Chapter Text
There have been… some odd things happening. It’s been four days and seven hours exactly since that thing— SCP-8279 was declared missing. The halls of site-15 still stand there. The staff are aware and well knowing, but they don’t have an honest to god reaction.
Just another work day, Jaron thinks. Just more threatening than the others.
Today he checks up on someone, something else.
“SCP-8997,” Jaron calls out.
It’s aquarium is dark, the water nothing but a deep blue in it’s cloudiness. There’s no sound but the shifting of security behind him, stood next to the door with ear protection. The clicking of pens and keyboards come from the people behind him, and next to Jaron stands two d-class.
The prisoners know their fate. Keter classes just have that reputation.
“Are you gonna eat?” Jaron asks.
This time, Clown responds. He appears from the casted shadows in his aquarium, webbed hands on the glass and eyes staring down his meal. The d-class flinch when they see him.
“Finally giving me something to eat,” Clown still looms at the two unfortunate souls that will be soon resting in his stomach and as bones in his aquarium. “you came by earlier, gave me a quick chat.”
Jaron is silent, and so is the rest of them.
He didn’t visit any anomaly earlier, let alone a keter class that needed more security checks than the normal entity.
“What?” Jaron asks.
“Oh come on, don’t be joking, doctor. You came by here, told me hello and gave me a quick read-“
“I was- I was in another section of the facility.” Jaron says. “I was never here today.”
“Really?”
The guards holding the d-class nudge at Jaron to go forward with feeding SCP-8997. Jaron snaps out of the panic building in his chest and lets the guards do their thing.
Like always, Jaron stands there as one of them drops in with bubbles forcing out of their mouth, screams turning into gargles.
The giant shadow of the siren grabs the man, tearing his leg right off the joint. Blood fills the water around and Clown feasts. Sharp teeth wrap around the d-class’s torso, crunching down. In a matter of seconds, the body is nothing but the spat out bones of the d-class and Clown is still fucking hungry.
He looks up at the other d-class, squirming and screaming for the two guards to take pity on him and not throw him in there.
But still, they do.
He suffers the same fate as the last if not longer. Clown toys with his meals, like some fed up child that’s bored during a family outing. He severs the limbs off the guy, joint by joint; taking pleasure in the gargled screams of the human he has in his hands. It doesn’t take long before Clown sinks his teeth into the man, practically biting his head off.
“Jaron,”
He looks behind him and it’s Leo, finally somehow recovered from the breach last week. Jaron doesn’t know how much he’s glad to see the containment specialist.
“Leo, I see you’re… walking without a limp now.” Jaron remarks.
“Yeah,” Leo chuckles in response, fixing his glasses sat on his roman nose. “anyways, I’ll save you the hearing problems, I’ll take care of this guy and you get to Rek, there’s something he wants you to hear.”
“Rek?” Jaron repeats and Leo nods. “Okay.”
Jaron rushes past Leo, making it through the last security check as he gets out of the heavy containment area. The metal walls turn back into the white ones quickly as he goes to the-
“Oh shi-”
“Sorry- sorry-” Jaron looks to who he just crashed into and it’s Mapicc.
“Oh what the fuck- ow- ow.” Mapicc gets up from the floor as Jaron runs over.
Jaron goes to Rek’s office, one on the more calmer sides of the site(which is practically parallel on the site map to the heavy containment area.)
“Rek? You called?”
“Jaron!… you look sweaty.”
“I ran.”
“Typical.”
Jaron closes the door behind him and there’s Ash there aswell, and… Zam. That humanoid robot that the director has taken a liking too! Jaron can’t believe Branzy actually likes this robot, he just stares at people with his screen as his face.
“The anomaly you two are looking for is still present on site.” Rekrap says. “Zam has the evidence to back it up since he managed to see the thing crawling through the halls at night and then sneaking off into the women’s restroom.”
“Oh so that thing is a girl?” Jaron asks.
“Jaron…” Ash shakes his head.
“Jaron.” Rekrap says.
“Bro stop that shit.” Zam says to him in all artificial intelligence glory. “Stop being stupid.”
“What? What am I supposed to pick up?”
“Your brain probably.” Ash replies.
“Okay, so umm…. yeah that thing went in there and in the security cameras, a woman came out of there in a few hours and started acting like everyone else.” Rekrap explains.
“And if you couldn’t understand already, that thing can shapeshift and we’re just gathering more data until we can either catch it or make a file to Branzy addressing it.” Ash adds on. “Plus this is a very serious thing that could potentially break this facility down.”
Jaron nods slowly.
“It’s like that game Among Us-”
“Zam, no.”
Site-15 is like any other site that the foundation holds. Contains entities, staff keeping things and anomalies in check, and a rigorous security. And with anomalies, come with these types of things.
Both a possible threat to society, and an actual threat to the site.
Jaron and Ash walk together, to gather the rest of the team who worked with this SCP. The halls of the site are less filled with people, only staff trying to get through.
Jaron walks by as in the corner of his eye, he sees Mobile Task Force squad members walking as a group.
“Hey um…” Jaron looks back to them with a pause in his walking. “who are those?”
“MTF Gamma-11. They’re the ones on charge of void creatures, you know, the site’s anomalies.” Ash answers. “Thirteen members in there, with Mapicc as captain.”
“What are they doing walking around?”
“Oh, just got back from trying to get this new anomaly. And failed probably, since they’re all here and Leo’s containment blueprints aren’t uncovered yet.”
They reach the containment area, the lights still dim and the staff more laid back and relaxed in their seats. There isn’t an anomaly to look after anymore.
Jaron sits down on the chair he’s claimed as his through slapping a unicorn sticker he found onto it.
“Big news everyone,” Ash says. “the anomaly is still here.”
Everyone groans in displeasure.
“You think that’s bad? It can shapeshift.” Ash says again and that— oh, that instills a fear into them all.
The pen clicking and whispering stops and all of them are still in their positions as they all look at Ash. He jokes sometimes but it’s clear on his face that this isn’t another dark joke to help lighten the mood.
“If any of you has seen a clone of anyone, or a displacement of anyone— or just anyone acting strange… report back to me or Jaron as soon as possible.” Ash tells everyone. “Anyways, from now until we catch this thing, there will be no one else to see but our own faces. By that, I mean I’ve told the director that any face or humanoid thing outside of staff will be removed. This means all outside products brought into the site that has a face on it, will not be allowed inside.”
“So it’s that serious?” Someone asks.
“Obviously considering I’m standing in the center of this room with an SCP on the loose.”
Jaron shifts slightly in his seat, elbow on the armrests.
“Um…” He clicks his tongue. “did Gamma-11 just arrive?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I saw Mapicc in the halls while I was running for the news from Rek, and… yeah.” Jaron answers. The back of his throat is dry and he can feel everyone’s eyes staring at him. “I think I ran into SCP-8279 earlier.”
Ash looks at him, for a second at most.
“Where do you think it’s gone now?”
Heavy containment area again, back at the Siren’s domain. Clown is at rest in the water of his tank and it’s been awfully quiet since the feeding.
There’s the two security guards by the entrance of the last security checkpoint, unable to hear with the designed helmet they have on.
“Clown,” Jaron knocks on the glass and Clown swims forth.
“Jaron. You’re… here.”
“The director let me interact with you about knowledge in the site.” Jaron says. “Has anyone visited you earlier? Name everyone who has, you have great memory, right?”
“There was you, then you again, and then Leo, then Ash, and… just earlier, Rek.” Clown answers. “I don’t think that guy has ever been here, but I assume he just wanted a visit.”
“Where did he go next?”
“Do you think I know with all those doors?”
Jaron’s hand hovers over the electrocution button, and he’s quick to look back at Clown whose eyes trace down to his arm and onto the button.
“He mentioned being hungry.” Clown answers. “Now that’s all the things worthy that I can say.”
Jaron removed his hand as Clown swims back further into his tank, away from Jaron’s sight as he leaves.
The cafeteria would technically be the only place in this entire facility where one might go when they’re hungry. He has the team searching too, with security. He might check the breakroom for staff later.
But before then, he goes over to the cafeteria. There’s many people in it during break times and lunch specifically, but now it’s mostly available to staff who wanna sit down but they don’t like the breakroom.
Jaron walks in, cafeteria doors clicking open. There’s barely anyone.
There’s a few of them sure, there’s some guards and agents taking a break and nothing out of the ordinary.
The door to the kitchen is open, despite the kitchen staff already clocked out.
Jaron looks to the others in the cafeteria, they don’t seem to notice him as he’s walking to the kitchen.
It’s quiet.
Jaron turns on the lights, there’s metal trays neatly stacked on eachother. The sinks are empty but still wet somehow. The floor is neatly mopped, the tiles almost shining as the lights lead Jaron more down into the kitchen.
A soft rumbling.
“Hello?” Jaron calls out.
He peaks around the corner and he sees his friend.
“Jaron?” Bacon asks. He’s cleaning up the last of the kitchen. “Why are you here?”
“Just uh…” Jaron scratches the back of his head. “Nothing. Nothing… just thought something bad’s happened.”
“Okay.” Bacon accepts this fickle lie as truth and doesn’t question it.
Jaron moves closer, elbow brushing up against the closed stove. “You seem to be… more late to leave.”
“Yeah.” Bacon answers. “Decided today was a good day to change the menu a bit and then there was Gamma-11 that had breakfast before unsuccessfully trying to capture a guy, and then another team of field agents sent to learn about this forest thing.”
“Oh them.” Jaron replies back.
There’s something keeping Jaron thinking. The back of his head is pushing him to leave, that staying here isn’t his best idea. He can feel his heart beat. He can feel each breath he exhales. Bacon looks at him and his breath hitches.
What the hell.
Jaron looks back, coughing to ease the soreness in his throat. “Um… yeah so, I’m gonna get going, everyone else’s probably looking for me.”
Bacon doesn’t respond back as Jaron’s feet are acting against his nervousness, he’s walking slowly despite the fact he wants to make a run for it.
“Jaron.” Bacon says before turning to him.
Jaron stops in his tracks. Like a deer in the headlights, he stands there.
“Umm…. Bacon?”
“You’re not getting off until later right?” Bacon asks.
“I don’t really leave this site alot.” Jaron answers.
“Oh, okay…” Bacon nods but there’s an uncanny essence to how he moves, how he speaks. “Too bad.”
Jaron’s foot instinctively becomes ready to run.
There’s something in Bacon’s eyes that shift, his pupils dilating to the point his sclera is even black.
Jaron’s gut was right.
He fucking runs.
Trays fall down with a loud clattering sound as he runs. The people in the cafeteria are confused for a second until they look back and they see a monster.
Jaron can hear the screams of the others, and it doesn’t take long for the alarm to sound too. The familiar flashing red lights and the metal doors slamming behind him as he runs. “Keter class SCP, full site lockdown initiated.”
Jaron can hear that thing galloping, fast like a horse and wild growls like a tiger. He wants to crack his head and take a glance of SCP-8279.
He doesn’t look back and he runs. His lungs are exhausted but he keeps running until he runs into the tactical response team.
The metal doors behind Jaron slam and he raises his hands.
“State your name.” All of them are pointing their rifles at him.
Jaron stammers. “Dr. Jaron Greyson, uh- um- level two research staff.” He answers.
The lead of the tactical response team signals for the others to lower their rifles at him and they let him pass through.
“Jaron?”
“Ash, I- crap- it’s after me.” Jaron’s voice shakes as he grabs Ash by his shoulders. “We don’t know what it’s weak to and- and the lights don’t seem to affect it anymore!”
Ash looks at him, like he’s thinking.
“Branzy isn’t gonna forgive me for this.”
“What?”
“Stop asking questions or you don’t get to be my second in command.”
“I’m gonna punch you if you do that.”
Ash just rolls his eyes because he can definitely parry that or hit harder(they’ll get potentially put into different sites if they fight again) but he just grabs something from his pocket.
“Wow, a grenade.” Jaron says. He looks at it for a second longer. “Oh. A grenade.”
“We haven’t really tested if it could actually be resist anything else other than bullets.” Ash replies with. “Anyways, bye.”
“What? You’re going to waltz on in there and throw that grenade!?” Jaron yells.
“I haven’t died yet so I’m definitely immortal.”
“That’s not how that wor-”
“I do not give a fuck.”
To Jaron, Ash may just be insane. He hopes it’s insanity and not stupidity. He just sighs and shakes his head as Ash opens the metal door to the sounds and the scene of the tactical response team firing as best as they can to this white, fleshy mass with insect like limbs.
It’s mouth hangs open with rows of teeth circling the rim of it until it’s tongue ends. The alien locks eyes with Jaron, with thin eyes of a black sclera.
When it’s about to charge at the doctor, Ash launches a grenade into it’s throat before running back into the section of the hallway where Jaron is and slams the door behind him.
The metal door endures the explosion behind Ash but it’s clear the tactical team behind him will sustain those marks for the senior researcher.
“There’s still people in there.” Jaron states to Ash who just shrugs it off.
“Who cares?” Ash says in response to him. “Look, all we need is that no anomaly is getting out of this site or making a far bigger mess.”
Item #: SCP-8279
Object Class: Safe Keter
Jaron looks at the figure below. The anomaly is also looking up at him, taking the form of a young adult with a pale— almost white complexion.
Leo stands right next to him. The lighting he’s designed for the containment cell is bright, the lights high and well protected as to not be destroyed in case of a breach.
“They look alot like you man.” Jaron says to the containment specialist.
Leo just sighs. “No.” He replies with. “Anyways, is Ash is okay?”
“Technically yes, but he’s been given a week and two days off for throwing a grenade at an SCP and potentially ruining the lives of other people.” Jaron answers. “The council knew what he did was for the safety of the rest of the facility and just gave him a break off.”
“I mean, I might aswell start killing people if I want a day off you know what I mean?” Leo laughs. “Oh that thing just changed appearances.”