SCP-939 - With Many Voices
On an ordinary day in 1991, a young man known by the initials J.S. went on a hike with four of his friends on the wooded outskirts of their small town. Everything seemed perfectly normal until J.S. began to feel a strange sense of familiarity, like he had been in this spot before.
He couldn't shake this weird feeling, but thought nothing more of it. Little did he know that this was a sign of deadly things to come. Several hours after first experiencing that sense of deja vu, J.S. was found by the side of the road, covered in cuts and scratches, with his friends nowhere to be found. This is the story of SCP - 939, an unforgettable monster that you'll never remember.
There was no way for J.S. to know that the unsettling feeling he felt and the horrors that followed it were the result of an experiment conducted by the SCP Foundation, an experiment with deadly unforeseen consequences. J.S. and his friends were exposed to a substance known only as AMN-C227 as part of a series of tests performed by the SCP Foundation intended to determine the effectiveness of this substance as a deliberate amnestic.
Dealing with as many mysterious, secret creatures and objects as they do, the SCP Foundation has long needed a way to tamper with the memories of those exposed to the foundation's various prisoners and test subjects, and, when the foundation discovered AMN-C227, it seemed like it might be perfect for this purpose. So where did AMN-C227 come from? Over a year before the incident with J.S. and his friends, the SCP Foundation captured SCP-939.
SCP-939 is a species of endothermic predators that live and hunt in packs. They are designated Keter class, and regarded as highly dangerous and hostile to human life. Native to caves, they have no eyes, translucent red skin, and stand at an average of 2.2 meters tall, with an average weight of 250 kg.
They have four limbs, each ending in three-fingered claws and a fourth opposable digit resembling a thumb. In addition to their sharp claws, their mouths are filled with red, fang-like teeth that reach up to 6 cm in length. In place of their absent eyes, they have light-sensitive spots running along their backs, which are covered in spines believed to detect changes in air pressure and flow.
In addition to their many other terrifying attributes, the internal anatomy of SCP-939 poses a biological mystery. These creatures have no circulatory system and no digestive tract. That's right, in spite of being predators seemingly acting on a need to feed, they have no stomach.
Instead, when they eat their food builds up in their respiratory system until its presence inhibits function, and then it is regurgitated. In spite of being a creature that should not, under any logical conditions, be able to live, SCP-939 continues to persist, and is even capable of giving birth to live young after a gestation period of 12 months.
The SCP Foundation was able to study a litter of these young that were born in captivity in September of 1992, though the creatures remain just as much of a scientific mystery as they were upon first discovery. Everything about them seems to defy the logic of the natural world - which, to be fair, is really nothing new for the Foundation. The respiratory system of SCP-939 was found to exhale small traces of an airborne amnestic substance, given the name AMN-C227.
This compound blocks the formation of memories for the duration of exposure to it, plus a thirty minute period following the exposure, give or take a few minutes. It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and completely undetectable in the bloodstream after only 60 minutes. AMN-C227 was approved for use as a Class C Amnestic by the SCP Foundation in 1990 following some initial tests.
However, after one particular incident involving a young man and his friends, the official use of AMN-C227 was suspended. J.S. and three of his four friends were previously given a dose of AMN-C227, though the details of why they were given the amnestic have since been stricken from the record. Several months after being exposed to AMN-C227, J.S. and friends went out on their ill-fated hiking trip.
While hiking, J.S. was suddenly overcome with a sense of deja vu. When he mentioned it to his friends, three of them agreed that they felt it too. One of the group, another young man - who had not been exposed to AMN-C227 - was uncomfortable and decided to go home. J.S. and the remaining three members of the group made the choice to stay in the woods and try to determine what was triggering the unusual feeling of familiarity.
As they got closer and closer to a large cave near the hiking trail, the sense of having been there before grew stronger and stronger. Armed with only one flashlight and a foolish curiosity, the four went inside the cave. They made their way deeper and deeper into the darkness, not knowing why they felt this way or what they might find inside.
None of the group could explain just what felt so familiar, only that the further they made their way into the cave, the more pronounced the feeling became. It was getting late, and they knew they should have been afraid to venture so deep into a cave with only one light source and no knowledge of what lay inside, but still they pressed on. One of the group remarked that they should turn back, but the others refused to listen.
They wanted to know what they were getting close to, what was drawing them deeper and deeper into the cave. Unfortunately for them, they would get their answer. In the heart of the cave was a pack of SCP-939, waiting patiently for their prey to wander into their domain. There are no witnesses to account for what exactly happened to J.S. and his companions, but we can reasonably piece the events together from what happened after.
Once the friends reached the heart of the cave, the creatures were on them in seconds, raking them with their sharp claws and biting with their fangs. SCP-939 are larger and stronger than most people, so it was probably not much of a fight. However, while his friends were being devoured, J.S. was somehow able to scramble out of the cave and make his way into the woods in search of help.
Under the influence of the AMN-C227 that had built up in the cave from the presence of the pack of SCP-939, J.S. lost a large portion of his memory of the event. He found himself on the side of the highway late at night, seriously injured and his clothes ripped. An officer found him there, and asked him to stay still and remain calm until an ambulance could arrive. J.S. was still in a panic and attempted to run away from the officer, begging to be released so that he could get away.
He babbled incoherently about the color red, screaming over and over again about the "red," though when prompted he could not explain what the "red" he was screaming about referred to. His friends were not with him. Just as the officer managed to calm J.S., the ambulance arrived. Its flashing red lights sent him into another frenzy, and he attempted to escape custody, claiming that the red lights were "going to get" him.
The official police report described J.S. as perhaps being under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen. That he was just having a "bad trip," but the SCP foundation knew better. The foundation conducted an interview with J.S. about his experience, and determined that SCP-939 was certainly involved. As part of their cover-up effort, they strongly implicated J.S. in the disappearance and death of his friends.
He was convicted of manslaughter, though the bodies of his friends were never found. It is rumored that the SCP Foundation hired him on a prison work release program, and that he now works as a member of the janitorial staff at one of the Foundation's facilities. This incident led to the suspension of the use of AMN-C227, as it revealed some vital and disturbing information about the compound's side effects.
After exposure to AMN-C227, a person who found themselves exposed to it again would experience a sense of familiarity, and feel compelled to investigate the source of this feeling. Essentially, anyone treated with AMN-C227 and not made aware of the existence - and danger - of SCP-939 would become a perfect victim, primed to be attracted to dens of SCP-939.
It is likely that this side effect is not a coincidence, but rather a deliberate hunting tactic designed to attract prey that had somehow managed to escape. With no memory of their attack at the hands of SCP-939, this previous intended prey would find themselves drawn to the same den or even a new one, not knowing that they were walking back into near certain death.
While the SCP foundation suspended the use of AMN-C227 as a Class C amnestic, they did recruit a team of SCP field operatives to take advantage of this side effect. This team of operatives was deliberately administered a dose of AMN-C227 and briefed on its effects, as well as the dangers of following the feeling of deja vu should it surface in the field.
These infected officers were essentially used as bloodhounds, relying on any sense of unusual familiarity to sniff out new dens of SCP-939 so that they could be captured and contained by the foundation. As far as we know, this operation is still ongoing today. However, now that the foundation has a sufficient number of specimens to study, additional dens of SCP-939 that are discovered are ordered to be immediately destroyed.
As for the SCP-939 still in captivity? They are contained in environmentally regulated and negatively pressurized cells with walls of reinforced concrete. The doors to the cells are air-tight to prevent the leakage of any AMN-C227, and any personnel that interact with one of the creatures is required to wear Level C Hazmat gear to avoid exposure, and follow decontamination procedures upon exiting the cell.
All SCP-939 have subdermal tracking devices implanted to find them in the event of escape. Only one SCP-939 has given birth in the time that the creatures have been in captivity, and only one of the litter survived. Strangely, SCP-939 young look indistinguishable from human infants, and change their physical appearance at some yet unknown point as they age. If any more offspring are produced, they will immediately be separated from the parent and studied.
The SCP foundation has redacted all information about the location of these creatures or the incident involving J.S., refusing to reveal where their natural habitat is. All that we know is that they are found in caves in the woods outside of a small town. It could be any town, even yours. Sp if you're ever out hiking, and are struck with a sudden feeling of deja vu? Don't investigate, don't get curious, just go home. It might just save your life.