William Porter, pictured above at age 5, is an exact genetic match for every instance of SCP-4662.

Item #: SCP-4662

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: All living instances of SCP-4662 except for SCP-4662-11 are to be kept in long-term cryostorage until the Ethics Committee has reached a consensus on reasonable containment. SCP-4662-11 is to be contained as detailed in addendum 4662-11. Arthur and Maureen Porter are to be contained in standard humanoid containment cells in Site-77, and any SCP-4662 manifestations are to be reported immediately and contained.

Description: SCP-4662 is an anomalous phenomenon affecting Arthur and Maureen Porter, a married couple formerly located in Dearborn, MI. During occurrences of SCP-4662, a copy of the Porters' son William (referred herein as “an instance of SCP-4662”) will randomly manifest at a point within six kilometers of either Arthur or Maureen. Each instance of SCP-4662 is approximately five years old, is genetically identical to William Porter, and possesses a memory of its supposed past life. Interviews with the Porters confirm that these memories are consistent with that of the real William Porter. Upon manifestation, instances report an intense desire to return home and an instinctive knowledge of the location of their parents; both attributes fade within approximately 10 hours.

SCP-4662 is strongly correlated with an apparent secondary effect, whereby each manifestation of an instance coincides with the disappearance of a single child within the six-kilometer area of effect, effectively replacing them with an instance. These children are uniformly aged between 4 and 7 years; there is no other obvious selection criteria. If no such children exist when SCP-4662 manifests then an instance will appear at a completely random location. Due to ethics considerations, this property has not been fully tested.

Addendum 4662-a: Containment History

The first recorded SCP-4662 manifestation occurred on January 22nd, 2003 in Dearborn, when an instance of SCP-4662 was captured attempting to flee the house of █████ and ███████ Shah shortly after the disappearance of the Shahs' 4-year-old daughter. The Foundation was alerted to the situation and took the instance into custody along with Arthur, Maureen, and the then-12-year-old William Porter. When interviewed, all three Porters were consistent in their confusion about the phenomenon.

As the SCP-4662 instance displayed no other anomalous properties it was decided to continue its containment1 but to amnesticize and release the Porters, albeit with rigorous tracking to monitor for any more anomalous phenomena.

The next recorded SCP-4662 manifestation occurred on July 3rd, 2007 when an instance was apprehended in another Dearborn family's house following the disappearance of their child. As before, all three Porters and the instance were taken into Foundation custody, at which point it was noted that Arthur' and Maureen's testimony was repeated almost word-for-word from their previous statement.

Further investigation into the Porters' place of residence uncovered a number of human remains interred in their backyard. Exhumation revealed six corpses; each one was approximately 5 years of age, a genetic match for William Porter, an unambiguous homicide victim, and had an estimated time of death corresponding to the disappearance date of a local child. Two of these appeared to have been killed between 2003 and 2007, while the oldest corpse was killed in 1996, making it the only one consistent with the 1991 birthdate of William Porter. This corpse was also unique in manner of death; while all others were killed with relatively-efficient wounds to the neck2, the oldest corpse was killed due to a series of haphazard blunt-force trauma wounds.

Addendum 4662-b: Interview Transcript, 07/05/2007

Subjects: Arthur Porter, Maureen Porter

Interlocutor: Dr. Mangala Shastry

Dr. Shastry: Begin recording. Mr. and Mrs. Porter, I'd like to ask you for more information on the recent events surrounding your family.

A. Porter: We've been over this already. We have absolutely no idea who that kid you found is or why he looks like Billy. How much longer are you going to keep asking us the same question?

Dr. Shastry: Hmm. Would you mind taking a look at these photos? We took them yesterday in your backyard.

M. Porter: Shit.

A. Porter: Don't say a word, Maureen. Not another damn word.

15 seconds of silence follows as both subjects examine the photos; their examination is cursory and largely emotionless.

Dr. Shastry: Given this new evidence, would you care to revise your previous statements?

A. Porter: No, I know how this works, I want a lawyer. We have rights, you know – due process and all, I know my rights.

Dr. Shastry: “Due process”? Have you looked around recently? Does this look like a police station? Mr. Porter, we can keep you here for the rest of your life if we want to. Your cooperation in this matter would help us decide if that would be an unnecessary measure.

Another 10 seconds of silence follows.

Dr. Shastry: Let's start with the most basic question: are you responsible for the existence of these, ah, clones of your son? Did you turn the children in your neighborhood into copies of Billy?

M. Porter: No! Of course not, we never asked for-

A. Porter: Damn it, Maureen, shut up.

Dr. Shastry: Don't worry, we weren't operating under the assumption that an auto mechanic and a part-time waitress were running an underground cloning facility. All the same, can you think of any unusual events that preceded the first appearance of these copies?

A. Porter: You're asking if we pissed off a gypsy woman or disturbed an Indian burial ground or that sort of thing? Yeah, no such luck, lady.

Dr. Shastry: So they just started appearing suddenly, then. And why did you feel it necessary to kill them?

30 seconds of silence.

Dr. Shastry: Well, let me state what we believe the timeline to be. Your son, William Porter, was born on January 3rd, 1991; the birth certificate on file appears to be genuine. Five years later, due to some combination of accidental blunt-force trauma and willful negligence, you allowed your son to die. Shortly thereafter - probably within the next 24 hours, as nobody appeared to notice his disappearance - the first copy of your son showed up, the one who you've been raising in his place for the past decade. You must have thought it was a miracle, a chance to start over again… until the next copy showed up. There was no plausible way to explain this without opening yourselves up for the discovery of what happened to your actual son, so you elimin-

A. Porter: Jesus, if you know - I mean, if you're so sure of yourself, why do you need us? What do you even want from us?

Dr. Shastry: Honestly? At this point everything is pretty open-and-shut, with the exception of one question: Why did you do this? William - Billy - shows signs of repeated physical and emotional abuse, and all interviews we've had with him point to his home life being one completely devoid of any form of affection. Forget loving him, you don't even seem to particularly like the boy. So, again, why?

M. Porter: You can make us forget things, right?

Dr. Shastry: What?

M. Porter: Like in that one Tommy Lee Jones movie, you can flash one of those lights into our eyes and we'll forget? Only I keep thinking about the Shah kid who went missing a couple years ago, I remember thinking at the time that it seemed like our Billy was involved, and… well, he was, wasn't he? See, we're not as dumb as you think we are.

Dr. Shastry: I don't understand what you're getting at.

M. Porter: Could you just… make us forget about this? All of it. The whole thing.

Dr. Shastry: Eleven years worth of memories?

M. Porter: Yeah.

A. Porter: She's right, that would be for the best.

M. Porter: Nothing in there worth keeping anyway.

Dr. Shastry: This interview is concluded.

Following this interview, the instances already in containment were reclassified as SCP-4662-5 and SCP-4662-8, “William Porter” was reclassified as SCP-4662-1 and contained, and Arthur and Maureen Porter were placed in indefinite containment. No amnestic use was authorized.

Addendum 4662-c: Long-Term Experiment Results

As of 09/21/2009, two more instances of SCP-4662 had materialized and serious ethics considerations had been broached about the long-term consequences of SCP-4662's effects, especially concerning the Foundation's responsibility towards the instances produced. Following multiple failed attempts at resolving this issue, a research proposal submitted by Junior Researcher Alan Covington was accepted as an attempt to neutralize SCP-4662.

As a result of this proposal, the next SCP-4662 instance to manifest was immediately contained, sequestered, and raised under the cover story that Arthur and Maureen Porter had died in an accident and the instance - who was allowed to believe it was the real William Porter - had contracted a contagious disease that required constant quarantine, in order to justify its continued containment. In all other aspects the instance was raised according to widely-accepted child-rearing psychology under the direct supervision of Junior Researcher Covington, who also supervised schoolwork and recreational activities. These techniques resulted in a marked improvement in psychological testing baselines when compared to other SCP-4662 instances.

After this test was implemented, no further SCP-4662 instances have manifested to date. A proposal to reclassify SCP-4662 as neutralized is currently pending.

Footnotes

1. Entered at the time simply as an anomalous phenomenon

2. Identifiable as stab wounds to the carotid artery in all corpses that had not undergone severe decomposition