DrGriffiths-02

The portraits section of the █████ Gallery1

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: A reinforced steel door is to be installed at the entrance to SCP-XXXX's containment zone. The door is to be fitted with an automatic closing and locking system that activates half an hour before the closing time of the gallery, and de-activates half an hour after the gallery opens.

The door to the portrait section will only open during the gallery's opening times, and level 3 clearance is required to do so.

In the event that SCP-XXXX breaches its containment zone, Personnel are to remain calm and stay as still as possible. Personnel are advised not to move in any way.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a collection of twenty-three canvas portraits, arranged in the 'Portrait' section of the █████ Gallery (Designated its containment zone). SCP-XXXX instances are inactive during the opening times of the gallery. However, when the gallery closes, instances enter an active state. While in this active state, █████ ███████████████████████████████████████████████, along with other visual changes in the paintings.

After some time, an instance of SCP-XXXX will change, and the person portrayed in the painting will ████████ from █████████. Following this, SCP-XXXX-1 will manifest.

The appearance of SCP-XXXX-1 is unknown. On SCP-XXXX-1's manifestation, a target individual will be selected seemingly at random.

No electronic communication devices function correctly within SCP-XXXX's containment zone, either emitting static or remaining silent. Additionally, most video or audio recordings taken within SCP-XXXX's containment zone are anomalously corrupted, with some exceptions. The rules determining which files are corrupted are poorly understood and likely mostly random; some tested methods, however, have proven to decrease the likely-hood of file corruption, Including the implementation of hand-held devices.

The targets of SCP-XXXX-1 often report the following:
- The feeling of being watched.
- The creaking of floorboards and the sound of footsteps from somewhere at their rear.
- A perverse sensation of an entity's presence behind them.
- The sound of labored breathing near their ear.
- The visible shadow of a figure at their back.
- The feeling of hot breath emanating from behind them.
- ████████████████████████████████.

If the target verifies the presence of the SCP-XXXX-1 entity behind them through any means (visual, tactile, or otherwise): The target will be violently attacked and maimed by through ███████████████, resulting in death. Nature of death commonly appears ritualistic in nature. SCP-XXXX-1 appears to select a new target if the current target fails to █████████████, or if the target perishes.

Addendum-1: SCP-XXXX experiment logs.

Experiment Log: SCP-XXXX-A

Experiment: Subjects are D-15234, D-9957, and D-12041 designated 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Subjects are locked in SCP-XXXX's containment zone overnight. Subjects equipped with a day's rations and instructed to stay awake until the door is reopened. Stationary recording devices are placed in strategic locations within the containment zone. The door is automatically sealed.

Support Staff observations: thirty-eight minutes into testing, loud frantic banging on the door could be heard for four seconds.

Results: Door automatically opened and recovery team entered the containment zone.
Subject 1 was slumped against the far wall of the room in a significant pool of blood. Subject 1 appeared to have suffered serious cranium trauma.
Subject 3's body had been separated from the head, while the body was found near the door; the head was in the center of a circle composed entirely of the remains of Subject 2.

Audio and Footage: Corrupted. No information could be recovered.

Experiment Log: SCP-XXXX-B

Experiment: Subjects are D-12521 and D-9826 designated 1 and 2 respectively. Subjects are locked in SCP-XXXX's containment zone overnight. Subjects equipped with a day's rations and noting paper and pen. Subjects instructed to stay awake and record everything that happens until the door is reopened. The door is automatically sealed.

Support Staff observations: Nothing reported.

Results: Door automatically opened and recovery team entered the containment zone.
Subject 1 and 2 were both found split exactly down the middle and placed on the floor opposite each other. However, Subject 1's right half was placed flush with Subject 2's left half, and vice versa. Subject 1's notebook was found blank. Subject 2's notebook was recovered.

Subject 2's notes (Transcribed):

Name: Melinda

I am in a room with some paintings of people, I only recognize the vangoth [Van Gogh] though.

Arnold is being a dick and not writing anything on his paper.

Someone has replaced the picture by Vincent with a blank blue one, it looked like the man had just left the painting [The referenced painting was found without the described deviation]. This happened after I finished arguing with Arnold. It scared me for a sec- [Writing appears to have been abruptly cut off] [End of transcript]

Note from Dr. Henderson: Written reports are too unreliable and are easily interrupted, we should continue to experiment with audio recording equipment.

Experiment Log: SCP-XXXX-C

Experiment: Subjects are D-13041 and D-11203 designated 1 and 2 respectively. Subjects are locked in SCP-XXXX's containment zone overnight. Subjects equipped with a day's rations and handheld video and audio recording equipment. Subjects instructed to stay awake and film anything that happens until the door is reopened. The door is automatically sealed.

Support Staff observations: Nothing Reported

Results: Door automatically opened and recovery team entered the containment zone.
Subject 2's body was found lying adjacent to the far wall of the containment zone, a large verticle smear of blood is visible on the wall above Subject 2.
Subject 1 was found covered in urine and vomit in the middle of the room, the subject appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.

Audio and Footage: Subject 2's visual and audio footage were corrupted. Subject 1's recordings remain partially intact. Video footage has sustained major damage, and time data was lost. Both audio and visual log are documented below.

- Video log begins -

Subject 1: Yeah, mines on. You?

Subject 2: (Muffled due to distance) Yeah.

- Subject 1 and 2 converse about an unrelated subject -

Subject 2: So, you like art?

Subject 1: As much as the next guy, I guess. You?

Subject 2: Yeah I di- [DATA LOST]

Subject 2: Ok, that is really creepy. That's not cool.

Subject 1: What?

Subject 2: Whistlers mother is gone. Look.

- Subject 2 directs their handheld camera at a painting labeled Whistler's mother -

Note: The painting shows an empty chair where the figure should have been. This deviation was not found later.

Subject 1: Man, that's [EXPLETIVE] up. We need to get the hell outta here.

[DATA LOST]

Subject 1: What's that sound? Who's th- [DATA LOST]

Subject 2: Oh god oh g- [DATA LOST]

Subject 2: - Unintelligible Screaming -

- Last frames of footage show Subject 1 being thrown into the far wall of the room with incredible force -
Note: Audio recording continues after footage is lost.

Subject 2: - Laboured breathing -

Subject 2: - Sobbing -

[REMAINING DATA LOST]

End Log

Experiment Log: SCP-XXXX-D

Experiment: Subjects are D-11643 and D-10913 designated 1 and 2 respectively. Subjects are locked in SCP-XXXX's containment zone overnight. Subjects equipped with a day's rations and handheld video and audio recording equipment. Subjects instructed to stay awake and film anything that happens until the door is reopened. The door is automatically sealed.

Support Staff observations: Slight vibrations in the door were felt 37 minutes into the test.

Results: Door automatically opened and recovery team entered the containment zone.
Subject 1 was found dismembered and disemboweled against the right-hand wall of the room.
Subject 2 was found in the center of the room with severe internal bleeding, Subject 2 was alive on recovery, but died shortly after. Audio footage lost, Subject 1's video footage is intact but severely damaged.

Footage: The footage recovered was severely damaged, appearing as a slide show of still frames.

- Begin Log -

- Static -

Image: Subject 2 looking at the painting labeled Portrait of Madame X.

Image: Blurry image of the camera being directed to the right.

Image: Camera pointed towards portrait marked Head of a Women, by Leonardo da Vinchi.

Image: Blurry image of the camera being rapidly swung to the left.

Image: Camera pointed towards portrait marked Portrait of Madame X; the portrayed figure is missing from the painting.

- Static for 34 seconds -

Image: Camera is dropped to the floor, the lens is cracked. Subject 2 is in the far right of the frame.

- Static for 75 seconds -

Image: Subject 2 and camera remain in the same place as the previous image, Subject 2 is profusely sweating.

- Static for 14 seconds -

Image: Subject 2 can be seen incapacitated on the ground in front of the camera.

- Footage Ends -

End of Log

Note from Dr. Henderson: So D-10913 managed to survive for some time. We need to figure out how. I am permitting the use of larger numbers of D-Class for consecutive testing.

Experiment Log: SCP-XXXX-E

Experiment: Five test subjects are all D-Class designated 1 through 5 respectively. Subjects equipped with vitals monitors and chronometers. Subjects locked in SCP-XXXX's containment area with unique instructions: Subject 1 is instructed to move around and observe the artwork in the room, while under no circumstances interfering with any of the other D-Class. Subject 2 is instructed to stand facing a portrait of their choice and to remain facing the portrait no matter the circumstances. Subject 3 and 4 are to stand opposite facing each other, Subjects 3 and 4 are encouraged to converse about a topic of their choosing and are to remain otherwise motionless. Subject 5 is to lie face down on the floor.

Support Staff observations: Nothing Reported

Results: Door automatically opened and recovery team entered the containment zone.
Subjects 1, 3, and 4 were found dead on the ground with severe internal bleeding.
Subject 5 was found with severe skeletal damage, consistent with crushing by a heavy object.
Subject 2 was found alive but severely traumatized, facing a portrait marked: The Ambassadors, by Holbein. The subject was debriefed and subsequently Terminated.

Information Gained: Subject 2 described the feeling of an entity behind them, however, Subject 2 never turned around to view the entity. Instead, Subject 2 remained perfectly still for no less than 8 hours. Subject describes the creaking of floorboards and the sound of footsteps from somewhere behind them in the room and the sound of labored breathing near their ear.

Note from Dr. Henderson: Finally, some useful results. We can begin to establish a pattern of attack with this thing.

Addendum-2: Incident log.

Incident Log: SCP-XXXX

Circumstances: Containment zone door failed to close properly overnight, resulting in a containment breach. The reason for the failure in the door locking mechanism is unknown

Summary: The containment breach resulted in 13 civilian casualties and 23 onsite personnel casualties. SCP-XXXX-1 did not leave the gallery during the event. Dr. Henderson was recording an audio log at the time, accompanied by two other researchers (Below).

Dr. Henderson's audio log transcript:

Begin Log

[Unrelated audio for 8 minutes]

Henderson: And make sure to transfer th- [Cut of by containment breach alarm]

Henderson: Adams, seal the door.

- The door to Dr. Henderson's onsite office is shut -

Henderson: Ok. Neither of you opens that door until the all-clear has been given, got it?

Adams: Yes sir.

James: (Whispering) Sir, I think… It's already in here.

[Audible Pause]

Henderson: Are you exhibiting symptoms?

James: I, I think so sir.

Henderson: OK. It's all right James, take deep breaths. Do not panic.

James: Sir, its right behind me. I can feel it. Sir, what do I do? [Researcher James begins to hyperventilate]

Henderson: Its all right son, just look at me and don't look away. Do not move.

James: (Stuttering) Sir, it's right next to me. I can hear it, breathing.

Henderson: Shhhhh… It can't hurt you if you keep looking at me. [REDACTED]?

James: Oh god… (Audible Swallow) I'd say… [REDACTED], Sir.

Henderson: Its ok James, It's all right. It can't hu-

[Sound of bones breaking as Researcher James impacts a wall]

[Audible Pause]

Henderson: Ok. Adams? Listen very carefully. It's on me now. I need you to open the door.

Adams: (Adams's attempts to gain control of his breathing can be heard) Understood sir.

[Sound of pneumatic locks disengaging]

Henderson: Good.

[Adams breathing becomes labored]

Henderson: Hey, Adams. Look at me; everything is going to be all right. OK?

Adams: (Breaths Deeply) Yes sir.

Henderson: Goodman. Now, you need to get out of the gallery and rendezvous with the others at the evacuation point.

Adams: But… What about you sir?

Henderson: I'll be alright. Just get to the evacuation point. I will delay the entity as long as I can.

Adams: You will get to the evacuation point in time sir. Right?

Henderson: (Sigh) Don't worry about me, I'll get out in one piece.

[Footsteps receding]

[Sound of pneumatic locks re-engaging as the door to Henderson's office is resealed]

Henderson: Sorry lad. There is only one thing that can contain it now.

[Sound of a Gunshot]

End of Log

Footnotes

1. Original Source: http://popcornhorror.com/creepy-haunted-art-gallery/