Censius

Item #: SCP-9991

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9991 is to be kept inside a secure storage unit at the media archive of Site ██. Staff with security clearance above two may handle SCP-9991 freely after a formal request and debrief on the SCP's effects.

Description: SCP-9991 appears to be a copy of the 1949 novel Arabella by Georgette Heyer. The object is 12 ounces in weight, roughly 20 cm in height and 11.5 cm in width. While the object appears to have the same number of pages as the commercial novel, that of 312 pages, flipping through the book itself shows that the number of pages will increase in proportion to its narrative. The number of potential pages the object has may be functionally limitless.

SCP-9991 has a number of chapters whose titles are that of individuals who have read the contents of the object for any length of time. As individuals peer through the object they will inevitably come across "their" chapter. Reading the book from digital scans does not appear to have this effect. Each chapter describes the individual suddenly appearing within a room made of living material. What follows differs between chapters, but often the individual is described as being captured by humanoid creatures and taken away for different purposes. The chapters continues linearly with time. Returning to a chapter after a day shows that the narrative has a day's worth of unread content. None of the characters in the narrative have yet been described as having died within their chapters.

The characters within the narrative behave in similar fashion as their real-world counterparts would. Their is no evidence that the contents of the narrative are happening in reality. Current hypothesis is that SCP-9991 simply creates a fictional text narrative whose characters perfectly emulate the behavior of its readers.

The individuals who read SCP-9991 are often disturbed and horrified by what the content. Amnestics have been issued to all civilian individuals who have had contact with the object before retrieval. Amnestics are to be made readily available to SCP staff who request it after a debrief of their experience. Reading SCP-9991 is not recommended except for the purposes of research.

> Interviewed: Dr. Celia DeMarco
>
> Interviewer: SCP Staff ██████
>
> Foreword: [Research proceedings conducted by Dr. DeMarco with the assistance of SCP staff ██████]
>
> <Begin Log>
>
> Dr. DeMarco: Recording. Okay Mr. ██████, I would like to go over the procedure once more for the record. Once you enter the book I would like you to look around your environment carefully and verbalize everything it is that you see.
>
> ██████: Wait, maybe I misunderstood. I wasn't told I was going anywhere.
>
> Dr. DeMarco: That's correct. The book seems to create a consciousness inside its narrative that is identical to its reader, which in this case will be you. You will not be going anywhere. But their will be a character created in the narrative that will have these orders and will, hopefully, follow them.
>
> ██████: So it will make a clone of me? I don't know if I'm comfortable with that.
> Dr. DeMarco: No, no. I mispoke. It doesn't literally make another consciousness. It will simply write a new chapter with a fictional you as the lead character. It won't be another person. Just like if I wrote a story about you on my notepad right now. Understand.
>
> ██████: Yes, I think so.
> Dr. DeMarco: Good, good. Now, as I said, I will need you to look around and verbalize everything you see. The narrator of the book doesn't record much of the details in its "story", but pretty reliably dictates the dialogue spoken by its characters.
> ██████: Okay.
> Dr. DeMarco: And that's all. Please open the book until you find your chapter and begin reading.
> ██████: Okay. (Pauses. Fingers through the pages of SCP-9991 for some time). Oh. Some of this stuff is kind of gross, isn't it? (Pauses). Okay, I found my chapter. (Skims the first few lines silently.)
> Dr. DeMarco: Out loud, please, ██████.
> ██████: Right, uh, (hesitates). Right. Okay. ██████ found himself in a dark space. Waiting for his eyes to adjust he reaches out with one hand until his hand scrapes something.
'Oh, my god,' he said. 'Oh, my god. Oh, fuck. Fuck! You didn't…you said…' ██████ found himself hyperventilating. He took some breathes to calm himself. He thought of…" (pauses).
> Dr. DeMarco: ██████.
> ██████: Jesus Christ.
> Dr. DeMarco: Please continue reading, ██████.
> ██████: "He thought of his wife, ███. For a moment his nerves calmed, though he thought the thought of her might return to break him later. But for now he steadied his voice as he said, 'Okay. Jesus. Okay. I'm, uh, I don't know if you're reading this, but…God, fuck. Okay, I'm in a small room, about the same size that I was just with Dr. Demarco. But the floor and walls have a give to it, like skin. But not like human flesh. It's purple. Each wall has a, a pustule like thing on it that emits a slight glow.' ██████ looked around himself with greater sight. He took a few steps in each direction and swept his arms in front of him to find something else, but there was nothing else.
'There isn't anything else here,' he said out loud. He felt dumb doing it. Who was to hear him? He wondered if their was another him still at the Foundation, reading out everything that was happening to DeMarco and her stupid microphone. He waited. He waited for a long time."
> Dr. DeMarco: ██████, please don't stop.
> ██████: I didn't. I mean, there's nothing else on the page.
> Dr. DeMarco: Alright. Then you can -
> ██████: Wait, wait, more's appeared.
> Dr. DeMarco: Keep reading then.
> ██████: Okay. "██████ began to shout. At first it was just a guttural cry of terror and despair. Then they became words.
'You fucking bitch!' he screamed. 'You said I wouldn't be going anywhere! I'd just sit in that cozy room and read you some fucking book! What the fuck did you do to me? Where the fuck am I? Jesus fuck!' He always thought she was a manipulative…" Umm…
> Dr. DeMarco: It's fine, ██████, it's just a book.
> ██████: Right (pauses). "He always thought she was a manipulative bitch. He knew she was full of shit. Okay, everyone at the Foundation spoke in half-truths by necessity of the job. But her? She resented being stuck with the 'Safe' objects. He'd heard her say as much. At the time he wondered why anyone would want to work with the more dangerous stuff. Well, now he knew. She was a sadist. She wanted to throw people into the fire to see how they burned. Problem was she had no access to the lighter fuel. All she had were scary videos and cuckoo clocks that cried instead of cuckooed. Now she had this book. This fucking prison. How many staff had she made read it? How many people were stuck in here with him?
"As the thought occurred to him one of the walls shifted in his peripheral vision.
"'Fuck,' he said, flinching. 'One of the walls opened up. I don't know how, exactly, it's just opened.' He stepped toward the opening. 'Outside I can see what looks like a hallway. There's more yellow pustules that I think designate more rooms. It just kind of goes. It's too dark. Oh, shit!'
"Just then four creatures came into the room. Their hands grasped at him quickly and lifted him into the air.
'Oh, fu -fuck. Let me…" he struggled against them but their grips were strong. Eventually he gave in and let them carry him. They held on to him for a long time, taking him down what seemed an endless hallway of purple doors."…It stops there again.
> Dr. DeMarco: Let's wait. If the events within the book happen in real time we can get an idea of the distance they travel by how long the narrative pauses.
> ██████: Okay. (A long silence proceeds. ██████ shifts in his seat frequently thgouh the duration of the pause). Okay, it's back. (██████ looks at DeMarco)
> Dr. DeMarco: It's been twenty-four minutes. Keep reading.
> ██████: Right. Um… "'I guess I can keep talking,' ██████ said eventually. 'Not to help DeMarco. But maybe you can stop her. Stop her from capturing more people here.' He gives one final tug in the grips of the creatures and then lets himself go limp in their hands. 'Right. Four aliens came into the room and grabbed me. They look just like those classic aliens. Smooth pale skin, big black eyes. But they're tall, man. Not like fucking E.T. And they're strong. They're still holding me, taking me somewhere. These guys walk fast. If I had to guess, they run about as fast as I jog. Perhaps seven miles-per-hour. Man this place is big. We've been walking for what might be half an hour and it's just been rows and rows of doors. In some of them I can hear screaming. Human screaming.'
"He thought of his wife again and indeed the thought did break him. He didn't think there was any way of getting out of this book. There was no way he would see her again. He began to weep but he had no time. He was startled from his grief and thrust back into terror.
"'Okay, I think we're reaching the end of the hall. Here comes the door. It's opening up.' He went silent as his eyes befell the new horror ahead of him. Was this the fate of everyone who entered the book? No. No, he was sure not. When he flicked through the book earlier, waiting to find his chapter, he'd seen brief snatches. Some involved surgery, some disassembly, some forced sex with various machines. Not this. He tried to speak as the creatures held him and conferred about the next steps for their victim.
'I'm in a, a dome. It's about as big as a stadium. A bright blue glow is coming off dome in pulses. Like a heartbeat. Hanging from the ceiling are dozens of, of I-don't-know. Sacks. They look like Caprisun packs that have been sucked dry. But they're somewhat transparent. And veiny. Like a bat-wing. Jesus Christ. Through the sacks I can see people. I can see these people hanging in the sacks. Fuck. Fu - ' His voice broke off as he took in the immensity of the thing. The incomprehensibleness of it all.
"Finally, the creatures seemed to have finished their preparations. They took him further into the massive room and thrust him into a small, pod-like space. He turned to run out the opening but the pod closed up behind him. He tried to tear at the skin-like walls but it would not not give. He began to hyperventilate again as he waited for whatever would happen to happen. He could see the murky shapes of those creatures on the other side of the pod walls. Suddenly the pod began to 'come on', thrumming and pulsing. Then slowly the air began to get sucked out of the thing, and the walls began to close in on him.
"'Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus,' he said again and again until the walls closed in around his mouth and body. He struggled but to no avail. He was trapped. He waited for the lack of oxygen to kill him, but it didn't. He could no longer breathe but also he would not die. What kind of hell was this? He - "
> Dr. DeMarco: What's the matter?
> ██████: I think I'm gonna be sick. (██████ retches) I don't think I can keep reading. It just keeps narrating him being stuck in that thing.
> Dr. DeMarco:Alright. Thank you for your cooperation, ██████.
> ██████:Um, yeah.
> Dr. DeMarco: Would you like your amnestics now?
> ██████: Yes please.
> <End Log,>
>
> Closing Statement: SCP Staff ██████ requested his name redacted from the file in the circumstance that he might come across the file in the future.