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SCP-3138: A Sepulcher by the Sea

Author: The Great Hippo

Images: Link.

Inspired by PeppersGhost's Chicago Spirit, and Taffeta's To Be Noir Not To Be.

Music: Bodies (Drowning Pool)

Next: [SCP-3241]: The SS Sommerfeld

More by The Great Hippo:

SCPs

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SCPs

[SCP-3034]
The Counting Station

DO NOT LET HER FINISH

[SCP-3035]
Science Bugs

case_of_the_mondays.png, case_of_the_mondays (1).png

[SCP-3054]
Cragstaff Sanitarium

You are sick. You are broken. We will fix you.

[SCP-3045]
bzzip.exe

HAMLET: I am no longer moody.

[SCP-3043]
Murphy Law in… Type 3043 — FOR MURDER!

Forget it, Fred. It's Chinatown.

[SCP-3057]
Fossil Fuels

…witnesses provided confirmation that instances of SCP-3057-4 did, in fact, have feathers.

[SCP-2639]
Video Game Violence

i need to know how many people i've killed

[SCP-437]
Summer of '91

That was a pretty crazy summer, y'know? Sometimes I really miss that place.

[SCP-3079]
300 Tricks: Stage Magic Made Easy

NOTE: No method for accomplishing this trick is provided.

[SCP-2753]
Let's Play Jenga!

High art carries high risk!

[SCP-2679]
The Many Graves of Jeannette Parslov

Whatever it takes, do what you must; whatever the cost, come back to us.

[SCP-3074]
Kafka's Parking Garage

Thank you for choosing Izatova Parking Center. Have a pleasant day.

[SCP-2571]
Cragglewood Park

Mr. Blair, have you always been an only child?

[SCP-2419]
The Laughing Men

Throw them back into the incinerator where you found them.

[SCP-3143]
Murphy Law in… The Foundation Always Rings Twice!

When it comes right down to it, me — them — hell, even you — we're all just characters in that trashy dime-store novel called life.

[SCP-3089]
That Old Time Religion

Remember how we explained that successful people don't actually need any of their toes to walk? Well, that's going to come in handy for Secret Number Six.

[SCP-3117]
A Monster-Shaped Hole

I'm not talking to you.

[SCP-3128]
Let's Play Monopoly!

Hey, guys? I'm, uh. I'm using this.

[SCP-3138]
A Sepulcher by the Sea

Should it prove feasible, all non-canonical corpses are to be extracted, examined, and catalogued.

[SCP-3241]
The SS Sommerfeld

It makes me wonder what an old monster like myself is even doing here, anymore. And then? Someone special comes along and reminds me.

[SCP-3219]
This Sour Earth

Notably, no reports describe any attempt to examine the residence's storm cellar.

[SCP-4028]
La Historia de Don Quixote de la Mancha

Justine eventually re-unites with her sister, Juliette. Alonso strikes down a lightning bolt intended for them both, then challenges the narrator to a duel.

[SCP-3546]
Doggone it, I Fold!

Specifically, fan-art of Sonic the Hedgehog, a video-game character produced by Sega in 1991.

[SCP-3561]
An Unfinished Work

Despite multiple reports from neighbors who claimed to have witnessed members of his family standing at the windows, no trace of Theodore Holdstock's wife and children could be found.

[SCP-4054]
The Seventh Door

SCP-4054 is The Seventh Door, an unlicensed platform adventure game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988.

Vaughn L. Kaminski; recovered from a 1921 edition of Great Expectations.

Item #: SCP-3138

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation personnel embedded in literary and academic circles are to be briefed on SCP-3138; they are to report any fictional work discovered to deviate from its canonical number of human corpses.

A Foundation-operated bot (I/O-MANDELA) is to monitor websites and online communities centered on discussions of printed media; discussions regarding books that describe more human corpses than previously expected are to be flagged for review.

Upon discovery, any printed work of fiction suspected of being affected by SCP-3138 is to be recovered and reviewed by MTF Rho-1 ("The Professors"). Should it prove feasible, all non-canonical corpses are to be extracted, examined, and catalogued. Otherwise, affected works are to be kept on-site in a secure locker. Access is restricted to Level-4 personnel.

Description: SCP-3138 is a phenomenon involving the insertion of human corpses into a printed work of published fiction. The work must convey a narrative capable of recognizably describing the presence of a human corpse.

Inserted corpses will be depicted in a manner suited to the work; for example, a corpse inserted into a poem relying upon a particular rhyming scheme will be described via this rhyme scheme. Extraction of inserted corpses can be accomplished by destroying the work or editing it to remove the depiction of a corpse. Should this occur, all erased corpses will immediately emerge from the text in question. Notably, corpses that emerge during these events are non-anomalous, and show signs of decay reminiscent of extended submersion in an acidic environment.

The method by which SCP-3138 is accomplished has yet to be determined.

Addendum 3138.1: Recovery Logs

► ACCESS SCP:/3138/recovery/102.log

▼ Close File

RECOVERY LOG

DISCOVERY DATE: 16/03/1942

SUBJECT: A 1921 paperback edition of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

‘Bless your soul and body, no,’ answered Wemmick,

very drily. ‘But he is accused of it. So might you or I be.

Either of us might be accused of it, you know.’

‘Only neither of us is,’ I remarked.

‘Yah!’ said Wemmick, touching me on the breast with

his forefinger; ‘you’re a deep one, Mr. Pip! Would you like to

have a look at Newgate? Have you time to spare?’

I had so much time to spare, that the proposal came as

a relief, notwithstanding its irreconcilability with my latent

desire to keep my eye on the coach-office. Muttering that I

would make the inquiry whether I had time to walk with him, I

went into the office, and ascertained from the clerk with the

nicest precision and much to the trying of his temper, the

earliest moment at which the coach could be expected - which I

knew beforehand, quite as well as he. I then rejoined Mr.

Wemmick, and affecting to consult my watch and to be surprised

by the information I had received, accepted his offer.

We were at Newgate in a few minutes, and we passed

through the lodge where three smartly dressed corpses were hung

hung up on the bare walls, their attire dark and unusual.

Though shocked by the barbarity of the sight, Mr. Wemmick

shushed me and urged me forward, silencing my confusion with a

gesture to his lips. Now, at that time, jails were much

neglected, and the period of exaggerated reaction consequent

on all public wrong-doing - and which is always its heaviest

461

NOTE: Of the three recovered corpses, only one could be positively identified: Vaughn L. Kaminski, an accountant with known ties to Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski1. An autopsy concluded that all three corpses died as a result of pulmonary aspiration.

► ACCESS SCP:/3138/recovery/297.log

▼ Close File

RECOVERY LOG

DISCOVERY DATE: 06/11/1957

SUBJECT: A 1925 edition of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

through the amorphous trees.

The chauffeur — he was one of Wolfsheim’s

proteges — heard the shots — afterward he could

only say that he hadn’t thought anything much

about them. I drove from the station directly to

Gatsby’s house and my rushing anxiously up the

front steps was the first thing that alarmed any

one. But they knew then, I firmly believe. With

scarcely a word said, four of us, the chauffeur,

butler, gardener, and I, hurried down to the pool.

There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of

the water as the fresh flow from one end urged

its way toward the drain at the other with little

ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the

laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A

small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the

surface was enough to disturb its accidental course

with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster

of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg

of compass, a thin red circle in the water.

It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house

that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off

in the grass — and alongside it, seven more. The

holocaust was complete.

187

NOTE: Of the six recovered corpses, only four could be positively identified. All were known associates of Alphonse Gabriel Capone2. An autopsy concluded that all six corpses died as a result of pulmonary aspiration.

► ACCESS SCP:/3138/recovery/681.log

▼ Close File

RECOVERY LOG

DISCOVERY DATE: 21/02/1982

SUBJECT: A 1912 edition of Collected Poems by Edgar Allan Poe.

Collected Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

With the corpse of Beverly Queen.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me—

Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

With the corpse of Beverly Queen.

95

NOTE: Although the recovered corpse could not be conclusively identified, it was determined to be that of an adolescent female. In 1932, a missing person report was filed with the Chicago Police Department for Beverly Queen — a 17 year old female living with Richard Chappell3. An autopsy concluded that the corpse died of pulmonary aspiration.

Footnotes

1. AKA Hymie Weiss; a notorious mob boss active in Chicago during the 1920s.

2. AKA 'Scarface'; a notorious mob boss active in Chicago during the 1920s, as well as the co-founder and leader of the Chicago Outfit.

3. A co-founder of the Chicago Spirit, an anomalous criminal organization active in Chicago during the 1920s.