Chatpter 8: Near Christmas

[Alex] Geez its been a goChatpter 8: Near Christmas my last missi-

[Intecom] Alex, please report to Level 0, room, 010

[Alex] Speak of the fuckin devil.

*He arrives at room 010*

[???] Alex! We have been expecting you

Take a seat.

[Alex] Alright.

*He sits down*

[???] Alright should i procied with the briefing?

[Everyone in the room] Yes.

[???] Alright,

Item #: SCP-4666

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Web traffic and law enforcement channels worldwide are to be monitored for evidence of SCP-4666 activity, and particularly for cases of stalking or reports of anomalous phenomena involving families with young children.

Should a Weissnacht Event be suspected to be in progress, the nearest Containment Task Force is to be dispatched to attempt containment of SCP-4666. Standard PDP/VIII Humanoid First Contact Protocols apply.

Media coverage of family deaths attributed to SCP-4666 is to be suppressed or falsified to make said deaths appear as non-anomalous home invasion murders. Forensic evidence and SCP-4666-A instances collected by non-Foundation agencies are to be confiscated, and witnesses amnesticized.

Description: SCP-4666 is currently believed to be a single, exceptionally long-lived humanoid entity of unknown origin. Survivors of Weissnacht Events typically describe SCP-4666 as a very tall (between 2 m and 2.3 m) elderly male of European descent, with an extremely emaciated appearance. The entity always appears completely naked, even when observed outdoors in freezing weather.

Though the nature and extent of its anomalous properties remain uncertain, SCP-4666 appears capable of instantaneous or near-instantaneous travel to any location north of 40°N latitude, and possibly to any location on Earth.

SCP-4666 activity occurs exclusively within a period of 12 consecutive nights every year, from the night of December 21-22 to the night of January 1-2; this period is known as SCP-4666's "active phase". During this phase, in what are termed "Weissnacht Events", SCP-4666 will appear at dwellings in one or multiple locations north of 40°N latitude. In all known Weissnacht Events, these dwellings have shared the following characteristics: isolated rural location, home to a family with at least one child under the age of 8, and situated in an area with snow cover lasting throughout the duration of the event.

Weissnacht Events consist of the following general progression:

Nights 1-7: Children will report seeing SCP-4666 in the vicinity of their family's dwelling. The entity will typically be observed watching the dwelling from a distance, such as from across a nearby field or from the edge of a neighboring forest. In some cases, children will report waking up at night to find SCP-4666 watching them sleep through a window.

Nights 8-11: Family members (including the parents) will report sounds of footsteps coming from the roof or the attic. An extremely unpleasant odor will also frequently be noticed inside the dwelling. No cause for these phenomena will be found. As a result, parents will often begin to suspect that their family is being stalked, or even that their dwelling might be "haunted".

Night 12: Over the course of the night one of two scenarios will occur:

The first, and most common, is that SCP-4666 will kill all members of the family save for one child under the age of 8, whom it will abduct. SCP-4666 will inflict incapacitating injuries to family members while they are sleeping, then herd them into a single room of the dwelling where it will proceed to kill them in view of each other. The method of killing varies with the event, and will typically be preceded by some form of torture, which appears to serve a ritualistic purpose (see "Weissnacht Events Log" below).

In the second scenario, which has occurred in roughly 15% of known Weissnacht Events, SCP-4666 will not harm the family. Family members will report hearing footsteps inside their dwelling during the night, though no signs of forced entry will be found. In the morning children will discover presents at the foot of their beds; these will consist of toys crudely crafted from the remains of human children (see "SCP-4666-A Instances Log" below).

The criteria, if any, by which SCP-4666 determines the outcome of a Weissnacht Event are unknown.

Notable Weissnacht Events

Location Year Description of Weissnacht Event

Unknown village, Croatia circa 1498 [UNCONFIRMED] An entire family was killed, with the exception of one of the children (age unknown), who was abducted. Though specific details about the event are not available in recovered documents, it was noted that the killings presented strong "paganistic" elements, and that the family members had "been made to suffer greatly" prior to death. The archbishop who oversaw the investigation wrote that he believed the family had been killed as part of a "demonic" ritual.

Unknown village, Rupert's Land (present-day Ontario, Canada) 1689 [UNCONFIRMED] An entire family was killed, with the exception of two of the children, one of whom was abducted, and one of whom (female, age unknown) escaped during the killings and was able to reach a nearby village. She told authorities that a naked man had broken into her family's dwelling during the night and proceeded to torture them (exact method not specified in recovered documents). Upon investigation, the bodies of the family members were found inside their dwelling, hanging upside-down from the ceiling. All had been exsanguinated.

Eichstätt, Germany 1913 An entire family was killed, with the exception of the youngest child (male, age 3), who was abducted. The bodies of the parents and five other children were found inside a stable adjoining their dwelling. They had been restrained by having knives, pitchforks and other sharp implements forced through the palms of their hands and into the walls of the stable, before having their tongues removed, leading to hemorrhaging and death. Blood from the family members had then been used to paint elaborate patterns of unknown meaning on the hides of the mule, goat, and two cows present in the stable (the animals themselves were not harmed). Neighbors told authorities that in the week preceding the killings the father of the family had mentioned finding tracks in the snow around the family's dwelling, which appeared to have been made by bare human feet.

Plyos, Soviet Union 1956 An entire family was killed, with the exception of the youngest child (male, age 4), who was abducted. The bodies of the parents and one other child were found in the living room of their house. They had been restrained, and their feet held over the flames in the fireplace for an extended period of time, calcining the tissues of the feet and exposing the bones. They then had their heads crushed with an unknown heavy implement. Hundreds of bite marks, believed to have been inflicted post-mortem, were found on each of the bodies.1 Branches cut from a fir tree outside the house had also been placed over the bodies, to unknown purpose.

Skudeneshavn, Norway 1971 An entire family was killed, with the exception of the second youngest child (female, age 5), who was abducted. The bodies of the parents and two other children were found in the basement of their house. Each had at least one limb pulled off by brute force before being stabbed precisely 39 times with an unknown sharp implement (possibly a piece of bone from one of the removed limbs), resulting in massive blood loss and death. The family members had then been eviscerated, and their small and large intestines removed and cut into 30-50 cm-long pieces; these had been arranged in radiating lines around the bodies. Feces from the intestines had been used to trace symbols of unknown meaning on the walls of the basement.

Egilsstaðir, Iceland 1996 An entire family was killed, with the exception of the youngest child (female, age 4), who was abducted. The bodies of the parents and seven other children were found inside their house. All had large pieces of skin removed from their backs, necks and groins prior to death (removed skin was found to have been partially consumed). They had then been killed by decapitation with a bucksaw that had belonged to the family. Following death, the family members' headless bodies had been carried to their respective rooms and placed on their beds. Each of the removed heads had also been placed upright on a step of the staircase leading from the first to the second floor, with the parents' heads on the top two steps and the children's heads on the lower steps, in decreasing order of age.

- Close

Notable SCP-4666-A Instances Recovered

Location Year Description of SCP-4666-A Instance

Nurmes, Finland 1811 A small wooden drum with two wooden drumsticks of uneven length. Drum skin consists of a 390 cm³ piece of skin belonging to a human child, stretched with thread made from human tendons.

Gelligaer, Wales 1857 A small knife, 15 cm in length (blade is 6 cm in length). Sculpted from a single piece of bone belonging to a human child. Symbols of unknown meaning have been carved into the handle.

Makat, Kazakhstan 1903 A flute made from the hollowed-out femur of a human child. Holes have been bored at uneven intervals along its length. The femur appears to have been dyed with human blood.

Bangor, Michigan 1960 A wooden box containing 13 miniature human-like figurines, each 4-6 cm in height. Made from the phalangeal bones of human children, tied together with strips of human tendon. The figurines have been decorated with human hair and small pieces of torn clothing. DNA testing revealed that the remains belong to 18 separate children.

Cape Broyle, Canada 1976 A ball, 23 cm in diameter; made from 19 layers of human skin wrapped tightly around the desiccated head of an unidentified human child (male, age 2-3). Layers of skin are held in place with pine resin.

Baard, Netherlands 2006 A hairbrush. The handle is made of wood, and poorly-carved. In place of bristles 43 deciduous human teeth have been set at irregular intervals into the handle. DNA testing revealed that each tooth belongs to a different child (only two of the teeth could be matched to known abduction victims of SCP-4666). Teeth vary in age from a few days to over 400 years.

fingerprints7.jpg

Fingerprint belonging to SCP-4666. Note the unique double-whorl pattern.

Discovery: SCP-4666's existence and ongoing activity were first detected in 1974 through the Foundation's newly-implemented Anomalous Signature Recognition Program,2 when several highly-similar home invasion incidents resulting in family deaths were found to have occurred throughout the Northern Hemisphere during the night of January 1-2.

Extensive research into civilian and law enforcement archives worldwide eventually uncovered evidence of probable Weissnacht Events for nearly every preceding year, going back to the late 18th century (average of 3.1 known events per year). Numerous historical documents were also found which appear to describe SCP-4666 activity occurring prior to this period, in some cases as early as the 2nd century AD in Europe and Russia, and as early as the 1st century BC in Scandinavia.

Fingerprints belonging to the same humanoid entity have been discovered at the locations of all Foundation-investigated Weissnacht Events; these have been matched to a partial fingerprint found preserved in dried blood on a recovered SCP-4666-A instance dating from 1873. The fingerprints present characteristics not known to occur in human beings (see image). Human-like white hairs were also recovered from the locations of several Weissnacht Events, though no DNA, human or otherwise, could be extracted from them.

Addendum 4666-01

On 02/01/2018, several SCP-4666-A instances were discovered at a family's residence in Hoonah, Alaska, following the conclusion of Weissnacht Event #060198. Among these instances was SCP-4666-A-0960, which consisted of a crude, life-sized doll made from the emaciated body of a female child, to which the following modifications had been made:

A dress made from various pieces of dirty, discolored clothing had been sewn around the body, and in several places, into the body's skin.

The mouth had been sewn shut with thread made from human tendons, and the lips painted red with a solution consisting primarily of human blood.

The fingernails of another child had been glued over the body's fingernails with pine resin; these had been painted red with the same human blood-based solution. Three of the body's fingers were missing.

The entire scalp had been removed from the head, and the scalp of another child with long, blond hair sewn onto the head in its place. The hair had been tied into two braids.

Both eyes had been removed, and two large round pebbles on which eyes had been crudely painted placed into the empty orbits.

Upon examination by the family, the child from whom the doll had been made was found to be still alive, albeit unconscious. Authorities were notified, and the child was airlifted to Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, Alaska, where she survived for 18 hours. Two Foundation agents were dispatched, and were able to interview the subject (see "Interview Log" below). Following the subject's death, her body was confiscated by the agents, and all witnesses amnesticized as per standard procedure.

DNA testing revealed the subject had been Ekaterina Morozova, age 7, a known abduction victim of SCP-4666 taken from her family's residence in Dubovka, Russia on 02/01/2016. Autopsy of the subject's body showed she had been severely malnourished during the two years following her abduction, which had resulted in considerable stunting (weight was only 15 kg, height was only 90 cm). A number of scars and burns were present on her skin, and she had suffered two bone fractures (left tibia and left ulna) that had not been reset and had healed improperly. Hands were heavily callused. Cause of death was attributed to multiple organ failure resulting from severe, sustained malnourishment.

Audio Log 4666-06201

Date: 02/01/2018

Time: 23:27 AKST – 23:49 AKST

Location: Bartlett Regional Hospital, Juneau, Alaska

Interviewers: Agent Antoni Kowalczyk (Agent Susan Mews attending)

Subject: Ekaterina Morozova (SCP-4666-A-0960), female, age 7

Notes: The subject regained consciousness for a period of roughly 30 minutes prior to expiring, during which she was interviewed. Hospital staff had previously removed the thread that had been sewn into her lips, allowing her to speak. Despite having been administered a morphine drip, the subject was largely coherent throughout the interview.

The subject did not understand English, and initially spoke only a language that was unfamiliar to Agents Kowalczyk and Mews.3 However, after several minutes the subject began addressing the agents in Russian, which she spoke poorly. Agent Kowalczyk, who spoke rudimentary Russian, was able to conduct the interview without the need for an interpreter.

[BEGIN LOG]

Agent Kowalczyk: Hello, I'm Antoni. What's your name?

E.M.: Are… are you going to take me back to him?

Agent Kowalczyk: No, I promise. I'm just here to talk to you.

E.M.: (pauses) I don't want to go back.

Agent Kowalczyk: You don't have to, you're safe now, myshka.

E.M.: (remains silent)

Agent Kowalczyk: Can you tell me what happened to you? Do you remember the night he came to your house?

E.M.: I remember… He hurt Mama and Papa and Katja and Yulianna for a long time and they were bleeding… After they stop screaming he put me in his bag.

Agent Kowalczyk: His bag?

E.M.: He had a big bag. Other children were in the bag too. I think we go to other houses, I hear people screaming outside the bag all during the night. Each house he put another child in the bag. Then after the night he take us away.

Agent Kowalczyk: Where did he take you?

E.M.:… underground… [unknown word]… deep…

Agent Kowalczyk: Underground? You mean in a basement?

E.M.: Deep… everything earth and mud and ice. Bones everywhere. Everything cold. I can't sleep because it's too cold.

Agent Kowalczyk: Were there lots of other children there with you?

E.M.: Lots of children… lots of tunnels, lots of holes, but I can't see all. I can't see the other [unknown word]. Too dark. My hole is with René and Hekla and Sasha and Paul. We make the toys together.

Agent Kowalczyk: The toys?

E.M.: If you don't make the toys, you don't eat. Don't stop making the toys, don't fall asleep. Or he hurt you.

Agent Kowalczyk: He hurts you? How?

E.M.: He hit you, or he burn you… Or he bite off your fingers. Or he cook you on the fire in his room and eat you. He eat Philippe and Sally.

Agent Kowalczyk: What about you, how did… this… happen to you? Did he do this?

E.M.: (pauses) René and Hekla and Sasha and Paul do this. They have to.

Agent Kowalczyk: … why?

E.M.: I get sick. When you can't make the toys, you become the toys.

[END LOG]

Footnotes

1. Analysis of recovered police photographs has shown that the size, shape and configuration of SCP-4666's teeth do not match those of a human being or of any known animal.

2. Also known as A.S.R.P., this program marked the Foundation's first use of algorithms as a means of detecting anomalous phenomena.

3. Recordings of this interview are currently being studied by the Department of Linguistics, as the language spoken by the subject was later found to match no known language, living or dead. Early indications are that it might be related to pre-Proto-Germanic.

[???]Alright guys try to prevent this from happening you guys deploy at XX-XXXX-XXXX

At XX:00

[Everyone] Alright.

[???] TO YOUR BUNKS NOW!