The Scarlet Truth - SCP Foundation

From the depths of the cavern rang out the soft sound of footsteps. Not deep, booming, confident strides that one would imagine coming from the likes of The Scarlet King. No, they were unsteady, shuffling, barely perceptible in that chamber.

The being who stepped out of the shadows into the soft light from the braziers sent a ripple of confusion among the gathered Foundation operatives. A child. Not a man. A small, scrawny child dressed in a simple tunic with worn, beaten sandals on his feet. A mop of black hair messily hung about his head and the only indication he was not baseline human were the shining crimson eyes hiding in that black hair and the blood that covered his skin.

‘Wh-Who are you, kid? Did you get lost down here?’ Incredulity rang from Agent Daniels as he spoke to the child. The only response was a slow shake of the boy’s head and words that barely registered in the team’s ears. ‘What did you say, kid?’

Slowly, cautiously, the child stepped closer to the gathered Agents and the light exposed more details as it came fully into the circle. The boy was thin and nearly malnourished with rivers of clear, alabaster flesh streaking down between his eyes and chin–the remnants of shed tears having cleaned away the blood that flecked everywhere else. For a few moments, he looked at each team member and appeared to be shivering in fear. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft and gentle.

‘I said I am not lost, Foundation. I am exactly where I should be. My…throne room.’ The child gestured to the sparse space around them, then to the small, gnarled, wooden chair that sat at the center of the light.

All guns were immediately trained upon the child as he identified himself. Despite the likelihood that the child was lying, the team was not planning to take any chances. ‘Stop trying to bullshit us, kid. This is supposed to be the throne room of the Scarlet King, and you sure as fuck ain’t him. And how is this some kind of fucking throne room?!’

Despite the aggression of Agent Daniels and the threat of gunfire, the child did not seem concerned as he began moving closer to the team. With each step, the gathered Agents grew more on edge until the boy simply walked past them to the center of the room. With a weariness his apparent age belied, the boy took a seat upon the ‘throne’.

‘Who is the Scarlet King…?’ the boy quietly asked as he sat hunched forward in the chair, his eyes focused on the ground in front of him.

After no follow-up came, Researcher Boyles stepped forward to answer. ‘The Scarlet King is…a god of sacrifice, blood, violence, and torture. A culmination of the short, nasty, and brutish natural world that preceded our modern world.’

‘Tell me, then, Arthur Boyles…’ Researcher Boyles visibly recoiled as he was regarded by name.

‘Tell me who is most often sacrificed? Whose blood is most spilled from living a ‘short, nasty, and brutish life’? Who suffers most from the violence? Who is tortured greater than any other? Answer me those questions and you will understand why I am not a giant of a ‘man’ who could crush you with a swipe of my hand.’

As the boy spoke, tears welled in his eyes and began to fall down the canyons previous tears had carved through the blood caked over his face. And it was quiet for a long time within the cave as the gathered team considered the words from The Scarlet King.

Finally, the newest member of the team, Agent Branson, spoke up to answer the questions. His voice wavered in fear as he truly came to understand the nature of The Scarlet King.

‘Children… He’s speaking of children.’

The reply was met with a somber nod from The Scarlet King as he finally sat up fully within the chair and regarded the team with those crimson eyes which held such torment that it shook all gathered to the bones.

‘I am only what you have made me, humans. I do not represent the ‘natural world’. The natural world has no need for blood sacrifices, torture, or *me*. I am what humanity has tried to throw away. The memory of what they had done to each other in the name of ‘survival’. The memory that they could have been so much better. To themselves. To others. To the world.’

The sudden cracking of wood echoed through the chamber as the boy slammed his hand against the armrest of his chair. The end broke off and the exposed, splintered wood dug into the god’s flesh. With anger flashing over every feature of his body, the boy rose from the chair. And while still a boy, he towered over the MTF as he flung his arm to the side and splattered blood over the chamber floor.

‘I AM THE SCARLET KING! AND I AM ONLY WHAT YOU HAVE MADE OF ME, HUMANS! AND YOU DARE TO COME TO ME AND ACT AS IF I AM TO BLAME FOR THAT WHICH YOU INFLICT UPON YOURSELVES?!’

The squad shuffled back away from the spattered blood, guns still trained on the imposing god as Researcher Boyles spoke up once more.

‘But do you not demand those sacrifices of blood?! Did the Daevite not glorify you wi-’

‘THEY GLORIFIED THEMSELVES! THEY USED ME AS A FOCUS FOR THE WORST OF THEIR DESIRES AND VANITIES! DO YOU REALLY THINK I WANT MORE BLOOD?! I HAVE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF THE BLOOD OF THE MOST INNOCENT SEEPED INTO MY VERY BODY! I-!’

And as swiftly as the boy had grown to his imposing stature, he shrank away again. And a broken, pained sob came from the boy as he crumpled back onto the throne.

‘I do not want any of this. I never have. I…I was just a child myself, Arthur Boyles. Just a child when the first fool raised a dagger, sacrificed me, and named a god which did not exist yet. I was just a child when my father created the Scarlet King–a scapegoat for all his greed and corruption. A ‘necessary evil’ of sacrifice so that he may claim to be a great knower of wisdom and pretend to have the voice of the divine whispering to him.’

The child pulled its legs up to his chest and hugged them as more tears flowed down his cheeks. ‘When humans began to turn to modernity, I thought I might finally know peace. Surely, now they had the means that clear, rotten corruption within their societies could be swept aside. But you did not. So many still sacrificed to me, behind closed doors and kept to themselves. Those are the most egregious of you all. They do not receive any boons from me other than the ones they invent for themselves.’

After a few moments the boy’s tears stopped and that burning fire arose in his eyes once more as he leveled his gaze on the team. ‘You all are almost as bad. You sacrifice so many in the name of your ‘normalcy’. A trifling thing that you have created for yourselves so that you may sit among the highest seats of power your kind may obtain. The slaughter of those ‘Ds’ you’re so fond of. From adult to baby, you happily slit their throats so that their blood may nourish the soil of your self-imposed rule.’

Despite the visible tremble of fear in his body, Researcher Boyles stepped forward to try and offer a defense. ‘But the Foundation protects! We do not do those things so that we may hold our status. We ensure the saf-’

‘BY MURDERING ALL THOSE YOU DO NOT ACCEPT! WHAT ABOUT THEIR SAFETY?! WHAT OF THEIR RIGHT TO LIVE?! Yes, you deal with entities that solely desire to murder, many in my name. But how many are simply ‘undesirable’ in the eyes of your precious Overseers? How many simply wish to live their lives in peace?

‘Do you know how many children the Foundation sacrifices each year? I do. The fact that the number is greater than one is all that it should take for each of you to turn those guns on your masters back at your Sites. But you won’t, I know this. I know these things because I also know there is one thing about my nature that you have never understood.’

The boy placed his bleeding hand over his eyes and chuckled softly.

‘All of your sacrifices are also in my name, whether any of you intend them to be.’

Over the next minute, the laughter grew in volume and pitch until it was a mad cackle that rang through the cavern.

‘Do you see it now?! YOU are my greatest adherents. And your Council my greatest High Priests. None other have sent up so many offerings to me in the name of concealing their own savagery!’

The King threw his head back and let loose one more peel of laughter as Command gave the order to retreat. The caverns shook around them with the fury of a tormented god and followed them along each step of their retreat.

With his solitude restored, the King collapsed back onto his throne and the angry god melted away. All that remained was a small boy, harrowed by the humans who created him. He pulled his knees up to his chest and began to weep softly.

Even with this 'truth' revealed to the Foundation, he knew another sacrifice was soon to come.