They'll have to look at her, one last scrap of her, and then she won't die.
-
Info
SCP-9799: Woman in Grey
Author:Tufto. This is their entry for the SCP-9000 competition. More of their work can be found here.
Images: ronald.jpg is in the public domain, and can be found here.
haus.jpg is credited to Fillius, is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0, and can be found here.
teddy.jpg is credited to Hethers, is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0, and can be found here.
family.jpg is in the public domain and can be found here.
bedroom.jpg is in the public domain and can be found here.
herbertteddy.jpg is in the pudlib domain and can be found here.
landscape.jpg is in the public domain and can be found here.
hidden.jpg is in the public domain and can be found here.
.jpg){kind=link}
NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Due to the nature of SCP-9799's anomaly, it has been independently documented several times over the last two centuries, with subsequent Foundation investigations unaware of previous ones. This has produced multiple instances of documentation of the anomaly; those which RAISA have been able to locate in the archives can be found below.
The rediscovered files are currently under review by RAISA and the Department of Investigative Research. An updated report on SCP-9799 should be finished by the end of October.
— Maria Jones, Director, RAISA, 2019/09/20
You are reading Document 1 of 5, dated 2007/11/09.
Ronald Bradbury, 1981.
Item #: SCP-9799
Object Class: Pending
Special Containment Procedures: Helby House has been acquired by the Department of Investigative Research and cordoned off from public access. Due to its relatively remote location, the chances of casual trespass are low.
Description: SCP-9799 is a spectral entity resembling Ronald Bradbury, a Foundation agent who disappeared in August 1986. SCP-9799 appeared on a single occasion within Helby House, a 19th-century country house in southern Lincolnshire, England, on 2007/11/06.
SCP-9799 retains some of the memories and personality of Ronald Bradbury, albeit in a degraded form. It can interact with its surrounding environment, but has only been observed doing so in a limited fashion.
The circumstances surrounding Bradbury's disappearance are unclear. He was last seen boarding a train from Kings Cross Station, London, to Grantham, also southern Lincolnshire, on 1986/08/23; his reasons for travelling are unknown. Helby House has no recorded anomalous history prior to SCP-9799's discovery. It was last occupied in 1984 and has fallen into disrepair since then.
SCP-9799 was discovered when a Foundation agent and former friend of Bradbury, Mark Jones, was dispatched to investigate reports of "ghosts" in Helby House. A log of Jones's encounter with Bradbury can be found below.
<Begin log>
Agent Jones enters the former sitting room of Helby House. The room is largely bare, but two pieces of furniture - an armchair and a sofa - can be seen, positioned around a fireplace. Both are of a style common in the mid-1980s, and both are in an advanced state of disrepair. The wallpaper is of a pale green colour; at various points, it has peeled away, revealing an older, faded red and white floral patterned wallpaper underneath. A painting can be seen on the wall opposite the fireplace.
Jones spends a moment looking at the room, before walking to a point in front of the painting and staring at it. The painting, of a style common in the mid-19th century, depicts a peasant woman in a grey woollen dress. She is sitting in front of the porch of a ruined medieval church, and is looking directly at the viewer. She is smiling.
SCP-9799: Mark?
Jones turns sharply around. SCP-9799 is standing next to the mantelpiece, looking at him. It appears to be startled but is smiling broadly.
SCP-9799: Good God - Mark!
SCP-9799 approaches Jones rapidly, its hand outstretched. Jones backs away for a few moments but then abruptly stops.
Jones: …Ron? Is that - Ron?
SCP-9799 laughs, and seize's Jones hand, shaking it forcefully.
SCP-9799: It's been so long! God, how many years is it now - five, ten?
Jones: Ron - Ron, it's been over twenty years. How have - you haven't aged a day…
SCP-9799 frowns.
SCP-9799: Twenty years? Really? It - no, that can't be right…
SCP-9799 looks away. Jones does not move, but extricates his hand from SCP-9799's.
Jones: Ron, you - you went missing. In 1986. You took a train, to - oh, God, to Grantham…
SCP-9799 turns back to Ron and sighs.
SCP-9799: You'd better sit down.
SCP-9799 sits down in the armchair, and gestures at the sofa. Jones hesitates for a moment, before slowly sitting on it.
SCP-9799: So - what's been happening, then? How are you, how's -
SCP-9799 frowns again.
SCP-9799: I'm sorry, her - her name escapes me. What's your wife called?
Jones: …Jane, Ron. Her name's Jane. You introduced us. You were -
SCP-9799: Yes, Jane, of course. She was - blonde, right? And tall…
Jones: She- she still is, yes.
SCP-9799: Excellent! Well, I'm awfully sorry, Mark - I've got nothing to offer you, I'm afraid. No tea, no anything for a long time.
SCP-9799 smiles slightly at Jones, who is still staring at it.
SCP-9799: You've forgotten your training. I'm an anomaly, after all. Stop staring slack-jawed at me and start interrogating.
Jones: You don't - I suppose you must be, but you don't seem like an anomaly. You seem like a person. An ordinary person.
SCP-9799: Well, I was an ordinary person. You remember, don't you? Late nights at Giancarlo's, drinking coffee and trying to puzzle out anomalies. More coffee than could possibly have been good for us…
Jones: Giancarlo's closed. Years ago.
SCP-9799: Oh.
SCP-9799 sighs, and glances at the painting on the wall.
SCP-9799: I'm sorry to hear that. I missed the place.
Jones: So did I…
Jones sits slightly straighter.
Jones: You could be a conjuration. Something taken from my own head, a form based on my memories of you.
SCP-9799: But I'm not, Mark. We faced that - what was it, that memory thief, back in '82? '83? God, how do I remember that but not -
SCP-9799 stops abruptly, looking away. Jones leans forward, apparently examining the anomaly closer.
Jones: Yes, I remember the memory thief. I see your point - in that case, each attempt to create a perfect duplicate always came out wrong, because - well, because it was just a memory. You can tell the difference between your memory of a thing and the thing itself. Whereas you're the real thing, aren't you? You're…
Jones wipes his eyes.
Jones: You were best man at my wedding. You - God, Ron, I'd know you anywhere. You're him, aren't you? You're really him.
SCP-9799 nods slowly.
Jones: What happened? What the hell happened, Ron?
SCP-9799: I fell in love. That's what happened.
Jones: What? With - with whom?
SCP-9799: With…
SCP-9799 leans back, closing his eyes tightly.
SCP-9799: I don't know.
Jones: You don't know?
SCP-9799: I can see her face, but I don't… it's been so long, Mark. So long. I remember coming here, so many times. I'd open the door, and every time, my breath would catch. She would stand there, her hair perfect, smiling so widely, so welcoming…
SCP-9799 opens his eyes.
SCP-9799: She's not here any more. She didn't - she held on for so long, Mark. I've been - how long did you say it's been?
Jones: Twenty years, Ron.
SCP-9799: Twenty years… there's really not much of me left, now. I was never meant to be here.
SCP-9799 looks at his hand; it is shaking visibly.
SCP-9799: This was never my house. I was only a visitor, do you see? A visitor, and I saw her. I couldn't get her out of my head. And she held on so long, Mark, because she had to. She didn't want it all to be forgotten.
Jones: All what to be forgotten?
SCP-9799: Everything, Mark. But I just want - I want her to be alright. I want her to be remembered.
SCP-9799 sighs, staring at the ceiling.
SCP-9799: She had such dreams, and they're all gone now. They're not coming back. They've all gone into darkness. But her… I can still see her, Mark. I still remember that much…
Jones: What- look, let's start at the beginning. What happened in 1986? Where did you go?
SCP-9799 blinks, and looks at Mark.
SCP-9799: I - oh, but you wouldn't know, would you? That's what this house does, you see. Sooner or later, it makes you forget. But first, it makes you remember.
Jones: I don't understand what you're saying.
SCP-9799: I'm saying that you'll all have forgotten. Forgotten sending me here, forgotten what was going on here. This house, you see, it had - it had ghosts. So they sent me to investigate.
Jones: …That's why they sent me here, too.
SCP-9799: I'm not surprised, it - as soon as anyone comes here, it'll begin. Maybe the world knows something is wrong, so it erases all memory of this place. But here, Mark, here, the dead walk. And she was one of them.
Jones: But you can't remember her name.
SCP-9799 shakes its head, slowly.
SCP-9799: It happened to her too, you see. I told you, she'd been holding on too long, and then I came along. Someone who could remember, after a fashion, but someone alive. So she started letting go, finally letting go. God, she must have suffered so much…
Jones: And so this woman - disappeared?
SCP-9799 stares at Jones, mouthing slowly, before speaking.
SCP-9799: She - she shot me, Mark.
Jones: What?
SCP-9799: That's what happened. That last day. She wasn't right, she'd forgotten who I was. She thought I was - was someone else. Someone from a long time ago. And then, I was upstairs, washing my hands, and - and -
SCP-9799 looks upwards, at the ceiling. Jones follows his gaze.
SCP-9799: I don't suppose anyone ever found the body.
Jones: You're - God, Ron…
Neither of them moves or speaks for several seconds.
Jones: …I'll - I'll send someone to look into this place. We can - we can recover your body, and then -
SCP-9799 looks intently at Jones, before gripping his sleeve.SCP-9799: I'm dead, Mark, OK? I'm not coming back. I'm only here because - you've got to remember her, Mark. Please. Please. I can't stay much longer, but you - you…
SCP-9799 leans over and grabs Jones's other arm.
SCP-9799: It'll try to take your memory, Mark. But I - I've waited so long, I need someone else to remember her. I don't want her to die, Mark. She was -
SCP-9799 leans back, and closes its eyes. Tears start to run down its cheeks.
SCP-9799: She was so beautiful, the sunlight in her hair…
Neither party moves or speaks for several seconds.
Jones: …I can remember her, Mark.
SCP-9799: You will? Really?
Jones: I'll - I'll try. I don't know what she looks like…
SCP-9799: But you know she was alive. That's - maybe that's enough. Maybe I just need to know that someone knows she use to exist. That'll do, I think, I… maybe that'll do…
SCP-9799 leans back, and stares at the ceiling. Slowly, it begins to fade, until it disappears completely. Jones stares at its chair for several minutes, before standing up and leaving.
<End log>