A Nightmare Dreary - SCP Foundation

This October's NIGHTMAREFEST has brought ghosts and ghouls galore to haunt the halls of this supernatural site. To commemorate this feast of frights, we present to you an assemblage of apparitions in image and text, inspired by the chilling works of many authors.

A Nightmare Dreary

By, Impperatrix

Come one, come all, shouts the dread circus' ringleader

Autumn falls, salute the night, the witch and the demon

The time had come, the veil falls, tear apart the cedar

They celebrate the darkest times, the terror is their reason

Behold the nightmares that arrive quickly galloping

Chosen by them to appease their need for goosebumps

In three they come, as the three wayward sisters in gathering

The trinity come as muses for them that have their minds vacant

The Townhouse, the haunted house, the house for a poltergeist

A closed apartment, an old cottage, the building that was left unfinished

Empty, old, forgotten, forsaken, abandoned to insects and mice

The imagery of bricks and cement, which ghouls are sheltering in it?

The Bureaucrat, the slave of rules, papers, pencil, pen, and administration

Seeking to put in order a world drowning in true and pure entropy

Is it the rightful horror? Is the realm around it the unfeigned aberration?

Or maybe both king and kingdom bring the atrocities in complete syntropy

The Graveyard Shift comes at last, but indeed not at least

The gravedigger roams around the necropolis, lonely at his job

Tombs and sepulchers until the horizon, a scenario without bliss

And from the six feet under they can hear the dead, their cry and their sob

Autumn falls, salute the night, the witch and the demon

Come the monster, feast the reaper, hex the hag, and cry the dead

They celebrate the darkest times, the terror is their reason

A Nightmare Dreary, the three muses for those who love the dread

Townhouse

By, LORDXVNV

In a townhouse old and quaking, lantern raised and fingers shaking,

Here I wander, there I tarry; Every door might cause my death.

Shrieking wailing makes me fearful; lamp-cast shadows flicker awful

As I wander and I ponder, I see a room with chairs of flesh.

As I wander and I ponder past that room with chairs of flesh,

Every door might cause my death.

Pushing forth I see a specter of a banquet table's nectar

Tempting plates with steaks and sweetmeats. But drawing closer, putrefaction.

Scratching from the wooden floorboards urges me to keep on forwards.

Termites rising in my footsteps, worries urge a counteraction.

Termites rising, cause for action, worries urge my plan for action,

Close behind me, putrefaction.

Panic strikes; I can't stay resting. Lamplight ebbs; my fear is cresting.

Demons that I've tried to hide from come now to extract their tithe.

Secrets hidden, secrets failed, revealed now by a tattletale.

Needles pin me; I can't hide. Upon those needles now I writhe.

Like a puppet, needles pin me, on those needles now I writhe,

To my demons must I tithe.

The Bureaucrat

By, DrGooday

In this here tower of ivory gray, I hold the pen and yet I have no say.

I sign the form, I sign once more. I hear the footsteps approaching.

I pray to God they pass me by, ignore me for the storm brewing in their sky,

The smell of rot, a dreadful silence filled with fraught. Can they hear the beating of my heart?

That dreaded crowd I hear their laugh I cannot bear that awful baff, the click of their gun.

And now they sit there and laugh, as those they've killed are never sought.

And now I shun the killer, I lock that door; I focus on my work forevermore.

I do my best to that killer's face as I huddle closer to my dark wood desk.

Those greedy salesmen at the top of it all, I pray for the day that they fall.

My prayers cut short as they approach my holy fort. A knocking at my door.

Knocking harder, ever louder, enough to turn the wood into powder, do not let them in.

Quiet now I say, as my body leaves my mind. I know that the beast remains.

My heart beats now, faster yet faster. I can hear them breathing through the plaster.

My sweat is cold now, dripping to the floor, I release a silent cry.

I lean down over my desk, I turn my mind to these awful tests,

The paper slashes through my flesh, the smell of gore now fresh, their interest now renewed.

A silent cry the fear shining through my eyes, I've signed their contract with my blood.

I fall silent as they turn the handle open…

Graveyard Shift

By, LAN 2D

To a grave; plundered and unearthed,

I walk unwilling, through dark.

Yet, pigeon footed, I traverse.

The light behind me, now afar.

The tomb looms, illuminated;

A ghoul, a fiend, I discover.

This way comes, something wicked,

Something else, something other.

I can’t remember her jade eyes,

Cold snaps my feet asunder.

It’s time to go, sweet dreams, goodbye;

Alive, yet buried six feet under.

The horn sounds and the dead pass by,

Time marches on through fog.

Almost midnight now, a cry

Speeds along the track. Tick tock.

But when the mind fails and falters,

The sparrow finds perverse belief:

A forgotten dead beneath the altar,

hidden with avarice and conceit.

The wheel of life halts in the ground

With but dry remains leftover.

Face down in the soil, a muffled sound;

The damp dirt has no flavour.

Something’s out there, held on a string,

Quietly, beyond the trees.

A moonlit brown, never changing,

Where viscous skies seem to breathe.

To avoid the night it hides,

Silent, a taunting monster.

Behold! I screech in fright,

Fading, the frost melts faster.

I walk along endless hallways,

Through a thousand thousand doors.

Forevermore, her eyes ablaze

Yet a meaningless allure.

Above, a buzzing pale white light,

A shift, a crunch, then a shout,

Try to run, with all my might-

It’s too late — the power’s out!

Images assembled by DodoDevil

Image Sources

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Poets:

Name: Elf-rib

Author: Isaac Vincentsz. van der Vinne

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.486316

Name: De slaap van de rede brengt monsters voort

Author: Francisco de Goya

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.42735

Name: Skelet met harnas, allegorie op de dood

Author: Luca Bertelli

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.597235

Name: Uil uitgedost als pelgrim

Author: Monogrammist MH

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.37637

Name: Twee mannen en een monster in een werkkamer

Author: Johannes Josephus Aarts

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.199314

Name: Figuur in de vorm van een walvis

Author: Anonymous

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.445428

Name: Menselijk oog met een afwijking

Author: Isaac Weissenbruch

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.195117

Townhouse:

Name: Hoge huis te Zoelmond, in de Betuwe

Author: Evert Doublet

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245923

Name: Stadsgezicht

Author: Ferdinand Carl Sierich

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5458

Name: Huizen aan een gracht

Author: Willem Witsen

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.304734

Name: Boereninterieur

Author: Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9650

Name: Zonsverduistering, gezien vanaf de maan

Author: James Nasmyth

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.600284

Name: Jongen op een bank deinst terug voor een geestverschijning

Author: H. Fourtier

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.652841

Name: Ik kijk van bovenaf op de vage vormen van een menselijke figuur

Author: Odilon Redon

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.42215

Name: Still Life with a Tall Beer Glass

Author: Jan Jansz. van de Velde (III)

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6366

Name: GOC Symbol

Author: DrGooday

License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

Source Link: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2744

Name: Vinger die is genezen van een geïnfecteerde wond (osteomyelitis)

Author: anonymous

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.601991

Bureaucrat

Name: Vanitas stilleven

Author: Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5422

Name: Portret van een onbekende vrouw achter een schrijftafel

Author: J.F. Huijbers

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.673553

Name: Monster met vluchtende mensen

Author: Johannes Josephus Aarts

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.199308

Name: Monster met schaal

Author: Johannes Josephus Aarts

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.199429

Name: Kiemcel II

Author: Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.561832

Name: Anatomische studie van het hoofd, de neus en de tong

Author: Pieter van Gunst

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.339371

Name: Fotoreproductie van een prent naar een schilderij,

Author: anonymous

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.615829

Name: Portret van Willem Frederik baron van Roëll

Author: Henricus Wilhelmus Couwenberg

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.99611

Name: M1911A1

Author: M62

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Source Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M1911A1.png

Name: A B Blair Chicago Daily News newsroom

Author: Chicago Daily News

License: Public Domain

Source Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_B_Blair_Chicago_Daily_News_newsroom.jpg

Name: Schrijvende hand

Author: Leo Gestel

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.308061

Name: Studieblad met schelpen

Author: Julie de Graag

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.247474

Graveyard

Name: Begraafplaats op het binnenhof van de kathedraal van Canterbury

Author: Henry George Austin

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.350152

Name: Dode duif

Author: Jean Bernard

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.145007

Name: Begraafplaats, Bath, Pennsylvania, Verenigde Staten

Author: W.D. Walter

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.449187

Name: Een man wordt eenzaam in een nachtelijk landschap

L'homme fut solitaire dans un paysage de nuit

Author: Odilon Redon

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.42202

Name: Huis bij avond

Author: Frederika Henriëtte Broeksmit

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.202438

Name: Fotoreproductie van een prent van een schilderij, voorstellende de Aanbidding der wijzen

Author: Anonymous

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.616277

Name: Catacombe

Author: Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.213352

Name: Doodgraver

Author: Jan Luyken

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.143920

Name: Reproductie van een schilderij van Hamlet en de doodgravers

Author: Anonymous (Lemercier (fotograaf))

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.710488

Name: Menselijke schedel op een stok

Author: F. Ockerse

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.623525

Name: Oliver Cromwell bij de doodskist van Karel I, koning van Engeland

Author: Louis Pierre Henriquel-Dupont

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.122331

Name: Watch

Author: F. Breul

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.19080

Name: Vrouw van Richard Roland Holst in bed met afgewend gezicht

Author: Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst

License: Public Domain

Source Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.297845