The Sergeant walks into a conference room and a board of people greet him. The Sergeant sits down and a meeting commences regarding the SCP-701 incident. The meeting calls for the Sergeant to give a report on what his team did, and he relays what information his team gathered. Some questions are asked after the Sergeant goes through his report and he answers them swiftly. The head of the meeting thanks the Sergeant and continues to other team leaders that were part of the incident. As the meeting starts its closing remarks, the Sergeant lifts his hand slightly off the table. The person who was directing the meeting notices and gestures to him. The Sergeant adjusts his posture and lifts his chest slightly. “I would like to request that I question the victim,” he says. Some surprise is seen on the surrounding faces and a small conversation develops between two people. The director raises a hand and the room goes silent. “Why are you making such a request?” they ask. “I’ve worked with recovery/investigation teams regarding SCP-701 for a long time, and I find this situation to be very unique, and with my…” he starts to explain. “The people we have assigned to question the victim have been doing this for just as long as you have Sergeant, and as you said. With this unique situation, we have to stick to our normal procedures, not only to make sure everything is conducted properly, but if something does happen, we can better learn how to adjust the proceedings as needed. If protocol is not followed and something happens, we can’t be sure whether it was your actions that caused it or if it is something we’ll need to change for future incidents,” the director states, interrupting him. “I understand doctor, and I understand I’m not a man of your status, but something odd is happening with this victim,” the Sergeant explains. “Yes, I have done my reviews of the reports and read your notes. A Mr… um,” the Doctor begins to say, sifting through some papers. “Alden. At least that’s what we know he prefers to be referred to,” the Sergeant adds. “Yes, well, I guess maybe with some convincing from not just me, but those whose job it is, I could allow it,” the Doctor states. “Thank you sir, I’ll inform you if that follows through,” the Sergeant says. “Very well, thank you all, please return to your stations, just because we discussed, doesn’t mean our jobs are finished,” the Doctor announces, organizing a section of desk in front of him.

The Sergeant walks into a room with glass doors in front of him. He stops on a dot marked on the floor and another pair of glass doors close behind him. An alarm bell rings and something begins to spray into the room. The Sergeant remains looking forward as this happens, and after half of a minute of waiting, the spraying stops. The doors open in front of him and he walks through. The Sergeant approaches a chair next to a wall and sits down. He rests his arm onto a table in front of him and looks through a glass window. Alden is resting on a hospital bed in the corner of a white room. The Sergeant examines the room and looks down to a button on the side of the glass. He presses the button and it begins to blink. “Hello, you have begun the interviewing process. The interviewee will wake up momentarily. We advise you to go over any specific interview processes you may need,” A robotic voice states. The Sergeant looks at the small round speaker that the voice is coming from. “I assume this is a microphone as well,” The Sergeant says. A clicking noise sounds from the speaker. “Yes Sergeant, though only you can hear us. The victim has a standing desk microphone and there are several others that they are not to be made aware of,” Another voice explains. “Yes, I know, I read over the procedures,” The Sergeant says. “Of course, are there any other parts of the procedure you would like us to go over?” It asks. “No,” The Sergeant responds. The speaker remains silent and nothing happens for another minute. Then, one of Alden’s hands twitches. Alden shifts his legs slightly and turns in the bed. After another few moments, Alden sits up in his position and goes to rub his eyes. As his hand approaches his face, he sees 701-B and flicks his hand. The knife then flies across the room and clinks a few times as it bounces away. Alden then starts to notice his surroundings, and frantically looks around. “Hey, can you hear me?” The Sergeant asks. Alden looks towards the window and squints his eyes. “Are you? Am I? Is this?” Alden quickly asks, the questions sounding more out of control as he continues to panic. “Relax, 701 is not here,” The Sergeant explains. “What?” Alden asks, still looking around the room. Alden looks at his bed and notices he is connected to a vital monitor and some IV strips. “The thing that attacked you,” The Sergeant says. Alden realizes nothing dangerous is in the room and begins to calm down. “Oh, 601, yea, I hope not…” Alden says, taking deep breaths to calm himself. “Are you feeling ok?” The Sergeant asks. “No!” Alden quickly responds. The Sergeant jumps back as the speaker next to him peaks in volume. Alden remembers he previously had the knife in his hand and looks on the floor. “It’s still here!” Alden yells. He stands up from the bed and backs up to the wall. His IV swings in front of him and he grabs the small roller it’s connected to, moving it to his side. “Alden, it’s not going to hurt you,” The Sergeant says. “Yea, what do you know! You haven’t been haunted by it for the past couple days now have you!” Alden yells, panicking and shifting to a corner of the room. “You were haunted by the knife?” The Sergeant asks, leaning to the side to better see Alden through the window between them. “No, 601 gave me that thing,” Alden explains. “It’s not going to hurt you, your instance of 701 has been terminated,” The Sergeant states. Alden’s breathing is still sporadic, but he stops moving and looks at the window. “You killed it?” Alden asks. He then turns his head quickly and looks at the knife again. “Yes, do you remember the moments before you went unconscious?” The Sergeant asks. Alden’s eyes widen and his arms wrap around his head. “Alden, what’s wrong?” The Sergeant questions, standing up in his chair. Alden slowly slides down the wall behind him and begins mumbling to himself with intermittent cries. He tucks his legs into his chest and rests his head on his knees. “Alden!” The Sergeant yells. Alden’s body shakes when the Sergeant yells, and quickly returns to what it was doing previously. The Sergeant looks into the room and sighs. “Sir, would you like us to take it from here?” The voice sounds from the speaker next to him. “No, just give me a minute,” The Sergeant states. The Sergeant lets Alden be with himself for a minute, then lightly taps his microphone. “Did it follow you?” The Sergeant asks. Alden looks up and to the window, and just stares at it for a moment. “Did it do anything else to you?” The Sergeant questions. Alden drops his head back into his knees. “Kid, we need you. This has never happened before, and we don’t want others to go through what you did,” The Sergeant explains. The mumbling stops and Alden leans his head back on the wall behind him. “I know talking about it won’t be easy, but trust me, you’re not going to surprise me. I’m not going to call you crazy, I’ve worked in this field too long for that to happen,” The Sergeant says. Alden lets out a sigh, stuttering with the remnants of crying. Alden takes another few moments, then tries to stand up. “If you want to talk from there, you can, the mic on the desk is good enough to pick up your voice,” The Sergeant states. “Ok, ok… what do you want to know?” Alden asks, getting comfortable against the wall. “I just have some simple questions about what led up to your altercation with SCP-701-1, now if you…” The Sergeant starts to say. “SC huh? What?” Alden interrupts. “Oh, sorry, you know it as CRC-601-A,” The Sergeant reacts. “It has a name?” Alden asks. “Uh, yes. We don’t refer to them as CRC, we refer to them as SCP, and that book is what we call SCP-701, with that creature you fought being SCP-701-1,” The Sergeant explains. “Oh, that’s why you keep saying 701, I just figured it was some code thing you were talking to someone with,” Alden says. “No, but I’ll likely refer to it as SCP-701 out of habit, so I apologize if I create confusion,” The Sergeant states. “But yes, I’m just going to ask you some simple questions leading up to your altercation with CRC-601-A, and if you can’t think of anything to say, just let me know and I’ll move to another question. Does that sound like a plan, Alden?” The Sergeant asks. Alden nods his head, and looks over at the knife. “Wonderful Alden, we’ll start with this. Why did you take the book from the library?” The Sergeant asks. Alden keeps his eye on the knife and takes a deep breath. “I was just looking through the library like I always do and went to a section I normally don't look through to try to find something new. I probably won’t do that again though,” Alden explains. “Interesting, could I ask you to explain more specifically why you took SCP-7, I mean, CRC-601?” The Sergeant asks. “Well, I was looking through the books and saw the title. It looked similar to CRC-601 and I thought it was one of the books from the series, but it didn’t have a CRC logo or anything on it, which looking back was probably my first warning that something was up,” Alden answers. “You had no way of knowing the dangers of 701, or 601, so don’t think this is your fault, ok?” The Sergeant explains. Alden looks through the window at the Sergeant and nods his head. “That’ll be good for that question Alden, unless there is anything else you’d like to add?” The Sergeant adds. “When I was scanning the book to borrow it, the librarian said the barcode was weird, so that’s probably another thing that was odd, even though it scanned through the system just fine,” Alden explains. “Yes, I remember looking at a report someone gave me explaining that, but thank you, that confirms a few things for me,” The Sergeant says. “Alright, when did you notice the book start to act odd?” The Sergeant asks. “The day after I borrowed the book, I woke up and felt like reading it. So I started reading and noticed that I started to lose focus on the words. I’d accidentally read a word that wasn’t even on the page. I didn’t think of it much then, after reading it some more my mind would go off on tangents that were kinda what the story was, but was different than what was actually written,” Alden explains. “Interesting, any other odd things that happened?” The Sergeant asks. “Yea, after I put the book down, I walked away, then felt like reading it again, but when I opened the book, that knife showed up, but all black like a shadow,” Alden says. “Curious, well, I’ll transition us over to talking about the knife now that you mentioned it. What did you do with the knife?” The Sergeant questions. “It disappeared after I dropped the book. And after that, I said, I’m not dealing with this and put it in my closet, stacking a bunch of items in front of it so even if the closet door wasn’t enough to block my view of it, there was something else as well,” Alden states. “Is that when you lost the book?” The Sergeant adds. “Lost the book, I never lost the book… wait, oh, the email…” Alden says, leaning his head back against the wall. “You didn’t lose the book?” The Sergeant says surprised. Alden takes another deep breath and sighs. “No, I didn’t lose the book, but I for sure wasn’t going to return it to the library,” Alden explains. The Sergeant is quiet for a moment as he thinks over what Alden said. “Why wouldn’t you?” The Sergeant asks. “I wasn’t going to give that book back and have some other person get haunted or whatever this was. So I lied and said I lost the book. I figured I would either get over whatever was happening or it would do something that would force me to destroy it,” Alden states. “So you kept the book so no one else would have to deal with it?” The Sergeant clarifies. “Yes,” Alden replies. “I’ve never seen someone do that before, Alden. I’m kinda surprised,” The Sergeant says. “I thought you said I wouldn’t surprise you?” Alden asks. The Sergeant reacts with a surprised face after that comment. Alden gives a weak smile, and returns to leaning his head against the wall. “We can move on for now. I have some quick medical questions for you if you're up for it,” The Sergeant says. “I’m not going anywhere…” Alden replies. “Wonderful. Just say yes or no, or give me a nod or head shake to the following questions. Would you say you experienced the feeling of something watching you?” The Sergeant asks. Alden shakes at the thought and gives an exaggerated head nod. The scratch of a pencil on paper briefly sounds through the microphone. “Would you say you saw something following you in your peripherals?” The Sergeant asks. Alden nods his head. “Would you say that you had moments where you felt like you lost control of your body, if so, explain,” The Sergeant asks. “A few times yes,” Alden says, sighing. “There would be times I thought I saw a shadow move and I would just stare at it until something broke me out of it. Or during the fight, I would freeze or hold my head because I heard screams and lines from the book in my head,” Alden explains. The Sergeant takes a moment to make a few notes. “Interesting Alden, anything else?” The Sergeant asks. “Not really,” He replies. “Ok, we’ll move on to the next one then,” The Sergeant says. “How did 701 manifest itself to you before your altercation?” The Sergeant asks. “Well, I had left the book in the closet for a while and I came home. I was curious if it had done anything and I opened the closet to find it had developed an unnatural shadow on the items covering it. After moving an item in and out of the shadow, the stuff started to move. After a second, the knife came out and a weird black substance had pushed it out and right in front of me. It then disappeared back into the closet. I closed the door and threw a mat and some shoes over the knife. I walked away for a bit and then saw that same black substance coming out from under the closet. It threw the shoes off the mat and started picking up the mat. I didn’t want it to take the knife, so as it lifted the mat, I grabbed the knife and backed up. The hand, oh yea, it like shapeshifted into a hand, then opened the closet door and that black substance turned into 601 or 701,” Alden explains. The Sergeant begins taking notes and does for a minute or so. Alden looks over to the window and leans his head to the side. “You still there?” Alden asks. “Yes, sorry, just noting a few things you said,” The Sergeant replies. “So after this is when you started fighting 701?” The Sergeant asks. “Yes, it started walking up to me and the whole voices thing started happening, so I fought it. Then you guys busted down my door and you know the rest of the story,” Alden says. “Yes, now I’m going to route us back to that knife, you said that it was all black. When did it change?” The Sergeant questions. “When I took it before 601 got it back. I don’t know if it changed under the mat or not, but it was different when I grabbed it,” Alden states. “By the way, why is that thing still in the room with me? At first I didn’t really think about it, but now that I am, you seem to know of it,” Alden asks. “Great question, we were hoping you would know, because before you threw it across the room, it would not leave your hand,” The Sergeant explains. “What?” Alden reacts. “Yes, when people came to look at the aftermath of the place, they tried to remove it from your hand and it was stuck to it,” The Segreant states. “That’s ridiculous, I just threw it across the room, it’s not attached to me,” Alden explains. “We didn’t have a choice, it wouldn’t move,” The Sergeant explains. Alden looks at the knife again with curiosity this time. “Can we test that theory?” Alden asks, standing up. “What are you doing?” The Sergeant reacts. Alden goes over to the knife and picks it up. He is a bit hesitant moving it around, but gets a feel for it. “Have someone try and take it from me,” Alden states. “I don’t think I can do that Alden,” The Sergeant responds. “Oh, yea, you probably have me under quarantine or something like that,” Alden says. “Yes, we do. But I am curious, how does the knife feel?” The Sergeant asks. “It feels like a knife, I don’t know. The handle has a bit of a weird feeling to it. Like it molds to my hand when I hold it,” Alden explains. “Huh, well, now that you're up, care to take a seat?” The Sergeant asks, pointing to the chair on the other side of the window. “Are you only here to ask questions?” Alden asks as he sits down. “Unfortunately yes,” The Sergeant responds. “What do I do after this?” Alden says. The Sergeant looks down at the paper and then starts to think of something to say. “You guys will probably sedate me again and do some tests or other stuff,” Alden says, answering his own question. “Most likely yes,” The Sergeant confirms. “Well, yea, that does make sense, if there is something wrong with me I wouldn’t want to spread whatever it is,” Alden adds, slouching in his chair. The Sergeant looks at Alden curiously. “What?” Alden reacts, noticing the Sergeant’s look. “You seem so accepting of all this. Minus you first waking up, but that’s just what happens after someone goes through a traumatic experience like that kind of mental torture, so that’s normal. But I even said this after we terminated 701, you willingly gave yourself up knowing the dangers of SCP-701. Most civilians I’ve seen completely lose it or do something drastic, but you quite literally fought 701 and not only that but hid it from the rest of the world for safety. I’ve never seen that before,” The Sergeant states. “Well, I feel like if most people were presented with something they knew could kill hundreds of people, they would try and contain it at least, no?” Alden asks. “While I will agree with you that I believe most people would do that, that’s not what’s bothering me, it’s the recognition part,” The Sergeant explains. “How do you mean?” Alden follows. The Sergeant starts to say something then lifts his pointer finger up. “Can I confirm something with you quick?” The Sergeant says, leaning towards the speaker. Alden looks at him confused. “Are you talking to someone?” Alden asks. “Yes, people that are outside observers, it’s a researching thing,” The Sergeant explains. After the Sergeant says that, a click from where Alden has been hearing the Sergeant sounds. Alden looks around and sees the Sergeant talking and nodding his head but doesn’t hear anything. “How much explanation can I give to this kid?” The Sergeant asks. “Well, you can’t just explain the entirety of the SCP foundation to him,” The voice states. “No kidding genius, I just want to give him a bit of explanation to help him understand what’s happening,” The Sergeant says. “You can’t go too far with it,” The voice which reacts. “I won’t, and even if I go a little over, he won’t remember if you give him amnestics after this all settles,” The Sergeant states. The voice doesn’t respond and the audio from Alden’s microphone turns back on. “Alden,” The Sergeant says. “Yes?” Alden replies, with an expecting look. “Sorry about that, I have higher ups I need to abide by,” The Sergeant explains. “Doctors/scientists assigned to 701 I’m guessing,” Alden says. “Precisely, but they’ve allowed me to continue with this explanation, so I can’t complain,” The Sergeant says. Alden looks at the Sergeant with a confused and unsure face. “That’s far beyond your concern, but this is what you need to know. You know how CRC is the secret agency that works in mysterious ways to Capture, Relocate, and Contain?” The Sergeant asks. Alden nods his head. “Well, that’s kinda like our job, I say ‘our’ lightly because I’m only one dude in a specific department, but this is what I mean when I say the recognition part. Most people when exposed to dangers like what you’ve been exposed to act very differently than you. Most either run for their lives because said danger is destroying the world around them or they don’t even notice it and fall under its control, effects, whatever it is, like 701 does,” The Sergeant explains. Alden continues to nod his head. “Most people in your situation simply fall under 701’s control, but you didn’t, which is why you’re here, why this questioning is happening, why you're in a quarantine room, all of it,” The Sergeant states. Alden rests his head on his hand in a thinking position. “So, I’m like… a survivor of a CRC. Sorry, SCP was it? Anyway, and now you need me to just chill for a bit while you try and understand what’s happening?” Alden asks. “Yea, basically,” The Sergeant replies. “Oh, ok, cool. I was starting to get there when you interrupted our conversation a moment ago, talking to your higher ups, but now that you say it, it sort of puts everything together,” Alden says. “So, you’re ok?” The Sergeant asks. “I mean yea, I’ve read plenty of CRC to know you guys will run some tests I’m not going to understand, after you get the info you need, you’ll probably make me forget everything and I’ll just return to my normal life, so… guess I’ll enjoy this while it lasts,” Alden explains. The Sergeant shakes his head after Alden says that and looks at him with a slightly shocked face. “Ok, what do you want me to do then? Do you need to put me under again, move me somewhere, I would like to meet those people you mentioned. Maybe I can help with some more specific questions,” Alden says. The Sergeant looks at the speaker, to Alden, then back to the speaker. “What do you want me to say?” The Sergeant asks. Alden hears a voice talk, but it's too quiet for him to hear. “They want you to lay back down, they’ll sedate you,” The Sergeant states. “Cool, oh wait, is there a bathroom connected to this room?” Alden asks. The Sergeant points to a wall and Alden sees a door outline. “Why do you make it the same color as the wall? I wouldn’t have seen that without you pointing it out,” Alden asks. “So if someone is acting up they can’t access another room as easily,” The Sergeant explains. “Ah, that makes sense,” Alden adds.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The Sergeant walks into an observatory room with a few scientists looking through a window. The Sergeant walks next to them and looks down to see the room Alden is in. “Did that match your standards Doctor?” The Sergeant asks. The Doctor finishes writing something down on a notepad and sighs. “Yes, but you’re lucky we have amnestics to make him forget everything you just explained to him,” The Doctor states, turning and walking to another table. The Sergeant joins him. “Well, he seemed to already know most of it from his knowledge of CRC, I merely drew a comparison and he understood,” The Sergeant explains. “Yes, but the whole Idea of the CRC is to be a front for SCP. So if people start leaking through our amnestic teams, the CRC can pose it as a fiction character/event. It’s not supposed to be used as a comprehension tool for understanding the foundation,” The Doctor retaliates. “Alright, I understand, but I got the questions you wanted-” The Sergeant tries to say. “And exposed the foundation while you asked your own questions in the process,” The Doctor interrupts. “Doctor. There is more here, I can’t be the only one that sees it,” The Sergeant states. The Doctor sighs. “Yes Sergeant, we are aware of this, but we are continuing standard procedures,” The Doctor explains. The Sergeant nods his head and walks out of the room.

The Doctor sits next to a single light pointing at several sheets of paper. The Doctor looks at the mess of papers on the desk and sighs. He looks up at the clock on his desktop and begins to organize his desk. A message notification pops up in the corner of his screen. He clicks on it and a document appears. A message above it reads, “What should we do now?” The Doctor tilts his head and begins screen reading the document. Before he can recognize it, in a bright red circle, it shows a negative test result. The Doctor’s face gains a curious look. The Doctor stops for a moment, thinking about something, then begins to reply. “Keep him in containment, that could be a false negative test. The memetic test is only 98% efficient. Retest tomorrow morning,” He types. He continues to the notes section of the document looking for something. He stops and reads that the knife somehow made its way back into Alden’s hand even after Alden was separated from it. The Doctor takes a deep breath and saves the document to the computer.