Burning randomness, grief incarnate.
This work contains CWs for: descriptions of gore.
SCP-7581 : Wish Upon A Star by xexnoncores
⚠️ content warning ↑
Item #: SCP-7581
Object Class: Keter
Containment Procedures: Containment procedures to prevent SCP-7581 currently do not exist at this time. Efforts are to instead be directed towards disseminating amnestics towards communities who have witnessed SCP-7581 events, along with appropriate cover stories to explain physical damages.
Description: SCP-7581 refers to a phenomenon in which a 3m sphere of plasma falls from the sky and strikes a random individual. 99.2% of cases have been recorded as instantly fatal, with the remaining resulting in third-degree burns so severe that death occurred within 24 hours. Once an SCP-7581 event occurs, a star within thirty-thousand light years of Earth will permanently cease producing light in the night sky.
The temperatures of SCP-7581 impacts have been recorded to be around 5500°C on average, with the highest known measuring at 113048°C and the lowest at 101°C. Analysis of demographic data have confirmed that SCP-7581 has no pattern in who it targets; socioeconomic status, age, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. do not determine the likelihood of an impact. This also extends to more esoteric factors such as location,1 how well the victim can perceive the stars in their own night sky,2 and whether SCP-7581 has been observed before.
The ability to see SCP-7581 falling also has no bearing on how successfully it will land—SCP-7581 has so far never missed a target, as it will continuously adjust its trajectory if a victim attempts to flee.
The following is a letter left at the scene of an impact site, included in this file to provide an example of what an SCP-7581 event looks like. For the full catalogue of SCP-7581 witness accounts,3 please contact Director ████████ ████ to discuss clearance.
Dear Amanda,
“It should have been me.” We all thought the same thing as we watched you burn.
You were getting better. You were getting your life back. You had a girlfriend, she loved your sewing—everyone did. God, do you know how much we all cared?
Everyone on our street pitched in to buy your chair. It was a miracle we could all afford it. We were lucky we secured someone to be able to fix it cheaply if it broke down too, because we couldn’t stand how miserable you were so cooped in your room. Nobody deserves to live like that.
My parents didn’t know their neighbors before you. They didn’t know theirs either, too. Watching life pour onto our lawns day by day after the car accident felt akin to watching a garden grow. Suddenly, people were bringing their kids out to play as they chatted with my parents. Out of nowhere, we were seeing parties featuring your favorite movies unite relatives that had not seen each other for years. Everyone was making barbecue for people they’d never met before.
I remember when Mom cried so hard, finding people to take you to your appointments. That meant she could go back to work. Dad nearly joined her when the lady across the street paid our heating bill last winter. Part of me sometimes wonders if the landlord took pity on us too because of you—or if it was the neighborhood threatening to destroy his house every time he said he wanted to raise rent. Fuck that guy—but if he relented, I don’t know how much I can bring myself to be mad at him.
Should that go for whatever killed you?
Can I get mad at what everyone’s calling an act of God? That’s all we can tell ourselves as we scrape together money for your funeral.
Should I believe in a God that took you away from me like that? Who burned your brain into your wheelchair’s motor, your eyes into your own cheeks? Who melted your legs into the plastic of your seat?
I remember them pulling your liver out and thinking it was charcoal at first. The same with your stomach. I didn’t realize people burned like that.
Why couldn’t I have protected you from your last moments?
Nobody would have cared if I was gone, but you needed to be here. You needed to never have gone through that kind of pain twice.
I wish to never forget you, Amanda. All of us wish to never forget the unending joy you poured into our lives, teaching us all to be kinder and better to one another. Your smile is still burned into our memories, into the food we share and the holidays we all spend together. We all ache for how you made us laugh, how everyone forgot their troubles around you. I still have the blanket you made for me last month. The neighbors still have the sweaters you made their kids.
I hope I die the same way as you if I somehow find a way to fuck up that promise.
Addendum.7581-01: On ██/██/2024, approximately ██ months after the above individual was amnesticized, she was struck by SCP-7581.