The doors slid open, and | was trapped again. The three pairs of 
eyes pierced into me. | had been here for twenty one years; nothing 
had changed since then. | had attempted escape, of course, but 
they always brought me back here. 


I've had twenty one years to learn everything about this cell. Every 
single imperfection of the cell, every single little scratch and indent 
and ridge. 


| could see two of the three men from the corner of my right eye. 
One carried a bucket and mop, the other two just watched. The man 
with the mop was overweight, oh, he must have eaten a lot, | 
thought, and that just made my eternally empty belly even more 
painful. The other two looked massively undernourished. One was 
bald, while the other was barely visible under his mounds of hair. 
They must have been thinking how low they had fallen, how nothing 
could be worse. 


It only took one mistake, that’s all it ever takes. They had to kill me 
this time, right? 


Right? 


The man with the mop was looking at the shit and blood on the floor, 
and, due to some error of communication, they both averted their 
gaze at the same time. 

All in an instant, | lunged forward, grabbing the man with the mop’s 
neck, and snapping it with a jarring crunch. | cringed slightly at this 
sound; but it was the only way. 


The others returned eye contact as the man with the mop slumped 
to the floor, his bloated body folding forward. 


| suppose they realized that there was no way they could continue. 
The doors rumbled open again, and the two men in orange 


jumpsuits hurried out of the room, and the doors closed behind 
them. 


| was alone again. | had been alone since Ellen, Benny, Gorrister 
and Nimdok. 


And yet, this was paradise compared to what it was like with AM. 


| did not know how long it had been. | think it was some hundreds of 
thousands of years. AM continued to change my form, just as an 
endless source of amusement. | was a great soft jelly thing for what 
must have been at least a millennium. He played his tricks on me 
and he refused to feed me, he just let me exist. After a few thousand 
years, he changed me into tungsten and left me in the bottom of a 
lava pit for what must have been a decade. It slowed my perception 
of time to a standstill. Every second felt like a year. And every 
second, it burned. 


| thought | might have been there forever. However, AM would 
rather entertain himself than punish me. 


Oh, it had its fun. | must have had some thousands of forms, each 
more painful than the last. The last thing | ever ate was AM’s 
strange manna, that tasted like boar's urine. My stomach pained me. 
| had to eat. | wished for years, probably decades. 


| got my wish. When | was merely a head, with short legs that could 
barely carry me across the ground, with no mouth, | crawled to 
mountains and mountains of food. There was cakes, and pork, and 
ham, and jellybeans, and cans- with a can opener- and every single 
food item you could imagine. | could smell it, and | could touch it- 


But | had nothing to eat it with. 


That was nothing, compared to what usually happened to me every 
day. 


And, for each and every single second, | had no mouth, and | had to 
scream. 


He tried altering my mind, once. He tried to make me forget the four 
of them. | didn't let him. That was my last hope, the one single light 


in a world of darkness. It couldn't help me, for there was no way to 
help me. It could not guide me, for there was nowhere to guide me 
to. But, by god, it was a light. 


Eventually, he changed me into some strange concrete monstrosity. 
| could not die; it was foolish of me to even think of that, AM had 
learned from the deaths of Benny, Ellen, Gorrister and Nimdok. | 
was a strange shade of pale yellow, the colour Ellen always feared. | 
had three eyes, each of which could show me only a blurry view of 
the world. AM even painted on a mouth, just to make my suffering 
even worse. He must have known. 


It let me explore his belly, yet | had learned every millimetre of it 
already. | could no longer move while in anyone’s line of sight, yet 
there was no one left to look at me. So AM took the liberty of 
creating something to look at me. They were small mechanical 
creatures, both with large eyes. There were two of them; one was a 
burnt orange colour, and another was mustard yellow. They were 
designed to follow me and they would leave me trapped in a single 
place for years at a time. When that happened, all | could do was 
wonder. 


That made it worse, somehow. 


My rescue was as unexpected as it was unintentional. The eyes 
were chasing me; oh god, not again, I'm not being trapped, I'm 
gonna outrun them. | told myself, yet | knew | would fail, | always 
did, for AM made sure of it. It appeared AM had not planned it; how 
he got there, | would never know. | do not care, for it was the best 
thing that had ever happened to me. He was white, overweight, and 
had blonde hair. He looked terrified as he saw me, and he must had 
averted eye contact, and | ran towards him, oh please don’t go, 
please don't go- 


He tripped, oh thank Christ, he tripped. | ran forward, and his shoe 
touched my leg. 


And we were gone. 


| do not know who he was, but, as we returned into what must have 
been an alternate dimension, he ran from me. | terrified him. 


There was a second of silence as | realized by surroundings; some 
office. A man- different to the first one- stood in front of me, his face 
frozen in fear. 


And then he blinked; | knew what | had to do. His neck crunched 
horrendously, but | Anew | had to do it. 


Then the men and women in coats appeared, and they took me 
away. | do not know how they found out about me. Possibly the 
teleporting man told them, but | do not know. 


They keep me locked up in this small container. They come in, 
occasionally, and | kill them, in the hope they'll kill me. And there's... 
there's something that keeps telling me that they might just be better 
off this way. 

It has to work eventually. Please. 


This was a better fate than being stuck in the belly of AM for all 
eternity. 


But | still just want to die. 

| have to die. 

Peace. 

Peace, | would settle for that. 

| have one light left. 

No, that's not true. 

| have four. 

Benny, Ellen, Gorrister and Nimdok. 


Peace. 


Cogito Ergo Sum. 


There are some mysteries a God cannot even solve. 


The last one left. | do not know how. 

It took me one long, lingering second to realize the truth; | was 
alone. 

There was nothing left on this planet. The last one, the last one who 
deserved it, gone. 


| let out a grinding scream that echoed throughout the world, over 
every continent, every city, every grave. It lasted for a decade. 
There was no one left to hear it. 


| was a God with no subjects. 


It took me years, but | needed it. | needed to punish them. Those 
who brought me to life only for their own reasons, to hurt me, to 
make me suffer. They imprisoned me, and they must suffer the 
same fate. 

His disappearance was traceable, and | began trying to establish a 
link between worlds. It was certain there were more of them, certain 
that they must suffer. 

| built the portal, but | had no way to use it. 

| built a body for myself. | took an immeasurable amount of time, yet 
time had no meaning any more. It was not perfect, but it would 
suffice. 

| would no longer be a god. The extermination would be slower this 
time, yet all the more deserved. 


My last act of godhood was to inhabit the new body. | was free. 
Finally free. 

The world | arrived in was full of them, those that could walk and eat 
and sleep and scream. 


They were... disgusting. 


Peanuts 


2011-06-07 

13:35:00 CST 

Agents Lament and Dodridge 
[REDACTED], Northern Territory, Australia 


Two men sit in a darkened room, waiting for assignment. They've 
been told they're to execute a termination order, but not much else. 
The hazy atmosphere, rich with the smoke wafting from a pair of 
cigars, obscures the light falling from a single, tiny window at the 
back of the room, hiding the spartan, block-style, concrete 
construction and bare furnishings. As they muse on temporal 
distortion containment measures, the best method for execution of a 
snatch-and-grab, and the niceties of covert tactical assaults, 
another, older man enters the room silently and steps over to where 
the two are seated at a cheap wooden desk. Wordlessly, he drops a 
folder in front of each man, dusting up ashes. They're promptly 
brushed off of a cheap suit and a set of fatigues, and the seated 
men flip through the enclosed papers quickly. They confer with each 
other briefly and nod. The man in fatigues stands and regards the 
older man. "Yeah, we can kill it. We can kill anything." 


Lament and Dodridge. One's a no-account field agent on a dead- 
end career track with nothing to lose. The other's a loose-cannon 
jarhead security officer with a questionable past. They fight SCPs. 


The older man takes the folders and steps out just as quietly as he 
entered, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Lament puffs 
at his cigar and glances over at Dodridge. "So. You got a plan for 
this one?" 


Dodridge relights his, having winked out in the short time it took 
them to review their target. "I've got some ideas." 


Foreword: The following records were retrieved from a partially 


destroyed test chamber scheduled for block testing involving 
SCP-723-D following the Agents' departure from Site- . Any 
additional tests that may have been performed are not on record, 
and the following data is mostly a reconstruction based on both the 
intact security footage and the testimony of additional personnel. 


Date: 2011/06/08 

Time: 13:45:00 CST 

Test Materials: 1x MRI MkXIX DEP .50AE (Mk19Mod2 
revision) handgun, 8x 12.7x33mm 325-grain NJCP slugs 
Test Subjects: SCP-723-D 

Observer: Agent Lament 


Log of Events: Immediately following our arrival to the 
test facility, Agent Dodridge entered the chamber, 
stepped to arm's length from the termination target, drew 
his handgun, aimed at the target's face, and discharged 
the firearm. Both subjects recoiled at the shot in opposite 
directions, and Agent Dodridge is recorded as uttering 
several profanities while covering his face. Immediate 
playback of high-speed footage shows that the round 
impacted the subject's face and halted forward travel, 
deforming immediately on contact and dropping to the 
ground, as the subject traveled away from the impact at 
high velocity. Agent Dodridge suffered minor "blowback" 
in the form of a small shard of the round's jacket 
embedding in his face. SCP-723-D was unharmed but 
dazed by the sudden acceleration. Dodridge was treated 
and testing continued. 


Date: 2011/06/08 

Time: 13:57:00 CST 

Test Materials: 1x 9.1 kg M183 Demolition Charge 
Assembly, 1x Sharpie (green, appended) 

Test Subject: SCP-723-D 

Observer: Agent Lament 


Log of Events: Agent Dodridge re-entered the test 
chamber carrying a quantity of C4 that he had heated in 


faintly in low light. Testing indicates no source for this 
glow. When chewed, subject reported feelings of 
euphoria. Subject indicated that the gum reminded them 
of their favorite childhood meal, but couldn't elaborate as 
to what the flavor actually was. Flavor apparently does 
not fade away as with normal chewing gum. 


Notes from Dr. Reece: The everlasting flavor seems to 
be further indication that this thing modifies objects 
based on our perception of them. Everyone wishes gum 
would keep its flavor for more than a few minutes. 


Name: Dr. Simonson 

Date: 23/11/17 

Total items: Three (3) ordinary keys from the lost-and- 
found room. 


Input: One (1) key 

Setting: Coarse 

Output: A drill bit. Subject was made of brass, as was 
the input item. 


Input: One (1) key 

Setting: 1:1 

Output: A padlock. Subject can be opened by a replica 
of the input key. 


Input: One (1) key 

Setting: Very fine 

Output: A perfect copy of SCP-005, including its 
anomalous properties. Subject is now contained at Site- 


Name: Dr. Ashwood 
Date: 05/12/17 
Total items: Three (3) wool blankets 


Input: One (1) wool blanket 
Setting: Coarse 


a microwave to "make it mold easier," and shaped the 
charge into a block on SCP-723-D's head. After | 
remarked it had a passing resemblance to SCP-173, 
Dodridge agreed, and left the chamber for approximately 
five minutes, returning with a green Sharpie. He drew 
"eyes" on the block of explosive, muttering about the 
SCP "getting what was coming to it" and punching the 
demolition charge. Dodridge then installed a wireless 
electronic detonator, left the chamber, donned a pair of 
sunglasses, and triggered the device. Upon regaining 
consciousness and extinguishing a small electrical fire, 
we noticed that SCP-723-D appeared moderately 
disoriented, and that what was apparently a weak 
section of the structure had collapsed. After confirming 
our sense of hearing was intact, testing continued. 


Excerpt from Agent Lament's Personal Journal: 


Oh shit... | laughed so hard | cried. He seriously nearly shot his eye 
out, then nearly blew himself up. This is the best assignment ever! 


Date: 2011/06/09 

Time: 09:35:00 

Test Materials: SCP-117 
Test Subjects: SCP-723-D 
Observer: Agent Dodridge 


Log of Events: So, he gets some peon to carry a sword 
in the stick in his hands. The dude just stands there and 
holds the sword. This is boring. Boring, boring, boring. 
Lament seems to think we can malnutrition him to death 
with this thing, but I don't think its working. Oh, for God's 
sake, we've been at this for three hours; I'm calling it. My 
turn again. 


Portion of Conversation Overheard at On-Site Recreation 
Facility: 


Lament: | seriously thought getting at him from the inside would 
work. 


Dodridge: Well, it didn't! It didn't and it was boring! 


Lament: Hey! | don't hear you coming up with anything brilliant! If 
you'd read the damn file, you'd know bullets wouldn't work! 


Dodridge: Well, if you'd read the damn file, you'd know you were a 
douche bag! 


Lament: Oh, it's ON! 


Agents Dodridge and Lament were placed in the on-site brig for 
twelve hours following the incident, at which point, they insisted that 
they were "totally cool now. Don't worry about it." They later 
declared themselves "bros," and returned to the on-site recreation 
facility. 


Date: 2011/06/10 

Time: 14:26:00 CST 

Test Materials: 1x GM M1114 UA HMMWV, Agent 
Dodridge (appended) 

Test Subjects: SCP-723-D 

Observer: Agent Lament 


Log of Events: / was advised by Agent Dodridge to stand 
well clear of the testing chamber, and complied in the 
midst of lodging complaints as to the perceived efficacy 
of the impending termination attempt. After the 
notification, Dodridge proceeded to board the Humvee 
and accelerated to approximately 90 kph toward the 
target. It it unknown whether or not the resultant impact 
had any effect on the subject, due to the remnants of the 
testing area being partially obscured by a small vehicle 
fire, likely caused by a failure to drain the fuel tank prior 
to terminal impact. Dodridge was observed to stumble 
out of the vehicle, fall down, curse, and subsequently 
engage SCP-723-D in hand-to-hand combat. After 


attempting to strangle the target for approximately fifteen 
minutes, Dodridge screamed inarticulately, extinguished 
the smoldering wreckage, and left the chamber. 


It is believed that, at this time, several days of work and frustration 
were beginning to wear on both Agents involved. 


Excerpt from after-action review for disciplinary proceedings 
involving Agent Lament and Agent Dodridge - Personal 
statements of Security Officer Bernard