Fifth Avenue, please. - SCP Foundation

Dr. Martens sighed and looked at his watch as he stood under the shelter with his hand stretched out towards the road.

His watch was broken again. Its hands stubbornly remained in the same positions and refused to move. Maybe I should fix it soon. Dr. Martens thought to himself.

Still, and he was pretty sure about that fact, it was almost nearing midnight. He didn't need a watch to tell him so. The darkness surrounding the shelter was proof enough for him.

As he waited, a yellow taxi with the label 'REMCO' pulled up to the shelter, its blazing headlights a sight of relief for Dr. Martens. He breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the taxi.

"Fifth Avenue, please," he remarked as he clambered into the taxi.

"Sure thing." The driver remarked and began to drive down the dimly-illuminated road.

"My name's Alex. What's yours, stranger?" the driver asked.

Martens hesitated in giving a reply. The driver's face was shrouded in darkness, making it hard for him to clearly see his features. In addition, there was a certain…something in the driver's voice that made him fearful.

"M-Martens." he stammered back while sneaking a peek at the driver's license plate. "Alex" was the only name written on it. He calmed himself down a little, reassured himself that he was safe, and waited for Alex's reply.

"What's with the stammer, M-Martens? You didn't have one when you first entered my taxi. Are you…scared of me?"

"No…No!" Martens shot back a reply. That's right, he thought, I shouldn't fear him. I work for the Foundation, for God's sake! I see things that are scarier than this man every day!

"That's all right then, Martens. Trip's probably gonna take a while, so why don't you take a nap first? You seem tired."

Yeah, sleep sounds nice… Martens thought to himself, as a sudden wave of exhaustion suddenly came crashing towards him, and he found himself drifting off in his seat.

"Are you constantly tired? Are you unable to sleep? Well, look no further than Dr. Martens' Relaxation Pills! Highly effective, and very cheap! Don't wait, buy one-"

Martens awoke to the sound of the radio being turned off. He sat up and blearily stared at his watch, then groaned and turned to Alex's direction.

"Alex, I hate to ask this, but do you know what time it is?" he asked.

Waiting for a reply, he took another glance at the driver license plate. The name had changed to 'Reese Martens' now. He attributed the bizarre change to his extreme sleepiness, which was causing his eyelids to droop down every few seconds now.

"Why are you asking me? I don't need to worry about time. It's always you kids, running around, rushing for something, while I'm sitting in my taxi, not in any hurry at all. You should really try it sometime, you know? Not doing anything." Alex replied nonchalantly.

"I would, but I can't right now. I need to go home and sleep so that I can report to work early tomorrow."

"See what I mean? Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. It's always this way for you kids. Just relax, take it easy."

"I need to know what time it is!"

"And you don't need to know! Trust me, I know the quickest way to get you there. We'll get there soon, I promise."

"But-" Martens stopped himself from retorting. He painfully swallowed his anger, and calmly replied, "OK. OK. I'll do it your way. Do whatever you want. Just remember that you promised."

"Yeah, yeah."

Martens was pretty sure the taxi had been on the road for more than an hour already. He could excuse the time he fell asleep since he could not tell how long that had been. However, he knew that this time, the taxi had been travelling for way longer than it should have. Unable to keep in his anger any further, he exploded.

"Alex! You promised, didn't you! Why are we still on the road! Why aren't we there yet!"

"Because, Mr. Martens, I haven't lied. We're not there yet."

"We were supposed to have passed Fifth Avenue minutes ago! Why are we still not there yet!"

"Mr. Martens."

"What?!"

"You are from the Foundation, aren't you?"

Martens stopped shouting. His fear was back, and it was stronger than ever now.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Alex," he replied warily.

"Oh, believe me, I do. I've picked up many others like you, so I'm not wrong. You're definitely Foundation."

"So what if I am?"

"If that's the case, allow me to re-introduce myself. I am SCP-████, pleased to be of service to you."

Martens was now thoroughly lost for words. In his mind, he ran through the files he had read, in an attempt to find SCP-████'s file.

Description: SCP-████ is a mental manifestation of an ordinary New York taxicab printed with the label 'REMCO' on its side.

SCP-████ and its driver, designated as SCP-████-1, will appear in a random individual's dreams and attempt to take them to a destination that is usually significant to the individual in their current state, such as a problem they have to solve. In reality, the individual does not reach the real-life destination but it makes them realise the problem that they must solve when they reawaken.

"So, all of this, is just a dream?" Martens remarked as he recalled SCP-████'s details, and wondered why he didn't connect the taxi ride's strangeness to it.

"Directly, yes. In my opinion, no. You're in my world, which means that I can do anything to you, right here, right now, and you'd wake up and go, 'it was just a dream' or some other cliched line without any repercussions whatsoever. That also means you can just wake up now."

"But, there's a reason you're still driving, right? If I can do all that?"

"I told you, we're not there yet."

"There, as in Fifth Avenue?"

"There, as in where you need to go. Most people that realise that they're in a dream will immediately wake themselves up. They're not interested in waiting for me to take them to where they need to go. But for those who stay, well…"

"Well?"

"Only those who stay will know."

A few minutes of silence passed in the taxi.

"I'll stay," Martens replied after a few minutes.

"Are you sure? You were dead set on going to Fifth Avenue last time."

"It's alright. After all, This is all just a dream, right?"

Alex laughed. "That's true." he replied, "This is all just a dream."

SCP-████ trundled down the road into the darkness.