I Didn't Forget Pt 6: The Service - SCP Foundation

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Four Years Ago

About a week before we had to give the presentation for history class, I invited Theo over to my house to work on it together. I’d hoped that wouldn’t be necessary, but if he was going to have any real input about what’d be in it, I had to show him my research materials, most of which were physical books.

Theo knocked on the front door. I answered it. “Hey,” he said, nervously.

After returning his greeting, I led Theo upstairs to the office room. It was a large room with dull white walls. Inside was an office chair in front of a pale wooden desk where the family computer sat. I sat in the rolling chair. Theo grabbed a chair from the other side of the room and sat by me. “Alright,” I said, “My research is basically done. We just need to organize the facts I’ve collected into a presentation. My current plan is to structure the presentation as a day in the life of the average miner. Is that alright with you?”

“Sure,” Theo said. He looked at the power point I’d pulled up. “You seem to have done most of the work already.”

“Is that an issue?”

“Oh. No. Not at all. It’s nice of you.”

“I know the period well. I’ve tried to leave space for you to fill the details in.” I started to take him through my preliminary sketch of the presentation. He approved basically everything I’d done, though he had a few suggestions for details to add. His suggestion that I should play up how dangerous the work was had me searching my books for information on mining accidents. As I did so, his eyes found the ceiling. “Pretty stars,” he said.

I froze for a second. He was talking about the glow-in-the-dark stars that were stuck to the ceiling.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to distract you.”

“It’s okay.” I turned a page. “I like them too.”

“Oh. Cool. If you don’t mind me asking, why are they in an office room?”

“This used to be my brother Evan’s bedroom.”

“Oh. Well, uh, he has good taste.”

I clenched my fist for just a moment. “He’s no longer here,” I said, and then, because I had to go along with the official story, “He died in the Galaxy Plaza Disaster.”

Theo’s eyes widened. “Oh. Oh gods, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I grunted. I turned back to my work. “Mom’s therapist told her it wasn’t healthy to leave this room as a shrine to him. He said she needed to move on, so she changed it into an office. Most of Evan’s belongings are in storage, but I was able to talk her into keeping these here.”

“Oh, wow,” Theo seemed to be done talking for a moment, so I went back to reading, but I didn’t get far before he said, “I lost my parents a few years ago.”

“Both of them?”

“Yeah. Car crash. I was in the system for about a year before my new parents adopted me. My new family is amazing. I love them a lot, but I also know what it’s like when people want you to move on more than you’re ready to.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry about your brother.”

“Thank you.”

Present Day

Theo wakes me up, as he’s done every morning since we moved in together. He hands me a large cup of coffee, well-diluted with cream, just the way I like it. “Good morning,” he says.

I take the cup and smile. “Good morning,” I say, sipping it. I can already smell the breakfast he’s making.

After a few more sips of coffee, I get out of bed. I peek at the clock. It’ll be the better part of an hour before Theo leaves for church. I make my way over to the kitchen table, refilling my coffee on the way there. I sit as he places a plate in front of me. On it are two large pancakes slathered in butter and syrup. He gets his own plate and sits across from me. “So,” he says, “do we have anything investigation-related lined up today?”

“Not really,” I say. “We’ve just now run out of obvious leads. I don’t have any more interviews planned.”

“Shame.”

“I know. At the same time, I feel like we’ve made progress.” I take a few bites of my pancakes. The pancakes my boyfriend made for me because he loves me. The same boyfriend I’m planning to plant a microphone on. Maybe instead of acting like I’m in a bad spy movie, I should just ask him to take me to church. “So,” I say, “it occurred to me yesterday how little I’ve actually interacted with your church. I’ve hardly met your friends from there.”

“I thought you preferred it that way.”

“In some ways, yeah but it dawned on me how strange it is that you hardly ever bring it up. I mean, aren’t you worried about my soul, or something?”

“Life is long. Right now, you have other things to focus on.”

“Would it be okay if I came today, just to check it out?”

Theo stops eating. “Oh,” he says. “I, uh, don’t think they’d want a new person to show up unexpectedly.”

“Oh. Darn.” They must have something to hide, right? Why else would a stranger walking in be a problem?

“I’ll tell you what, while I’m there today, I’ll ask them about it.”

I smile. “I’d appreciate that.”

We finish breakfast. Theo puts on black dress pants and a dark polo shirt. As I’m hugging him goodbye, I click the pen on and slide it into his pocket.

Theo blushes as I pull my hand away from his thigh. For a second, I think he noticed what I did. He kisses me. “Feeling naughty?” he asks.

He thought that was a horny thigh touch. I shouldn’t correct him. “Maybe a little, but I know you don’t have time.”

“We can have some fun afterwards, okay?”

“Okay.” Now I’m the one blushing as Theo walks out of the apartment, microphone in his pocket.

Four Years Ago

Theo stood in front of our history class, delivering the presentation. When I’d sent him my PowerPoint at the end of our meeting, it’d looked basic and simple. He’d done a lot of work to improve it. I wished he’d told me he’d planned to use so many extra pictures. I would’ve kept an eye out for them during my research.

Theo was the last person you’d expect to be good at public speaking, but honestly, he was. His wording and delivery turned my dry bullet points into a vivid and lifelike retelling of the time and place we were depicting.

“Day-to-day progress was slow, and the work was backbreaking. Miners bored through solid rock with nothing but muscle, wood, and steel. Yet, one swing at a time, their pick-axes turned solid rock into this.” He flipped to a slide showing a map of the area’s mines. When the presentation was done, the class applauded.

When class ended, everyone filed out of the room. I approached Theo in the hallway. “Hey,” I said, “you did an amazing job.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you want to hang out after school today?”

“Oh. Sure.”

“Something wrong?”

“No. Not at all. I just… didn’t you say you weren’t in the market for new friends?”

I shrugged. “You seem pretty cool.” That compliment lit Theo’s cheeks on fire. “How about you come to my place after school?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’ll have to ask my moms, but they’ll probably be okay with it.”

“Awesome.”

Present Day

The pen is still in Theo’s pocket when he gets home. “Welcome home,” I say. I walk over to hug him, and as I do, I reach down and try to grab it.

He pulls away before I can. “Hey,” he says, blushing. “Give me a few minutes to go to the bathroom, and then we’ll have some fun, okay?”

“Right. Sorry.”

A few minutes later, he comes out, and we have fun.

While his pants are still off, I grab the recording pen from his pocket. It’s still on. I click it off. Hopefully, it was on the whole time he was gone.

Theo goes into the kitchen to make lunch. I pull out my laptop and connect the pen to it. Sure enough, there’s a single, two-hour sound file, which I copy onto my laptop. With headphones on, I play the recording.

It starts with us hugging and saying we love each other. The next twenty minutes are Theo’s commute to the church, which I skip. I’ll go back through the whole thing later, but right now, I want to hear what happened once he got there.

Eventually, his car door closes. I hear footsteps as he walks into his church. I hear the crowd around him as he files in. There’s something off, though. Mixed in with the expected footsteps and chatter are other, stranger sounds. Odd clicks and squishing noises unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

After several minutes, the service begins. Presumably, Theo has reached a pew at this point. A male voice commands everyone to rise. There’s some shuffling, and more squishing. “Welcome,” says the priest, “servants of the Koru-Teusa. We are gathered here today to praise the protectors of our hytoth, and offer our blood for the continuance of their holy cause.”

My eyes go wide. I glance at Theo again, happily cooking for both of us.

The priest continues to speak. His utterances are formulaic and liturgical. A lot of them are in a language I don’t recognize. There are more strange sounds whenever the congregation replies. Mixed in with human voices are bizarre clicks, buzzes, and honks. Those must be recordings or something, right? Or maybe some kind of weird musical instrument?

The call and response phrases are mostly in that unknown language, but when it comes time to deliver a sermon, the priest switches to English. His sermon is about hope and eternal determination, about never giving up, no matter what tells you that you cannot do the right thing. “Despair is not the only such voice,” he says. “Anger often tells us that we must take retribution for slights long dead. Fear tells us we will give too much of ourselves and be spent. Grief tells us we must attend to what has been lost at the expense of what still is.”

There’s nothing in the speech about mind control or old books, and nothing that reminds me too much of Spirituality Club, except for the stars. There are a lot of stars. The symbol of their faith is a ‘holy star.’ The priest speaks of their religion coming to earth from space, carried by an alien missionary. Their gods protect not the world, but the universe.

Oh, and near the end of the meeting, there’s a blood sacrifice.

The priest instructs everyone to file up to the front of the chapel to offer their blood. They do. There’s no screaming or struggling. It seems like the worshipers are offering their own blood, and they’re all eager enough to do it. From the way they go about it, you’d think it was the most ordinary thing in the world. No stranger than taking a small wafer from a catholic priest.

There’d been a bandage on Theo’s elbow. It was right in the middle, on the inside, where a doctor would put a needle if they were extracting blood.

Once all of the offerings have been given, the service ends. I look into the kitchen, where Theo is still cooking. This recording has only made me less sure who I’m looking at.

My line of thought is interrupted when a conversation begins on the recording. “Venerable leader,” Theo says, “I’d like to speak with you for a moment, if that’s okay,”

“Of course,” says the same priest who led the ritual. “What troubles you?”

“It’s about my boyfriend.” I freeze.

“I recall you had considered bringing him under the veil and into the faith?”

“I had,” Theo confirms. “I’m still trying to figure out if I should. I told you about his situation, right? His brother was kidnapped when he was a kid, probably by the SCP Foundation.”

He knows their name? He knows the name of the group that took Evan? How long has he known that? Why hasn’t he told me? What else does he know?

“Their amnestic didn’t work on him,” Theo continues. “He’s been investigating them—”

“And you believe he’s going to get himself hurt. I remember.”

“Yes.”

“If I were you, I’d bring him here as soon as possible. The Foundation is not to be trifled with. He should understand the severity of his situation.”

“I know. I just… he’s so determined. His brother meant a lot to him. He’s guessed how much power the Foundation has, and in the face of that, he’s still willing to do whatever he thinks he has to to get him back. If I told him everything, I don’t think that would make him back off. I think it might make him charge into the nearest Foundation facility and get himself captured, or worse.”

“And you don’t want to be responsible for that?”

“I don’t want to lose him!”

“You don’t seem to think much of his judgement.”

“I… No. It’s just… He’s so passionate about this. I don’t like keeping secrets from him, but I don’t know how to convince him to back off.”

“As hard as it might be, you may have to accept that it’s his risk to take. He wouldn’t be the first person to rescue someone from Foundation imprisonment. The Serpent’s Hand has done it before.”

“But they’re soldiers, and even they usually just get themselves captured or killed.”

“I think you should bring your partner under the veil. I am not very busy this week. We can set up a time.”

There’s a brief silence. “I’ll think about it,” Theo says.

“I know what it’s like to fear for the ones you love, but in the end, it’s his risk to take.”

“I said I’ll think about it.”

There’s a pause. “Very well,” the priest says.

Theo walks away.

“Lunch is ready,” Theo says from the kitchen. I look up from my laptop. He’s setting the table. I wipe my eyes with my sleeve and walk over to take a seat.

“You alright?” Theo asks.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” I say, a bit too sternly.

“Okay, okay.” He places a large bowl of chicken salad in front of both of our chairs, with little pan-fried chunks cooked just the way I like. He takes a seat across from me.

“So, you said you’d ask your church if I could come next week,” I say. “How did that go?”

He hesitates. “I did,” he says, after a moment. “They said no.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yeah. Sorry. I don’t think they’ll be open to it any time soon. The church is, well, it’s antsy about new people. I only got in because my adopted parents were members. Until you and I are a proper family, I’m not sure there’s much chance.”

With everything I have, I try to seem disappointed, rather than furious. This fucking liar. He’s known this entire time who took Evan. How could he not tell me? What the fuck else is he hiding from me?

I finish lunch as quickly as I can, then return to my laptop to listen to the recording again. Theo senses something is bothering me, but I tell him it’s nothing and he pretends to believe me. He sits on the couch and turns on the TV. I try to keep my gaze away from him. I’m going to find out what else he knows. In an incognito window, I pull up his church’s website. It’s small and visually appealing, with a warm palette dominated by a gentle orange. There’s the homepage, an About Us page, a news feed, a calendar, and an FAQ. I click the About Us page.

“Here at the Blessed Sacrifice, we believe in serving the divine and helping our fellow creatures. We advocate for the innocent and the vulnerable. We promote curiosity, thoughtfulness, and kindness, and we believe in the power of every single person to do the right thing, no matter what.” There are a few more paragraphs outlining the church’s progressive politics. Much of it seems to be for the benefit of those who don’t expect a church to be progressive. “We are unapologetically affirming of LGBTQIA2S+ people, their rights, and their autonomy.” Not something you hear from many churches, but not a surprise from one Theo is willing to attend.

Their news feed contains a series of posts, most of which alternate between announcing events and thanking the congregation for attending them. Each announcement contains large, red letters stating that, “THIS EVENT IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!”

The first question in their FAQ is whether their Sunday meetings are open to the public. They are not. “ONLY REGISTERED MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH ARE PERMITTED TO ATTEND!” A question farther down the page asks, “How to I become a member?” Apparently, one has to be sponsored by an existing member, and brought through an initiation process.

I check the calendar. Today is Sunday, the day of their weekly service. There don’t seem to be any other events today, or tomorrow.

Maybe that means the church will be empty, or at least close to it.

I think I’m going to pay them a visit.

I peek over my laptop screen. Theo is laughing at something on the TV.

Part of me still wants to believe this is a misunderstanding, that there’s some explanation for what I’ve heard other than that the love of my life has been hiding the truth about my brother from me.

I don’t know what that could possibly be, though. As painful as it is, I have to proceed as though Theo is working to hide the truth from me.

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