bleese (Tales)

Report #540-295
Date: ██-██-████
Author: Dr. Susan Briggs

The following report concerns the cause of incident ███-█ at site ███ which resulted in a Euclid containment breach and the death of 3 personnel. The report concerns two intern junior researchers Albert Harrows (aged 22) and James Matthews (aged 23), as well as their advisor Dr. Barrett Farley (age 46). The report was constructed from witness testimonies and audio/video logs related to the incident.

The two junior researchers Harrows and Matthews had joined the foundation on ██-██-████ and had been with us for about two years. It was very well known amongst their colleagues that they disliked their advisor Dr. Farley claiming him to be strict, unfair and unfriendly. On ██-██-████, about three days before the incident, the two junior researchers learned that both their applications for a full research position at the foundation were rejected. This was the third time their application were rejected and the junior researchers were becoming increasingly frustrated. Their record indicates that they were very exceptional young men who had participated in many experiments with SCP-███ which resulted in significantly useful data for the foundation. According to their colleague junior researcher Mitchell Simmons, Matthews and Harrow believed that Farley was submitting unfairly critical or false reports to the foundations hiring council, causing there applications to be rejected. To confirm their theory both junior researchers decided to investigate Dr. Farley's confidential notes on the two young interns.

Both researchers investigated Dr. Farley's office while Dr. Farley was away about two days before the incident but were unable to locate the notes they were looking for. It is believed then that the pair decided to go to Dr. Farley's personal residence, a secluded farm house about 54 km away from site ███, in order to find the notes. It is currently unknown exactly how the pair were able to ascertain Dr. Farley's personal residence but Dr. Farley himself reported to the foundation that he had recently invited a female colleague over to his house and that maybe one of the junior researchers overheard the conversation (It should be noted giving away any personal information under any circumstance is against foundation protocol, for EXACTLY this reason).

The junior researchers left for Dr. Farley's house at about 2:12 am the morning of the incident, Dr. Farley had to stay in late due to the separate incident ███-██ that was unfolding. At about 2:43 am both junior researchers arrived at Dr. Farley's residence via car and entered the residence. Unbeknownst to either Matthews or Harrow, Dr. Farley had bugged his residence with audio microphones and surveillance cameras and the following report is taken directly from these logs during the incident.

Matthews and Harrows, upon entering the residence, began immediately searching around for the files. The farm house was relatively small with a main living room which had attached a single bedroom and a bathroom, Dr. Farley lived alone. Both junior researchers were careful to make sure anything they moved or inspected would be put back in place so that their tampering would not be discovered. The search went on for about twenty minutes until Harrow discovers a lock box under Dr. Farley's bed. Harrow, who had learned lock picking in his spare time, quickly and carefully cracked the lock box open to reveal a large yellow envelope full of several documents and a large red "CONFIDENTIAL" label stamped upon it.

"I think I found it", Harrow spoke while carefully undoing the envelope so as to not leave any signs of tampering in case he had to close it up again later. Upon opening the envelope Harrow dumped the contents out onto Dr. Farley's bed revealing several documents and a laminated photograph. Instinctually, Harrow picked up the photograph and investigated it closely before walking to the living room where Matthews was still searching.

"Hey check this out", Harrow spoke calmly, "What the heck is this thing?". Harrow handed the photograph to Matthews who quickly gazed at the photo and immediately threw it on the ground in a panic.

"What the fuck!", Matthews yelled in a panic, "What the fuck is wrong you!?"

Harrow was visibly confused and getting more distressed seeing the reaction of Matthews, whose face was getting increasingly flushed.

"Do you know that is!?", Matthews exclaimed as he began pacing around the room, actively avoiding eye contact with the photo.

"No?", Harrows spoke with a confused inflection staring at the photo that was now face up on the ground, "Just some weird grey monster thing."

"Grey, skeletal, weird proportions, elongated jaw", Matthews spoke with an increasingly erratic tone, "Does that remind you of anybody!?"

Harrows stopped for a moment investigating the photo in complete silence as Matthews continued to pace around the room. The realization dawned on him as all researchers, junior or otherwise, during their orientation must learn about the characteristics of SCP-096 and the physical description of this SCP was exactly what was contained in the photo. Both Harrow and Matthews knew what this meant.

Harrow quickly put his arms up around his head grabbing the back of his neck as he looked down on the floor, he spoke in a soft panic just the words, "Oh god".

About twenty seconds passed with no words as Matthews continued to pace and Harrow became static until finally Harrow jumped up.

"The photo!", Harrow exclaimed, "We need to get rid of the photo!"

"Ok, ok, ok", Matthew repeated as he began to crouch down, looking up at the ceiling and using his hands to explore the floor. Eventually he reached the photo and flipped it over subduing the threat. "Ok ok", Matthews continued to repeat, "What do we do?"

"Well first it might not have been 096", Harrows spoke in a more calmer voice, "No one alive has ever seen him, it could be some other SCP or maybe just some drawing, we don't know."

Matthews looked down at the upside down photo and exhaled, sitting down in a more slumped matter, "Yeah… maybe you're right. Maybe you're right."

Another moment of silence passed as both the researchers simply stared at the upside down photo, "Man this is fucked up", Matthews stated, "Why the fuck does Farley have this photo?"

The two walked into Dr. Farley's bedroom once again and investigated the documents that were with the photo. The documents were later reclaimed and were receipts of foundation business transactions that Dr. Farley had filed with a third party suppliers. It was revealed that these receipts were forged and that Dr. Farley had been artificially increasing the prices of the third party vendors supplies and had been sending the extra funds into a personal bank account. It is now known that Dr. Farley embezzled over $2.3 million USD from the foundation.

"What is this…" Matthews spoke with a nervous inflection. Suddenly both the junior researchers pages went off at the same time, the alerts message stated "SEV 0, CONTAINMENT BREACH OF EUCLID CLASS SCP AT SITE ███".

"That's the site that 096's…," Harrow stated softly

"NO! NO NO NO!", Matthews exclaimed in a furious panic, moving into the living room and banging his fist hardly against a wall, knocking off some antique nic-nacs that Dr. Farley had collected. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING".

Harrow quickly went to the living room to console his friend, "Relax!", Harrow shouted, "It could be a different SCP! It could be unrelated! It's probably unrelated!"

"NO NO!", Matthews once again exclaimed moving down into a sitting position leaning against a wall, "We saw the photo! We saw the photo and now he's coming for us! He's coming!"

Harrows once again tried to console his friend and get him out of a panic, he held Matthews tightly saying, "Listen we can get out of this, we always get out of stuff like this."

"Ok…", Matthews once again exhales, calming down, "Ok we can do this. We can escape, we can run away, lets get back in the car and-"

Harrow interjects "Where would we go?"

"I don't know, but if we keep driving he won't be able to catch up and we can just-", Matthews states, followed by a brief pause, "No no that won't work, we'd run out of fuel and then he'd catch up to us…"

"Can we get to an airport, a helicopter, or something?" Harrow chimes in.

"The nearest airport is at least 50 km away and towards site ███, we would never make it in time…", Matthews responds, increasingly becoming more panicked, "Besides if we go to an airport there's a high chance others will see him and we can't risk that chance… and even if we did fly to another country he'll eventually catch up to us… No, There's nothing we can do."

"Maybe there's some kind of off switch", Harrow once again responds, "Some way to reverse the effect?"

"No!", Matthews exclaims angrily, "If there was some way to stop this effect he wouldn't be class Euclid! Shit, there's nothing we can do!"

Matthews begins to cry in his sitting position as Harrow still stands looking at the upside down photograph in silence. The room is deftly silent with only the sounds of Matthews sobs filling the air.

"This wasn't supposed to happen…", Matthews speaks softly to himself, "I worked so hard to get here to the foundation. I studied and worked all my life, this was supposed to be my big break."

"Yeah", Harrows responds, softly.

"Fucking hell", Matthews once again says, wiping away a tear, "I just… we were learning so much, contributing so much, we could have done so much! And for it to just end here? I'm only 23 goddamn it, I'm not supposed to die, I don't want to die."

"We're not gonna die", Harrow once again chimes in, "It's not SCP-096, it can't be, why would Farley keep a photo of 096 in his home, it doesn't make sense."

"You saw the documents", Matthew responds, tears still streaming down his face, "He was stealing money from the foundation, he kept that photo in there as some kind of defense mechanism, fuck". Matthew pauses, staring at his own feet for a period, "I don't even care, he can steal as much money as he'd like, I just… why would he do that?"

Harrow continued to stare at the upside down photo in silence, mesmerized by the dark black abyss that is the backside of the laminated photo.

Matthews sobs begin to get louder, "No… this can't be happening…"

Harrow speaks softly, his eyes fixed on the photo, "What do you think will happen to us."

Matthews looks up at Harrow, "I've read the article, they don't say what exactly…", Matthews stops speaking as he begins to realize exactly what was written in the SCP-096 article. "Oh god…"

Harrow is once again silent, not making eye contact with Matthews.

"Jesus Christ!", Matthews gets up in a panic, no longer crying, "Jesus Christ he's gonna fucking tear us apart! He's gonna fucking eat us! He's gonna…"

Suddenly Harrow jumps up and once again grabs Matthews "RELAX!"

"No!", Matthews shouts at Harrow, "YOU FUCKING DID THIS TO ME! It could have just been you! I could have lived, I could have done so much but now I'm gonna get fucking eaten. I don't want to feel pain, I don't want to feel suffering, I don't want to die!"

Harrow shouts at Matthews, "I didn't know!"

"You didn't know!?", Matthews responds, "You never fucking knew! You're a stupid fuck up! If you were just SMARTER we could have gotten out of this mess but you've fucked us both up, you fucked us BOTH up!"

Harrow kneels down and grabs his head shouting "I'm sorry!"

"You killed me! And for what!?", shouts Matthews, "Because of some report, this was your idea Al, everything is your fault! You deserve to get eaten, not me. You!"

"Please!", Harrow shouts looking up, "I'm sorry! I didn't know! I just…", Harrow pauses, a single tear streaming down his face, "I just… I did this for you, you've always been the smarter one, you've always been the more ambitious one, I just wanted to help you."

Matthews is slightly taken aback, but is still clearly angry

"Farley had it out for us, you knew that!", Harrow snapped back at Matthews, "I didn't really care about becoming a researcher, I'm happy to move into logistics so I didn't really care about Farley. But you, you were MADE for this job, the way you talk and way you act, you had to be a researcher and you could NEVER be a researcher with Farley spreading his fucking lies. Please, I'm sorry, but I did this for you, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you!"

Another moment of silence fills the room as both the junior researchers stop and reflect, Harrow wiping his tears away as Matthews looks down at his feet with a frown, not addressing Harrow. The silence is only broken by the sound of a gust of wind whistling through the grass outside.

"What's gonna happen to us", Harrow once again asks

"I told you, we're gonna be fucking eaten", Matthews says in a defeated and frustrated tone

"No, I mean after that.", Harrow looks at Matthews, "Where do we go?"

Matthew stares as his feet and speaks in a quiet tone still refusing to look at Harrow, "Nowhere."

"Nowhere?", Harrow asks, "What does that even me?"

"Our brains are just biochemical processes," Matthew explains, getting slightly distracted with the conversation, "Our consciousness, who we are, everything is just in that pattern that our neurons manifest. When you get rid of that pattern, you get rid of us… Like switching off a computer program, where does the program go?", Matthew looks up at Harrow with a serious tone, "Nowhere. Humans aren't special, we're just machines."

"I don't believe that", Harrow talks back to Matthews, "there's something special about the human mind, I believe we'll go somewhere, maybe become part of something bigger"

"That's not scientific", Matthews states matter of factly.

"Not scientific!?", Harrow scoffs, "With all the shit we've seen, with all the anomalies that exist? The things that defy all explanation, that defy all reasoning and scientific understanding? Hell I've heard one of the sites even contains a literal god! You say, even with all that going on, that the idea humans aren't just computers is "too far out there"?"

"That's different", Matthews dismisses, "They're SCPs, they work outside the foundations of our reality."

"And what if we do too", Harrow states, "The human brain works like nothing else in the universe, no one has been able to replicate it and no one has been able to fully explain it. What if humans are anomalous, every single of us, what if the human condition, in and of itself, is an anomaly to the universe."

"How poetic", Matthews states sarcastically.

"Listen!", Harrow exclaims, "Is it so hard to believe that there's something more? Is it so hard to believe we aren't machines but anomalies in this great cosmos. That life and death aren't constructed deterministic phenomena defined by biology or physics but exist in a chaotic, random realm outside our own understanding. I believe there's a reason for all of it, a reason for us being here and even a reason SCP-096 exists and this reason only manifests itself after we leave the physical world in death. I believe the greatest SCP in the world is us, humans, and we're part of something great."

Matthews does not respond and instead continues to stare at his feet in silence, not even pondering the exchange. "How long has it been?", Matthews asks.

"About 15 minutes", Harrow replies quickly.

"How long until he reaches us?", Matthews state

"Does it really matter?", Harrow responds, "If he really is coming then there's nothing we can do anyway"

"I want to know", Matthew states, looking at Harrow, "I want to know… when it will happen."

Harrow sighs, then begins to ponder for a few seconds, "Site ███ is about 50 km away from here, the reports differ on how fast 096 can run but they say it's about as fast as car at highway speeds so.. maybe we have 5-10 minutes left."

"5-10 minutes left", Matthews responds, "And then immense suffering… and then nothing"

"Well as I said-", Harrow continues

"23 years Al", Matthew interrupts, "What did I spend my life on in 23 years? Working, studying, pushing myself to be the best I can be. I thought that was the right thing to do, that's what you're supposed to do right? Spend your early years laboring in constant stress so that your later years are cushy and nice. You're supposed to work hard so you can be someone important, you can be someone who is going to change the world. But look what we've done with the world? 23 years of work, gone in an instant."

Harrows just stares not speaking.

"I never got a partner", Matthews continues, "hell I never even focused on my personal life. Did you know I'm gay? Nobody knows that because it was never important, who cares about sexuality when you're only focus is goddamn RESEARCH", Matthews begins once again pacing, "I could have enjoyed myself, I could have lived a normal life. I could have taken drugs or hung out with friends or found the love of my life, but no, instead I worked because of the promise the future had. That promise is coming to us in 5-10 minutes and it's a horrible monster that will tear us and our dreams apart." Matthews stops pacing and looks squarely at Harrow who looks at him back, "What was the point of it all? Why did every moment of our lives lead us here? In this fucking farmhouse stumbling on some embezzling scheme and dying for it."

"I suppose", Harrow responds in a calm matter, "we'll find out soon."

"Yeah." Matthews once again leans on the wall and calms down, "I suppose we'll find out soon."

The two just stood in silence for the remainder of their time, there was no conversation or eye contact, simply silence. This lasted until an extremely faint scream was heard in the distance, which Harrow immediately notices.

"Do you hear that?", Harrow asks Matthews who is now sitting on the floor with his heads between his knees.

"No…. no….", Matthews speaks, once again beginning to cry, "I'm not ready… I'm scared…"

"It could be…", Harrow speaks to himself, "It could be something else…"

The screams get audibly louder, foot steps as if someone is running at great speed can be heard approaching the house. Both Harrow and Matthews stay where they are, Harrow looking at the door and Matthews closing his eyes, head in his knees, shouting to himself.

"OH GOD NO! PLEASE GOD!", Matthews exclaims as loud as he can as the screams get louder and louder turning into screeches and sobs.

"It's something else… it can't be… it can't be…", Harrow keeps repeating to himself, his murmurs slowly being driven out by the screams of both Matthews and the creature outside who is now only a few metres away from the house.

Both the junior researchers begin screaming as the cries of the creature become so loud the audio recording can't pick anything else up. The sound of the frantic and heavy footsteps spearing towards the house and stepping right in front of the door until finally the door bursts open into splinters…

Incident response was quick and an MTF squadron showed up to Dr. Farley's house 5 minutes after SCP-096 arrived. Following procedure ██-███ SCP-096 was successfully re-contained and moved back to site ███. Because of the remoteness of Dr. Farley's house and the hour of the day no other witnesses saw SCP-096 except for a facility guard who saw the SCP during the initial breach. The bodies of the junior researchers were never recovered, only a massive pool of blood and gore remained. Dr. Farley was severely disciplined for inappropriate use of facility funds, taking a photo of a Euclid class SCP against protocol and for gross negligence leading to the death of three facility personnel including junior researchers James Matthews and Albert Harrow.

The two junior researchers were posthumously promoted to a full research position in the foundation. END OF REPORT.