SCP-1303-1 is an intermittent effect that consists of the total 
absence of acoustic transmission within its area. It has been known 
to occur in every cavern connected to the SCP-1303 network, 
including the entrance cavern, though it exhibits no discernible 
pattern for manifestations. The phenomenon persists for a variable 
amount of time, ranging from five minutes to a record of four hours, 


and its boundaries never extend past those of the cavern it is 
currently affecting. Within SCP-1303-1's area, no sound waves of 
any sort can be generated or detected, regardless of whether they 
would be generated by a source inside the area travelling outward or 
vice versa. The effect extends to both mechanical devices and living 
subjects, though it is only known to manifest when a living subject is 
present. Affected mechanical devices exhibit all signs of perfect 
functionality except for their inability to transmit or detect sound 
waves. Personnel within SCP-1303-1's area of effect have 
persistently reported a sensation of being stalked or followed, 
catching glimpses of something moving out of the corner of their eye 
and a heightened urge to either flee or turn and confront whatever is 
there. In all such cases, electronic media and other personnel 
regularly fail to sense or detect the supposed ‘stalkers’, though 
multiple personnel within an affected area each experience such 
feelings independently. Due to dependency on minor echoes for 
balance and orientation, individuals who attempt to flee put 
themselves at high risk of injury. 


SCP-1303-2 is an effect similar to SCP-1303-1, though instead of 
actively suppressing sound waves, the phenomenon completely 
inhibits any production or detection of visual, infrared, or ultraviolet 
light. It manifests in any of the SCP-1303 caverns except for the 
entrance cavern, and persists for anywhere from five minutes to 
over nine hours. Like SCP-1303-1, it affects both living subjects and 
mechanical devices without otherwise impeding their operation, and 
only manifests when a living subject is present, though its effects 
remain for a variable duration after the subject has left its area of 
effect. From the ‘outside’, the phenomenon appears to be a solid, 
opaque black wall, though it has no physical permanence and can 
be crossed freely. From the ‘inside’, no visual input of any kind 
registers, regardless of the location of the source. While inside an 
instance of SCP-1303-2, personnel have reported hearing, over the 
background noise of the cavern, noises that indicate an approaching 
creature or object of some kind. The exact details of the sounds 
vary, but in all cases exhibit traits of something or someone 
approaching the subject at a slow, deliberate pace, and in no 
instance has any such sound been registered or detected by 
recording equipment. As with SCP-1303-1, exposure to this effect 
triggers an anomalously strong fight-or-flight urge in affected 


subjects, which can lead to significant personal injury in the rough 
terrain of SCP-1303. 


Addendum: 
Interview Log 1303-1 


Interviewed:C 8B _ , one of the civilians found outside 
SCP-1303. 


Interviewer: Dr. , Foundation researcher. 


Foreword: Purpose of interview was to acquire a first- 
hand account of SCP-1303 before its identification and 
containment by the Foundation, and for additional data 
regarding concurrent exposure to SCP-1303-1 and 
SCP-1303-2. 


<Begin Log> 


Dr. :Mr.B _ , please tell me again why you and your 
friends were in that cave? 


Mr.B _ : Because, sir... it was supposed to be fun... 
we're cavers, allofus.Me,J ,F  ,K_, card-carrying 
Society members - we call.....called...our grotto the Mole 
Rats. There's nothing quite like going underground, 
somewhere humans haven't torn up and remodeled yet. 
J called everybody up last week, said he'd heard about 
a cave not far from here on the Society forums that we 
could go check out. 


Dr. __: And you decided to go spelunking there? 


Mr.B — : Caving, sir, if you don't mind. Spelunkers are 
the amateurs, the newbies. Cavers know what they're 
doing, bring the right stuff for the job. 


Dr. _: Caving, then. 


Mr.B — :...Yeah. We got all our stuff together - helmet 
lamps, backups, even had some of those chemical glow 


sticks. Padded pants, brought our wetsuits along just in 
case, ropes and food. The sleeping bags stayed in the 
car, with the wetsuits, in case we needed them. J 

drove us out there. It looked like a pretty ordinary cave to 
us, sir, set in the hillside. No one around for miles, no 
sign anyone had ever been there, not even hazard 
markings. 


Dr. __: Please continue, and describe what happened 
inside. 
Mr.B— :... Yes, sir. It was... just a cave, really. Some 


pretty rock formations, nothing extraordinary - no 
Mammoth, or Peppersauce, but a nice little place. K 
found a stream coming out of the wall that led down a 
tunnel, must have been a few hundred feet or so into 
another cavern, bigger one. Had a couple of ways to go, 
so we flipped a coin and went right. That third cave was 
the biggest yet, but halfway across... (subject stops 
speaking, begins to look ill) 


Dr. : Continue, Mr. B 


Mr.B~ :... sir. We were right about in the middle, when 
| went deaf. At least, that's what | thought happened. J 
was talking to me, then stopped mid-sentence. | thought 
he'd seen something, so | stopped and looked at him - 
he was looking back at me, and neither of us could hear 
anything. His lips moved, but nothing came out, like one 
of those old-time movies. F and K_ were the same 
way - none of us could hear anything, even each other - 
it was weird as [EXPLETIVE], pardon my French, sir. We 
were about to turn around and get out of there, when J 
started and spun around, looking at the wall like he'd 
seen a ghost or a bear or something. Whatever it was, 
though, it must have gotten behind me, because | saw... 
something. 


Dr. : Can you describe it? 


Mr.B : Never got a good look at it, sir. It was big, and 


moving, but only out of the corner of my eye, and there 
wasn't anything there when | turned to stare. | couldn't 
hear her, but F looked like she was screaming, 
looking around all over the place on the edge of panic. 

K bolted back for the entrance, and it was like she was 
drunk - stumbling, staggering, slipping on bits of gravel. 
When | followed... you ever tried running when you can't 
hear your own footsteps, sir? It's freaky, and turns out it's 
really d—— hard. | was sober as a churchman and 
tripping over myself worse than she was, and that... 
whatever it was... was still there, always at the corner of 
my eye. We made it to the tunnel, and all of a sudden | 
could hear again, like nothing had ever been wrong - 
crunching of feet on rock, everyone gasping for breath, 
the works, and whatever that thing had been, it was 
gone. K _ had bruised her ankle a bit, but she could walk 
and we had a first aid kit in the car. We made it back to 
the second cavern, but then the lights went out. 


Dr. _: The lights went out? Please clarify. 


Mr.B _ : Mean just what | said, sir. Like the first time, 
only this time | was blind. At first, | thought my headlamp 
had shorted out, but | couldn't see the others’ helmets 
either, and the glass was still hot. Sure enough, the 
others were blinded too - we could talk now. Couldn't 
have been more than fifty feet to the other side, from 
what | remembered - dangerous to travel in the dark, but 
if we took it slow and careful... but then | heard it. Maybe 
it was that thing from before, but it was coming up the 
tunnel behind us. Noises, like claws on stone - not loud, 
but they were getting louder, and we couldn't see a thing. 
J started panting then - said he could hear someone 
with big, heavy boots coming up the tunnel... K just 
screamed 'SNAKE' and started scrambling across 
towards where she thought the other side of the cavern 
was.J was next, yelling and crawling after her in the 
dark, and | was right on his heels. That thing was in the 
cavern, | could hear it, and getting closer - all that was on 
my mind was getting away. F was behind me, at first, 


but then |... we all heard her scream, and that... 
crunching. | knew it had gotten her, whatever it was, but - 
God, sir, all | could do was run for my life, | didn't even 
stop. Ran into the wall and started feeling my way along 
it- J made it out first and was shouting out where the 
exit was for us. | swear, that thing was right behind me 
when | ranintoJ and! could see again. 


Dr. —_: And behind you? 


Mr.B _ : Blackness. Just a solid sheet of black, like 
someone had hung a curtain from the roof of the tunnel. 
The helmet lights just stopped when they hit it, but | 
didn't stop to check it out - we ran like rabbits through 
that first cave and outside. 


Dr. :Thankyou,Mr.B . The medic outside would 
like to examine you again now. 


<End Log> 


Closing Statement: Mr.B  ,Mr.N ,andMs.M 
were given Class B Amnesiacs and returned to their 
homes after a brief recovery period in a local hospital. 
Ms.L  _'s remains were recovered from Component 3 
of SCP-1303 and autopsied; cause of death was 
determined to be cranial trauma caused when Ms. L 
tripped and struck her head against a protruding 
stalagmite, despite her protective headgear. The body 
was returned to its family to maintain the cover story of a 
tragic cave-diving accident, and SCP-1303's current 
isolation and containment procedures were 
implemented. Investigation of the National Speleological 
Society's discussion forums revealed no trace of any 
post describing the location of SCP-1303. 


« SCP-1302 | SCP-1303 | SCP-1304 » 


SCP-1304: Metafictional Rebirth Ritual 


Item #: SCP-1304 


Object Class: Euclid 


Special Containment Procedures: As there is no way of 
containing SCP-1304 itself, procedures must focus on finding, 
tracking, and observing all instances of SCP-1304-1. Agents 
embedded in the editorial departments of major publishers have 
been briefed on the specifics of SCP-1304 and will suppress or alter 
any manuscripts containing it, or which may lead to a sequel 
containing it. Keywords describing portions of SCP-1304 have been 
added to routine search protocols. In the event of publication of a 
work containing SCP-1304, efforts must shift immediately to finding 
the associated SCP-1304-1 instance. 


Six (6) instances of SCP-1304-1 are in custody at Site-17. The 
Foundation is currently tracking seventeen (17) instances of 
SCP-1304-1. No action may be taken against any instance of 
SCP-1304-1 without prior approval from Head Researcher 
Applebaum. 


Description: SCP-1304 is a method of ritual murder which allows 
for the translation of a fictional character into reality. The ritual, 
which has no direct basis in any known culture, has a lengthy list of 
requirements which must be performed in a particular order, under 
specific circumstances." If the ritual is performed within a fictional 
narrative which is then printed by a major publishing house, no later 
than one week after the narrative's official release date, a child will 
be born whose life will mirror, as closely as possible, that of the 
character killed in the ritual. This child is an instance of SCP-1304-1. 
The SCP-1304-1 instances are seemingly unaware of the 
circumstances of their creation; those who have found or been told 
about their associated narrative have regarded it as a curious 
coincidence. For further information on how the details of the 


narrative character's life are translated into reality, see Addendum 
SCP-1304-MF below. 


Any and all attempts to alter the life of an SCP-1304-1 instance ina 
way explicitly contradicting the events of the narrative have failed 
completely. This was extensively proven in the Foundation's 
experiments on SCP-1304-1-27, who is the real-world equivalent of 
the character Lawrence Hopkirk from the novel /n Our Lives by June 
Marshall.3 For example, in the narrative, Hopkirk's pet dog was 
struck and killed by a car on his seventh birthday. On the 
corresponding date, Foundation agents arranged a cordon on all 
streets within a 3-km radius of SCP-1304-1-27's home and 
temporarily rendered inoperable all vehicles within a 0.5-km radius. 
However, despite these precautions and the presence of more than 
one hundred agents, a drunk driver was able to slip through the 
Foundation cordon, evade pursuit, and strike SCP-1304-1-27's dog 
in the manner described. Even something as minor as 
SCP-1304-1-27's daily route to work (which was carefully described 
in the novel) was immutable, despite extensive efforts; combinations 
of mechanical failure, human error, and simple coincidence 
prevented any changes. 


The one deviation in the life of a SCP-1304-1 instance from their 
narrative equivalent is the absence of SCP-1304 itself. All known 
instances of SCP-1304-1 have survived past the point at which they 
would be killed in the SCP-1304 ritual. After this point, direct 
intervention in the life of an SCP-1304-1 instance is possible. Action 
may or may not be taken against an instance based on the 
recommendation of Head Researcher Applebaum and/or the O5 
Council. In all cases, observation of instances is continued after the 
death of their narrative equivalents. 


There are seventy-six (76) known published narratives containing 
SCP-1304, with an equal number of associated SCP-1304-1 
instances. Of these, fifty-one (51) are deceased, six (6) are in 
custody at Site-17, seventeen (17) are presently being tracked by 
the Foundation, and the whereabouts of the remaining two (2) are 
unknown. 


The Foundation has attempted to deliberately create instances of 


SCP-1304-1, by creating and publishing narratives containing 
SCP-1304 through established publishers and Foundation fronts. No 
attempts to date have succeeded. No further experiments along this 
line are planned. It is currently theorized that the author must have 
created the ritual for the book independently, or have been inspired 
by reading another book containing the ritual whose author was also 
independently inspired. Please contact Head Researcher 
Applebaum for further information regarding these attempts or to 
review the manuscripts published. 


+ Notes on SCP-1304-1 Instances 


Notes on SCP-1304-1 Instances: Events and 
circumstances in the lives of instances of SCP-1304-1 
will resemble those of their fictional counterparts as 
closely as possible, with allowances made for 
circumstances which are impossible under current real- 
world conditions. If the character was born in a real-world 
location, so will SCP-1304-1 be; if the location was 
fictional, SCP-1304-1 will be born in a location as similar 
as possible. For example, in the book Bloodlove by 
Savannah K. Faye, the character was born in the 
fictional city of Largesse, Illinois; SCP-1304-1-09 was 
born in the town of , Illinois, which had a similar 
population, history, and contained businesses and 
institutions analogous to those described in the book. In 
cases where the narrative takes place in a fantasy or 
science-fiction world, or any world largely distinct from 
Earth, SCP-1304-1 will be born in a culture similar to that 
of the character's culture and whose geography is similar 
to that of the character's birthplace. Other circumstances, 
such as the economic or social conditions of the 
character's family, will also be replicated closely. 


This pattern will continue throughout the life of 
SCP-1304-1: if the character's parents died when s/he 
was four years old, the parents of SCP-1304-1 will die at 
the same time. Fantasy or science-fiction events, 
objects, and individuals will appear in an analogous real- 
world form: for example, the victim in Dragonveil by