Per 
Temple directly above SCP-XXXX.
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Two guards are to be posted outside SCP-XXXX and bar potential passers-by from entry. There must be, at all times, a researcher assigned to SCP-XXXX who is to perform a daily check of the site and keep a record of all changes observed.
Description: SCP-XXXX is an underground chamber located approximately 20 meters beneath the archaeological site of Altun Ha, in Belize. It was discovered in ████ through local seismic tomography and was reconnected to the surface shortly thereafter.
The room contains a stone table in its center and mural paintings depicting the practice of sacrificial heart removal, as well as what is believed to be the Mayan sun deity K’inich Ajaw (god G of the Schellhas classification system). Carved into one of the walls are writings in Maya script which can be translated as “We must pay our debt towards him” (with particular emphasis on “him”) and a separate set of inscriptions, referred to as SCP-XXXX-1.
SCP-XXXX-1 are inscriptions written in the Mayan numeral system that, at the time of discovery, displayed the number ████. Each day, SCP-XXXX-1 is altered through anomalous means to display its previous number, incremented by 3.1 This activity has been observed and recorded since the day SCP-XXXX was first inspected.2
The only known way of manually altering SCP-XXXX-1 is for a human being to expire within the confines of SCP-XXXX. Each death has been observed to decrease SCP-XXXX-1 by 1.
Test log:
Test 1:
Procedure: Performing traditional Mayan heart removal ritual on a chimpanzee inside SCP-XXXX.
Result: SCP-XXXX-1 did not change.
Test 2:
Procedure: Performing traditional Mayan heart removal ritual on a D-class subject inside SCP-XXXX.
Result: SCP-XXXX-1 decreased by 1.
Test 3:
Procedure: Slitting a D-class subject’s throat inside SCP-XXXX.
Result: SCP-XXXX-1 decreased by 1.
Test 4:
Procedure: Terminating a D-class subject with lethal drugs inside SCP-XXXX.
Result: SCP-XXXX-1 decreased by 1.
Test 5:
Procedure: Terminating a D-class subject outside SCP-XXXX and depositing the corpse inside SCP-XXXX.
Result: SCP-XXXX-1 did not change.
Additional testing was deemed unnecessary, and therefore no termination related to SCP-XXXX is allowed until further notice.
Addendum XXXX.1: The following is a translation of an email exchange between Dr. ███████ ███████████ and project manager Ester Núñez Alonso. Dr. ███████████ was the researcher assigned to SCP-XXXX at the time.
2004-06-14, 12:33
From: Dr. ███████ ███████████
To: PM Ester Núñez Alonso
Subject: We have to do somethingMs. Núñez Alonso,
It has now been exactly ten years that, every day and without fail, I hike up to that temple, climb down that narrow dirt tunnel, light up my flashlight, and dutifully take notes. I am loyal to the Foundation and am not writing to you to complain about my job.
However, it is my honest professional opinion that not doing jack about SCP-XXXX is going to bite us in the ass one day, and it’s gonna bite hard. Those numbers on the wall, they keep going up while we just stand by. Three more. And three more. And three more again, day after day. Do you honestly believe it’ll keep doing that till the end of times?
Whatever it is we gave those lives to, it thinks we owe it, and for all we know maybe we do. But what if it starts asking for more than we could possibly give it? And I don’t mean “ethically”, I mean physically. I don’t want us to reach a point where we have to declare bankruptcy on humanity, whatever that entails.
On most days, I find myself dreading that when I read those glyphs, they’ll be the same as the day before. That our time is up and retribution is imminent. But on others, I hope with all my heart that it finally ends, that it takes what it wants from us and goes away forever.
They could have settled it back when they dug it up, and we never would have had to look back on it. But they didn’t. They spared expenses, and now it wants █ times what we have in available D-class. I know it’s not what those Ethics guys would tell us to do, but if we don’t end it all now, we’ll have to answer for it eventually, at a much greater cost.
I beg of you, let us just get some folks, anyone, round them up and send them all down there so we can wipe these damn numbers out of existence once and for all.
Dr. ███████ ███████████
2004-06-14, 15:51
From: PM Ester Núñez Alonso
To: Dr. ███████ ███████████
Subject: RE: We have to do somethingDr. ███████████,
I hope for your own sake that you’re not seriously suggesting we mobilize such a large number of civilian subjects for such a low priority concern. If the Ethics Committee caught wind of your ideas, they’d make sure you wouldn’t have to worry about “narrow dirt tunnels” again.
Not only that, but the irrationality of your worries is troubling to say the least. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that SCP-XXXX will act differently at any point in the future, or that getting SCP-XXXX-1 down to 0 would neutralize it.
Besides, at the rate that counter is going, it would take millions of years for it to even reach a somewhat significant fraction of the current global population, and I see little point in worrying about such timescales.
I firmly recommend you curb your own behavior, or I’ll promptly see to it that you be handed over for psychiatric evaluation and transferred to another site.
Ester Núñez Alonso, Project manager
On 2004-06-15, Dr. ███████████ lured in one of the guards inside SCP-XXXX and fired at them with an illegally procured handgun. The guard in question was injured, but quickly managed to retaliate with their own firearm, killing Dr. ███████████. Following this incident, a new researcher was assigned to SCP-XXXX.
Addendum XXXX.2:
From 2011-10-06 onwards, SCP-XXXX-1 is incremented by 4 each day. The reason for this change is unknown.
