SCP-4941 - Forever Yours

TBA

Image Credits

charlie.jpg

header.png (1), header.png (2), header.png (3).

All image edits were made by me, djkaktus.

BY ORDER OF THE OVERSEER COUNCIL

The following file is Level 2/4941 Classified

Unauthorized access is forbidden.

4941

Item#: 4941

Containment Class: euclid

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: keneq

Risk Class: notice

Still frame from video taken of SCP-4941 during initial discovery.

Special Containment Procedures: A single member of the SCP-4941 containment team is to meet SCP-4941 at Point Bravo on Long Down Island during all Activation Events and keep a record of the entity's behaviour during those interactions. If at any point the entity makes any indication that it is distressed, the containment personnel should make every attempt to soothe it, usually by reassuring it that Charlie Mason will be back soon, and by playing the crystal music box found on the island.

As Long Down Island lies outside of major shipping lanes, it is unlikely that any vessel will unintentionally approach the established exclusion zone. Regardless, on-site security personnel are to maintain the 1km exclusion zone and apprehend any unapproved vessels that enter the area during activation periods.

Description: SCP-4941 is a large, incorporeal female Megaptera novaeangliae, or humpback whale.

SCP-4941 only manifests during SCP-4941 activation events, which occur at sundown on nights of a full moon. During these events, SCP-4941 will appear near the easternmost point (a raised cliff roughly 24m high) on Long Down Island and levitate in the air in front of the cliff's edge. SCP-4941 will remain there until sunrise, when it will disappear.

If SCP-4941 is left alone during an activation period, the entity will emit loud, low sounds that can be heard as far away as the English mainland. This is typically prevented by having a member of containment staff stay with SCP-4941 during activation events, and comforting the entity with the crystal music box originally found within the single structure on the island. Whenever a member of containment personnel plays the music box, SCP-4941 will sing with it throughout the duration of the song. A sample of this vocalization is available below.

Addendum 4941.1: Discovery

SCP-4941 was discovered in 1995 by Foundation assets patrolling the area after they inadvertently encountered an activation event in progress. Survey of the island afterwards resulted in the discovery of a single abandoned building. Aside from a chair, table, bed, and small collection of books, the structure was empty and appeared to have been so for some time.

Additionally, several letters and a small, crystal music box were found beneath the bed. Many of the letters have been weather damaged to the point of illegibility; however, others had fallen through a space in the floorboards and were generally undamaged. The text of those letters is available below.

Addendum 4941.2: Letters

Darling Aoife,

Not a day passes that I don't think of you. The fighting worsens every day, and every day we're told to be strong. I don't know what strength I have left without you. In the worst of it my mind finds your face, the smell of your hair, the softness of your hands, the sound of the sea behind us and I'm home again.

Wait for me, darling. I'll be home soon.

Forever yours,

Charlie

Darling Aoife,

We've been moving again. The boys at the post have been dutiful in bringing me your letters and I should thank them for it. Your words are air in my chest, I read them and then read them again just afterwards. I hear your voice distantly, and I fear sometimes I might lose it, like a song heard long ago and forgotten. The guns have taken much from me, but the music of your voice will be the last thing it takes.

I hope you're well. I hope the fighting hasn't reached our little island.

Wait for me, my sweet. It won't be long.

Forever yours,

Charlie

Darling Aoife,

They say Joffre is moving the French army to Verdun. You remember when we visited Aunt Janette there, don't you? The river was beautiful, and seeing you standing there in the sun I thought my chest might burst. It was like all the beauty in the world was in one place, just for me.

It's hard to imagine this was ever a beautiful place now. The war has been here for some time and it has changed it. It has changed me. I hope I'm still the man I was when I left you. I hope the part of me you loved isn't gone, broken by the shells and the smoke and the mud. God, I hope I didn't die in those trenches.

Wait for me, my starlight. I'll be with you soon.

Forever yours,

Charlie

Darling Aoife,

The world is changed. Men cannot be noble in this new world. I wish for nothing more than to be at your side again, away from this. I pray to God every night that he might take me back to you and we might watch the whales dancing in the moonlight again. It all feels like a distant dream, barely real anymore. So much of those times is gone now, all that remains is the memory of your face. Or is it you that I see at all? How can I know, when I see nothing but mud and blood and wire?

The Lieutenant says that after this, we will get to go home. To see you again, to hear your voice, to touch your face, even if just once more. That would be enough.

Forever yours,

Charlie

Addendum 4941.3: Unsent Correspondence

A single other letter was later discovered between two books on the shelf. This letter, addressed simply "To Charlie," was undamaged. The text of this letter is below.

My Charlie,

The sailors say the war has ended, but it has been so long now since I heard from you last. I kept your letters and read them all every day. Your spot in our bed is empty. I miss you desperately.

I have grown old, Charlie. The sea and sun have passed me over and the girl you knew has gone with them. I was afraid for you when you wrote that you had changed, but I suppose change comes to us all in one way or another, just like the song says. There is little of that girl left in me now. Only the part that loves you remains.

A day is coming soon when I'll need to go back to the sea. I'll go to the cliff side, the one you found me on that starry night all those years ago, when the whales were singing to us in the dark. I'll wait for you, even if it takes a thousand lifetimes. I know you'll come home.

Charlie Mason.

I love you, Charlie. Come back to me.

Forever yours,

Aoife

Enclosed with this letter was a photograph of a young man, later identified as Charlie Mason, a soldier in the British Fourth Army. Mason is listed as having been killed during the first day of fighting at the Battle of the Somme in July of 1916, and is likely interred in a mass grave in northern France.