I wasn't prepared when I first came across SCP-099. I was a Level 6 staff member of the
SCP Foundation. I was more of a janitor. Nothing more. But I had seen things. Things that some
of you could never even begin to dream of. Things that don't make sense. Things that
make me question my own existence.
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It was a Tuesday night. I remember that because Tuesday nights are when I work the night shift.
My job was to clean up the leftovers of experiments. Sometimes experiments didn't go too well.
Sometimes the… objects or things that they experimented on were terminated, and it was
up to Level 6 staff members to clean up the mess. That's why we were given the nickname
"The Janitors". We didn't actually carry a mop and bucket around with us, but we may
as well have. Sometimes the mess they left behind was crazy.
One time, I was called to clean up room 22AX on the second floor sector. When I entered
the room, it looked like the walls had been painted red. Turns out it was just blood.
Another time I had to go in and remove the remains of something that looked like a cross
between a blobfish and a ladder. Yep, you heard me correctly. I told you, this place
contains some crazy stuff.
Anyway, back to Tuesday night. I was alone on my shift, and I walked up to the front
desk where I would be given my assignment for the night. The man sitting behind the
desk glanced at me and handed over a sheet. I read the list, and saw only three rooms
listed. I breathed a sigh of relief. The other night I had been given ten rooms. It had taken
me all night just to get them cleaned up. At least tonight's shift would go by quickly.
I headed over to the elevator, punched in the floor numbers, and felt the elevator lower
deeper into the ground. This place is big, and when I say big, I mean big. I don't even
know how far or deep the SCP Foundation stretches,and I worked there for ten years, but let me tell
you that it easily surpasses a few miles.
The elevator doors opened, and the hallway appeared before me. Only a few lights were
on, and I was feeling pretty spooked out. I started walking. I spotted a few scientists
and doctors through the glass windows, and waved over to them, but they didn't wave back.
They were Level 2 staff members. I guess they thought I was on too low a level to be acknowledged.
I walked up and spotted room 22AX. Now, usually the list of rooms I received had a bunch of
notes written alongside it, just to give me a heads up on what may be inside. Sometimes
the SCP is still active, and there are certain rules I must abide by if I want to stay alive.
But, for some unknown reason, I never looked at those notes for room 22AX. I don't know
why, but I just didn't. And that is a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life.
I entered the room, and I was immediately met by the painting. It looked like an ordinary
painting, probably from the surrealist era. The painting depicted a simple still life.
A table, with a glass bottle, a plate, cutlery, and a single eye staring back at me. That
eye gave me the heebie jeebies. It wasn't a great painting. Not to my taste, exactly.
But I just couldn't stop staring at it. I stared and stared at it, and I could think
of nothing else.
I didn't know it at the time, but this painting was SCP-099.
I was still in the doorway of the room. I closed the door behind me, and stepped closer
to the painting. On the floor at my feet, a red line had been drawn around four metres
away from the painting. I stepped over the line, and walked closer to the painting, all
the while my eyes still glued to it like a moth to a flame.
Later, they would tell me I stared at that painting for eight hours straight. Eight hours.
At the time, it felt like only a few minutes.
Suddenly the door opened and a group of scientists poured in. They grabbed at me and dragged
me from the room, but that's when I glanced around and I started seeing eyes everywhere.
Eyeballs were on the roof, the walls, the floor, in the back of the heads of the people
around me, on their clothes, on their shoes. Eyes, eyes, everywhere. I started to scream.
"They're looking at me. They're all looking at me! Stop it, stop it!"
The people grabbed me and brought me to a separate room, where they forced me into a
chair and tied my limbs down. I screamed again, and the eyes kept following me. Now everyone
in the room was staring at me, really staring at me, and I yelled at them again.
"Stop staring at me!"
But then suddenly I felt a pain on my left arm, and I saw that they had injected me with
a syringe. I stared at the syringe, and noticed that there was an eye on its cylinder, and
the eye was staring at me too.
"Why is that syringe staring at me?" I mumbled. And then I blacked out.
Ever since that day, I have become a slave to SCP-099's power. I discovered that I had
been subjected to its memetic properties, which have been noted to have extreme effects
on those who view it. Those who have viewed SCP-099 for too long
or from too close of a distance become subject to the delusion that any being or depiction
of a being with eyes is staring at them. In extreme cases, subjects report that inanimate
objects are making eye contact.
I later found out that SCP-099 was painted by surrealist painter Rene Magritte in 1935.
It is noted that the memetic properties it possesses was intentional, although the effect
it has on viewers was not. Magritte was still alive when SCP-099 was discovered. The Foundation
placed heavy surveillance on Magritte until his death, and they also investigated his
other works, although none of his other paintings were found with the same memetic properties
as SCP-099.
If I had read the notes on that sheet, I would have seen a warning not to step over that
red line, and not to look at the painting whatsoever. But I didn't read those notes.
And I am now scarred for life.
My condition means that I cannot stay in crowded places. It terrifies me to my bones. I can
just feel everyone staring at me, even if they're heads are turned in the opposite direction.
It's horrific.
It's been a year since the incident. I have since been relieved from my job at the SCP
Foundation. They didn't "silence" me, if you know what I mean, which is a relief. I suppose
they believe I'm too traumatized to ever spread word of what I've seen. Just telling you this
makes my mind tingle with fear.
I stay at home most of the time. I have no friends. I basically have no life. The SCP
Foundation has offered me a monthly charity pay, as compensation for my "issues", but
it doesn't make up for what happened. I suppose it's mostly my own fault for not reading the
notes, but seriously, a painting as dangerous as that should be better contained!
I tried going out, just once. I wrapped a cloak around me to cover my peripheral vision,
and I headed out to the grocery store. I thought, maybe if I was careful and didn't look at
anybody or anything, I'd be okay. But it didn't work. Once I got to the store, I had to glance
up and that's when I saw the eye on the door. It stared at me, with red pupils, and it didn't
blink. I turned around and started screaming with fear, and I think someone came over to
help me, but when I looked at them they were staring at me with a deathly glare. I screamed
again, shoved the person aside, and bolted home.
Sometimes I can feel the eyes of inanimate objects staring too. I wake up at night screaming,
because I can see an eye on the ceiling, and it's staring at me as I sleep. I rarely get
enough sleep these days.
Some therapists from the SCP Foundation recommended that I reach out to the other victims of SCP-099.
Of course, the SCP Foundation has all of their information stored in their files. I did try
reaching out. There was a woman, I won't give her real name out of respect for her privacy,
so let's call her Rachel. She lived nearby, and I contacted her via email and asked if
she'd like to meet. She seemed hesitant, but she agreed. I thought that it would be great
if I could finally talk to someone who felt the same way that I felt. It was terrible
feeling so alone.
The next day, I offered to walk over to Rachel's apartment. It was tough, and I nearly got
run over a few times because I was mostly walking with my eyes closed, but eventually
I made it to her door. She opened it up, and then we both screamed. I suppose she must
have been seeing the same thing as me. Her face was nothing but one eye. No lips. No
nose. Just an eye. And it terrified me. She screamed too as she stared at me, and then
we both turned on our heels and took off. Me, back home. Her, back into her apartment.
I didn't try to contact anyone again after that.
I don't know how I can go on. Everyday is just so hard. I don't know how long I have
left, but I guess I'm just telling you this as a warning. Next time, read the notes. Oh
yeah, and if you see a painting that fits SCP-099's description, don't look at it too
long. Trust me, you'll regret it.