharp tool  all labels and stickers have been torn off the phone so its serial number and production  date are unknown none of this would make scp-145 particularly notable what makes scp-145  unusual is that the phone rings constantly defying all attempts to silence it neither removing the  phone's battery nor disassembling the base has had any effect on stopping scp-145'

s incessant ringing  the only thing that can stop the ringing is to answer the phone but as Foundation agents soon  learned answering the phone is literally the last thing you want to do when scp-145 is around agents  assigned to interacting with scp-145 must always do so in pairs for very important safety reasons  because if a person answers scp-145 without being observed by another live human being the  person answering the phone will instantly vanish it is currently unknown how scp-145 causes

its  victims to vanish video recordings of vanishings do not provide any Clarity only showing that the  victim is there in one frame and gone in the next if a person answers the phone while being observed  by another person however they will not vanish and can actually have a conversation of sorts with  whoever is calling the person on the other end of the phone varies from call to call but is always  one of several different female voices this voice will beg for help in a panic tone as the sou

nds  of violence and torture play out in the background the methods of torture judging from words of  the caller and the Sounds in the background have included branding electrocution laceration  and many other gruesome acts of violence it's currently unknown where the voice is  calling from or who is responsible for the horrible tortures happening at that site but  conversations with the phone voice give a grisly clue as to the fate of the people who vanish  after answering scp-145 while unsuper

vised it appears that those vanished individuals  are transported to the site from which the phone calls originate and added to the roster  of victims undergoing torture at the hands of the unknown tormentors the callers appear to be  non-automated and entirely sentient attempts to trace the call or track down the location of the  tortured callers have proven unsuccessful thus far attempts to block the signal of the phone  with the use of a faraday cage have also been unsuccessful since scp-145

is pretty much just  a telephone it has been given the object class Euclid since the location of scp-145's victims is  currently unknown the only way to travel to it is to join the roster of victims by using scp-145  currently the foundation conducts research into scp-145 by using teams of three one class  D staff one class two one four five audio technician and one class III security staff  only class D staff are permitted to actually listen to scp-145 as without fail unsupervised  exposure to

scp-145's Transmissions will cause the listener to vanish and join a growing  list of scp-145's torture victims listening to the pleas of scp-145's victims is a harrowing  experience for even the most jaded researchers such that the foundation has been moved to  try several rescue attempts even when these might not have been the best advised plans as of  yet none of these attempts have been successful in one instance the class D Personnel tasked with  answering scp-145 was issued a GPS locator d

evice in hopes that it might give Foundation agents a  clue about why the victims were being held the GPS device was rendered inactive upon the victim's  disappearance on another occasion a researcher equipped the class D listener with both a GPS  device and a military combat knife once again the GPS device was rendered inactive and subsequent  calls by scp-145 seemed to indicate that the missing class D staff attempted and failed to  use the knife in defense a third rescue attempt involved equi

pping the class D staff with both a  Kevlar vest and a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol subsequent listens to scp-145 revealed the  sound of gunshots followed by exclamations of pain from the vanish class D staff person indicating  that perhaps the unknown tormentors had managed to disarm the class D staff person and use his own  weapon against him in one final rescue attempt researchers thought that possibly explosives could  be used both to attack the mysterious tormentors and to reveal t

he location of the torture site if  nothing else a massive mysterious explosion might appear on seismographic instruments or even local  news reports researchers equipped a Class D staff person with one kilogram of C4 explosion Joseph  concealed in a supply kit with the explosive attached to a remote trigger with a 30 second  delay triggered before interaction with scp-145 the results of this experiment are currently  classified but involved multiple Personnel going missing so suffice to say it

wasn't the rousing  success that the foundation staff had been hoping for following this incident all further tests  on scp-145 have been suspended what is scp-145 and why was it created what cruel yet ingenious  mind could devise something so cunning only to be used for the senseless torment of random people  Foundation researchers still don't know the answer only that scp-145 might serve as yet more evidence  for the boundless depths of human cruelty if in fact it was even created by humans a

truck pulls  up in front of a quiet Suburban home The Faded sign on the truck's flank reads exterminator it's  not the most glamorous job but hey someone's got to do it in all his years of extermination work  this exterminator has seen it all ants termites rats but he's never taken a job that he couldn't  handle as he looks out at this sprawling Suburban home he can't help but notice the nicely manicured  lawn and the beautifully sculpted topiaries the trash cans are neatly stacked on the curb 

ready for pickup it doesn't look like the sort of home that would have a Vermin problem but then  again this exterminator knows better than anyone that looks can be deceiving people often think  that only run down slums will attract Vermin but he knows that even the cleanest kitchens can  still have a problem with unwelcome Invaders he jumps from his truck and walks up to the  front door carrying his equipment on his back and a clipboard in his hands he quickly reviews  the specifics of this job

from the paper on his clipboard a woman called his company complaining  about a major cockroach infestation demanding that they send someone right away he remembers  that she sounded downright frantic on the phone much more agitated than you would expect from  a little cockroach problem then again he thinks some people just really don't like bugs he rings  the doorbell and waits a crabby-looking old woman answers the door it's about time that you got here  she snaps there's a huge cockroach inf

estation in the basement hundreds of them I want you to go  down there and do something about it absolutely ma'am says the Exterminator politely part of  his job is a swaging friend at customers he's used to this sort of thing so many homeowners are  absolutely terrified of insects that they fall to pieces at the site of a spider or a cockroach he's  accustomed to dealing with all manner of creepy crawlies so he's not at all worried he's sure this  will be an easy job you're in good hands with u

s we'll kill those roots is dead he says recalling  the company slogan that he's required to repeat they're in the basement says the old woman I've  tried to kill them but there's too many of them and they're too fast I'm way too old to be running  after a bunch of bugs it tires these old bones out I was down there with a spray can myself but I  just keep getting too tired to keep it up it's almost like those bugs were making me sleepy of  course ma'am the Exterminator can barely keep from Rolli

ng his eyes as this old woman continues to  Rattle off complaints about the cockroaches in her basement of course there's an easy explanation for  all of this this woman is very old so she wouldn't be able to run around much without tiring herself  out that's much more plausible than believing that the Cockroaches Were Somehow magically draining  her energy but again he's used to listening to all sorts of crazy stories from frightened  clients so he doesn't give it much thought then I'll take a

look and see what kind  of problem you have exterminator opens the door to the basement and peers down into the  darkness he gropes blindly for the light switch and eventually his fingers connect he flips the  switch and a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling flickers on the stairs leading down into  the depths of the basement are warped and rickety he makes a mental note to watch his step as he  descends the boards ominously Creak under his feet the basement is filled with junk all the  acc

umulated debris of the owner's whole life he sees piles of cardboard boxes overflowing with old  books and Raggedy clothes paint cans are stacked in the corner in defiance of any pretensions to  fire safety the boiler rattles and wheezes it sounds like it might need to be replaced fairly  soon the air smells damp and musty and he wonders if the old woman has ever cleaned this basement  looking at this mess it's no wonder that she would have a problem with cockroaches the Exterminator  can't help

but think about how messy and decrepit this seller looks compared to the immaculate  facade of the house outside the Exterminator pulls out his flashlight and flicks it on he aims  it into the corners hoping to see some evidence of this insect Invasion he sees nothing the old  woman described a basement infested with hordes of insects yet he doesn't see a single one he stifles  a yawn why does he feel so sleepy this job must be more draining than he thought because he's  already feeling spent c

ould it be that the old woman was right is there something in the basement  that is making him sleepy could it be something about those cockroaches that she blames no that's  just ridiculous he knows enough about cockroaches to know that can't be the case and he's not about  to start believing fantasies now he's a rational guy he knows that you can't lose your head and  expect to do well in this line of work besides he reminds himself he still hasn't actually  seen any evidence of a cockroach pr

oblem at all he continues to poke around the basement and  still finds nothing he frowns this is really concerning first of all he doesn't relish the idea  of explaining to The Old Woman Upstairs that she doesn't actually have a cockroach problem at all  she's probably not going to take kindly to him telling her that she's delusional but also he  was hoping that this would be a big job if you can't find any bugs you won't be able to justify  charging the old woman for this visit what a waste of

his time suddenly he catches movement out of  the corner of his eye he spins around aiming his flashlight into the corner just quick enough to  see something Scuttle through a crack in the wall imagine that no he tells himself he definitely  saw something great he approaches the corner his Spirit suddenly buoyed again he's happy that he'll  actually have something to report to his upstairs client maybe he'll find a whole nest in that crack  that would be great he could justify recommending a ful

l house fumigation then and that would  bring some much needed cash into the business he Narrows his eyes and peers closer even with his  flashlight being trained on the crack it's so dark in the basement that it's hard to see he can see  the wooden Boards of The house's superstructure through the flaking paint on the wall and if  he Squints just right he thinks he can just see something squirming right there between the  boards whatever it is it stops moving when his flashlight beam washes over

it that's very unusual  he knows from experience that when you turn over a rock bugs will always race for cover they aren't  smart enough to play dead yet that's exactly what it looks like this insect is doing he rubs his  eyes with his free hand trying to Blink away his sudden sleepiness he's feeling even drowsier  than before but he really needs to finish this job he moves in closer and the Cockroach decides  to make a break for it the insect skitters away desperately trying to worm its littl

e gray body  between the boards to escape the Exterminator moves fast he pulls a pair of tweezers from his  pocket and pinches them closed on the squirming insect's abdomen before it can wriggle away he  holds it up close to his nose so that he can get a better look at his prey the Exterminator  laughs he's seen every kind of insect in his time and he can recognize a cockroach when  he sees it this is no cockroach you can tell from a glance that he's looking at a perfectly  harmless Cricket like

so many people that old woman must have just panicked at the sight of a  bug and assumed it was a cockroach that's good most people don't mind having crickets in their  home so this old lady will probably be happy to hear the news then again is it a cricket when he  looks closer he sees that it's got some unusual features there are strange Barbed hooks visible  on the underside of its abdomen sharp enough that even an experienced exterminator like him thinks  better of holding this thing too cl

ose to his face are those Stingers could this bug be poisonous  and even stranger if he looks closer he thinks he might even see metal wires protruding from its  exoskeleton the Exterminator yawns again rubbing his eyes he suddenly feels so sleepy what's wrong  with him did you not get enough sleep last night I should have had a second cup of coffee this  morning he tells himself why can't I keep focused his words Trail off as all at once sleep overtakes  him he collapses to the floor with a thu

d dropping his tweezers the cricket bounces free as the  tweezers fall from his hands the cricket drops to the floor and quickly writes itself instead  of running though the tiny insect turns around it skitters toward the prone form of the Exterminator  making a straight line for his head as if it were moving with intelligent purpose this doesn't look  like the Frantic stimulus response movements of an insect the insect crawls over the slumbering  man's face hoisting itself over his chin then li

ps and then right up to his left nostril with  one sudden movement the cricket slithers up his nose and disappears The Exterminator snorts and  mumbles in his sleep with the sensations of an insect wriggling up his nose does nothing to  Rouse him from his sleep after a few minutes the Exterminator blinks his eyes open he sits  up with a groan and rubs his head what the hell just happened did he pass out how embarrassing  he looks around finding his tweezers and his flashlight on the ground next

to him but no  matter where he looks you can't see the insect anymore where did it go he returns to the crack  in the wall for a second look but sees nothing absently the Exterminator rubs his nose he feels  a vague discomfort in his sinuses and he wonders if maybe his allergies are acting up but otherwise  he remembers nothing about his bizarre experience he probes his fingers into the crack and wiggles  them around hoping to find some evidence of the missing insect there's nothing there well a

t  least he knows what he's dealing with and it's definitely no cockroach eventually he shrugs  his shoulders helplessly and returns upstairs did you find the Cockroaches asks the old woman  when he returns to the top of the stairs I know there are roaches down there he shakes his head  ma'am I searched the whole basement and I didn't find any cockroaches he explains to her that  all he could find in the basement was a harmless Cricket the old woman starts to argue with him  insisting that what

she saw in her basement was no Cricket but the Exterminator has already made  up his mind this is annoying he thought that she would be happy to hear that she doesn't have  roaches but now she just wants to make a fuss he's not going to waste any more time on this nonsense  not when he has real work to do he shakes his head as he repacks his equipment and prepares to leave  the Exterminator returns to his truck and turns the ignition as he pulls away his mind is already  mulling his next job he

doesn't give another thought to this crappy old woman and her paranoia  about cockroaches he doesn't stop to wonder what became of that strange Cricket that he found it  probably just crawled back into the wall he thinks he certainly would have no reason to think that  the cricket is still with him a new and permanent hitchhiker inside his head the Exterminator had  just acquired a new lifelong friend a lifelong friend that we call scp-2119 scp-2119 is a  biomechanical creature that resembles a

small gray insect ranging from 5 to 15 millimeters in  length with a segmented body six jointed legs and protrusions from the head and abdomen that  resemble antennae and ovopostures respectively however scp-2119 does not appear to reproduce by  any means known to man so these OVA postures are likely simply a form of mimicry something added to  give scp-2119 the appearance of a common insect to make it less conspicuous to humans genetic testing  has determined that the organic parts of scp-2119

are largely identical to those of grillest Rubens  otherwise known as the southwestern field Cricket one notable difference between scp-2119 and the  field Cricket though is that scp-2119 also known as the transmitting parasite has six Barbed  hooks on the underside of its body strangely scp-2119 also contains mechanical Parts including  silicon parts that do not match any known Mig and platinum wiring leading Foundation researchers  to assume that scp-2119 is an artificial life form at this mom

ent who made scp-2119 and why  remains a mystery in many ways scp-2119 not only looks like a normal insect but also acts like  one it apparently possesses extremely rudimentary self-awareness and intelligence comparable  to that of its insect Brethren being able to sense potential hosts or detect Danger it displays  many normal self-preservation instincts common to insect life if discovered by a conscious human  it will flee or hide but it does possess one self-defense measure that no normal ins

ect does  any human who comes into the proximity of scp-2119 will start to feel drowsy eventually succumbing  to unconsciousness within three to eight minutes once a human subject is unconscious scp-2119 will  enter their head either through the nostrils or the ear canal and eventually make its way to the  subject's brain where it will use its Barbed hooks to attach itself to the corpus callosum which are  the nerve fibers that permit communication between the left and right side of the brain th

e human  subject will gradually wake up with no memory of the event after waking the subject will return to  their normal routine and continue living just as if they were unaffected it does not appear that  infection with the transmitting parasite causes any physical mental or psychological damage to  hosts or impairs their daily lives in any way all attempts to physically remove scp-2119 from  a host's brain have so far resulted in the death of the host as scp-2119 appears to have some  way of

halting a host's brain activity when it's threatened once a host is dead scp-2119  will exit the host's head again either via the nostrils or ear canal when it determines that  no other humans are in the area once scp-2119 has taken up residence in a host's brain it  will start broadcasting a 514.1875 megahertz radio signal with a range of approximately  three kilometers consisting of a tone lasting .05 seconds at two second intervals possibly with  the intent of locating other infected human ho

sts once a connection has been established specimens  will transmit a continuous stream of tones of variable lengths between instances ranging from  70 Hertz to 1305 Hertz with wavelengths ranging from 480 centimeters to 25 centimeters Foundation  Personnel have so far been unable to discern any pattern in the signal so it is unknown if it  is a form of communication or simply random most Insidious of all scp-2119 seems able to  spontaneously manifest inside human brains without entering through

the ear or nose humans coming  into the proximity of an infected host have a 14 chance of spontaneously manifesting an instance of  scp-2119 in their own brains since scp-2119 has no visible means of reproduction exactly how it does  this continues to baffle Foundation scientists scp-2119 specimens are stored individually in  hermetically sealed tanks composed of RF shielded glass and only removed for testing tests are to be  conducted in hermetically sealed Chambers composed of Steel reinforce

d concrete walls to block  scp-2119's radio Transmissions all Personnel handling specimens of scp-2119 are required  to wear level 3 hazardous material suits to protect them from infection scp-2119 was recently  updated from the Euclid to ketter designation after a peculiar incident where all known hosts  suddenly ceased all movement respiration and brain activity effectively dying after 7 minutes and 12  seconds the subjects revived with no ill effects from their apparent deaths and no memory o

f the  incident during the seven minute interval though the transmitting parasites cease broadcasting  their usual static noises and instead broadcast what appears to have been a casual workplace  conversation between two technicians working for whatever entity manufactures scp-2119 all  subjects infected with scp-2119 began to emit a strange scraping noise from their throats  which agents later determined was the sound of a chair being dragged across concrete after  this subjects broadcast a co

nversation between two technicians who appeared to be oblivious to  the fact that their words were being transmitted during this conversation the two technicians  complained about a person named Reich whom the foundation assumes might be their supervisor and  afterwards one of the two Was Heard asking for and then drinking a can of Coca-Cola the broadcast  abruptly ended when one of the two technicians suddenly noticed that they were live and cut the  feed the name Reich is so far the foundation

's only clue as to who or what is manufacturing  scp-2119 but so far all investigations into determining reich's identity have been  unsuccessful it is currently impossible to estimate how many people in the general population  are infected with scp-2119 but considering how contagious the parasite is it is thought to  be extremely widespread without any known means of deactivating scp-2119 without killing  its host containment of scp-2119 is impossible who knows you might already be infected  yo

urself it's not as if you would notice the old house has been abandoned for going on  two decades and as with any place that's been left uninhabited for this long rumors tend to  spiral of course there are the more mundane explanations for why the two-story four-bedroom  home on the end of a nice Street lays in semi-ruin black mold asbestos Rising house prices but  those weren't the stories that most people told everyone in the neighborhood knew what really  happened all those years ago the fami

ly that lived there had been murdered and their killer  was never caught the three young paranormal investigators with EMF readers in their hands and  GoPro cameras mounted on their hard hats know all about this they approached the house in the dead  of night mumbling commentary for the recordings if the old house really is as haunted as  everyone says it is then they could be in for something really good here their subscribers  always loved brand new paranormal content they use a crowbar to bre

ach the front door and  head inside it's everything you can expect from a house that had been abandoned for 17 years  dust cobwebs and graffiti abound broken bottles scattered across the floor someone has scrawled  Welcome to Hell Above the door and Faded Sharpie it all plays perfectly for the  cameras paranormal content gold all of them turn on their flashlights generously  provided to them by one of their sponsors of course but in this particular situation they have  no idea just how valuable

their product really is after all there are some frightening things that  hide in the dark the leader of the trio begins ascending the stairs narrating into his helmet  cam giving the more popular version of The house's Legend the perfect Suburban family torn apart  literally by a killer hiding in their home the family had all been brutally murdered by someone  in their home but the police never found any sign of unlawful entrance or exit there were no clues  to the Killer's presence whatsoever

in fact it was as if they were a ghost a vapor it was almost  as though whoever killed the family had always been in that house and even after the murders  were committed they never left the place either as he tells the story the lead investigator starts  to feel a little nervous even though he himself doesn't really believe in the Supernatural he  just plays up reactions for the views he still can't help but Wonder should I really be here am  I making a terrible mistake is there a chance that w

hatever did this all those years ago could still  be in the house waiting for me but he pushes those thoughts from his mind this gig is too valuable  for him to wimp out now and really what are the chances that something actually dangerous would be  lurking in the house the other two investigators are still looking around downstairs sticking  together their flashlight beams slicing through the darkness their boss always insists on going  upstairs first he demands the glory shot after all that le

aves the rest of them searching the  downstairs living room dining room and kitchen where the best they can hope for is maybe a  particularly haunted looking dishwasher it's why the younger of the two is so surprised when  they suddenly feel something happening to their body that they've never experienced before in  an instant their whole body convulses with an involuntary shutter they feel the temperature  drop and the world gets just that little bit darker the best way they can describe the fe

eling  is impending doom like any moment now something terrible is going to happen but almost as soon as  the feeling begins it's gone intensity dropping the dreads starting to dissipate as though whoever  or whatever caused this feeling literally passed right through them their fellow investigator asks  them if they're okay of course they nod and force a smile they're fine it's just a spooky place  is all atmosphere like this would get to anyone meanwhile the lead investigator is exactly where 

he wants to be ascending a rickety stepladder up into the attic the very same attic where all  those years ago the police had found what was left of the family and from everything he'd read  on the subject their remains weren't a pretty sight even by True Crime Enthusiast standards he  enters the attic and shines his flashlight around capturing all the dusty old boxes left to rot in  the cold he's engrossed in the Macabre spectacle of what had once been the worst and final moments  of a group o

f strangers very real lives the attic is full of spider webs and shadows they're  so ubiquitous that as the lead investigator pauses to tell his camera the next chapter of  the grizzly tale he doesn't even notice one of the Shadows peeling off of the wall behind  him it wafts silently towards him like a gust of midnight air little by little The Blob of  Shadow starts to take on a vaguely human shape it leans forward in the investigator's Direction  arms extended like a classic movie monster long

dark claws slide out of its shadowy hands  downstairs the other two investigators hear the most terrible scream for a moment the more  Fantastical thought crosses their minds could this be one of the tormented Souls of The Departed  family longing to be heard after years of Silence then it occurs to them that they recognize the  scream it belongs to their boss the two of them charge up the stairs flashlights in hand as the  screaming starts to become more desperate than pained like that of a wo

unded animal with its leg  caught in a trap those terrible whales are echoing down from the open hatch leading into the attic  it's so dark up there something must have broken his flashlight that's when they noticed something  else red dripping from the open hatch for a moment they hesitate wondering what could be going on up  there could they really help or would they just be running into the danger themselves but soon their  desire to save their boss's life overpowers Their Fear they grab the

ladder and start climbing  feeling the dripping blood on the worn wooden rungs when they finally get up into the attic it  feels like the scream is coming from everywhere bouncing off the walls in a terrible echoing  cacophony of pain they turn in all directions hovering the flashlight beams around the room and  wide sweeping arcs until both fall on the source of all this Terror And when they see it they  can't help but scream too the lead investigator's body is floating about a foot off the gro

und his  screams now Fading Into painted gurgles something huge and dark is lifting him up with one hand  and Sinking The Long Dark claws of its other into neck the second the twin flashlight beams  concentrate on the creature it drops the lead investigator's bleeding body down onto the  ground his skin slate gray his feeble twitching slowing to a halt as the last of his life drains  from him two glowing red pin Pricks open up in the face of the dark figure eyes like terrible burning  coals etch

ing themselves into their memory like smoke it continues to Glide backwards further  seeking refuge in the dark a safe haven amongst the other Shadows by this point the two surviving  investigators know there's nothing they can do for their boss anymore all that's left is to get  out and survive they have to save themselves they turn wasting no time running towards the  exit they don't notice it but the second they turn the beams of their flashlights away  the Shadow's terrible eyes disappear an

d it starts advancing towards them again its claws  outstretched and grasping for them with awful Fury the shadow creature grabs at their heads as they  make their final leap for the exit however all the monster can pull away are their helmets and  helmet cams as they scramble down the ladder and then down the stairs running at speeds they  didn't even think possible as the shadow slithers down behind them it doesn't give up it wants their  lives it wants their warm human blood on its claws they

clear the threshold of the accursed house  and keep running to their car one looks over their shoulder and sees the shadow leave the house  gaining on them both claws outstretched and ready to rent their flesh the two climb into their car  they see the shadow coming towards their window it's moving so quickly only a few feet away  now it's getting closer and closer and closer ignition the car starts up and the driver smashes  the pedal down they take off quickly accelerating up to Illegal speed

s as the shadow continues to  chase slowly getting smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror a distant nightmare a terrible  dark ghost as it finally disappears they feel a moment of safety but really only a moment  because it occurs to the men that they cannot say with any confidence that this monster  won't just be waiting for them when they scp-280 also known as eyes in the dark is  one of the more frightening and dangerous anomalies contained by the SCP Foundation of  course it likely won'

t be causing an XK Class end of the world scenario anytime soon but if  you happen to run into this nocturnal monster it's likely to cause an end of you scenario and  remove you from the world with extreme prejudice there's no way of telling just how many lives it  claimed before the SCP Foundation finally got it into containment and perhaps it's best to just not  think about that scp-280 is a black wraith-like Apparition that floats at roughly average human  height with no visible legs or feet

as a lower portion of its body simply Fades away before it  reaches the ground in its dormant State The Entity may appear to be a little more than a shadow  easily dismissed especially in dark environments this comes as a natural result of the being's  frightening ability to become intangible at will and only become physical when it enters a state  of active aggression toward a human target in this intangible State victims have even  been known to walk through the shadowy mass by accident while

this doesn't lead to any  detrimental physical effects victims report that being inside the creature can lead to  heightened states of anxiety fear and dread despite its body being wholly composed of an  unidentifiable black matter when exposed to life the creature does begin to express a pair of  glowing dots on its head similar to eyes hence its frightening nickname however all tests indicate  that these eyes aren't actually functional instead they appear to be a kind of defensive measure  lik

e false eyes on the carapace of an insect these eyes are never shown when scp-280 is  advancing towards a victim only when it is in Retreat though this is only one of the entities  several defensive responses if an area where the creature is residing becomes fully illuminated  for a sudden flash of extremely bright light is directed against it then it will immediately  dematerialize and appear in a different area the one positive thing that can be said about  the hunting patterns of scp-280 is t

hat they're relatively predictable The Entity it seems  only has an interest in human beings when it selects a Target it will pursue them relentlessly  approaching in its intangible form with its arms extended in what many describe as a sleepwalker  pose in this state you may finally notice 280's claws long thin and razor sharp it may silently  approach while the victim is turned the other way or while they sleep soundly in bed or even  when they're paralyzed in fear at the very sight of it when

scp-280 closes the distance it will  begin to rip and tear at its victims with its claws causing massive physical trauma and in some  cases death attacks range from one to five minutes of being relentlessly clawed at by the beast  when the attack is over it will simply expose its eyes become intangible once more and Escape  you will not be able to overpower the creature Foundation tests have shown that it has extreme  physical strength and it's capable of tearing apart solid steel with little e

ffort if it can't  find any humans to victimize then it will simply remain dormant pressing itself up against a wall  in a dark corner or within some other structure which is why if ever you feel nervous about a  certain dark corner in a room near you it is best to remove yourself from the situation as quickly  as possible and remain in a brightly lit area it would perhaps be comforting to believe that  scp-280 is acting on some Twisted form of animal Instinct after all while the results may see

m  horrific to us every organism has to eat right well sadly that isn't the case here scp-280 does  not appear to eat sleep or breathe to survive and it never consumes any of the matter torn from  its victims the best working theory is that the entity simply enjoys the harm it causes taking a  degree of perverse pleasure and hunting down and murdering its targets there is no better nature  to appeal to here the sap foundation's ability to study the creature's biology has also been stunted  in pa

rt due to the creature's highly aggressive nature and also the fact that its selective  intangibility makes gaining physical samples almost impossible even capturing and containing  the creature in the first place came partially out of blind luck it first came to Foundation  attention after a series of mysterious locked door murders in a small Mississippi Township in  the most recent case an entire family had been brutally murdered in their home leaving only one  Survivor a traumatized nine-year

-old boy named David who'd locked himself in the basement  when he started to hear the screaming he was so terrified by the things he saw that night  that he remained in a catatonic state for weeks afterwards completely unresponsive to outside  stimulus but one little detail saved his life a flashlight was clasped in his White Knuckle grip  shining a bright beam of cold white light onwards when David was removed and placed into Medical  Care officers began searching the building for any kind of

Clues as to how the other four  family members were murdered however during this investigation the police were just as vulnerable  as the victims who'd been so recently slain while one officer was wandering around the attic  looking for any evidence they may have missed scp-280 emerged from the darkness and attacked  tearing into his body with its long deadly claws luckily for the officer in question he survived  the incident though he was badly wounded his report on the matter including the Ard

ent claimed  that he was attacked by a being quote made from black smoke caught the attention of SCP Foundation  operatives embedded in the precinct they soon took over the investigation and descended on the house  hoping to tag and bag whatever had been behind all these deaths this would be easier said than done  while Foundation field agents can visit the home they simply walked past the creature multiple  times discounting it as a mere Shadow after all it only had these easily identifiable gl

owing eyes  when it was in a retreating position even when it entered its physical state operatives brushing up  against it generally dismiss the sensation as hair clothing or some other object touching them in the  dark this already bungled investigation got even worse when the foundation decided to introduce  high-intensity lights into the equation hopefully flushing the creature out this of course only  caused it to dematerialize and appear elsewhere the chase ended in an almost farcical fash

ion a  Cavalcade of foundation agents chasing a cloud of sneering black smoke across a Mississippi  field at 2 30 a.m thankfully for the human race The Entity was at the very least eventually  secured and contained however this wouldn't be the last time it was out of containment during  a series of tests with different types of Illumination intending to test scp-280's reflexes  it disappeared from its chamber it seemed almost to sink through the different levels of the  illuminated site before c

oming to rest at the containment chamber holding scp-1591 this made  for a fascinating accidental cross-test you see scp-1591 to put it simply is a unique sculpture of  a star that emits an incredibly bright light and this light will slowly make any being subject to  its glow intangible before disappearing completely when scp-280 came before scp-1591 it displayed  its eyes but did not retreat in fact it assumed a kneeling position and simply remained before the  anomalous sculpture until it fade

d from existence it then re-manifested in its own containment  chamber several hours later without incident all things considered it went pretty well as  far as containment breaches involving deadly human-hating monsters go because of its ability to  demanifest and phase through solid objects scp-280 is incredibly difficult to contain earning it the  dreaded ketter object class in order to avoid the risk of demanifestation scp-280 is contained in a  5x5 meter cell that is perpetually left in a s

tate of total darkness no equipment is to be left in  the cell unsupervised at any time and any items brought into the cell for testing must be removed  when the testing is complete any staff members entering the chamber for tests must be equipped  with infrared goggles and infrared ID strobe and also a strong flashlight to Ward the creature  off in the case that it becomes aggressive if scp-280 does attempt to attack anyone in the  chamber all attending staff are instructed to turn on their fla

shlights and turn the beams against  the creature no aggressive action is permitted and staff members must remain at least one meter away  from scp-280 at all times for their own safety and if you suddenly feel yourself getting a little  nervous in an eerily dark room I'd like you to remember this the one thing more frightening  than seeing eyes in the dark is not seeing them a young man in a light t-shirt and cargo shorts  pads down the worn hiking trail it's a trail he's walked hundreds of tim

es before and as far as  he knows he'll get the opportunity to walk it a few hundred more it's a smooth even path  cutting through a lush Forest on the edge of town with plenty of nice benches and a few  trash cans for dog walkers along the way it has all the Comforts a casual hiker can ask for  it's safe familiar he doesn't know why but the young man feels like perhaps today is the time  for a change maybe it's the subconscious will to avoid monotony or the fact he read an article  a few weeks

back about how varying your roots is the best way to avoid being kidnapped whatever  the reason he stops for a moment to pull up his socks takes a Squig from his water bottle  and Ventures out into the heart of the Woods who can blame him really we all need to change  sometimes and it's not like this poor young man has any idea what's in store for him out there  his boots crunch on the undergrowth small things skittering out from amongst the dry leaves  and twigs he always encountered other peop

le on his usual Trail which was fine of course he  didn't mind a little socializing on his walks but there's something oddly comforting about  the true loneliness you can find in the woods it's just nature and you properly acquainted  no screens no keyboards no emails texts DMS or obligations it's natural the way things should  be the young man closes his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath in just to enjoy it that  beautiful clean Spring Air a pleasure money can't buy when he opens his ey

es he notices something  in the distance even deeper in the forest than before its large and Brilliant white some kind of  structure how strange he thinks there are no paths leading to this thing whatever it is how could  it have been built and why was it another one of those weird obelisks that appeared in the desert  a couple of years before that he saw in the news it's the most interesting little mystery he's  experienced in a while and nothing about it seems to be throwing up any overt red f

lags what would  be the harm in going a little deeper to check it out the question would certainly stay with him  if he never found out as he approaches he notices that it's a large cube made from some strange  glossy plastic there are no gaps or rivets no real signs of how the cube was constructed at all  the only thing differentiating any of the sides is a metal door on one of the faces he circles  the cube a couple of times just to see if he's missing anything nothing really appears out of  t

he ordinary other than the very existence of the cube itself he looks over his shoulder before  approaching the door no cameras nobody waiting in the bushes to jump him not yet at least he steps  forward takes an uneasy breath and opens the front door it's a slow cautious motion after all he  has no idea what could be waiting for him inside for all he knew the whole Cube would be primed to  explode with the opening of the front door being the activation mechanism but no what surprises  him most

is how oddly mundane the inside is he takes out his phone turns on the flashlight  and shines it inside it's just an empty room pretty much exactly what you'd expect the least  imaginative person in the world to suggest is inside a big plastic cube in the woods two strange  little things catch his eye though two doors on the adjoining back walls of the cube a door to  each wall that can't be right doubting his own memory the young man steps out and circumnavigates  the cube again there are no ap

ertures in the back walls of the cube so the doors inside would  just lead to Nowhere perhaps it's some kind of Unfinished construction project he Muses he'd  read all about modular living and tiny homes maybe the plan was simply to cut in those two extra  doors at a later date and fit in a skylight people live in retrofitted shipping containers  these days stranger things have definitely happened still there it is again that same nagging  curiosity that brought him here in the first place even

though he knows logically the two doors  inside the cube lead to nowhere he knows that if he leaves without trying them himself it did stick  with him he's just that kind of guy the unanswered question weighs on him like a ship's anchor tied  around his neck it's always better to just know he Ventures inside the cube again lit Once More  by his phone's flashlight and tries the door on the left even though he knows it should be a dead  end he still does it with that same trepidation as before lik

e there could be something waiting  behind it something with big eyes and even bigger teeth he'll feel so silly for even worrying  about this when he sees the wall on the other side but that isn't what he sees in fact to his immense  surprise the door opens up into the interior of what seems like an identical Cube he's so shocked  by the impossibility of it that he steps back the door swinging back into place no no he thinks  that's impossible he shakes his head and rubs his eyes it had to be so

me trick or Illusion there's  no possible way that this door can lead anywhere he steps forward and with great care opens the  door again nothing has changed there's still an identical room to the one he's standing in  just waiting for him on the other side of the door maybe it's a projection or a mirror some  kind of advanced AR Tech being experimented on in the woods the young man reaches forward his  hand slips Across the Threshold into the new room it's real it's an actual space beyond the d

oorway  there's even another two doors on the far wall what on Earth is going on wanting to be sure  he isn't just going crazy he leaves the cube one more time and checks the back walls he runs  his hand across them smooth plastic no seams no tricks nothing hidden there is no explanation for  what's going on in there he's discovered something truly remarkable an exception to the laws of  physics as we know them an anomaly in Space the sensible thing to do would have been to leave  that second fi

nd somewhere with cell service and call other people to come check it out if that  had been the case then things would have ended very differently for this young man instead he  decides to play Pioneer if there are other doors beyond the one into the impossible room where do  they lead are there even more incredible Secrets just waiting for him to find them he doesn't  want to just be the person who dialed in about the initial Discovery while other people took  over and did the exciting Parts ch

ances are if he calls in about this some shady government group  will come and take the issue off his hands he'll never know the true secret it'll nag at him for  the rest of his life and he can't have that can he guided Again by the light of his phone he enters  the cube after checking that the door on the right leads to exactly the same new room he opens the  left door once more and proceeds through letting it close behind him he looks around the room  it's absolutely identical down to the sma

llest detail at a crack or smudge out of place he  approaches the doors and looks beyond them exactly as he's predicted and on some level  hoped there are more identical rooms on the other side there's breaking laws of physics and  then there's dropping a nuclear bomb on them it all begins to go to his head as he passes  through each door the only thing that seems to alter is the placement of the doors on the walls  it seems a little disorienting at first like the room is being spun around From

Below but he soon  gets used to it it's strange going into a series of identical rooms doesn't scream exciting in  the abstract but when you know those rooms are impossible it adds a certain layer of intrigue to  the proceedings eventually he comes upon something strange after so long essentially seeing the same  room repeated at him he's primed to notice even the smallest difference as he scans the floor with  the light of his phone he notices a boot print on the ground it looks a couple sizes

bigger than  his own with a completely different tread pattern the thought Dawns on him with a difficult mix of  emotions he isn't the only one who's been in here and maybe he's not even alone in here he's never  been the suspicious type he likes to see the good in everyone and assume a basic level of human  decency but something about the knowledge that another person could be in here filled him with  torrents of icy dread it's a dread so great that it even overrides his curiosity he knows on s

ome  animal level that he needs to leave right now or something terrible is going to happen to him he  turns and it suddenly Dawns on him he doesn't remember which of the three doors in the room he  entered through in fact he sped through so many rooms to get here you can't remember which door  he came through in any of them the cold thrumming pulse of dread soon heats up into Panic he tries  to regulate his breathing he needs to approach the situation logically but how do you apply  logic to a

situation that's completely Beyond it he picks a door after an intense session of Eeny  Meeny Miny Moe and commits heading through it into an identical room and then another and then  another and then another he checks his phone his only light source and feels another Spike of panic  and he realizes just how low the batteries are who would have known how quickly the flashlight  eats up charge but without it it's total darkness he'll have no way out he needs to get out before  his battery runs ou

t or he'll never get out at all faster and faster he passes through doors at  random on the confidence that anyone who walks long enough will end up somewhere he's looking  for changes landmarks any signs of Salvation he finds to his immense relief that some doors  have little red dots marked next to them on the wall in permanent marker whoever was here before  might save him now this relief has some cold water thrown on it by another scrawling a few rooms  down someone had messily written this

is Hell On The Wall in red except this time it wasn't  a pen that left the markings at the bottom of the wall he can see a few bloody fingernail chunks  sitting in a dry Brown puddle had they gotten out whoever they are or is their skeleton festering in  one of these rooms at this point the young man is mortally terrified never before has death seemed  like such a tangible presence and not a quick death but starvation and dehydration two of the  most terrible ways to go of all he can feel hot te

ars running down his cheeks he picks himself up  trying to choke out the sobs before they can rack his body he needs to keep moving next room next  room next room next room next room with each one hope shrinks and despair grows there's no light  no progress just the same thing over and over again it's so relentless that at some point he  needs to stop and catch his breath he's breathing raggedly his lungs burn he's been getting nowhere  at impressive speeds it's only when he manages to slow his

heart rate and quiet his breathing that  he notices he's not the only one in the room their breathing is even more strained and Wheezy than  his he turns slowly almost Paralyzed by fear and turns the waning light of his phone into the  corner of the room there's a figure standing in the corner of the room it's a person but  not the kind of person you ever want to run into they're filthy and gaunt with deep set wild  eyes their mangled fingertips Nails broken off are crusted over in red their tee

th which appear long  thanks to recessed gums chatter against each other I didn't ever think you'd find me they say voice  a rattling whimper had you come to help me out the young man doesn't know what to say he's wrapped  in a mix of pity and Terror for the pitiful human being before him how long had they been in here  just sitting in the dark alone the thought sickens him I'm sorry the young man says without thinking  I'm lost too The Stranger heaves a dry song no I'm sorry the stranger says I

'm just so hungry  before the young man can say another word The Stranger is on him they've got the strength  of desperate Insanity their bony blood-stained hands clasper on the man's neck the attack is so  sudden so shocking so brutal he screams and drops his phone it tumbles to the ground and shatters  the horrors that happen next all transpire in the dark the young man screams but nobody with any  interest in helping can hear him being trapped will do strange things to a person but you don't 

need to tell anyone trapped in scp-167 that also known as the infinite Labyrinth this anomaly is  an absolute nightmare for anyone suffering from claustrophobia the fear of enclosed spaces which  is not to say it shouldn't also be terrifying to pretty much everybody else the anomaly doesn't  look like much to the Casual Observer perhaps a work of avant-garde art or a particularly  unwelcoming public bathroom it's a cube measuring 10 meters around its edges made from a shiny white  plastic polym

er with a large metal door affixed to the front at face value it seems to exhibit no  anomalous spatial qualities with the inner chamber having consistent internal Dimensions with the  outside two of the three remaining walls in the chamber display a pair of identical metal doors  despite logically leading back outside of the cube both of these doors instead open up to identical  rooms Each of which also have two doors this goes on to the best of our knowledge in perpetuity  studies indicate tha

t this anomaly has been explored extensively by people in the past due to  a high number of markings and unusual items from a number of time periods being left inside religious  Idols sursa 500 BCE several treasure chests sursa 1500 CE and even several scps the specifics of  which I am sadly not at Liberty to share here the complexity of the labyrinth isn't the only  thing creating a risk of being lost within all signs point to the anomaly having non-euclidean  geometry multiple researchers sent

into scp-167 each attached to the opening with a Lifeline  to prevent them getting lost found that their experience getting to the same point involved  passing through a number of vastly different rooms it is currently unknown what causes these spatial  distortions Foundation researchers are extremely curious about potential connections to scp-184 an  object also known as the architect which causes notable spatial distortions inside any building  wherein it is placed cross-tests between the two

anomalies are currently pending approval from the  o5 council because the anomaly appears largely benign one researcher even pitched using 167 as  temporary storage space for low-risk anomalies however just because an anomaly is typically  benign doesn't mean terrible accidents can't happen when the proper safety precautions  aren't followed the following note on the file from lead researcher Dr Klein illustrates  one notable incident of a tragedy as a result of lack safety procedures as most o

f you are  aware an SCP Foundation senior researcher was videotaped entering scp-167 several days ago  without the requisite ball of twine and he has not yet returned his ultimate fade is unknown  but the search teams have turned up nothing let this be a reminder to all of you just how  easy it could be to get lost in there if you don't utilize some method of marking your path if  I find that any other researcher has disobeyed the safety regulations and entered without a ball  of twine no matter

how far deep they intend to go they will find themselves being transferred  to another facility for researching ketter class scps where they should have ample motivation to  learn to follow safety regulations quite quickly signed Dr Klein because of its lack of sentience  and static Nature scp-167 has been given the safe object class it has been removed from the forest  and is kept in a padlocked room within research command06 and anyone who seeks to conduct  Explorations into the interior of t

he anomaly must obtain permission from a relevant member  of personnel with clearance level 3 or above and remember no matter where you're going  whether that be into the local forest or an anomalous Cube you're heading for disaster  if you haven't planned how you're getting back it's an average day at site 43 of the SCP  Foundation and a new researcher has arrived for her first day at the site she fills out an  intimidating stack of onboarding paperwork takes a picture for her new ID badge and

meets her direct  supervisor there's something you should probably know about working at this site he begins but an  alarm sounds down the hall and he has to rush away to attend to it we'll finish this later don't  move he calls to her before he disappears from sight then she's left alone twiddling her thumbs  shifting from foot to foot and looking at her new workplace it looks like any other Foundation  site for the most part one unusual thing does catch her eye though there are mirrors everywh

ere  all along the walls of the hallway seemingly all the way down until the hallway bends out  of sight what could those possibly be for as she runs through the possibilities in her  head she hears the squeaking wheels of a mop cart coming toward her a janitor is making his way  across the floor mopping at the tiles as he goes he has a pair of headphones covering his ears and  she thinks about interrupting him to ask about the mirrors but doesn't want to disturb him then she  spots something ju

st behind the janitor reflected in the mirror that makes her scream and drop her  clipboard there is a face Ashen and ghastly like some horrible Phantom out of a scary story she  spins around expecting to see the horrible face looking behind her but there's nothing there  whatever the thing is it's just in the mirror when her supervisor returns he finds her pale and  sweating her hands shaking she stumbles over her words trying to tell him what she just saw he  laughs at her wide-eyed expression

and says oh don't worry that's just Philip in his constant  companion then he tells her all about scp-5056 scp-5056 is a hairless humanoid entity  with gray matte skin and three slash-like scars on its face resembling the  placement of eyes and a mouth it does not have a physical corporeal form  at least on the visual spectrum and can only be seen in reflective surfaces it appears to  prefer manifesting in glass especially mirrors and lenses any equipment or media that captures  the entity's im

age will begin to degrade on an atomic level though anyone can see scp-5056  when it appears in a reflective surface only one person is able to hear it speak Philip  E Deering also referred to as scp-5056-b Philip Deering is a white man with brown eyes  and brown hair standing at 172 centimeters tall he joined the staff of SCP Foundation site  43 as a custodian in July of 1999 and for his first three years of service there was nothing  notable about him he was a pleasant man though occasionally

prone to bouts of depression and was  a reliable employee in September of 2002 however his behavior changed following a disastrous  incident involving anomalous materials in a chromatic abatement facility aaf--d after this  incident occurred Philip began exhibiting signs of auditory hallucinations reacting to sounds  that no one else could hear at first this was thought to be the result of a mental health  episode brought on by stress and trauma but the discovery of scp-5056 soon proved that the

  voice he was hearing was not in fact in his head since the first day it appeared to him scp-5056  has followed Philip everywhere he goes it has not expressed interest in any other people or entities  except for situations where it felt that Philip was being threatened it is aware of other entities  it simply does not care about them as for Its Behavior toward Philip scp-5056 has historically  behaved in a way opposite to Philip's emotional needs when Philip is trying to sleep it opens  its mou

th Scar and screams it picks verbal fights with him when he is overwhelmed or sad including  reminding him of estranged family members awkward social interactions and personal failings he has  gotten used to His companion over the years even giving notes on its less than effective insults  and encouraging creativity he has even given the entity a nickname Doug scp-5056 becomes enraged  when separated from Philip and if there is no available reflective surface upon which it can  manifest and spea

k to him it will begin to act out after nine seconds have passed without scp-5056  having access to Philip it will begin to vibrate at an intense speed and emit an endless 119  decibel sound that reverberates through the entirety of site-43 as soon as Philip has returned  to 5056's line of sight both the sound and the vibrating will immediately stop staff in the area  have been made aware of the entity's presence and its aggressive tendencies following an incident  involving Dr Bradbury who expe

rienced immense psychological distress after scp-5056 appeared in  one of the lenses of her eyeglasses that led to her eventual resignation no one wearing glasses  or any other reflective eyewear is permitted to interact with Philip or scp-5056 because scp-5056  has no physical body it cannot be truly contained in a traditional sense however its location seems  to be bound to Phillips and therefore limiting Phillips movements to site-43 has provided the  foundation with a workable solution aside

from the issue with Dr Bradbury there has only been one  other notable incident involving scp-5056 so far on January 23 2003 Dr Falkirk decided to perform  an experiment that would prove Philip was not necessary for the containment of scp-5056 Philip  was sent to an observation room and instructed to turn on recording equipment in the room there  was a steel table a steel chair and a hand mirror after Philip sat down in the room scp-5056 warned  him to get out he ignored it and proceeded to tal

k with Dr Falkirk Falkirk gave an order to initiate  phase two of the experiment and Philip began to have trouble breathing after several seconds  he lost consciousness Dr Falker turned his and his assistant's attention to the mirror where  scp-5056 was still present it became enraged yelling for Philip and attacked Dr falkert though  the specific details of the attack are lost from official records he was subsequently given medical  treatment for blood loss facial injuries and the loss of his l

eft eye he has been under intensive  psychological care ever since though no one but Philip is able to hear a word scp-5056 says any  recording device that he activates will pick up the entity's voice in order to give the research  team a better sense of scp-5056's behavior Philips uniform contains a microphone that is always  on and always recording his conversations it has over the years picked up everything that  passes between Philip and the world around him from his conversations with co-wo

rkers to the tiny  torments and verbal barbs from scp-5056 in 2020 however the microphone recorded a series of events  that would change Philip and his relationship to the anomaly in the mirror forever Philip was  struggling with a sense of crushing isolation with the majority of his social interaction coming  from Dr Nyo and scp-5056 the only bright spot in his days was the presence of Chief Amelia  terosian of the janitorial and maintenance section who would often visit Philip to chat  while h

e was mopping they spoke regularly for months joking with each other about work Amelia  asking questions about Philip's life with 5056 all while the entity needled Philip about his apparent  crush on Amelia on September 9 2020 however Amelia confessed something she returned his feelings  the audio transcription from this day captured this revelation I never really thought I didn't  think you feel it began really really Amelia retorted yeah really well I mean I didn't think  you either she admitt

ed Philip laughed at this are you kidding you've got to be kidding I mean  you're a moment of silence passed between the two the air crackling with nervous excitement how  long he began she interrupted since I met you he laughed again a giddy sound you had that on  speed dial well how long she started this time he interrupted since I met you they both laughed  for a long time before falling silent once again what are you thinking about Amelia asked can't  you tell she shook her head no confusing

me with your anxiety surrogate he hasn't said a word  tonight Phillip smiled softly at this I must not have any anxieties right now the two quickly  developed a romantic relationship Philip rushing off the doubts that scp-5056 tried to plant in  his mind on June 11 2021 Dr Nyo conducted Philip's annual psychological review and they discussed the  notable changes in his demeanor and worldview the audio from the session has been transcribed thanks  for letting me do this a day early Philip began

I have a social engagement tomorrow Dr gingo  replied Philip laughed heartily at that you know that might be the first time I've heard  you laugh let's talk about that scp-5056 started to speak yes let's talk about but Philip cut  it off about how humorless and morose I Am The Entity was stunned into silence Dr igno spoke up  was he about to say that are you finishing his thoughts now why not it used to be my thoughts  what changed scp-5056 spoke up again nothing Philip disagreed a lot of things

some of them  because of Doug some of them because of me some of them Chief terosian Dr Neo  finished the thought for him yeah I guess I didn't really care about improving  myself until I had someone to improve for Doug beat a lot of my flaws out of me there just  wasn't enough room in my head for self-pity or self-loathing or even selfishness with him  nattering away in the background all day every day but Amy give me something to actually work toward  I actually this time 5056 finished his th

ought you stopped wasting your life go on Dr Nyo  encouraged it feels strange to say because this has been a terrible Year all over but still meant  so much to me Dr gyo nodded you achieved something I achieved something and I reached out my life  isn't one long and differently narrated one-man show anymore sure I'm still stuck underground but  I'm not alone down here anymore scp-5056 spoke up giving one final thought you are never alone  Philip you will never ever be alone never again what's he

saying something spooky Dr Nyo asked  Philip shook his head it's phrased that way but that's not how I'm taking it the next morning  Phillip prepared to take a life-changing step he stood in front of a mirror dressed in a tuxedo  and adjusted his bow tie how do I look Doug you ask because I can't see with you in the mirror  scp-5056 replied you're making a mistake Philip laughed it off yeah I've never been good at  bow ties I'd use a clip-on but Amy would never forgive me and anyway he'll clash

with the tuxedo  scp-5056 pushed further refusing to Let It Go you aren't ready for this I definitely am but  hey if you have objections feel free to shout them out at the appropriate time nobody but me  will hear you but if you make good points I'll be sure to pass them along to hold up your end  I do anything for her you don't have the energy I've never felt this good are you even trying here  buddy it won't change who you are it already has it won't fix you Philip left pulling his bow tie  t

ight he turned away from the mirror and toward the next chapter of his life with one final  statement I don't need to be fixed as long as she had known him Emilia terosian had demonstrated  kindness care empathy and curiosity toward Philip unlike her colleagues she was not put off by the  presence of scp-5056 but approached it with an open mind and an appreciation for the entirety  of Philip self the man beyond the anomaly the two were married in ifperwash Provincial Park on  June 12 2021 and ha

ve been together ever since notably Amelia has reported that scp-5056 remains  largely dormant in her presence allowing the two to spend their time together without interruption  following Philip's relationship with Amelia and the Improvement to his mental state as well as  changes to scp-5056's behavior the foundation conducted review and reassessment of the anomaly  several high-ranking Foundation staff wrote down their changing thoughts on scp-5056 and  contributed them to the official revise

d file Emilia R terosian chief of the janitorial and  maintenance section and wife of Philip Deering wrote I don't think anyone understood Doug when  he first manifested they all thought he was an anomalous abuser a demon with a short fuse  existing just to get a rise out of someone they tell me Phil was plenty risable back then  introverted and absent-minded the perfect jump scare Target once he stopped being jumpy Doug  started needling him about his low self-esteem once he started standing up

for himself Doug  made him worry about other people's needs by the time I met him in 2019 Phil was considerate  unflappable and still absolutely miserable that's when Doug started bugging him about his  love life I don't think Doug is preying on Phil I think he's trying to help Dr Harold R blank  chair of the archives and revision section contributed for the longest time we thought Phil  might be anomalous as well we even tossed around the idea of classing hemophil which obviously  didn't fly a

t the very least we were pretty sure Doug was an unconscious manifestation of  his internal monologue so we labeled it 5056-a and made him 5056-b after nearly two decades  of observation however I can say with near certainty that there is nothing at all remarkable  about Philip Eugene deerings Beyond his unusual Equanimity in the face of enduring trauma he's no  longer considered an SCP object and his paranormal paramour has been reclassified as simply scp-5056  a self-containing incorporeal emo

tional parasite requiring no containment because it voluntarily  restricts itself to the presence of a man who voluntarily restricts himself to a secure  underground bunker we're still not sure what will happen when Phil dies but my guess is  5056 gets one last class change two neutralized Dr Melissa Bradbury chair of the research and  experimentation section included now I can't tell you what I saw but I can't tell you what  I felt that's only after more than a decade of foundation Psychotherap

y mind you I was comatose  for 11 months and endured three years of blurry vision because I couldn't put on a pair of specs  or contact lenses without having a panic attack when that thing filled up my vision it felt  like someone had gut punched my brain you know that late night experience where you suddenly  remember some stupid or embarrassing thing you did in your life and it makes you feel ashamed  well imagine if you suddenly thought of every stupid or embarrassing thing you've ever done 

all at once like your conscience finally got fed up and decided to go nuclear on you and wonderful  character tore his eye out Delfina M Ibanez chief of the pursuit and suppression section had this  to say when blank said we should let diren keep playing janitor under his Bat Monster's watchful  eye scars I was skeptical I was chief of security and containment and that sounded like the polar  opposite of both Concepts I'm happy to say I was wrong Deering has absolutely nil combat utility  and wi

thout 5056 his Disaster Response priority would be somewhere just above the d-class and  we don't even have d-class at 43 but with 5056 he's practically an intruder deterrent system you  know what they say a friend is someone who will help you move a best friend is someone who will  disintegrate your enemies eyes Dr noon tinyo chair of the psychology and parapsychology section  wrote scp-5056 has co-opted jm-64's negative thought processes externalizing his Melancholy  and self-doubt his earlies

t psych evaluation suggested a proclivity towards intrusive anxious  thoughts because these thoughts are now literally intrusive he can assess them much more rationally  than he could without anomalous intervention we still don't know what 5056 is but I can say  this much it is devoted to its opposite number and wants to help him it expresses affection and  a grading alien manner but there's no arguing with the results it's taken 19 years but Deering has  finally made peace with himself of cours

e he's had a little extra help in that regard finally  Dr polixeni mataxis chair of the spectrometry and spectrometry section said they've called  this a haunting for 19 years it's even entered the general terminology a Deering class haunting  denotes the stalking of a corporeal being by an incorporeal one nobody really thinks of 5056 as a  ghost however Nobody But Me the Materials Handling disaster which created Doug also annihilated  at least two of our subjects in containment the nature of th

ose subjects is highly classified but  I can say this much they are intimately connected to the cycles of guilt and apathy through  which human society writ large regularly Cycles is it too much of a stretch to suggest that  one of them or a fragment of one of them was reconstituted in that thalmaturgical soup into  deering's inescapable conscience if that's what happened well perhaps it still doesn't make him  all that different from the rest of us we're all haunted by something and we're all h

aunting  something ourselves our hopes and fears are just voices in our heads that only we can hear  everything we are is just the hallucination of a hollow frame of meat and Bone so what separates  us from the thing on the other side of the mirror three dimensions and room to grow since the  reassessment the containment measures for scp-5056 have been updated it is now considered  to be self-containing with its position fixed to that of Philip Philip is prohibited from leaving  SCP Foundation f

acilities without direction from security clearance level 4 plus personnel and must  carry at least one reflective object on his person at all times any new or visiting staff must be  briefed by Philip on the nature of scp-5056 he is also required to undergo mental health treatments  mainly exposure response prevention therapy which allows him to respond to his intrusive thoughts  without acting on them though scp-5056 once terrified Philip bringing him endless distress  he has grown accustomed

to its presence when the things 5056 tells him are upsetting he  considers them to be necessary reflections of his inner life providing him with introspection he has  never been capable of on his own since Philip's marriage The Entity has grown more and more  passive appearing only to bring up areas that need Improvement in the relationship reminding Philip  of ways he can be a better husband to Amelia Justice Philip has become more comfortable with  the presence of scp-5056 so too as the rest o

f the foundation staff perhaps even if they're not  entirely aware of it they recognize something of themselves in that Dynamic don't we all live with  demons of our own constant companions Whispering our insecurities back to us reminding us of the  ways in which we fall short they may not be as anomalous as scp-5056 but their hold on us can  be just as powerful just as destructive the only way to contain them is to look them in the face  learn to talk back and decide Against All Odds to go afte

r what we want anyway we may never be  truly rid of them never be completely alone and without that gray Shadow lurking at our side but  that's okay we can carry it with us accepting that our fears our hurts our nagging anxieties are  necessary parts of Who We Are but we can also argue back against the voice that tells us we'll  never be truly happy and say yes I will because I deserve it eventually we might just believe it  enough for that voice to finally shut up it's October 31st 2021 and any

one who's anyone in the  Upper Crust of society knows that there's really only one place to celebrate Halloween if you want  to stay relevant a certain Norwegian Billionaire's yearly costume ball invitations are highly  exclusive and if you have to ask where you can get one you're definitely not on the list those lucky  beautiful famous or just plain rich enough to be invited receive the notice a year in advance in an  increasingly elaborate fashion each time rumor has it that one year the billi

onaire specially trained  a flock of purebred carrier pigeons to deliver the invites printed on Scrolls recovered from the  ruins of the Library of Alexandria but that's just a rumor of course this year's invitations arrived  in the form of a luxury sports car with a simple gold embossed card hidden in the glove compartment  that read lucky you it then provided information on this year's theme medieval fantasy the dress  code would be strict and failure to comply would result in being barred fro

m entering the event it  also included a vital piece of carefully guarded information the location of the party the lavish  event is held in the Billionaire's Castle nestled in the remote Countryside of Norway which he  had built a decade ago specifically for this one night a year for the other 364 days it sits  vacant except for a full staff to keep it in Prime condition of course as a group of first-time  party-goers pull up the long winding driveway to the Castle's Gates their limo is stopped

by a  guard your driver will need to let you out here he explains can't have someone who isn't on the  list coming up to the residence your host insists so the group Two Men and two women climbs out of  the car and they all make their way up the drive on foot they didn't prepare for the Trek and by  the time they reached the castle Gates the ladies are sweating into their Exquisite handmade gowns  and one of the gentlemen has torn a small hole in his tights nevertheless they have arrived at wha

t  promises to be a truly Grand Occasion once the gates Creak open and Grant them admission they  quickly forget the discomfort of the long walk reports of the event have not in fact been greatly  exaggerated it is every inch as impressive as they could have imagined it would be a lush golden  carpet rolls out from the doors into the ballroom and a Herald clad in Period attire blows a horn  to Signal their arrival he announces their names to the room where beautiful people are already  dancing a

nd frolicking to their hearts content there are rows and rows of delicious looking food  including roasted pigs fresh fruit and cakes there are fountains filled with the finest champagne and  a full Orchestra provides live music that fills the enormous Halls above it all the host himself  sits dressed in Regal robes and a crown positively dripping with jewels it is the most indulgent  decadent glorious event any of them have ever been a part of there are no clocks inside the party  castle and no

other way to note the passage of time while inside this is entirely deliberate and  an event there ends only when the guests have all grown too weary to continue the merriment just for  this reason that the four newcomers do not notice how late it has grown or the fact that one day  has already bled into the next outside the castle by the time they stumble back outside filled  with cake champagne and fresh gossip that can't wait to repeat it is nearly Dawn they walk back  down the path that led

them to the castle their steps a little heavier with exhaustion and the  aforementioned champagne and notice that there are rows of limousines and other cars waiting  where they were dropped off excuse me one of the women calls out to a guard where's our limo where  did you tell him to wait the guard responds at this the woman looks at her companions who all  shrug none of them were aware of this practice and they sent the driver home when they left the  car we didn't she explains the guard sta

res at her blankly for a moment then bursts out laughing  well then he says you'll just have to walk surely there is a contingency plan in place right their  wealthy host can't expect his guests to walk home if they didn't think to plan ahead and tell their  driver to wait all night the group waits for the punch line revealed that there is a driver on  staff ready to give them a ride or someone who can call them a cab but it never comes not only  that but none of their cell phones have a signal

they can't call the driver to come back even if  he wasn't likely to be dead asleep at this hour the guard is right they will have to walk at  least until they have enough of a signal to call for a taxi so with no other option in sight  the disillusioned partygoers begin the long journey back to civilization light is beginning to  trickle back onto the landscape allowing them to at least see where they are going but it is still  mostly dark as they make their way along the road are we safe out h

ere one of the man asks from  what muggers the other replies there could be Bears out here one of the women remarks no  The Other Woman insists the Bears are all hibernating this time of year aren't they  they all collectively shiver at the thought of encountering a bear or anything else out on  this lonely road with nowhere to hide and no way to defend themselves best not to dwell too long  on that thought or they might find themselves paralyzed with fear they still have who knows  how many ste

ps left to go before they can relax they walk together in silence for a long time  listening for the sound of any dangerous criminals or bears creeping up behind them but nothing comes  as they slowly progress the sun begins to emerge on the horizon flooding the landscape with warm  light and chasing away the fear of the dark one of the ladies finally breaks the silence up there she  points directing her friend's attention to a hill of a head there they can make out the Silhouettes  Of Men on Ho

rseback wearing suits of medieval armor they're dressed as Knights like something  out of a King Arthur story they must have come from the party the others nod agreeing maybe we  could ask for a ride one of the men suggests or to borrow a horse the other chimes in in agreement  the four approach the knights in shining armor waving their arms as they go Holt who goes there  shouts one of the knights oh there's no need for that the other woman laughs we came from the same  place art thou Friends o

r Foe the Knight asks he does not remove his helmet his hand rests on  the hilt of his sword thinking it all must be some kind of joke the group of Partiers continues  up the hill spurred to action the Knight draws his sword brandishing it threateningly this is enough  to stop the group in their tracks is he serious mutters one woman to the other I can't tell she  replies that sword looks pretty real though behind them they hear the clip clop of hooves and turn  to see two other Knights sitting

atop massive black horses brandishing weapons I think we should  go she yells to her friends Gathering her skirts and running back down the hill but the rest of the  group don't seem so willing to turn back you want to play a game then let's play says one of the men  as he draws his own sword a perfect replica of one wielded by a character in his favorite fantasy  television series and tries to wave it back at the night but he promptly drops it on the grass  it's much heavier than he thought it

would be leave this place now or face your death a voice  Bellows from above him now wait just a minute who do you think you're talking to the man says  as he bends down to pick his sword up again but before he can finish there's a flash of glimmering  Steel in the sunlight followed by a spray of dark red liquid that hits the rest of the party goers  they watch in silent horror as the man's head rolls off his shoulders before looking back at  the man on Horseback this isn't the game at all the b

loodstained partygoers turn and run from  these frightening strangers on Horseback but they can hear the thunderous Hooves following them  the Clank of the metal armor the woman who first began to run looks back over her shoulder and  can't believe what she sees it's a route as the mounted Knights chase their fleeing foes cutting  them down in their Retreat all she can do is run and hope that they're too distracted with their  current Quarry to come after her she doesn't know how long she runs b

efore the sound of the  massacre starts to fade out but eventually it does unable to run any longer she collapses in the  grass frightened and confused by all that has happened but with a scream she jumps to her feet  once again as she hears footsteps behind her you can't sleep here says a man with a harsh  barking voice this is a restricted area before her stands the second group of armed men  she's seen that day this time they're dressed in modern military attire the Norwegian Army she  can't

be sure the man doesn't have an accent starts to plead with the man but he abruptly cuts  her off what year is it he asks his expression serious she answers confused giving him the  current year he relaxes this area is closed to the public it's not safe for you to be here  let me escort you out of the perimeter he offers he tries to tell him what she's seen the strange  men on Horseback her friends being slaughtered before her eyes when the man asks how she got  there she lets the whole story co

me pouring out the billionaire the invitation the party in her  frantic State she doesn't notice one of the guards who radios to someone that it looks like he's done  it again the man questioning her changes his tone he doesn't seem at all concerned about a murderous  group of medieval knights in the woods it sounds like you had a bit too much to drink he tells  her before putting a comforting arm around her shoulders and she doesn't even notice the syringe  until she fills a prick on her upper

arm before in consciousness the woman would be returned  home and have no memories of the events that she witnessed she'd never remember how much  danger she was in when she had a brush with scp-526 scp-526 also known as the Valhalla  gate is located on a hill in Norway the SCP Foundation has hidden information on the gate's  exact whereabouts no doubt to stop curious civilians from wandering into danger or filming  short viral videos but if you find yourself in the Norwegian Countryside it can

still easily be  identified simply look for a ring of nine Stones each standing at about two meters tall placed  in a 10 meter radius at the top of the hill if you're not certain whether you're in the  right place or if you just happened upon another mysterious stone circle look for the  runes inscribed on the inward surface of each one if the runes are there you're in the right  place or the wrong place depending on who you ask every day at Sunrise give or take about 15 minutes  the gate will o

pen and release a group of Warriors from any point in history fully armed and  outfitted for battle these can range from a small group of archers to 300 Spartans to  groups of highly trained special operatives and every member of the temporarily displaced  group will be from the same period in history as if they all ran through some sort of  rift at the same time though these resulting manifestations rarely harm anyone staying in place  92 percent of the time after they first appear on the hillt

op the remaining eight percent lead to  scenarios which can truly be a bloodbath after all to an army lost in the fog of War emerging in a  Strange Land in an unfamiliar time anyone can look like an enemy no matter how they behave on their  initial appearance those who cross through scp-526 will attempt to attack anyone who approaches the  anomaly they will remain in the area until sunset at which time they disappear presumably returning  back to wherever and whenever they originated the SCP Fou

ndation first discovered scp-526 after  a group of Backpackers were hospitalized in the area they claimed to have been walking through  the hills when suddenly they were swarmed by quote a bunch of Vikings with axes naturally this  drew the attention of foundation field agents who soon found the mystical Stone Circle responsible  for the attack the survivors were given amnestics and a cover story circulated blaming the claims of  Vikings on recreational hallucinogens since this first incident no

table encounters between the  foundation and the soldiers traveling through the temporal gate have been few and far between  but there have been a few that were designated significant enough to be recorded in the official  archives four to be exact in the 1990s a member of the foundation containment team spotted 40  figures making their way down the hill in the dim Dawn light they were holding longbows and swords  weapons at the ready as they made their descent one member of the team which shoul

d be noted  was on his very first day of containment Duty made the mistake of calling out to The Strangers  Gentlemen please lower your weapons he called however polite it may have been was answered  with an arrow to the shoulder thankfully the rest of the team was able to swoop in and settle  things before the situation could progress any further the injured Personnel was given prompt  medical attention and reassigned to a desk job where he was much less likely to encounter flying  projectiles

of any kind a few years later the team of foundation operatives placed at scp-526 had  started to grow complacent there had not been a violent incident in ages just a series of very  confused people appearing at Sunrise and Milling around until they vanished at Sunset it seemed  that most of the subjects passing through the temporal Rift were not as bloodthirsty as one  might expect then one operative was startled out of a Daydream by the thunk of a stone ax  hitting a tree near his head he and

the rest of his team looked up to see a group of 30 men  clad in animal skins pouring down the hillside rushing right for them in their fists they held  crude weapons carved from Stone their wild eyes Untamed beards and blood-stained clothing becoming  clearer as they grew closer fortunately for the SCP Foundation these cavemen had brought clubs  to a semi-automatic rifle fight they opened fire and within minutes not a single hide-clad man  was left standing it was a bit awkward looking at their

fallen bodies for the rest of the day  but the team saw no point in moving them if they were just going to disappear that night anyway  one Task Force member spent the rest of the day looking at his hands paranoid he may have shot one  of his ancient ancestors and erased himself from the timeline in a back to the future-like  fashion this was thankfully not the case several more years passed and the century turned  to usher in the new millennia in the early 2000s a platoon of 20 Russian soldier

s later identified  when a foundation officer attempted to translate several curses yelled at him by one of the men  materialized wearing World War II uniforms and carrying rifles consistent with that time period  most of them did not move from the hill staying in a defensive position but a few got a bit too  bold and opened fire on the foundation operatives the fire was returned in kind and two men were  killed but the rest were left unharmed for the remainder of the day the final incident on 

record is particularly notable because in this case the soldiers that appeared did not  belong to a particular country's military nor were they from the distant past there were  30 men and women dressed in an uncomfortably recognizable uniform these were the members  of a lost SCP Foundation mobile task force all killed in action during a field Mission several  years prior wanting to avoid Friendly Fire the operatives placed at the site attempted to speak  to these MTF members but they did not r

espond instead they attacked and would not relent until  air support arrived in the form of the foundation AC-130 Gunship Thor's hammer leaving three dead  and 11 wounded When the Smoke finally cleared this last encounter raised some difficult  questions about the nature of scp-526 and the mental state of those who passed through  it they seemed unable to recognize their own peers unable to hear what they were saying their  instinct to defend scp-526 from any perceived Invaders overrode whatever

familiarity  or loyalty they might ordinarily have for other Foundation operatives it was a tragic  disquieting affair with no clear answers in sight the SCP Foundation is of course no stranger to  terminating its own but the individual officers present for this incident reported a high rate  of post-traumatic stress disorder and several requested to be given amnestics in order to put a  stop to recurring nightmares the foundation will not be able to learn more unless more of their  own Fallen

Soldiers pass through the gate even if they do it is impossible to say whether they  will be able to ask any questions or engage in a dialogue or whether they will have to gun them  down in another round of kill or be killed because there is no way to know what each new sunrise  at scp-526 will bring the SCP Foundation has classified the anomaly as Euclid as there is no  way to move scp-526 to any official Foundation site the 15 kilometer radius around the anomaly  has been converted into armed

containment area 31. the cover story for this area is a military  weapon testing site and there is a no-fly zone in effect there a team of qualified field agents is  placed on site in order to observe and neutralize any subjects that emerge from scp-526 because  All is fair in war and well War the Asians placed there are permitted to use deadly force if  their lives are threatened or the containment is jeopardized 30 minutes before the sun comes up  the containment teams are placed on full alert

and will keep their eyes on scp-526 until the sun  has set and all potential threats have disappeared if a given day's apparitions are too aggressive  or too numerous for the teams on the ground to contain mobile task force Sigma 9 or Valkyries May  assist via airstrike since the foundation has set up its perimeter around scp-526 no civilians  have been harmed though the same can't be said for foundation Personnel or the revolving door of  strange Warriors emerging on the hill the protocol has

been considered successful I haven't yet been  out to see the gate in person myself I tend to be more of a pacifist but if I ever do I'll make sure  to bring a shield a bulletproof vest and perhaps a full suit of armor why not the best offense is a  good defense I always say the babysitter sits in the darkened house lit only by the soft glow of  the television screen now that the little girl she's been watching has gone to bed the once warm  Lively home is eerily quiet and still with nervous fin

gers that need to keep moving she flips through  the channels past competitive cooking shows the black and white film a documentary about penguins  Nothing grabs her attention like she needs none of it is an adequate distraction from the anxious  prickle on the back of her neck the way her Palms are growing clammy and slick with sweat this  is the worst part of every babysitting gig her friends would disagree they all say that late at  night after the kids have gone to bed and before the parents

get home from their evening out is  the very best part of the job this is the perfect little pocket of Peace when they can invite their  boyfriends over or sneak an extra snack from the pantry but as her eyes watch the flickering screen  the shopping channel the late night talk shows all she can really think about is just how alone she  is right now it's a safe neighborhood she knows that in the rational part of her mind but she  can't help but feel her pulse Spike every time headlights illumin

ate the yard outside the window  she can't stop Her Imagination from running wild with images of Machete wielding Killers watching  through the glass why she has to wonder as her chest tightens with aimless fear are there so many  scary stories about babysitters it's always the babysitter getting a phone call from a menacing  Stranger rasping in a deep voice have you checked the babysitter is the one watching the creepy  clown statue in the corner of the room all night until she calls the family

to ask them a  question about it and hears those terrifying words it's inescapable from Mass wielding slashers and  escaped lunatics to the soft voices of ghostly children in the maniacal cackling of the demon in  the closet door under the bed waiting for new prey in a horror story the babysitter always  has a Target on their back Shivers those are campfire stories she reminds herself just  because a babysitter is an easy target for a fictional killer that doesn't mean anything  bad is going to

happen to her here tonight the kid is sleeping soundly the parents will be  home soon and there's leftover macaroni and cheese in the kitchen everything is fine better than fine  in fact she takes a deep breath in and out their breath in but just before she can let it out and  relax there's a sound a rustling at the front door she tenses holding her breath maybe it's a raccoon  digging through the trash maybe it's just the wind but then she hears it undeniable and chilling the  sound of footste

ps pacing back and forth outside she grips the arm of the couch so hard her  knuckles go white refusing to move a muscle she turned the lights on no she can't then they'll  know someone is home whoever is lurking outside the front door right now is deliberately  deciding not to knock and she doesn't want them to know she's here suddenly a thought  occurs to her one that makes her stomach drop she remembered to lock the door the squeak of  metal almost makes her cry out in shock but she covers he

r mouth at the last second the male  slot on the front door slides open something small pushes through and lands on the floor with  a soft thud then as quickly as they came she hears the footsteps Retreat and she is alone in the dark  again she waits and waits and waits but there's no other sounds whoever was there they're gone now  but what did they leave behind the babysitter tiptoes over to the door where she finds the  strange delivery sitting on the floor it's a small plastic case containin

g a single unmarked  DVD she flips it over looking for any kind of writing to indicate what it might be there's  nothing on it at all she couldn't explain what exactly made her walk to the family's television  and Slide the disc into the DVD player before sitting down to watch whatever it might hold  perhaps it was morbid curiosity or that nagging all-consuming desire for distraction whatever it  was she picked up the remote control pressed play and readied herself for what might come next the 

screen comes to life with the image of a young woman in a short white dress and a pair of high  heels running down a narrow hallway her mouth is wide open her face Twisted into a blood curdling  scream there is no sound coming from the TV the babysitter points the remote at the television and  turns up the volume but nothing comes out of the speakers just silence somehow without sound the  scream looks more horrifying it's stiff unnatural as the woman on TV runs a dark figure rounds the  corner

behind her pursuing her the babysitter gasps involuntarily as the figure comes further  into the frame the thing chasing her is a massive doll three times the height of the woman in  the white dress he wears a dress of its own a garish Lacy thing with puffed sleeves and a  long stuffed skirt the doll shouldn't be able to move the way it does everything about it makes  it seem like it was meant to stay still its stiff wooden arms it splayed frozen fingers the fixed  insipid smile its unblinking b

eady eyes that tore into its victim's back still the doll moves its  legs and arms pumping its head turning from side to side to follow the woman's path the hallway  turns into a music room with a grand piano and a wooden bench that the woman knocks on its side  as she barrels past the doll is Relentless in its Pursuit following at a steady almost casual Pace  as if it knows that the human girl will grow tired weak and vulnerable while it could keep up this  Chase forever the babysitter can't lo

ok away can't shut her eyes she wants to so badly but she has  to see what happens to the poor girl what that unfeeling face on the doll will look like when  it catches its prey she watches for a while she can't quite tell how long and then the screen cuts  to Black the babysitter's size ready to eject the DVD and throw it in the trash but then it comes  back to life there she is the woman in white lying on the floor now in a crumpled motionless heat  the camera Trails over her body from her fee

t up her legs bent at odd angles past her broken  arms and finally to her face there the Beady black eyes stare out of the screen the woman's  head is gone replaced with the head of the doll then the screen goes black again it's over the  babysitter reaches a hand to her face and feels moisture on her cheeks when did she start crying  she wasn't sure but now she couldn't stop it was all so horrible people being chased by giant  dolls being killed by dolls turning into dolls she feels her grasp o

f what was real of what  was flesh and blood and what was called cruel porcelain growing weaker she tries to calm  her racing heart to recall a soothing song her mother used to sing but those old memories  feel fuzzy like a half-remembered dream hello a quiet voice jolts the babysitter from her thoughts  there on the stairs is the little girl the one she's supposed to be watching clad and her pink  bunny pajamas and clutching her favorite doll I had a bad dream the babysitter looks from the  lit

tle girl to the doll in her hand the two had the same wide blue eyes the same perfect ringlet  curls the same Rosy Cheeks the almost artificial Sheen of her skin the way she walks talks how had  she not seen it before it's okay I'm here she says do you want a glass of water the girl nods the  babysitter could have sworn the doll knotted too what could she do could she say something no that  wouldn't work the girl was too young to understand she would have to find another way she makes  her way t

o the kitchen and as she turns on the tap to fill a cup with water her eyes fall on the  Butcher's Block on the meat cleaver waiting there like a volunteer she wraps her hand around its  handle and makes her way back to the living room a half hour later the parents come home expecting  to find their daughter in bed in their trusty babysitter sitting on the couch like she always  was instead they find a nightmare they turn on the lights to reveal splatters of blood soaking  their once pristine wh

ite carpet a streak of thick red Gore leading them down the hall they can smell  a metallic rot that belonged in a butcher's shop when they reached the kitchen all they can do is  Scream the mother turns away in horror from what she saw in the kitchen to find the babysitter  standing before her still clutching the cleaver now dripping with blood her expression is one of  grief deep and sorrowful what have you done the girl's mother whales as her husband stands by  Palin in shock I didn't want to

but it was the only way the babysitter wipes the tears from her  eyes smearing blood across her cheek as she does don't you see she looks at the couple expectantly  but they cannot say a word if they open their mouths again they know they will be sick I had  to show you the truth the babysitter insists she wasn't real anyway I had to take her apart  but I can put her back together she was a doll a toy just like me she turns her gaze to them  a sudden wild glint in her tear-filled eyes she slowl

y stands and takes a step toward the  couple her expression one of grim determination the look of someone who is not proud of the blood  they will have on their hands but is still about to spill it anyway the parents turned to run but  it was too late she was already on them she raised the cleaver High the sharp metal Edge glinting  menacingly in the low light just like you this poor unfortunate family their lost daughter and a  seemingly well-adjusted babysitter turned murderer were not the fir

st people to have their lives  destroyed by this strange DVD and they would not be the last all over the world random individuals  have opened their mailboxes to find a nondescript DVD with no logo title or any other identifying  information if they made the grave mistake of watching the DVD then they too inevitably fell  prey to the influence of scp-1432 also known as Doll DVD scp-1432 does not refer to the digital  video discs themselves but rather to the piece of content that is contained on

them it is a silent  avant-garde short film that consists of a series of nearly identical scenes in each sequence a  massive doll chases a young woman through various rooms and down various hallways the doll's size  varies from scene to scene seemingly expanding or compressing in order to fill larger rooms or  fit through smaller doorways this goes on for 16 minutes before the final scene a shot of the young  woman's body with the doll's head now in place of her own but what is it aside from the

unsettling  imagery that makes this video so anomalous anyone who views this video for at least five minutes  will experience a dramatic shift in their perception of reality and of their own identity  the subject will begin to believe without a shred of doubt that they and all of the other people  and animals in the world are not organic beings but rather dolls constructed by an unidentified  Force this effect results in homicidal Tendencies and 73 percent of subjects the resulting murders  are

often messy and emotionally fraught for the subject who will Express remorse for what they  have done while simultaneously believing that killing and mutilating their victim is the only  way to show others the truth the first instance of scp-1432 on record was discovered in the evidence  lockup of a small town Ohio police station after a particularly harrowing homicide case drew the  attention of foundation operatives a 12-year-old boy had watched the video and several hours later  had killed a

nd mutilated his mother and father the foundation brought both the DVD and the boy  into custody and a researcher sat him down for an interview the researcher began the interview  by having the boy introduce himself by name with those formalities out of the way they could get  to the more pressing questions very good he began now you believe that you are an artificial toy is  that correct the boy nodded I am you are everyone everyone I've met is probably everyone is I don't  know I at this he tr

ailed off his eyes filling with tears the researcher attempted to comfort  him it's okay when did you realize you were a toy I watched a video don't remember much of it  about a doll I think or something but after that I knew I mean it was obvious how could I  not have seen it sooner everyone was everyone just toys everything I felt that time I hit a home  run for the first time my love for my parents my dog all just someone playing with their toys the  researcher pressed the matter a little fur

ther but if you didn't think like this until after you saw  the video don't you think it's possible the video could have made you feel this way affected your  mind somehow at this the boy clenched his fists tight face reddening with anger no the guy who  made the video he was warning people don't you get it he figured it out and he wanted other people to  know because people need to they don't deserve to just just exist so that somewhere someone gets  a good laugh or whatever it's okay I underst

and so did you try to tell your parents about what  you'd found out the boy began to tremble the tears that had pulled in his eyes before now  flowed freely down his cheeks I I did it didn't believe me I kept explaining it to them but they  just didn't understand I they I had to show show someone I had to let people know I I the only way  was to it couldn't have been just anyone else I wouldn't get the opportunity like I did with them  but I understand you had to do what you thought was right th

e boy pounded his fists on the table  shaking harder than before his voice wavered with the intensity of his distress they're so smart  they know they know the only way you find out is to show people what's really inside so they put in  this they they program you so that you don't they make it so hard it was all those memories but  I had to I I the researcher reached out a hand to Pat the boy on the shoulder I know it's okay  the boy wept silently for a moment and then asked good person right I

had to I really did the  researcher fought back tears of their own you're a good person it will be all right eventually I  promise the boy was taken back to his containment chamber and given a sedative to help him sleep the  researcher immediately requested a course of Class A amnestics to help him forget the conversation  that had troubled him so deeply his request was granted and he carried on with his duties at the  SCP Foundation until the next traumatic encounter all recovered instances of

scp-1432 are  kept in a secure filing cabinet in its containment chamber this chamber also contains  a television and DVD player which are to be used during testing no instances of scp-1432 may be  removed from the room under any circumstances though the foundation has contained every doll  DVD it has come across the containment process for scp-1432 has been a bit like tossing buckets of  water out of a sinking ship it may help a little but the Dangerous Waters continue to rise just  the same be

cause of this difficulty in maintaining containment scp-1432 has been given the Euclid  object class all the foundation can really do is Monitor police Communications and keep an eye  out for any homicides linked to a DVD if one such crime is reported the recovery team will be sent  to the scene to retrieve any potential instances of scp-1432 these suspected DVDs are then tested  on d-class Personnel if the test subjects begin rambling on about dolls and people not being real  and the DVDs are p

laced in immediate containment the effort doesn't end there though the digital  age has made it easier to find recipes communicate with lost loved ones and pirate music but it  has also made it simpler for Bad actors to share harmful material with millions of strangers  because scp-1432 could do Untold damage to the population of allowed to go viral A specialized  team must monitor online video sharing platforms for any instances of it if any are found they must  be deleted as soon as possible a

nd the IP address of the user who uploaded the video must be traced  currently very little is known about the video's Origins it is yet to be determined who made the  video for what purpose or who will be selected to receive a copy next there are some forces in this  world that you just shouldn't toy with so be wary of any mysterious DVDs that are slipped into your  mailbox best just to throw it away immediately don't bring it inside the house don't fire up  your DVD player and definitely don't

press play if you do it might be the last thing you ever  watch quiet quiet duck down out of sight over there are you recording why aren't you recording  the camera woman has no desire to shoulder her camera yet again it has been like this all day  the three of them will walk 10 feet then all of a sudden the presenter will dive behind a bush and  beckon for herself and their guard to do the same for patience for it is certainly starting to  wear thin clearly nowhere near as thin as their securit

y guards however as the man flexes his  trigger finger against the side of the rifle grumbling to himself in Swahili the camerawoman  should never have taken this job she knows that now but they are far too deep in the Tanzanian  Wilderness to turn back now they parked their Jeep up in the early hours of the morning and  started walking at Sunrise the faint blew tinge to the Dark Forest around them tells her it must  be almost Sunrise again the presenter turns to her and runs a hand through his

carefully sculpted  hair his pink skin has been burning and peeling in the sun all day long he looks like he'd give the  flamingos from earlier a run for their money as she switches the LED ring light on the presenter  clears his throat and wipes the sweat from his brow rumor has it that the area we are entering  into now is patrolled by highly sophisticated militarized drones myself and my crew are risking  our lives here but that's just what it takes when you decide to live as an extreme vegan

he insists  on recording several more takes by the fifth attempt the camerawoman stops hitting the cord not  worth filling up the memory with this waste of a shot extreme vegan what will they come up with  next she had moved to Tanzania with dreams of working on documentaries with a capital D Rich  beautiful shots of the world's most endangered animals basking by a watering hole or hunting to  feed their starving Cubs real footage not this reality show nonsense the presenter had touched  down t

he previous day immediately started asking about where the nearest fast food chain was then  threw a tantrum because the Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby was too slow bad as he was he at least  seemed mostly harmless but their security guard the camerawoman glances over to him the man seems  more like a local Thug with a gun than a trained professional studio must have been trying to save  money hiring him goodness knows they were cutting costs hiring her to do video and audio she should  have smelled t

he rat and just said no a light it sweeps through the trees so quickly it almost  catches the three of them the camerawoman hits the dirt just in time the camera bumps awkwardly  into her shoulder so hard she almost Cries Out a mechanical whirring fills the night the  light sweeps this way and that as they all lie motionless on the ground then just as  abruptly as it appeared the light swings away and the sound Fades maybe those drones aren't as  made up as they sounded the presenter is clearly

very shaken his wide eyes Dart around between  the trees as they all get back to their feet so much for being an extreme vegan the  camerawoman glances over at their security guard a twisted grin lights up his face she notices  a little pendant has slipped out of his shirt a small white Shard hanging from a handmade chain  even in the dead of night the camerawoman has filmed enough elephants to recognize Ivory when  she sees it the security guard no poacher meets her gaze his smile widens he spe

aks Swahili in a  low voice we keep moving shouldering the rifle the poacher marches onwards in the direction the Drone  had just been a few moments ago the camerawoman and presenter have no option but to follow for  a long time the group walks in silence it is the longest the presenter has gone without opening his  mouth since his plane touched down the camerawoman would be enjoying the peace and quiet if it hadn't  been for the sickening unease that had settled over them had that drone been re

al if it had and  what exactly were they walking into right now some kind of secret facility GMO research labor camps  but it just looks like any other patch of forest in Tanzania only it doesn't come to think of it as  they walk the camerawoman starts to notice little differences at first they're too subtle to put  a finger on just a different feel to the air or a strange sound is it the plants perhaps she's no  botanist so doesn't really know what she's looking at but she spent enough time out

in the wild here  to know a few plants but now she's spotting all kinds of strange new ones a bush with huge red  leaves here a tree with long purple fruit there she asks the presenter what they are he looks up  at the purple fruit tree perplexed wasn't this supposed to be the whole point of this documentary  exploring the furthest reaches of the world looking for vegan alternatives no idea but let's  roll the camera anyway ready the presenter plucks a fruit and presents it to the lens immediat

ely  spouting off about the fruit's medicinal qualities levels of fiber natural sugars and low water  consumption all lies the camerawoman scowls at him the presenter turns the fruit over and screams  throwing it as far as his skinny arms will allow never one to waste a shot the camerawoman follows  the fruit on Instinct zooming in on it as it lands at the foot of a tree out from under the purple  skin crawls an earwig it's huge just over three inches long at a guess that's strange if she  didn'

t know any better she'd think that was a voice startles the three of them it booms out  from behind them just up the slope the presenter swivels so fast he falls over the camerawoman  points the camera up the hill and snaps the figure into Focus the poacher pulls back the  bolt on his rifle finger already on the trigger in the dark they can hardly make out what they  are looking at it must be a man it spoke in a man's voice but it Towers over all of them it must  be nearly seven feet tall they c

an't discern any kind of human silhouette odd shapes jut out this  way and that what is it made from The Voice calls out again a deep rumbling voice Like An Earthquake  heard from the ocean floor or echoing through a forest there were other sounds layered into its  voice High twittering sounds and guttural growls the camerawoman looks to her companions clearly  neither of them understand what it's saying either not Swahili not English not French or Arabic the  intent of the voice is very clear h

owever they are not welcome for the first time ever the presenter  is lost for words the poacher shifts the butt of the rifle against the shoulder great now this is  her job the camerawoman lowers her camera rig to the ground and raises both hands approaching  the figure carefully the sun breaks over the horizon further up the slope in just a few moments  she'll be able to see the stranger whatever it is speaking Swahili she explains that they are a  film crew here to shoot a documentary they do

not intend any harm and will make as little  disturbance to the environment as possible the creature does not seem to understand and  repeats its previous command it definitely sounded like a command at least the camerawoman  turns helplessly to her companions just in time to see a small Shadow rushing them it runs on  all fours covering the ground impossibly fast ignoring the poacher and presenter it snatches up  her camera from the ground and hurls it at a tree crunches into the wood and fall

s to the ground in  pieces sunlight breaks over the horizon flooding the valley with light the camerawoman whirls  around and glimpses the figure up the hill it is a man isn't it towering at nearly seven feet  the man is adorned with flowers blossoms and fungi animal skulls and pelts hang from his shoulders  colorful face paint etches patterns ancient and proud deep into his features African Buffalo  horns grow proudly from his head accentuating a triumphant floral headpiece but a glimpse is  al

l she gets the figure vanishes a sweet scented Breeze rushes down to meet her from where he  was standing just a moment ago where'd he go presenter cries the camera woman can see something  dangerous has lit up the man's face he's found his story she just doesn't know quite what it is  yet the poacher also has a wry smile on his face he's looking at the discarded purple fruit from  before no wait he's looking at the earwig still crawling around it she follows his gaze and it  confirms her suspic

ions from before that's a Saint Helena earwig sure as the daylight streaming  onto its scuttling legs declared extinct in 1967. the presenter is already marching off further  down the valley the poacher shoulders his rifle and follows not even glancing at the camerawoman  she goes over to her broken camera and kneels down no hope she takes out the SD card from  it and Pockets it what did that creature bend that had thrown it at the tree a monkey of some  kind the presenter calls out to her forge

t the camera I've got a hidden one in my pocket it'll  look more authentic anyway as they walk they see more and more wildlife in the early Dawn various  animals are rising to their feet stretching and wandering through the trees at first just small  creatures geckos tortoises insects but soon they see gazelle a family of oryx even a hippo from a  distance but there is one thing each animal has in common they were all declared extinct years ago  sometimes centuries ago the camerawoman keeps her

mouth shut the last thing she wants is for the  poacher to know that although judging from the spring in his step he's already well on his way to  figuring it out all of a sudden the forest opens out a watering hole the size of a lake fills  their view animals of All Sorts fly swim bathe drink and play in the morning air parakeets dance  overhead rhinos Lounge in the shallows a Dodo marches squarely past them on its way to join its  friends this has to be some kind of dream surely the penny fina

lly drops for the presenter he turns  to his companions wide-eyed ready to say something when he freezes staring at something behind them  a shadow Falls over the mall the camerawoman turns to Sea an elephant white is the morning snow with  round pink eyes old and wrinkled as time itself it is hulkingly big impossibly big it dwarfs any  bull elephant she's ever shot by several tons the giant walks slowly one plotting step at a time  right past them so close she can almost Reach Out And Touch it

every part of her wants to only  she knows better you don't interfere with nature the elephant passes them and disappears  into the woods she looks excitedly at her companions the poacher has a glint in his eye the  presenter is hurrying off along the water's edge her eyes follow his movement there on the shore  kneels The Towering man from before he's beside a panting and straining Ibex she's on her side  belly swollen blood mixing with the laked water the camerawoman draws closer watching  the

man stroke the animal's side gently he cups a painted hand behind the animal's rump  and delivers a baby effortlessly another slides out a moment later he takes the tiny Ibex's under  each arm and walks them into the water delicately washing them clean before returning them to their  mother by the shore the presenter calls out to him raising a hand and greeting sir sir would you be  interested in conducting a brief interview with me it's for a network television documentary called  Extreme vega

n the figure stands and turns to them wary the two of them stand before him separated  by just a few feet extinct animals chattering and cheaping all around them in order to maintain  such an eco-friendly lifestyle you must be having a lot of plant-based Alternatives in your  diet oat milk corn avocado what's your secret as if On Cue a buffalo emerges from the water and  approaches them the man Stoops not taking an eye off the presenter and reaches under the buffalo's  body finding the teeth he

squeezes milk into his cuffed hand he raises his hand to his mouth  and drinks slowly staring the presenter down after a moment he squeezes more milk into  his hand and stretches it out towards them he says a word in that same ancient voice  only this time it is softer welcoming uh no way do you know how unethical it is to  deprive that poor child of its natural milk the presenter goes off on a rant the man ignores  him and offers the hand to the camerawoman instead without thinking she steps fo

rward and Stoops  to his hand she drinks the milk straight from his palm it's warm and fatty thick like cream but  totally delicious she looks into the Man's eyes they are a dark brown but in the Morning Light  she catches flecks of gold green purple and blue the man's voice is even softer as he speaks again  well anyway his name that must be the man's name she raises a hand to her chest  opening her mouth to introduce herself Bang the shot rips through the clearing animals  Screech and scatters

stampeding into the trees Birds fill the sky a lighting from every tree  so much so that they tangle with one another camerawoman's head whips around the shot had come  from the trees behind them a roar louder and more chilling than any animal could produce swells from  a Lonnie way this time he doesn't just vanish it's like he's raptured Vines and Roots shoot up  out of the dirt wrapping around him creeping into his mouth and eye sockets they wrench him  into the ground with such force it send

s ripples across the lake a rumbling fills the Earth the  presenter Powers by the water's edge he's useless the camerawoman takes off into the trees following  the sound of the shot it doesn't take her long to find it the white elephant lies on its side rivers  of red cascading across its chest following the ancient furrows of its wrinkled skin its  breathing stutters and rattles the poacher stands before the dying animal he turns to the  camerawoman an unhinged grin lighting up his face he open

s his mouth to speak but from out of his  throat bursts a stem blood spraying High into the air the camerawoman watches an abject horror  as the plant grows up through the poacher Roots ensnare his feet and ankles the stem pierces his  lower back and emerges from his throat offshoots stabbed their way out of his rib cage and temples  in a matter of seconds it is finished pink flowers bloom at the tips the poacher's corpse  suspended like some kind of grotesque puppet without a sound alaniway eme

rges from the trees  and walks past the camerawoman past the poacher's body and kneels by the elephant he raises a hand  to the creature's wound the camerawoman Waits with baited breath he's going to heal it she can  feel it that's alaniway's final power he can save the elephant surely the blood keeps flowing the  elephant's breathing grows fainter until silence fills the clearing no birds chattering no Breeze  to rustle the trees no more death rattles silence then the most heartbreaking sound t

he camerawoman  has ever heard Alani way starts to sob she is no longer welcome here this is not her place without  a word the camerawoman gets to her feet and walks back up the hill and out of the valley as she  walks she hears footsteps approaching her the presenter is there arms Laden with fruit and  berries he grins at her explaining how he's going to take these home and plant them up start a  smoothie chain called the Lonnie ways if the first store goes well they can franchise it keeping th

e  local feel but expanding to a roof stabs through his throat interrupting him a second stabs through  his chest shattering the hidden camera so much for that smoothie chain the camera woman doesn't look  back she walks through the day in the following night she finds a road and stops there's something  in her pocket still she takes out the SD card and looks at it the sad little smile she takes the  card between her fingers and snaps it clean in two the man that you have just encountered deep i

n  the Tanzanian Wilderness may not be a man at all little is known about the genetic makeup  of scp-5411 otherwise known as alaniway he appears to be a male comprised of a combination  of human animal and Botanical components the plants and pelts that the camerawoman observed  him wearing are likely not items of clothing at all but rather are naturally growing parts of  ilaniway's anatomy giving him the appearance of a witch doctor none of the documented  attempts to communicate with Alani way

have proved truthful while he does speak his  language is currently unidentified he seems to have no understanding of English Swahili or  Arabic and is uninterested in learning them alaniway roams freely within a 35 square  kilometer area of the Southern Tanzanian Savannah this site has been designated scp-5411-0  and an exclusion Zone has been set up around it barbed wire fences and automated drones Patrol  the perimeter a sacrificial goat is kept on site at all times ready to be sacrificed as

part of a  binding ritual to keep scp-5411 contained thus far however alaniway has not proved to be a threat to  anyone other than those who disturb the delicate ecosystem which he inhabits his land scp-5411-0  is home to a number of critically endangered or near extinct species of African animals many of  whom are from different countries in the continent black rhinoceros Western gorilla African penguins  and a so-called albino ghost elephant that is Central to local folklore it is unclear how

these  animals came to live in this area but there is an evident connection between alaniway's care of  Nature and their continued survival alaniway has been witnessed delivering newborn animals of  a number of species tending to injured animals and even regrowing grasslands to feed and house  various creatures alaniway is known to possess the powers of teleportation intangibility  zoolingualism fluorokinesis and psychokinesis when left alone Alani way uses these abilities  to tend to his local

ecosystem however he is aggressive and decisive in disposing of anything  he perceived to be a threat to the Natural order he is known to manifest and control small humanoid  creatures roughly one meter tall that are made up of foliage wood mud and rocks these creatures  designated scp-5411-1 exhibit basic predatory behavior carrying out the bidding of scp-5411  such as destroying our camerawoman's equipment capable of running at speeds of up to 75  kilometers an hour the 58 known instances of s

cp-5411-1 are to be treated as hostile as  soon as they leave the scp-5411-0 exclusion Zone however a status quo seems to have settled between  SCP researchers and scp-5411 alaniway seems content within his ecosystem and the conservation  work he carries out within this area is proving invaluable to those researching climate change  and habitat welfare much like the animals and Nature Documentaries it is best that we choose  not to interfere and let nature run its course kids get bored it's just

part of growing up or at  least that's what their parents would always say living in a small town in England you run out  of things to do by your fifth birthday by your 10th you want nothing more than to move out by  your 15th half the kids end up in hospital doing something stupid the kid entering the churchyard  tonight is no exception as he Ducks under the Gap in the chain link fence he catches the corner  of his cast on the metal the cast is already so covered in Nicks and scratches that th

e new tear  barely makes a difference he has been trying to cut the cast off with kitchen scissors for the  last three weeks he'd broken his wrist riding his bike off the roof of his house it would  have worked if it wasn't for the post box being a little too close to the building his brother  calls out to him from up ahead he's already at the door to the church the kid hears his best  friend shuffling around nervously behind him he waits for her turn to duck under the fence and  follow him into

the churchyard away from the road even in the middle of nowhere in total darkness  the kid Can Tell She's scared to break the rules the pair of them rush over to meet the kid's  brother at the entrance to the church the older brother grins at both of them at 21 years old he  may as well be 41 towering over the two of them with a few scraggly chin hairs and a tattoo on  his neck they can't imagine what his life must be like going to University in London driving a  car getting tattoos drinking al

cohol that costs more than 10 quid and doesn't come from the corner  store what a life there isn't a door to kick open the church building is in total disrepair only the  Limestone structure is left standing the windows have all been smashed in long ago and the pews  rotted away leaving only some Moss creeping its tendrils into every nook and cranny as the three  of them make their way inside they look up to see the starry night sky above their heads no roof  left intact in fact the only part of

the building that seems to still be half standing is the tower  at the far end even in the dark they can still make out a tight spiral staircase hewn into the  stone disappearing up into the collapsing Tower the kit grins what to explore first they all split  up wandering around different parts of the church Hall the kid makes a beeline for a toppled in  patch of wall he clamors up onto a window ledge and hoists himself up onto the wall looking down  at the other two a stone gives way under his

foot and almost sends him tumbling but he throws out  his broken wrist just in time to balance himself across the hall his best friend is checking her  flip phone anxiously she'd said earlier in the evening that she needed to be back before 1am or  her parents would be worried it's already 12 45. the kid's older brother calls out across  the church I need the toilet I'm gonna climb straight to the top of the tower  and do it off the edge watch out for rain and with that he disappears through th

e little  doorway and up the spiral staircases very quickly the sound of his footsteps disappears leaving the  kid and his friend alone together the kid looks over his shoulder out of the church building  from up on this patch of wall he is almost at the perfect height to pick an apple from the tree  next to them if he can just stretch out far enough there he plucks two apples one for him and one for  his friend he tosses it to her but she misses the catch looking up at him he can tell she alrea

dy  wants to go home he grumbles and jumps down from the wall The Landing jars his leg pretty badly but  he clenches his teeth hard enough that no noise escapes his mouth he grins at his best friend she  doesn't return it it's late she needs to get home soon and the only way they can get home is in his  big brother's car fine I guess it's probably home time she gives him her best attempt at a smile  the kid walks over to the stairs sticks his head through the doorway and calls out no response  g

reat how high do these stairs go there can't be more than a couple of stories surely he calls  again still nothing his best friend appears at his shoulder they both peer up the staircase it's  such a tight spiral that they can't really see anything beyond the first 10 steps it's dark in  there almost too dark to see where they're going he gets out his flashlight and flicks it on that  should be enough light for the both of them the kid plants his foot on the first step and starts  climbing the s

teps feel well worn they're smooth in the middle and dipped down slightly from  years of use one step two steps three four five his flashlight dies he shakes it Knocking  the back of it a couple of times like they do in the movies nothing not even a flicker he asks  his friend if she has a flashlight she doesn't so the two of them climb in the dark very quickly  the stairs change shape or maybe that's the wrong word they aren't changing shape they're just  shrinking it's subtle but definitely ha

ppening the gaps between them are getting smaller and  the undersides of the stairs above are bearing down on the kids head slightly the kid stops  and turns to his best friend he can hardly see her at all in the dark she's just a slightly  darker Shadow standing a couple of steps down from him he asks if the steps are getting  smaller she tells him not that she can tell he insists they must be the stairs above their  heads are getting lower and lower the space is closing in on them slightly she

says she has no  idea what he's talking about tutting at her he takes a couple more steps up the staircase the  cast on his arm tightens that's strange he keeps going and all of a sudden it feels like a vice the  blood flow is cut off almost instantaneously his fingers feel cold and start to tingle his forearm  swelling and bulging around the edge of the cast the pressure building up inside it is ridiculous  feels almost as if the cast splits apart and falls off blood rushes back to his fingert

ips  he flexes them gratefully turning to his best friend even in the darkness He Can Tell She's  peering at him intently he runs a hand over his arm massaging it gently strange his arm feels  different from how it did before it went into the cast there's more hair on it now and the muscle  running along his forearm feels more pronounced he flexes his wrist no pain no stiffness nothing  he doesn't do to get his cast off for another month at least those doctors clearly don't know  what they're ta

lking about are you standing on your tiptoes his friend asks from behind him he  looks down at her Shadow confused and tells her no he isn't the kid apparently looks taller must  just be uneven stairs or a trick of the light come to think of it though his best friend does  look a little different standing there below him even just from her silhouette she isn't any taller  but her figure looks different her voice sounds a little lower his brother that's who they're after  they'd get to the top of

the stairs find him and see what was going on must just be some strange  optical illusions Happening Here In The Dark the two of them press on continuing up the stairs  step after step they go they must be up on the second floor by now surely but there's no light  ahead of them indicating any kind of exit just more stairs the kid asks his friend what time  it is he hears her flipping open her phone and pressing a couple of buttons but no light fills  the space she presses them again and again n

othing her battery must have died that's the only  explanation she tries to tell him that it was almost on full a minute ago but he doesn't really  listen because at that moment he sticks a hand in his pocket to take out the Apple he'd plucked warm  goop sticks to his fingers his back pocket is full of sticky mush Little Creatures wriggle around  inside it maggots how would he plucked a rotten apple it felt fine on the branch he takes another  step hands still absently hovering over his pocket a

buzzing sound a couple of flies brushed past  his fingers what had they been doing in his pocket he hears them drift around him and up the  staircase until suddenly their buzzing stops he crouches down and Squints hard in the dark he can  just about make out two little flies lying on the stair just two steps away from him both on their  backs legs curled the kid reaches back into his pocket and feels around the sticky mush is gone  just some kind of dry Dusty substance is left strangely the kid

doesn't panic he knows somewhere  in his head that everything happening to him is very peculiar yet he doesn't feel worried  about it at all to be honest all he really cares about right now is making it to the top of  this staircase he takes off running two steps at a time up towards where his brother must be waiting  part of his mind notices that the jarring feeling in his leg from jumping off the wall is gone  no time to think about that now up he runs each stride throwing him further and fur

ther somewhere  behind him he can hear his best friend muttering something to herself something incoherent and  garbled her voice definitely sounds different now it barely sounds like her anymore she sounds more  like more like her mother the kid catches his foot on a staff and Falls his best friend clatters into  the back of them before she has a chance to stop the two of them topple over Landing awkwardly on a  step enough to knock the wind out of him she lies on top of him only it can't be he

r it feels like  a fully grown woman not his 15 year old friend she Whispers to him her voice doesn't sound scared  at all though if anything she seems a little disinterested what's happening to us the kid  breathes heavily struggling to get the air back into his lungs that's when he notices the smell  something deathly rotten is filling the staircase something moldy and decaying she seems to notice  it too the pair of them stand up straight and peer up the stairs in the Gloom they can see it cl

early  enough a person slumped on the ground the smell tells them all they need to know about this person  they should run right now they should run back down the staircase and out of there get both of  them inexplicably and in unison continue walking up the stairs closing the gap on the corpse it  blocks off two whole steps lying awkwardly on its side slightly hunched over as if the person had  collapsed in a coughing fit the kid almost slips over something small is under his foot something  me

tallic he reaches down and picks it up feeling its shape and knowing almost immediately what it  is he lifts the lid and flicks the red and gold lighter on little flame fills the staircase with  light orange and weak dancing around the stone it is just enough to make out the flecks of  blood coughed out of The Corpse's mouth and onto the stone steps it is just enough to see  the scruffy Little Beard sprouting out of The Corpse's face it's just enough to make out the  tattoo on The Corpse's neck

the kid looks down at his older brother not just his older brother  but his older brother whereas before he had seemed like he was 41 now looks like it 41 and dead from  something in his lungs the kid turns to see his best friend a woman in her mid-30s looks back  at him her hair even has a couple of Telltale Grays she should look afraid but her expression is  almost blank but there's a little something there just enough of an expression to tell him that  she's seeing the same transformation on

his face looking back at her the kid reaches up to touch  his cheek a wiry beard meets his fingertips they should run they should run back down these stairs  and get out of here call an ambulance and go home yet the kid flicks the lighter closed turns  around and steps over his older brother's body as he walks up the stairs in silence  he hears his best friend doing the same after five more stairs his knee starts to give  out then his hip soon after that it gets harder and harder to stand up str

aight so he lets himself  stoop slightly his best friend's breathing grows softer and wispier behind him the pace slows down  each step seems to take more out of him feeling harder than the last he needs a rest that's all  he needs if he can just sit down for a second his chest clamps in on itself like a vice blood  hammers in his ears sweat floods across his brow in an instant and the whole world seems to tilt  around him the kid collapses on the ground feeling his brittle wrist snapping under

him pain shoots  through his body as his chest squeezes Tighter and Tighter he rolls onto his back gasping for  air with frail lungs the kid claws at his sunken rib cage feeling loose wrinkled skin under his  fingertips with a Monumental effort he flicks the lighter on to see an old woman peering at him  through the dark he can hardly recognize his best friend anymore as she gently takes the lighter  from his hand and steps over his convulsing body he watches helplessly as she continues gingerly

  up the stairs in silence she doesn't look back over her shoulder disappearing around the corner  taking the light with her leaving the kid to die an old man in total darkness with one final gasp  of air before his heart gives out on him he clings desperately to one hope she's going to make it to  the top of the stairs she has to it is fortunate in many ways that scp-723 is in such a remote  area while the church has stood on that site for hundreds of years for much of that time it has  been ab

andoned little is known about the history of the church as many of the events around it  have descended into local folklore what is known about scp-723 is that it is a spiral staircase  housed within an abandoned church building in an undisclosed location in rural England for all  intents and purposes it is an unremarkable set of stairs made from ordinary Limestone from the local  Quarry the steps are approximately 0.75 meters wide and worn away in the middle apparently from  frequent use if you

were to look at the outside of the church you would see that the tower containing  the staircase is not particularly tall and is in a state of disrepair taking a look inside that Tower  however seems to show the staircase extending up beyond the height of the tower something that  seems on the surface to be physically impossible in fact how high the staircase itself goes  is a mystery to this day as those studying scp-723 are yet to find a way to see inside  it beyond the first two floors this

is because every object living or otherwise that ascends  up scp-723 undergoes a rapid aging process organic creatures quickly grow older die and  decompose on their way up the steps other objects behave as if a great deal of time has passed  batteries and electronic devices go flat almost immediately Decay is accelerated too meaning wear  and tear take place at an alarmingly fast rate this renders any conventional methods of  exploring scp-723 obsolete sound and video recording equipment runnin

g on battery power  quickly fail after many attempts with different technology recording devices linked to a robust  cable were created specifically for trying to record footage beyond the first story of scp-723  however the video recordings failed around the Second Story and sound recordings failed around  the fourth living subjects were required to transport these devices up the staircase and  so d-class Personnel were tasked with the job across all documented experiments none of the  subjects

returned in each case a subtle change was noticed in the subjects upon crossing the fifth  step one subject paused another gasped slightly but beyond that there was no physical or emotional  discomfort for much of their Ascent most were perfectly content to climb the stairs once they'd  passed that fifth step in fact as the d-class Personnel climbed up the stairs and underwent the  accelerated aging process none of them appeared to be outwardly distressed for the most part they all  remained re

markably calm and almost disinterested in the way their bodies transformed before their  very eyes video footage showed the subject's skin rapidly aging undergoing conventional wrinkling  and deterioration diseases appear to develop at an advanced rate too as one subject's body  recovered by pulling them back down with the Rope they were attached to contained tumors  around the prostate and above the eye that were not present prior to the experiment this subject  was later discovered to have a f

amily history of cancer for all intents and purposes it appears as  if scp-723 simply accelerates the natural aging process of the subject's body following the same  DNA instructions and deterioration that you would otherwise observe over the course of decades  d-723-7 was the subject to make it further stop the staircase before the connection was lost  approaching the fourth floor the signal grew very weak but in the noise could be heard a handful  of distressed murmurings including possible re

ferences to a door or the door and to dark and  Mark Beyond this point there is no usable evidence local folklore in the area indicates that scp-723  has been producing the same effect for Generations stories can be heard from local residents about  old church congregations who used to meet in the building and would mysteriously lose grandparents  children priests and Strays who would disappear up the staircase it is theorized that this is why  the church building was left abandoned for so long

scp-723 was only identified relatively recently  in the early 2000s after reports surfaced of local children going missing in its vicinity  in response the area has been cordoned off and designated as site 288 a three-mile chain-link  fence was erected around the churchyard with signage warning any visitors to steer well clear  a further two-mile restriction Zone with Magnetic locks is scheduled to be constructed in the near  future three guards are stationed around scp-723 at all times of the d

ay none of them openly  carry any weapons so as not to arouse much attention from any passersby presenting the site  as a mostly uninteresting unsafe derelict building the guards are not permitted to approach or  Ascend the staircase and the same goes for any SCP personnel the only people permitted to  enter scp-723 are d-class Personnel specifically approved by Foundation personnel with level 4  clearance or higher while little is known about the cause of the effect or how scp-723 physically  w

orks one thing is certain no person who has started to walk up those stairs has ever come back  down again now go and watch another entry from the classified files of Dr Bob such as scp-962  Tower of Babel for another twisting structure of anomalous Madness and make sure you subscribe  and turn on notifications so you don't miss a single anomaly as we delve further and further  into the SCP foundation's classified archives