FURBALL - SCP Foundation

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Item #: SCP-#### SCP-####ROT-####SCP-####SCP-ANNAROT-ANNA

Object Class: Infection

Special Containment Procedures:

Don’t look at it. Don’t look. If you look, you acknowledge it exists. Don't even think of it. Look away, don't let it get you.

Description: There is a being. No, not a being. A lack of being. Inhuman, unhuman. It’s hiding in the corners, on the fringes, on the edges of what is. A shambling mass of rot and mucus and hair and slime and dread, so much dread. It crawls in the corners, slips in the shadows, hides in the empty halls and deserted conference rooms. But you can’t disguise a smell. A sweet, flowery smell of decay and the inevitable.

You know why it’s there, don’t you? You’ve always known.

We've always known.

Discovery: When you were eight, you found Furball hiding in the bushes next to your driveway. Dark, sleek fur covered in dried-up grime and dirt, whiskers buried in the mud. For a moment he was asleep — what dreams may come? — asleep and at peace. You leaned in, and there it was. That smell.

The smell of what you bring into this world. The smell you can’t take out of it.

Furball wiggled and twitched and for a moment you believed in miracles. You believed in miracles and wonders and a little bit of luck. You leaned in. You leaned in and scratched behind his ear, where he always begged to be scratched. But you didn’t find a warm, soft body. You didn't find a pleasant purr. You find the rot. Cold, slimy creatures, little cleaners of waste, of all that isn’t anymore, eating at the insides, the soft and warm and wet. A wiggling mass.

You scream. And you never stop.

Addendum 01

SECURITY FOOTAGE TRANSCRIPT

SUBJECT: You.

DATE: You were twenty-two.

NOTES: You saw a man die.

[You were trained to see the signs.]

[20:08]: He looked like a man, full of life, but life is not enough.

[05:09]: There was the smell.

[14:06]: It screamed.

[05:03]: It wiggled.

[20:09]: It tore at the surface and pushed through. The monster he was hiding, the emptiness — an abyss you stared into before.

[15:14]: He pleaded. Asked you to see him. Asked you to extend a hand to help, to save, to pull him out. He wanted to be saved.

[19:16]: But there is no coming back from the dark.

[18:05]: There is no escaping the horrors hiding under the surface. There is no coming back.

[1 4:19]: There is no coming back.

Ending note: When you were twenty-two, you killed a man who begged to live.

Addendum 02

From:
time to time you remember

To:
look, but not observe

Subject:
the thing you were becoming

Anna,

When you were twenty-four, you were reassigned out of the field. Manila folders and dossiers and paper trails and red tape to hide the rot. It worked, for a while it worked. Plaster and paper and documentation, soaking up the mucus and the wet. Sometimes you could barely smell it.

From:
where it came

To:
now, remember

Subject:
you let it in yourself

You walked the hallways, the corridors of endless procedures. You moved among the cold workers, the little cleaners of all that isn't meant to be. You followed etiquette, smiling politely when your supervisor called you “missy” and laughed your concerns away. You slipped into the suit made for you. Not firm, not rough – soft and sleek and patient. Waiting for another to lean in to make your move.

Description update: When you were twenty-seven, the suit had started to fit.

Addendum 03

When you were twenty-eight, you learned the trade.

VIDEO LOG

DATE: 18/15/20

SUBJECT: Evaluation of reinstatement in the field

LOCATION: Home1

Is that safe?

It’s just an observatory mission. Outpost 312.

Who’s staffed there?

It’s not that he doesn’t trust you. He just doesn’t trust them.

Anna, which Agents?

Mainly Claessen. I’d be supervising him.

The drunk?

You’d tell him not to worry, that you can take care of yourself.

In the corner of your eye, you see that shambling mass.

Who else?

A civilian recruit. Also married.

Again, a flutter in your stomach. Furball’s belly was bloated.

Just because they’re married doesn’t mean they wouldn’t –

Maxime, it’s fine. He’s gay.

Some days his cologne is so thick, it overpowers the smell of the thing that slithers around you. He overpowers the rot by sheer will and a stare that makes your skin crawl.

I don’t think you’re ready, Anna. I don’t think this is a good idea.

He used to tell you, so loudly you couldn’t mishear it, that he only wanted what was best for you. He just felt protective. It’s in his nature, is all.

Don’t you deserve to be protected?

The creature, it scrambles. It claws and moves. But you smile that charming smile you learned, the only way he’d listen.

The only way to deal with monsters.

Is it not your nature now?

Addendum 04

REPORT

The place where we put what remains. What remained of a man who begged once.

You categorised in cool marble. Filed and buried. Digest by the earth.

Not you, Anna. You, who crawls underneath.

Finding 1:

What happened to them? Asked the new recruit. He stared at the unmarked grave.

Finding 2:

It's the price to pay for normalcy. Answered the Supervisor in her suit.

Finding 3:

A flutter in your belly.

Finding 4:

A putrid smell. A gnawing.

Conclusion:

He cannot know. He is the only one who looked at you and saw just Anna.

Addendum 05

From the office of Director Dubois

Benelux Regional Command

When you were thirty-four, they offered you full Directorship. You no longer had to look away, the rot was part of you now. It seeped from every orifice, the smell was on your breath. You found a way to slither through the backdoor and up the ladder, and you could tell yourself you earned your rank. Well, someone might believe it.

Addendum 06

Revaluation

You still remember the first horror you ended.
It looked like a human. It looked like a man.
A monster in a meatsuit.

You still remember the first time you saw the Rot.
Hiding in the skin of a companion.
It used to watch you through the window.

Conclusion:
What has become of you in the mean time?

Did you clean up the horrors, or did you become one?

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Is it still behind you?

Is it still watching?

Did you look back?

…

Updating file

…

Object Class: Infested

Special Containment Procedures:

Each wiggle is to be ignored, each bite allowed to fester. You can’t deny you allowed it in. You can deny. You can’t deny It.

There is no coming back.

Description:

It has eaten and digested, filled the meatsuit and smiled a smile.

Which one are you, Anna?

The empty guise,

or the rot?

Footnotes

1. ?