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SCP-4363 — Wake Me Up, I'm Living in a Nightmare

Collabcon entry involving MC&D and Oneiroi Collective

Authors: AlanDaris & Arbelict

The first part of the storyline: A Business Dinner

~~ More Alan Stuff ~~

Item #: SCP-4363

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4363 and three of its copies (two on vinyl records and one digitized on a DVD) are to be stored in a standard Safe-class containment locker. Any experiments involving placing subjects into SCP-4363-A or transferring SCP-4363 to other information carriers are to be preliminarily agreed with the object's curator.

Vinyl record containing SCP-4363 inside a testing chamber.

Foundation-operated bot (I/O-INSOMNIAC) is to monitor the web for copies of SCP-4363 and associated anomalous effects. MTF Omega-31 ("Sticky Fingers") is tasked with investigating the received reports and removing media containing SCP-4363 to prevent its further spread, as well as capturing potential victims and distributors of the anomaly.

Individuals affected by SCP-4363 are to reside in the medical wing of Site-224 and be put on artificial life-support. Individuals' condition is to be monitored by the Site's medical team, and their brain activity is to be analyzed with the use of special equipment.

Description: SCP-4363 is a сognitohazardous audio recording consisting primarily of sounds of wind and echoing footsteps. Occasionally, other sounds can be heard as well. Examples include distant voices, fire crackling, and cries of crows. The amount and timestamps of these sounds vary on a case-by-case basis, from which it was concluded that the contents of SCP-4363 change slightly with each audition. SCP-4363 does not have a specific duration and will loop until stopped manually. Attempts to find sounds matching those reproduced by SCP-4363 in sound effect libraries resulted in failure.

If a person falls asleep while listening to SCP-4363, they will enter a state similar to comatose (hereinafter referred to as SCP-4363-A). While in this state, the individual will experience remarkably vivid lucid dreams, with varying content with a number of details shared between all cases1 Individuals subjected to the anomalous effect during the same time period are able to perceive each other and communicate while in SCP-4363-A.

Attempts to externally remove affected subjects always end in failure. However, the duration of SCP-4363's effect appears to be determined by the individuals themselves. Test subjects stated that thinking about leaving SCP-4363-A and concentrating on this thought caused them to awaken. For reasons unknown at this time, a small number of individuals entering SCP-4363-A2 are unable to leave it and remain under SCP-4363's effect indefinitely.

Addendum 4363.1. Discovery Log: SCP-4363 was first discovered in a five-star hotel located in the town of ███████, Illinois. Foundation agents were pre-deployed to investigate due to an assumption that some of its residents were related to the GoI "Marshall, Carter and Dark" and possessed one or several anomalous items.

At 24/06/2019, the Foundation discovered that the aforementioned residents were found in an unconscious state by hotel staff, who went to check their condition in the absence of any actions from them for a long period of time. All individuals were found lying on their beds inside of their respective rooms. In addition, vinyl records playing SCP-4363 were also found in each room. A total of five subjects affected by SCP-4363 were discovered, three of whom were subsequently identified as Senator ██████ ███, Archbishop ████████ ████ ██, and CEO of ██████████████ ███ Corporation; all confirmed clients of "Marshall, Carter, and Dark". The remaining two subjects located in a separate room were presumed representatives of the GoI.

A few minutes after the Foundation agents arrived at the scene, a group of individuals, which had superiority in both numbers and firepower, entered the hotel. They were identified as members of the "Covenant": a private military company financed by MC&D. The parties managed to avoid a clash and conclude an agreement: the Foundation employees kept the vinyl records containing SCP-4363 in exchange for the return of subjects affected by the anomaly. The hotel staff and residents of the surrounding area were subsequently administered B-class amnestics.

Addendum 4363.2. Experimentation Log: Following the discovery of SCP-4363's anomalous properties, an experiment to further explore SCP-4363-A was conducted. Four D-class employees (Designated as D-4363 from -1 to -4) with a history of practicing lucid dreaming and high memory retention according to the results of a preliminary test were selected. In order to maximize the quality of memories, all subjects were administered Y-class mnestics prior to the test and placed in a special chamber with equipment aimed at the analysis of the brain activity. Several minutes later, SCP-4363 started to play and the subjects were instructed to fall asleep.

Following the subjects' awakening and subsequent interviewing, it was noted that their descriptions of the experience significantly differed from each other.

D-4363-1's description

D-4363-2's description

D-4363-3's description

D-4363-4's description

Concept art of the location observed by D-4363-1.

Subjects regain consciousness in a dark office room. Outdated typewriters, old-fashioned file cabinets, and an extensive pneumatic mail system are observed. D-4363-1 looks out the small window through which the outside area can be seen and concludes that it is night time and heavy rain falls outside. The view is obscured by the streams of water flowing down the glass, but the city lights suggest that the office is located in a very high building.

Subjects further inspect the area. There are no light sources, except for the fading light from the windows. There are lamps in the room, but subjects are unable to find the switches. D-4363-1 notes that everything around seems gray and discolored.

Individuals notice a person sitting at the table. Approaching, the subjects discover a body of a faceless white female humanoid reclined in a chair. Bright red lipstick is smeared across its face, and a sticking pencil sticks out of a wound in its throat. Old-fashioned plaid dress ripped at the chest and open wide. Near the table, subjects notice a humanoid body dressed in a business suit lying on the floor. Its head is fractured, multiple injuries are observed on its body, which rests beside a bloody typewriter.

The subjects proceed and approach a door with the words "Director's office" on it. The translucent turbid glass contains cracks and a trail of impact. The other side of the window is stained in blood.

Behind the door, subjects find the body of another female humanoid lying on the table. Its clothes are torn, many wounds are observed on its body, presumably inflicted by the stuck stationery such as pencils, compasses, and paper knives. On the gluteal area, there are traces of beating by a belt. The window in the room is broken. Subjects move forward and D-4363-1 accidentally trips over an inconspicuous wire on the floor connected to the record player mounted on the chair. The device is turned on and begins to play, subjects hear the sounds of female screams, hits, and a male voice shouting curses.

Suddenly, with a loud noise, a capsule comes through a pneumatic tube. D-4363-1 opens it and finds a typed note with some the text crossed out by a pencil:

> Dear Jane, I want to tell you, that the lawyers were able to completely disembowel Sturges company. So you will not have to play a part in this. The loan is completely repaid, but we will not be able to get anything from the percentage anymore. Wait for confirming documents from the accounting department and get back to me after getting them. I'm very busy and won't be able to care of them myself. I already told Gordon that I'm coming to that meeting.

Director

The subjects begin to hear the sound of running, coupled with heavy footsteps and rapid breathing. The sound echoes through the room, its source is unknown, but D-4363-1 observes that it is far and approaching. Subjects run out into the hall and see a man coming up the stairs on the opposite side of the room. The unknown individual is dressed in a business suit covered in blood and is holding a paper awl. The subject's face is hidden by a primitive mask made of several printed sheets pasted on the head with eye openings and a slit imitating smile.

The unknown individual begins to silently approach the subjects. They run away to the opposite side of the hall, which has no end in sight. The chase continues for a considerable time, the office room with rows of tables seems endless to D-4363-1. The unknown individual is gradually approaching, catching up with the subjects despite walking at a remarkably slow speed. The end of the office hall becomes prominent, individuals observe a wall with a large number of elevator doors. D-4363-1 realizes that the group is cornered and attempts to open one of the doors, but fails. The masked individual quickly approaches the subjects, grabs D-4363-4 by the collar and stabs them several times in the stomach with a paper awl. D-4363-4 falls down and begins to scream while the blood starts pouring from their wounds.

A moment later, several elevators arrive, their doors swing open, light from coming from inside of them illuminates the room. Groups of people dressed in black hats and cloaks, armed with pistols and shotguns, run out of each elevator. Each of them has a golden triangular police badge hanging on the belt.

Policemen point the firearms at the masked subject and open fire. Office supplies and papers rise into the air from shots, typewriters and lamps are being torn into shreds. Unknown individual hides among the tables and begins to fire back with the revolver. Two policemen are killed, several more are injured, they are dragged to the elevator by their colleagues and sent to the lower floor. One of the individuals grabs D-4363-4, shouts something to them (D-4363-1 could not make out any words) and throws them into the elevator, then calls other test subjects. D-4363-1 enters along with other individuals, closes the door and presses the lever down. The shouting continues as the elevator descends into blackness.

Concept art of the location observed by D-4363-2.

Subjects regain consciousness during the night time on a spacious cobbled square, surrounded by many dilapidated buildings in the Gothic style. At the far end of the square is a gigantic white marble throne, which is far taller than all surrounding buildings. Subjects inspect the environment with delight. For an unknown reason, every step is echoing hollowly.

Behind several Gothic buildings, a high tower with a cone-shaped roof is observed. Above it circles a large flock of birds. Blue light flashes with regular intervals behind the windows. Subjects begin to move toward the tower.

The subjects are moving along the city's narrow cobbled streets. They then hear screaming and head toward the sound, discovering another smaller square near the tower. Hiding in the shade of the moonlight, the subjects look around. In the middle of the square, there is a huge pile of bodies consisting of people wearing medieval armor suits. The sound of the horn is heard, and a person clad in a suit of plate mail falls from the tower, crashing to the ground. A group of white, faceless humanoids in dark robes come up to their body, lift it with considerable strain and throw it into the pile.

A small line of people in armor is visible near the entrance to the tower. Near them is another white humanoid dressed in a dark robe. The creature holds a long scroll in its hands and unintelligibly mumbles. The knight comes to it, bows his knee, leaves his sword against the wall and walks inside unarmed.

Suddenly, the tower's windows are lit with a bright blue flash. The top of the structure is destroyed and a huge creature, visually similar to the hybrid of a crow and a dragon, flies out of it. The creature has a corvine head, dragon-like wings and tail, covered with black feathers, and huge clawed paws.

Subjects begin to run along a wide street, stone blocks from a destroyed tower fall around them. The flying creature notices the subjects, hisses loudly and begins to chase them. The subjects dodge the creature's paws and try to hide from it in the city's alleys. After a series of turns and dead ends, the subjects enter the square, the only way out of which is blocked by the creature. The square is littered with mummified remains of white humanoids, as well as rusty swords, bows, and quivers.

The creature charges forward and attempts to attack the subjects, injuring D-4363-4's face with one of its claws in the process. D-4363-4 falls to the ground and starts screaming. A moment later, with bright red flashes, a large group of unknown individuals appears near it. These persons are wearing purple robes with golden masks and high pointed headdresses. Unknown individuals are holding torches, metal staffs, and crystal spheres. Two of them are equipped with massive devices hanging in front, which rotate produce a sound similar to the howling of the wind.

The individuals start to launch bolts of lightning and glowing orbs at the creature with the use of their staffs. The creature screams in pain, but then counterattacks by grabbing several people in robes into the sky and throwing them down. It then attempts to grab the rotating device with its beak but is driven back by the people with torches.

A woman in a bright red robe approaches D-4363-4. She screams something at them (D-4363-2 could not make out any words) and makes incoherent gestures with her hands for a minute, after this a phenomenon visually similar to stereotypical portals appears near the subjects. The woman throws D-4363-4 into the portal which results in the subject disappearing. D-4363-2 sees the creature approaching them and quickly jumps into the portal, causing them to fall into the void.

Concept art of the location observed by D-4363-3.

Subjects regain consciousness near a massive wooden door, next to which there is a stand with the inscription "Welcome, 46th President of the United States of America!". Subjects enter the door and discover a large room visually similar to the US Congress conference room. All places are occupied by faceless, seemingly expired white humanoids. There is a burning smell in the air, D-4363-3 notes that it is hard to breathe.

Subjects hear a roar in a distance. The floor and the walls begin to vibrate. Subjects move toward the sound, leave the hall and open the door, from which black smoke seeps out. Inside, they find a flaming room with a partially collapsed roof. D-4363-3 reports that the heat is almost unbearable. A stream of air rushes out of the room and carries out small burning pieces of paper that cause the fire to spread. Subjects begin to run down the corridor in search of a safe place. Behind their backs, there is a crackle of flames and sounds of collapsing structures.

The subjects run toward a massive, glass door and find themselves in a spacious ballroom. The room is filled with white humanoids in formal costumes. A passing creature dressed as a waiter non-verbally offers subjects champagne from a tray. Subjects agree, and each one takes a glass.

Present humanoids stand in groups and seem to be communicating by uttering an unintelligible "lowing". A nearby humanoid dressed in a uniform of Air Force general begins to twitch convulsively. It proceeds to do so for approximately a minute, after that the creature brings a glass of champagne to the part of the head where the mouth should be located. Putting the edge of the glass to its face, the creature tilts it and pours the drink onto its costume.

At the far end of the hall is an orchestra of white creatures dressed in black tuxedos. In front of them, humanoids in evening dresses and costumes dance with each other. The room looks festive and decorated with ribbons and other attributes in blue-white-red tones.

Black smoke begins to seep through the front door, but those present do not pay attention to it, continuing to dance and communicate with each other. Subjects finish their champagne and run to start moving to the far end of the hall. The only entrance to the hall through which they entered is enveloped in fire, the smoke begins to fill the room. Colorful ribbons on the ceiling ignite, fire engulfs everything around. Burning white humanoids run out of the smoke and fall down, twitching erratically. One of the entities approaches D-4363-4 and grabs him by the wrist. As a result, the subject's jumpsuit ignites, D-4363-4 starts to panic and makes several attempts to extinguish the fire, but fails.

A moment later, ax blades appear from the wall and begin to vertically cut it with remarkable ease. Firefighters dressed in bright yellow gear and helmets labeled "O.F.D." start emerging from the slit. Subjects unwind the fire hoses and start extinguishing, flooding the room with water.

Several firefighters experience troubles with breathing and fall on the floor, their colleagues run to them and drag them out of the room. Two more firefighters are crashed by falling fragments of the ceiling. The team leader then approaches D-4363-4, extinguishes the fire on their jumpsuit, screams something (D-4363-3 could not make out any words) at them and throws them into the slit. D-4363-3 runs toward the wall and attempts to make the slit larger by pulling the paperhangings, but trips over and falls into the void.

Foreword: The following interview was conducted on 30\06\19, six days after the aforementioned test regarding SCP-4363's properties. While all three other members of the test group provided their versions of the experience within the first two days after the experiment, D-4363-4 was unable to do so. The following is the interview with D-4363-4 conducted by SCP-4363's current curator.

Interviewed: D-4363-4

Interviewer: Dr. B. Bishop

START LOG

Dr. Bishop: Greetings, D-4363-4. Do you know why this interview was conducted?

D-4363-4: I guess… It's about that dream, right?

Dr. Bishop: Exactly. Several days ago you, along with three other subjects, were selected for an experiment with SCP-4363. After your dream has ended, you were required to describe what you saw, just like other test subjects did. In short, we need this information.

D-4363-4: I… Can't remember, honestly.

Dr. Bishop: But you should. You were administered a Class-Y mnestic.

D-4363-4: I was administered who?

Dr. Bishop: A drug that enhances your memory. You had to remember at least something.

D-4363-4: Alright, I… Actually, I can recall something, but it's… Total gibberish. I don't even know how to explain it.

Dr. Bishop: Try to do it. This information is needed for the research.

D-4363-4 sighs.

D-4363-4: Well, I recall that I and other guys saw some weird, very scary stuff. At first, we wake up inside some room, found someone's corpses…

Dr. Bishop: Whose corpses exactly?

D-4363-4: Yeah, I can't remember. It was like everything was constantly changing. You know, like it sometimes happens in dreams. One moment you see a gothic city, then some kind of office, then you smell burning. I was trying to concentrate on something, I swear. But I couldn't. And then…

D-4363-4 shivers.

D-4363-4: It's… This feeling is so uncomfortable, it's hard to even talk about it. It's like we saw something very, very scary. Send chills down my spine. I remember it approaching me, trying to do something to me. Something bad. Very bad.

Dr. Bishop: I understand that it was unpleasant. But try to concentrate. What happened at the end of your dream?

D-4363-4: I remember that this creature, or whatever it was, nearly got me, but then someone ran to me and helped. Some person… I think. Just threw me out of there and this feeling suddenly stopped.

Dr. Bishop: Can you describe this person?

D-4363-4: I would be glad to, but he… Or she… Was also changing. Their face, clothing, and everything around, it was all misty. I can't even remember their voice. I only recall that they were really mad and weren't very happy with us being there. Started to scream at me, said that we should get out and never come back. That they'll finish the job, and the Foundation has no business being there. Honestly, I didn't understand who they were talking about. After that… It felt like I fell down from a great high. Then I woke up.

Dr. Bishop: Good. I thank you for your cooperation. Is that all?

D-4363-4: Yes, but… Oh, wait, right. They said something else. Some phrase, but I don't recall what it was exactly. And I don't think it makes any sense.

Dr. Bishop: We'll figure it out. Just tell me what you remember.

D-4363-4: It was… Something about collaboration and keys, doctor.

END LOG

Footnotes

1. See Experimentation log.

2. See Discovery log.