Item #: SCP-7729
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7729 has no capacity for harm. Therefore, basic open air procedures have been implemented. A fence has been constructed around the property it resides in and the road leading to it has been cordoned off.
Description: SCP-7729 is the spirit of one Eleanor Long.
Long was a housewife born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. who was murdered by her husband Richard Finesbury in late 1940. Finesbury never gave a motive, although prosecutors at the time believed he had been driven to kill from a perceived lack of power over his life. Despite meeting when they were children, Finesbury's family1 was never supportive of his marriage with Long. He would exchange hostile letters with them for three years until, in 1938, they disowned him and stopped all communications. His daughter would be born at this time2. In 1939, he was dismissed from his job as a plasterer for unknown reasons, and the family would fall to near poverty over the next year. It is not known what incident caused the murder, but during the night, Finesbury dressed Long in her wedding gown and strangled her in their bed. He then bound her hands and feet with ropes, dug a shallow grave in the forest behind their home, and buried her.
Witnesses reported seeing Finesbury digging the grave and carrying his wife's body to it, leading to his arrest. Despite this, police were unable to find Long's body. When they dug where she was supposedly buried, they only found Long's half-rotten wedding dress. Finesbury refused to admit where her body was hidden and in 1941, he was convicted and sentenced to death by asphyxiation-gas.
SCP-7729 bears the appearance of a typical spiritual entity: only appearing when called upon, always appearing in the same position when called upon (in a rocking chair in the house's basement), etc. However, it does not appear to possess a will of its own. It does not speak. It does not respond to the Christian cross or its name being called. If a force were to be applied to it, such as its chair being moved, then it will respond appropriately by falling to the ground. It has some weak physical properties — "Its skin is soft, almost like a marshmallow texture. If I try, I can move my hand through it, but it fills me with disgust. It feels as though I'm disturbing something." (Experiment 7729-005) — although it has never been observed falling through the ground or moving through a wall.
SCP-7729 can act as a conduit for the dead to communicate with the living. When the proper ritual is conducted (Containment Procedure Supplement 7729-01), an individual may call upon a dead individual whom they hold strong feelings towards to possess it. These feelings do not need to be pleasant — hate works as well as love — but they must be significant to the individual. SCP-7729 will then appear as an old woman in a torn wedding dress. Its face will be expressionless, and it will be still until the individual possessing it chooses to move.
Experiment transcripts involving SCP-7729 are being compared to other similar SCPs in the hopes of constructing a grand theory of the afterlife. Personnel interested in contributing to this theory should contact their Site Director.
Addendum #1: Interviews