The first instance of SCP-3XXX-A was discovered in a locker by Simon Stephens (later designated SCP-3XXX-A-I), a freelance journalist and urban explorer, on the second floor of the abandoned ████████ High School (later designated SCP-3XXX-A-1).
Stephens came to the Foundation's attention during an investigation into mass delusions surrounding ████████ High School. All records indicated that the school had been abandoned for 12 weeks, but residents of the town were posting on messageboards discussing the "old abandoned school" which "no-one had set in foot for forty years."
Agents were able to ascertain the contents of the original log in an interview with Stephens, partially reproduced below.
Interviewed: Simon Stephens
Interviewer: Agent █████
<Begin Log>
Agent █████: Take me through the exploration log again. In its entirety. Don't miss any details.
Stephens: [Refer to accompanying document SCP-3XXX-A-ADDENDUM-B]
Agent █████: Thanks. In your blog, you claim that you were exploring ████████ High School in search of a missing teenager by the name of Maria Todini.
Stephens: Yes, that's right.
Agent █████: And this journal - you found it in a locker?
Stephens: Correct. Next to some damp textbooks and a mouldy packed lunch.
Agent █████: You say it's the last journal of this same Maria Todini, as she explores the same school.
Stephens: Right.
Agent █████: Are you aware that our database has no record of an individual named Maria Todini ever living in this town?
Stephens: She mighta come from out of town, right?
Agent █████: We have no record of her going missing, either. How did you even know about it?
Stephens: [agitated] I… God, I don't remember. Wasn't it all over the news?
Agent █████: No. Mr Stephens, did you forge this journal?
Stephens: No.
Agent █████: Are you sure?
Stephens: Yes. Jesus, why the third degree?
Agent █████: People at my organization have some experience with these types of documents, Mr Stephens, and I can assure you that in all my years of examining the final testaments of doomed explorers, I have never - not once - encountered an exploration log which ends with the writer actually taking the time to write out, letter by agonized letter, the word "AAAAARGH."
<End Log>
After the interview, SCP-3XXX-A was confiscated from Stephens by Agent █████.
The text of the 'exploration log,' as transcribed by Agent █████ at the time, is reproduced in part below. Days 1 and 2 have been skipped, as they largely concern Maria's preparations for exploring the "abandoned school" and her excitement over an upcoming appointment with a new therapist.
Day 3
Sorry, diary, you're not exactly my priority any more. Mom was right all along: The old school is dangerous, and there's a good reason it was abandoned all those years ago. I've decided to keep writing you because I'm scared and alone and I want her to know what happened to me when I'm found.
Something happened. I'm not sure what. I went to see my new therapist in the morning, and he was telling me about a new treatment. Something he said would make me feel better. He asked to see this diary… At some point I must have blacked out.
When I woke up, I was in the old abandoned high school. Which I'd been planning to explore anyway, you know? But I don't know if I'd have gone through with it. Now here I am, and I've been wandering all night, and it's far bigger than it should be. There are hundreds of classrooms, dozens of miles of corridor. It goes on forever. All I've had to eat is a rotten apple I found in a locker. It feels like a strange dream. Hopefully I wake up soon.
What are those noises I keep hearing down the corridor behind me? Scuffed footsteps and grunting, like a huge animal trying to be quiet. I don't know. I don't want to know.
Day 4
I finally saw it. A monster taller than a doorframe, a thing with a huge hunched back and arms like tumours. Its face is vaguely familiar… Blonde pigtails and buck teeth. It looks like a monster version of Kimberly, the girl who's been bullying me for years.
It keeps shouting that it wants to catch me and stick my head down the toilet, but its arms are bloody up to the elbow, so I think it has something worse in mind. I'm lucky it's so slow and stupid - it can't find me when I hide.
Today I hid in the janitor's cupboard, and found a whole mess of keys hanging on the wall. I grabbed one at random. Hopefully it'll get me out of this place somehow.
Now I just need to find the door. God help me. I miss you, mom. I miss home. I miss food.
Day 5
I've been drinking stagnant water out of the toilets (plumbing doesn't work). Found one where the cistern was full of this weird shiny oil. Checked the pipes, and I found a human skull clogging the U-bend.
Get me out of this place. The Bully is slow, but it doesn't sleep. It's never far behind. Always watching always waiting. I can run I can hide but it won't matter, one day I'll slip up, one tiny mistake is enough, and it'll be there.
Day 6
This morning I made it out of the School.
I coated the floor in that weird oil I found. As the Bully was coming down the corridor, I tossed a match. I think I got her, but the flames grew out of control. I panicked and climbed into a locker to get away from the smoke - and there was light on the other side. I crawled through, and… Now I'm somewhere else. Still somewhere bad, mind you. Maybe even worse.
I found a sign saying it's St █████'s Hospital, but that can't be right - I've been here before, when I broke my arm, and it was just a normal hospital. Nothing like this. It goes on for miles, just like the School, and it also looks like it's been abandoned for a long time. The floors are smeared with dried shit and blood. All the medical equipment looks like it comes straight out of Victorian times. It's hot here, suffocatingly hot. The air smells of tin. At least there's no Bully - it's quiet enough that I can actually sleep.
Day 7
I was wrong. The Hospital has its own monster, a worse one. I saw a long white limb in a long white sleeve, squirming up between the cracks in the bathroom tiles. I saw a grinning face in the mirror with a single shining eye. It told me that I must trust it. It just wanted to ease my suffering, it said. It'll make me free.
I ran. It followed. Its limbs come from the shadows. It's faster and smarter than the Bully. It can't seem to reach me when I'm in the cafeteria, but I can't stay here forever. All the food is rotten anyway.
Day 8
I ventured out of the cafeteria. Bad idea. It was waiting and it pricked me with its needle.
I ran as far as I could, and I found another person! Not a monster! A pale woman, lying in one of the beds, barely conscious. She's covered in sores and excrement and sometimes she just starts screaming for hours, but hey, it's company I guess. In a lucid moment she told me her name is █████.
It's getting hotter, I swear. So hot I can't even move. I just sit here rocking back and forth. I'm going to die, mom.
Day 9
Can't move my legs. Doctor poisoned me something. Doctor will see me now. He's here.
He started on the dying woman first. Not much left of her now oh god he's turning to me
- teeth in my skin - tearing - AAAAARGGGHHHHHH -
Interviewed: Simon Stephens
Interviewer: Agent █████
<Begin Log>
Agent █████: Why did you lie about the contents of the journal?Stephens: I didn't lie.
Agent █████: Call it a lie by omission, then. You didn't mention anything on pages 3 and 4.
Stephens: It ended much earlier when I read it. Weird. [The sound of rustling paper] …Oh my God. Did you write this? Why would you —
Agent █████: We looked into your personal history, Mr Stephens. Does the latter half of this journal seem familiar to you?
Stephens: [quietly] Yes.
Agent █████: The hospital described in the text. The name of the bedridden woman. Does it remind you of when your fiancee —
Stephens: [more loudly] Yes, OK? I know what it is. I don't want to talk about it. Can we wrap this up?
<End Log>
After recovery, SCP-3XXX-A was examined by Dr ████████.
[Days 3-7 are the same as above]
Day 8
I ventured out of the cafeteria. Bad idea. It almost pricked me with its needle, but I got away.
I ran as far as I could, and I found another person! Not a monster! A pale woman, lying in one of the beds, barely conscious. She's covered in sores and excrement and sometimes she just starts screaming for hours, but hey, it's company I guess. In a lucid moment she told me her name is █████.
She's survived this place. Maybe I can too.
Day 9
The Doctor came for us in the night, and started feasting on the dying woman. But she was poisonous. Something inside her was rotten, and the Doctor started choking and puking. While he was occupied I crawled through the mirror and now I'm somewhere else. Again.
A camp in the middle of a desert. It looks like a military base, maybe? Barbed wire fences, trucks everywhere, crates full of bullets. It goes on forever, just like everywhere else. No guns, though. Wish there were guns. There'll be another monster here, I know it. A gun would be nice.
If it's a desert, why is it so cold? What happened to the sun? What happened to the stars?
Day 10
Rats got at the rations, so I ate the rats instead. Hid. Watched. Another monster came.
The Enemy, I'll call it. Its whole face is melted like wax. It's wearing black robes, a bomb vest, a knife at the hip. But worst of all it has a big rifle. No fair. I can't outrun a gun. It keeps shouting in what sounds like Arabic.
Hid. Can't find me. I'm good at this now.
[Two days are skipped]
Day 13
Can't find me. Can't find me. I hear its footsteps. Heavy breathing. I'm under the floorboards, you freak, you can't find me here. I'm skinny now, like the rats I ate, I can squeeze in places you'll never find me. Go away. Go away. Go away. It's gone.
Cold.
Day 14
The Enemy is cleverer than me. It made a bomb hid it in the floor. Stepped on it. Blew my whole leg off.
Not as much pain as I thought. Is this shock? Just lying here now. Waiting.
[Three pages of incomprehensible scribbling]
Day 15
Enemy is here. grabbing my hair. knife - sawing through - AAAAARGGGHHHHHH -
After reading SCP-3XXX-A, Dr ████████ noted that Agent █████ was ex-military and had conducted two tours of Iraq. Dr ████████ received approval to conduct further tests on SCP-3XXX-A using D-class personnel.
SCP-3XXX-A as read aloud by D-9101 into a recording device.
[Days 3-13 are the same as above]
Day 14
The Enemy hid a bomb in the floor, but I saw the wires sticking out and jumped over it. He started following me, shooting that rifle, blowing holes in the walls and the trucks. I tricked him, led him into his own bomb, blew his legs off. I was going to stick around after that, torment him like he tormented me, but I heard helicopters. Bound to be bad news. I found a trapdoor in the sand and dropped through.
Same old story. I'm somewhere new. White walls, white floors, white ceiling. And corpses. Human corpses everywhere. Too rotten for anything useful. Stench unbelievable.
School, Hospital, Camp… and now Facility? I don't see the connection. There's a big logo on the wall that says 'SCP.' Never heard of it. I wonder when the new monster will show. I'll be ready.
The first day is always quiet. Time to catch up on my sleep.
Day 15
The new monster, I'll call it the Scientist. I hate it.
It's pathetic. A tiny, snivelling thing in a bloodstained labcoat. When I first met it, it pretended it was my friend - it just wanted to help me, keep me safe, take me home. I should know better by now. Should know better should know better dammit dammit should.
Took me to a cell, told me I'd be safe. Locked me in. I look up, and there's this Russian looking guy, starts talking about ████████████. I just know - I know - that I'm going to die. Thank fuck for the key I found in the School, somehow it works here. I unlocked the cell and ran. Never looked back.
Day 16
The Scientist doesn't chase me. Oh no. It has servants. Other monsters that it sends after me. A huge ██████. A weird ████ statue. A █████ on ████ legs. ████████████████████████.
I know the drill by now. Hide. Pray. Let them rampage. But I could do without the Scientist apologizing to me the whole time over the intercom, pretending it's a 'containment breach.' Why can't he accept his role? He's trying to get me killed. But he'll die, just like the others.
Day 17
[at this point, D-9101's voice becomes noticeably strained]
The Scientist has failed again. He can't contain any of them, not me, not any of us. I found him, strangled him, and I took his key. Now I'm at the door and the others are waiting behind me. I'm free.
[The exploration log ends here, in a departure from the previous formula. There is no "AAARGH" or trail of ink.]
5 minutes after finishing reading SCP-3XXX-A, D-9101 had a seizure and fell into a coma. Later medical analysis concluded he had experienced a total cessation of brain function. At the same time, SCP-3XXX-A vanished from containment.
Weeks after this incident, Maria Todini (designated SCP-3XXX-A-IV) was discovered safe and alive, living happily with her mother. She had been discovered lying unconscious in the abandoned school, at approximately the same time that D-9101 collapsed. She was detained for questioning.
Interviewed: SCP-3XXX-A-IV a.k.a Maria Todini
Interviewer: Dr ████████
<Begin Log>
Dr ████████: We've established that you have no memory of exploring ███████ High School. Nor any memory of the time you were missing. So we'll go further back. Can I ask you some questions about Dr John Edwards Singular?
Maria Todini: Of course.
Dr ████████: How would you describe Dr Singular?
Maria Todini: He's a really good therapist.
Dr ████████: He asked you to keep a journal, is that correct?
Maria Todini: Yes. He was very insistent.
Dr ████████: Do you still have that journal?
Maria Todini: Um… No. I don't know what happened to it. You know my memory of the last few months is fuzzy.
Dr ████████: Yet despite all your memory problems, you seem very sure of one thing. Dr Singular was a good therapist. Why is that?
Maria Todini: I don't know. But the things that used to worry me just don't bother me any more. I feel like I've explored my issues and overcome something, you know? I feel free.
<End Log>
It should be noted that after their interactions with SCP-3XXX-A, Simon Stephens, Agent █████, Dr ████████ and SCP-3XXX-A-IV all recorded a complete cessation of prior mental health problems (afflictions cured included PTSD, depression and anxiety). They also recorded abnormally high levels of life satisfaction (each rating their happiness as 10/10, "cannot be improved") and having completely come to terms with all past traumatic experiences. They are currently being monitored for adverse side-effects of exposure to SCP-3XXX-A, although none have been recorded.