RedactedWhiplash

7

You step through the door.
Your eyes narrow with all the determination of a coward, and all the integrity of a fraud. Keep with the facade, you think to yourself. Keep with the lies.
The rush of cold air and the ensuing dread threatened to drain what will you have left. But you move on, legs trembling.

Into the nothing.

6

You reminisce to your childhood. When everything was simple, everything was easy. Even when the entire world was turning upside down, it would be just a breeze; a fleeting thought quickly forgotten. A time of naivety. A time of purity. Nothing had mattered. But everything matters. And now, when the world turns upside down, it lands on your shoulders.

I know you better than you know yourself.

Someone speaks to you. You can’t hear them.

5

My child Agent Gordon snaps his fingers, waking you from your trance. Blood runs from your nose like the agonising march of time.
He asks if you’re alright. Already speaking to you like you’re not his superior. How beautiful the crumbling of hierarchy can be.
“I’m fine”, you respond. But you’re not fine, are you? You were never fine. Every decision, every commitment you have ever made, all you have worked tirelessly for- it’s all led you here. And you are powerless.

If only you knew why.

4

I find it amusing to see a man with such self-importance dwarfed in the face of adversity. When fear grabs you by the throat, the only outcome is chaos. And what better way to stir fear than the idea of an eldritch entity hell-bent on devouring your world.
Here you stand, all hope you had left draining from you, inch by inch, until all you can feel is that paralyzing fear. Fear, like a gangrenous disease seeping into your cankerous flesh. The void has consumed you, you think, it has won. Nothing can be salvaged anymore. You look into the sky, as if you were begging the heavens for salvation.
Black.

In the corner of your eye, you saw something. You look, and it is gone.

3

A flurry of action as the ground violently shakes. The chains have been broken- and it is coming for you. You think back to your world. All they know is that it is coming to an end. Those desperately shrill alarms ring inside your head. Secure, Contain, Protect is a worthless mission now. Only one will emerge from the flames- Survive.
But you rejected that thought. A deep and significant part of you thought back to the sacrifices you have made. Shall they be in vain? The men, women and children living their carefree lives in the light while you fight in the dark. Shall you ultimately fail them? Despite the inevitability of the end, you decide you must carry on.
How valiant.
I can smell the terror that stains your skin.
In a moment, everything is still. Silent. Tranquil.
SCP-2317 is neutralised. Panic is usurped by relief.

But inside you, a sickening feeling grows like a cancer.

2

Do you not realise now? There IS no SCP-2317. There never was some comic book villain trying to destroy your world. You and your band of fools never pieced it together. Seems suspicious in hindsight, doesn’t it? Only one chain left, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it from breaking. Like the perfect horror story, designed to create pandemonium, to make you devolve into the animals you really are, to show you your true selves. And out of the ashes, something beautiful will emerge.
Me.
Let this be a lesson. Massive, powerful eldritch entities aren’t what you should be afraid of. You should be afraid of the things you can’t see, things that sneak in through the door while you’re all hysterical, things in the corner of your eye, in the back of your mind, in the air you breathe. Your greatest failing was not understanding this fundamental truth.

You were never more than a pawn in my game. I KNOW everything, I AM everything now. All I had to do was watch and wait for you to collapse in on yourself and open the door.

1

Your mind rots with this knowledge.
Do not worry, child. I am not going to destroy your world. I am not even going to kill you.

But know, or I will make it known, that I hold your existence in the palm of my hand- and I always will.

I am your Father and your God.