Let them dream

Item #: SCP-????
Object Class: Euclid
Description: SCP-???? is a dream that can hold people captive. It is not known what exactly triggers the dream, but it occurs mainly in people who suffer from suicidal thoughts. If one should be under the effect of SCP-????, it is impossible to be woken up by the outside world without the use of dream suppressing drugs. You have to manage to wake up by your own power. The duration of such a dream varies on average between a few minutes to 15 hours. In rare cases, however, the dream can last up to 37 years. The dreamers must be kept alive artificially in case of a long-lasting case. So far, these dreams could only be confirmed by the dreamers themselves, but it can be assumed that some people have already died as a result of the occurrence of this dream.
It was reported, that during the dream all senses except vision were switched off. One observes SCP-????-2, how she walks through a completely lifeless world. There seems to be no trace that humans or animals had ever lived on the planet. Only a few trees can be seen. The dreamers accompany her by flying while they lose more and more the overview of time and space. The dreamer will fly along SCP-????-2 for quite a while and during that time, they will see her from three different perspectives. It should feel as if you are caught in a time loop or a film is repeated over and over again. SCP-????-2 does not perceive her dreaming companions at all on the whole way and is continuously walking without rest or leaving her path. In the beginning the dreamer can only move in the immediate vicinity of SCP-????-2, but the radius of movement of the dreamer gets bigger and bigger as time passes. At some point the dreamer will be able to move independently and he will get the feeling that he has to look for something. However, the dreamers range is still limited, in the way that the further he moves away from SCP-????-2, the colder it gets. The trees that live within the dreamworld also seem to be dependent on the warmth of SCP-????-2s sun, because everywhere where SCP-????-2 walks along, forests are created from nothing and if SCP-????-2 leaves the area, they will die out again. The foundation assumes, that whatever the dreamer tries to find is the the only way out of the dream sequence.

All people, that were able to escape the dream without outside help described a warm feeling in their chest when waking up, as well as sincere joy and calmness. Their psychological problems, suicidal thoughts, grief over tragic experiences and other vices were completely processed and all of them claimed, that they never had that dream again. From the point of awakening the test subjects were like brainwashed, expressing no emotion except enthusiasm and joy. They are very polite and cooperative towards the staff, but refuse to talk about their experiences during their coma. However all oft them confirmed, that they had a dream, that completely changed their life.
Trials have been conducted in which 12 subjects who had been asleep for at least one month were injected with a drug that prevents dreaming. The drug had no effect on 3 subjects (in retrospect SCP-???? is excluded as the trigger for the coma), the two subjects with the longest sleep time died immediately and the remaining 7 awoke from their sleep. Of the 7 awakened persons, 5 reacted in panic and tried desperately to take their own lives. One of them even attacked one of the guards to get his service weapon. One subject was screaming and cursing, but was unable to get out of bed. The security personnel managed to get a hold of 2 of them. The remaining three subjects either committed suicide or were neutralized by the security personnel in self-defense. The remaining two had the shortest and longest sleeping time of the still living test subjects. Both behaved cooperatively towards the security-staff, whereby the test subject with the shortest time span was very confused and the test person with the longest time span was additionally trembling heavily from hypothermia. This left a total of 4 test subjects who could later participate in an interview.
A group-experiment was conducted in which two groups, with 4 test subjects each, where brought together in the same room. Group A consisted of only test-subjects, that woke up without outside-help and group B consisted of the 4 test-subjects that woke up with the help of Medication. This experiment showed, that the test-subjects of group A exhibited totally atypical behavior towards the members of group B. They were extremely hostile and sometimes even aggressive towards them. And when members of group B were asked to answer some questions about the dream, the members of group A even got violent.

SCP-????-1 are all people, that woke up from SCP-????s dream. They are further categorized in Group A, which are all the people, that woke up without outside help, and Group B, witch are all the people that woke up with outside help. Currently there are no more living SCP-????-1B left.

SCP-????-2 is a female albino giraffe with an estimated height of about 9.6 km. Above her head hovers a miniature version of the sun. Her whole body is covered with colorful glitter and her eyes have all the colors of the rainbow. She is tall enough to rise her head above some clouds. SCP-????-2 lives in the dreamworld created by SCP-????.

SCP-????-3 is believed to be the protective mechanism of SCP-????, to punish the premature awakening of a dreamer and to prevent investigations about SCP-????. SCP-????-3 is a Man with the same skin tone, glitter and eye-color as SCP-????-2. He is dressed like a mid-evil jester, with completely white clothes. He is skinny, stands about 5,7 feet tall and is described as being pretty weak. He is mute, but very expressive in his facial features and he always carries SCP-????-4 with him. SCP-????-3 can be attacked inside the dream. However, this does not leave any long lasting damage on him, but it does slow him down for a while. The only way to escape SCP-????-3 is to take SCP-????-4 away from him and use it against him. If you succeed, you wake up from the dream, but you are overwhelmed by a wave of negative feelings. From now on SCP-????-3 will follow the person in each of his future dreams. He will get faster, stronger and smarter with each of them, while the negative feelings, which overpower the dreamer at awakening, get worse too. Individuals who have been under the influence of SCP-???? for several years even experienced hallucinations of SCP-????-3. SCP-????-3 has the ability to get control over people in a dream by looking them in the eyes. He uses this ability to manipulate them into performing simple tasks for him. The complexity of these tasks varies from asking the person to take a few steps, to pointing a finger to reveal the direction in which the dreamer has fled. However it seems, that his manipulative powers have no effect on the dreamer himself. It is widely believed, that if SCP-????-3 manages to successfully strike the dreamer down with SCP-????-4, that the dreamer will die. After the death of the dreamer, SCP-????-3 seems to have a small window of time in which he gets control over the dead body. During this time he can perform simple tasks. The most complex task he managed to do so far was getting out of the bed and biting into his own fingertip to write down following message with blood "Let them dream". This is how SCP-???? got it´s nickname.
SCP-????-4 is the only way the dreamer can escape from SCP-????-3s dream world without the help of the outside world. SCP-????-4 are a pair of knives whose appearance is said to resemble fish bones. They are always in the possession of SCP-????-3 and the dreamer hast to steal SCP-????-4 from him to wake up.

Special Containment Procedures: Because SCP-???? is a dream, its containment is very difficult. However, since the dream rarely lasts longer than 15 hours and does not occur very often, it can easily be explained away by saying, that it is „just“ a dream. In addition, the people who manage to escape the dream loop wake up with a positive feeling and express themselves about it in an exclusively positive way.

Interviews:
- Test subject 1 was a young woman at the age of 19 years / time spend dreaming: 2 years and 3 months / She had several poorly healed scars on her arms and thighs and seemed apathetic. She was led into the interrogation room in a straitjacket, as she would otherwise try to hurt herself. When she was asked about her dreams, she did not answer. On further questioning, she began to bob nervously with her leg until she fixed the interviewer with her eyes and looked angrily at him. She refused any cooperation until the interrogation was finally stopped.
The interview went as follows:
Interviewer: Good morning Ms. XXX. We are sorry that we have to interview her under such circumstances. We will make sure that they are not lacking for anything. If our questions make you feel uncomfortable in any way, please let us know immediately.
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Let's get to our first question. How long did you think you were sleeping when you woke up from your coma yesterday?
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Can you remember the last day before you went into a coma?
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Would you be so kind as to describe the feeling you had when you woke up?
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Did you have any psychological problems before you were in a coma?
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Before your coma, did you ever have the desire to take your own life?
Test-subject 1: … (No reaction)
Interviewer: Can you remember a dream while you were in the coma?
Test-subject 1: … (Her leg started shaking)
Interviewer: Can we take that as a yes?
Test-subject 1: … (Her leg continued to shake)
Interviewer: Can you tell us what happened in the dream?
Test-subject 1: … (Her leg continued to shake and her eyes flashed hatefully at the interviewer)
Interviewer: Please cooperate with us, we only want to help you and find out what could have been the reason for your coma.
Test-subject 1: You should have let me dream…
That was the first and last sentence she uttered. She stayed awake for eleven days until she tried to kill a security guard who shot her in self-defense.
- Test-subject 2 was an elderly woman at the age of 69 years / Time spend dreaming: not exactly known, but she has been in the care of the SCP foundation for 7 years and 4 months / Her health check showed, that she must have suffered from an alcohol problem before she fell into the coma. She was brought into the interrogation room in a wheelchair, while she was cursing at the staff. When she got questioned about the dream, she became personal and threatened the interviewer until after several minutes of cursing and threatening, she started to cry. When the staff tried to calm her down, her mood changed again and she screamed at the interviewer again. This interrogation was also aborted without result.
The interrogation proceeded as follows:
Interviewer: Good morning Mrs. XXX. We are sorry that we have to interview you under such circumstances, but please cooperate with us.
Test-subject 2: LET ME FREE, YOU CAN'T HOLD ME HOSTAGE FOREVER, I WANT A LAWYER!
Interviewer: We will let you go as soon as we find out the reason for your coma, but we have to ask you a few questions:
Test-subject 2: I´M FINE, LET ME GO NOW!
Interviewer: Can you remember a dream during your time in coma?
Test-subject 2: NO, I WANT TO LEAVE, LET ME OUT OF HERE!
Interviewer: If so, Can you tell us what happened in the dream?
Test-subject 2: THIS IS NOT FUNNY, I WANT TO GO HOME, I SUE YOU!
Interviewer: Please cooperate with us, we only want to help you. We really only want your best.
Test-subject 2: (tears started running down the face of the test person) WHY CAN´T YOU JUST LET ME GO? He doesn't want me to talk…

Interviewer: Who doesn't want you to talk?
Test-subject 2: (Again in the usual tone) NOBODY, GO AWAY, STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!
Interviewer: We can help you, you are safe here.
Test-subject 2: YOU PIECE OF S***… (and other obscenities…)
The survey was then cancelled. One morning she was found dead, laying peacefully in her bed.
-Test-subject 3 was a young man aged 23 years / At 8 weeks, he had the shortest time span spend in the coma of all test subjects / He politely asked to postpone the interview to a later date, as he was complaining of nausea at that time and wanted to collect himself first. His request was granted and the interview was postponed to the next morning. His interrogation went as follows:
Interviewer: Good morning Mr. XXX I hope you are feeling a little better.
Test-subject 3: I´m good. Thanks for postponing the interview.
Interviewer: Thank you for your cooperation. If our questions make you feel uncomfortable in any way, please let us know immediately.
Test-subject 3: I will.
Interviewer: All right. Let's move on to our first question. How long did you think you were asleep when you woke up from your coma yesterday?
Test subject 3: I'm not sure… a few hours max? I did not expect a month.
Interviewer: Would you please describe the feeling you had when you woke up?
Test subject 3: I was not feeling well at all. I was totally scattered and confused. I felt nauseous and somehow I had the feeling that I wasn't allowed to wake up yet…
Interviewer: Did you have any mental illnesses before your time in the coma?
Test subject 3: (The thoughts of the test person seemed to be somewhere else for a short time. However, he caught himself and gave the following answer:) Yes, depression and anxiety… I have been through several therapies and have taken medication for a while. But so far without success.
Interviewer: Have you ever had the desire to take your own life?
Test subject 3: In my worst moments, yes.
Interviewer: We are sorry to hear that. Can you remember the last day before you fell into the coma?
Test-subject 3: If I remember correctly, it was a rainy Sunday. I had spent the whole morning at the computer. The rain stopped at around 2 pm and I took the opportunity to go for a jog. I still had enough time to freshen up so that I would arrive in time for a birthday party at 4 pm. I stayed there until late in the evening and when I got back home I watched some videos before going to bed.
Interviewer: Can you remember a dream during your time in the coma?
Test-subject 3: Yes, I do.
Interviewer: Would you be so kind as to describe it in detail?
Test-subject 3: Well, I was flying. I couldn't control where I was going, but I always followed a white giraffe.
Interviewer: Would you be so kind as to describe this giraffe in more detail?
Test-subject 3: It was quite large… even for a giraffe. Sometimes her head even reached above the cloud cover. She had a white skin-color… however, she has colorful glitter all over her body and her eyes were rainbow-colored…
Interviewer: Did it have any other special features?
Test-subject 3: Yes indeed, there was a sun above her head. But it wasn´t hot at all. On the contrary, it was actually quite soothing.
Interviewer: From where did you see this giraffe?
Test-subject 3: I flew next to her, but she hadn't noticed me. Sometimes the perspective changed. It was a bit like a film that repeats itself over and over again.
Interviewer: How did you like the dream?
Test-subject 3: It was pretty exhausting. It was as if I hadn't really slept at all. I realized pretty early on that it was just a dream. However, I didn't wake up, so I just kept following this giraffe.
Interviewer: Did you try to get away from the giraffe?
Test-subject 3: As I said, I didn't really have control over where I was going. However, I didn't really really try to take a different path either.
Interviewer: On the last day before your coma, did you see anything that happened in your dream afterwards?
Test-subject 3: Not that I know of… no.
Interviewer: You are doing great, we only have a few more questions. Do you still have the strength to go on?
Test-subject 3: Yes, I do.
Interviewer: Good, then we'll continue. (The standard survey was completed and more specific questions were asked) … You described earlier the feeling that you should not have woken up yet. Could you please elaborate on that?
Test-subject 3: See… when I woke up yesterday I had a very bad feeling. I couldn´t quite put my finger on it, but I knew that something was off. Then I had another dream last night and it was very similar to the first one…
Interviewer: What do you mean?
Test-subject 3: Well, I dreamed about a man and his skin and eye color were the same as the giraffe's. Even the glitter that was all over his body looked like hers.
Interviewer: Did he have any other special features?
Test-subject 3: Yes, he was dressed like a medieval jester, but all in white. And he was carrying two strangely shaped knives with him. If I had to describe them, I would say that they looked a bit like fish bones.
Interviewer: Please describe exactly what happened in the dream.
Test-subject: The dream consisted of two sequences… In the first sequence I was standing in a room with several people and we stood around this man. There was no light in the room, the only source of light was the moonlight shining through a curtain-covered open balcony window, which was directly behind him. He looked at a woman who was standing with us and she slowly walked towards him as if controlled by an external force. When I looked at her more closely I realized that this woman was my mother and I rushed at the man. The other people that were in the room with me did the same. The man grinned and fled through the curtains. When I arrived on the balcony, he was no longer in sight. In the second sequence it was day and I was in the kitchen of a building with an old friend and we were cooking something. Out of nowhere, this man stood in the room and slowly walked towards us. I poured the boiling water in his face and hit him several times with the hot frying pan, which seemed to be quite effective. When he was lying on the floor, my friend and I used the time to escape through the kitchen window and we ran away. On the way we passed an old classmate of mine who was watering flowers with a garden hose. I just walked past her, but I saw that the man took his time to look at her. She seemed as as if controlled, just like my mother in the dream sequence before and pointed in our direction. My friend and I walked past several allotments and I suggested we hide in one of them. He wasn´t convinced and continued to run, but I went and hid in a small garden hut. From my hiding place I could see that the man was walking past me. I was safe for the time being, but I did not want to let my friend down. So I left my hiding place and ran after the man. I managed to catch up with him and grabbed one of his knives, which he carried on his hip. The moment I was about to stab him I woke up. I was totally confused, felt alone and had an icy cold feeling in my chest. I think that must´ve summed it all up.
Interviewer: Thanks a lot Mr. XXXX for the detailed description, you really helped us today. That concludes our interview. Now please follow our security personnel, they will take you back to your cell. If you have any concerns, please contact them.
Test-subject 3: Okay, but… how long do you think I will have to stay in this facility?
Interviewer: We will first evaluate the results of all respondents and observe you for a few more days. We will discuss further details next week.
That concludes the interview. Test-subject 3 dreamed about this man every night from now on and after each night his mental condition seemed to deteriorate further. He told the staff, that the jester was getting faster, stronger and smarter with every night and that he didn´t know for how much longer he would be able to fight him off. He was again prescribed medication to prevent dreaming, which seemed to improve his mental state. One morning, however, he was found dead on the ground of his cell. The following message was written on his cell wall: "Let them dream". Video recordings of the room showed that subject 3 had written this message by himself during his last night. He woke up, got out of bed, bit into his own fingertip and wrote the message with his blood, just to collapse seconds later.
- Test-subject 4 a woman at the age of 47 years / With a confirmed time of 15 years and 4 months, she had spent the longest time in a coma of all living subjects. / At the time of awakening she was completely hypothermic and overtired. She was brought into the interview room in a wheelchair, as she did not have the strength to walk independently. Due to her physical and mental condition, her interview was also postponed to the next morning. It proceeded as follows: She had no contact points with mental illness in her past. However, her family had a traffic accident shortly before her coma, in which they all died. Test person 4 was the only one who was not in the car. The day before her coma she was at her family's funeral and wanted to take her own life with pills and alcohol that same evening. Although the tablets did not have the desired effect, she lost consciousness because of them. During her time in the coma SCP-5144 must have took a hold of her, which would explain why she didn´t wake up again. When she got asked if she could continue after telling about her deceased family, she gave the following answer:
Test-subject 4: I can continue. In fact I have something important to tell you. Since I woke up yesterday, I've been followed by a man dressed as a clown. At first I thought it was just a bad joke, but then I saw him in my dream. Then I dawned on me, that I seem to be the only person, that can see him and to be honest it is starting to bother me. You probably think, that I have lost my mind.
Interviewer: We believe you. Would you please be so kind and describe him to us in detail?
Test-subject 4: He is mute, has snow-white skin, besides his white eyebrows no further facial-hair and his whole body is covered with colorful glitter. His eyes have all the colors of the rainbow and he is wearing a white clown costume. He is about 5,7 feet tall and slim and in my dream he had two knives with which he was trying to cut me. They looked totally strange, I can't describe them at all.
Interviewer: A bit like fish bones?
Test-subject 4: Yes, in a way. Only with a grip and the bone tips are only on one side… how do you know that?
Interviewer: You are the second person to describe this man. What is he doing right now, does he have his knives with him?
Test-subject 4: No, he does not have his knives with him. But he doesn´t like it, that I´m talking to you and he looks at me grimly. (She looked toward an empty space in the room and said) BUT I DON´T CARE ABOUT THAT, BECAUSE I BEAT HIM UP LAST KNIGHT.
Interviewer: How did you do that?
Test-subject 4: I kicked him in the crotch and took away his knives. When I tried to use them against him, I woke up.
Interviewer: How did you feel when you woke up?
Test-subject 4: I was overcome by a strong sense of sadness, but I have now regained control of myself.
Interviewer: Okay… During your coma, did you have a dream that could be connected to this man?
Test-subject 4: Yes, I dreamed of a giraffe, which had the same skin and eye color as he has, but it was so big that its head reached just above the cloud cover. In addition, a sun was hovering above her head.
Interviewer: We know very little about this dream, please describe it as detailed as you can.
Test-subject 4: Where do I begin… She walked continuously through a completely empty world. The only life on the planet was a few forests that we passed. There was no trace that humans or animals had ever lived on the planet. I flew next to the giraffe for quite a while and saw it from three different perspectives. I could not break through this sequence for a long time, but eventually I could move further away from her. I noticed, that the further I moved away from her, the colder it became. At some point I could move independently of her and I could see that she was a female. I got the feeling that I had to look for something and so I flew through the empty world. However, I was not allowed to fly too far away from the giraffe, because the cold became more and more unbearable with time. The trees also seemed to be dependent on the warmth of the sun. Everywhere where the giraffe walked along, forests were created from nothing and if the giraffe got too far away, they died out again. So I spent all my time looking for something that I didn´t even know what it was. I still don´t know what I was looking for, but when I woke up I was overcome by the incredible feeling that I had failed…
All 4 Test-subjects died within a timespan of 15 days, after they got woken up from their coma. Test-subject 2 was the first person to die in her sleep in her second night. Test-subject 4 was the second person to die in her sleep in her 6th night after she woke up from her coma. Test-subject 1 was the 3 Person that died. She committed suicide the day after her 10th night, by attacking a guard. He shot her in self-defense, witch resulted in a fatal wound in her chest. Test-subject 3 was the last person to die in his sleep in his 15th night. At day 12 he was again prescribed medication to prevent dreaming, which got him through the next two nights without incident. In his last night however he left a message written with his own blood: „Let them dream“
All experiments in which test-subjects will be awakened through the injection of a dreamsupressing medication, were prohibited until further notice.