Link to article: SCP-9000 — Woman in Grey OFFSET 1.
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[[include theme:black-highlighter-theme]] [[include :scp-wiki:theme:scp-offices-theme]] [[div style="border:solid 1px #999999; background:#f2f2c2; padding:5px; margin-bottom: 10px;"]] You are reading **Document 2 of 5**, dated **1986/06/20**. [[/div]] [[include component:image-block name=haus.jpg|caption=Helby House, 1982]] **Item #:** SCP-9799 **Object Class:** Safe **Special Containment Procedures:** The Office of Investigative Research has cordoned off SCP-9799 from public access, under guise of recquisitioning the land for an army training camp. Further containment is deemed unnecessary at this time. The Office is conducting an ongoing investigation across departmental archives to locate any references to SCP-9799. **Description:** SCP-9799 is Helby House, an English country residence located in southern Lincolnshire, England. Thus far, SCP-9799 has displayed two anomalous effects: 1) A number of humanoid figures appear and disappear at random within the house. Although reports by residents have described a variety of individuals present in the house, only a single figure has been observed by Foundation personnel, who resembles the late Ethel Campbell (hereafter SCP-9799-1). SCP-9799-1 is capable of speech and interaction with the environment surrounding it, and it appears to possess the personality and much of the memory of Ethel Campbell. Some degradation of its memories has been noted. 2) SCP-9799 appears to have an amnesiac effect. Those aware of its anomalous effects seem to lose both their memory of said effects over time, as well as any sense of the anomaly's importance. Built by John Soames in 1874, SCP-9799 was inhabited by members of the Soames family until 1951, when the last surviving member of the family, Ethel Campbell, died, and it was sold. A number of short-term residencies followed, never lasting more than two or three years. Following reports of anomalous activity in 1986 by the most recent residents, it was taken into Foundation ownership and placed under the purview of the Office of Investigative Research. **Addendum 4:** The following is interview #7 between Senior Researcher Ronald Bradbury and SCP-9799-1. Previous interviews and addenda will be added to the article upon their recovery. > //<Begin log>// > > **Bradbury:** OK, recording starts now. This is Ronald Bradbury talking to Eth - that is, to SCP-9799-1. > > //A woman laughs.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** Always so formal. Do your superiors really care what you call me? > > **Bradbury:** I'm afraid they do. It's very important, you see, for consistency. We can't make exceptions for people just because - just because. > > **SCP-9799-1:** No, I quite agree. Anyone engaging in //serious// research has to work out a basis upon which comparison can be made. You don't know what I am; I have to be treated the same as the others. Now, this is our - our fifth meeting? > > **Bradbury:** Our seventh. > > **SCP-9799-1:** Yes - yes, I meant seventh. Where did we get up to? How much did I tell you about - about my research? > > **Bradbury:** You couldn't remember very much. You wanted to try a different tack - talking about your husbands, the time when you began... > > **SCP-9799-1:** Yes! That's right, of course - the forties and fifties. Yes. Well, shall we begin? > > **Bradbury:** Of course. Whenever you're ready. > > **SCP-9799-1:** Such a dear. Well, I was first married in 1939, to Teddy Soames. He was the owner of this house, which he'd inherited from - which he'd inherited in the early 20s. He lived here half the year, you see, and then down in London for the rest, which is where I met him. > > **Bradbury:** What was he like? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Teddy? Oh, he was... quiet. Brusque, I suppose. He could be wonderfully charming, but he... > > //SCP-9799-A's voice trails off.// > > **Bradbury:** He? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Hm? Oh, I just - it's so hard to remember. I was thinking about a day, in London, just before the war. An ordinary day. It was raining, and his moustache was dripping, and he was smiling in a tight way, a - a way that meant he was hiding something. He was standing there, while I talked on and on, the water dripping off the hair onto the floor. > > **Bradbury:** I think I see what you mean. Emotionally repressed, one might say. > > **SCP-9799-1:** Yes, I suppose. That doesn't - that doesn't quite fit, though. He could be open, just - just not entirely. There was something, some old wound or terror, that I couldn't quite - ah, but that was it! That was why I started my research. > > **Bradbury:** Because of him? > > **SCP-9799-1:** He was so - I wanted to understand his family, that was it. They seemed to have an influence on him, something beyond what I could imagine. So I started writing things down. > > **Bradbury:** His family? > > **SCP-9799-1:** He had a... but, no, Ronald, it's gone again. I'm awfully sorry - I wish I could be more help. > > **Bradbury:** All of this is useful, Ethel, don't worry - it gives me somewhere to start. What happened with you and Teddy, then? He died, didn't he? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Yes, he did. Tuberculosis, 1943, and just before they started sorting out a real cure, too. I wasn't terribly upset, I remember that; maybe more shocked. It was the first great disappointment, the first sign that my life wasn't going the way it ought to have gone, you see. I missed him, of course, but nothing quite felt real. It was one thing after another, you know? I had a whole house to manage, and no real income, and... > > **Bradbury:** And? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Well, just at the worst of it, he turned up again. Here, in the sitting room. He kept pacing up and down, up and down, in front of the mantelpiece. Well, I almost had a heart attack when I saw him, I can tell you that. I was terrified. He just... > > **Bradbury:** Just what? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Stared at me. It as unnerving. The room was silent; maybe a sound or two outside, birdsong or - or laughter, or something. There was that damned picture over the mantelpiece, of that peasant girl in grey; blue china, yes, the blue-and-white stuff, on the table. And he and I staring at one another. I was shocked, he was - pleading, I suppose? > > **Bradbury:** Pleading in what way? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Like... > > //Silence for several seconds.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** God, Ronald, it was so long ago. I don't even know any more. I don't suppose anyone will, now. > > //Silence for several seconds.// > > **Bradbury:** And - and what about Freddie? Your second husband? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Oh, Freddie! He was entirely different. He believed me right away, about Teddy. Right away! Everyone else thought I was barmy, of course, but Freddie just had a very serious look in his eye. Almost excited! He always seemed a little excited. Such a dear, dear man... > > **Bradbury:** He believed you? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Oh, yes - he was one of you, you know. Foundation, is that right? > > //Silence for several seconds.// > > **Bradbury:** Freddie was - he was Foundation? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Yes, he was. He didn't tell me until he was about to quit, of course, but he was one of you people. Spooks, he called you. > > **Bradbury:** There was nothing I could find in the records about this place. It was the //SCP// Foundation? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Oh, yes, that was the name. I'm quite sure, I - I don't remember his face, though. > > //Pause, with the sound of a pen scribbling.// > > **Bradbury:** I'm - I'm going to have to look into this, that's - sorry, did you say something? > > **SCP-9799-1:** ...No, nothing. > > **Bradbury:** OK. Where were we - yes, Freddie. When did you get married? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Forty-five. Two years after Teddy's death, almost to the day. I'd almost stopped seeing him, by then. He would appear all over the house - my bedroom, the study. I'd see him out of the corner of my eye, across a hallway, entering a room. Almost like he was - was avoiding me. I couldn't understand that, at the time. I think he felt guilty. > > **Bradbury:** For what? > > **SCP-9799-1:** For bringing me here. For dragging me into his world. You have to understand - Teddy had a lot of baggage. About his father, and especially his grandfather. He almost felt the house was cursed. I wondered why he didn't give it up. I even asked him, once. > > **Bradbury:** And what was the answer? > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** I don't remember. But I think I understand. > > **Bradbury:** In what way? > > **SCP-9799-1:** ...After the war, Freddie and I moved up here. When I wasn't living here, I didn't see Teddy, you see. Well, Freddie had left your organisation, and he wanted to make his living as a - a farmer. Bought some of the surrounding estate, to "do his bit", as he called it. Most of the house we didn't use - just a little section of it, the east wing. It would have been too expensive to maintain, otherwise. > > **Bradbury:** And you didn't see Teddy at all? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Not at first. I thought - I thought he'd gone. But then, one night, I woke up, and saw him by our bed. Whispering, into Freddie's ear. > > **Bradbury:** Was - was Freddie awake? > > **SCP-9799-1:** No, I don't think so. Teddy disappeared as soon as he saw me. And Freddie - well, he didn't seem himself, over the next few weeks. Pinched, tired. I told him what I saw, and he said he wasn't surprised. Kept having the strangest dreams. > > **Bradbury:** Can a person whispering in an ear induce dreams? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Teddy - wasn't a person. Any more. > > //Pause.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** So I restarted my research. Well, I wasn't going to take it lying down! I dug out my old notes, my old - well, everything. Much of it I'd given to Freddie, and it was in your archives, so I couldn't find it. But I reconstructed it, and made sure to... > > //Pause.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** I can't remember. It was so long ago. I remember grass, and what wing of the house we lived in. I remember - God, Ronald, it's all in flashes. It's all going away now. I - I held on so long, and now... > > **Bradbury:** It's OK. Breathe deep. That's it - slow, steady breathes. > > //Pause, punctuated by heavy breathing.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** Thank you. So - so I tried to find out what was going on. Freddie didn't like that much. He wanted to forget all about it, act like nothing was happening. He kept taking long, long walks across the hills, while I beavered away in my study. And then, he - he - > > //The sound of faint, controlled sobbing is heard.// > > **Bradbury:** Here. > > **SCP-9799-1:** Th-thanks. > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** Well - well, there was a fall, of course, up on the ridge. I - I saw it happen. I thought - for a second, you see, I thought I saw a figure there, talking to him. A man, maybe. I didn't think much of it at first, you see - so many other horrors to worry about. But then... > > **Bradbury:** You thought it was Teddy. > > **SCP-9799-1:** It was. I saw him again, wandering the hallways. He seemed dejected, nervous - guilty, perhaps. I don't know what he did, but I knew he was responsible. And I hated him for it. > > **Bradbury:** I'm sorry. > > **SCP-9799-1:** It's alright. There's not much of it left, now. I've forgotten so much. > > //Pause// > > **Bradbury:** What about Freddie? Did he ever manifest as one of you? > > **SCP-9799-1:** No, but, he wouldn't. Never liked to dwell in the past. I think your lot had sapped him of all that. No, Freddie wouldn't come back. And now I can't even remember his face, Ronald. I can't remember his face. > > **Bradbury:** I'm - I'm sorry. > > **SCP-9799-1:** You can be sorry all you like, it won't change things. But Teddy... Teddy I saw for years. Teddy haunted me, never speaking, just pacing up and down in front of that damned mantelpiece, like - well, like it was still his. But it wasn't! It was mine! He had his time, he left it all to me, and then he goes and... > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** And that's it. That was my life. > > **Bradbury:** What do you mean? What happened next? > > **SCP-9799-1:** Nothing. I spent the next few years here, alone, watching the money dry up. The last of the Soames money. I tried to put my hand to things, jobs, but nothing worked. The wallpaper started to peel off. It was a lovely colour, you know. Red and white - I picked it out myself. And now it's this - this green, this disgusting green... > > **Bradbury:** Who put it there? > > **SCP-9799-1:** I don't remember. I don't remember much, any more. All I am is memories, and it's just so //hard//... to keep myself together... > > //Pause// > > **Bradbury:** But why have you? I mean - I don't mean you should //stop// or anything, but - > > //SCP-9799-1 laughs.// > > **SCP-9799-1:** You are a card, Ronald. Isn't it obvious? I died at thirty, of liver cancer. My first husband died, then my second committed - well, he fell. And then I died. All my husbands, all I thought made up my life, snuffed away like it was nothing. > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** It would be so easy, wouldn't it? To let go. The others all did, in the end. The contradictions of their lives, that make everyone else forget, made them let go. There are only a few brief flashes of us, Ronald, and then we - dissipate. Into the vast, empty darkness. I can feel it - I can stretch out and reach it, just there, just... > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** But not yet. I can't yet. It has to have been //for// something, Ronald. Otherwise I really will be dead, and so will Freddie, and - and Teddy. It has to have been for something. It has to. Somebody has to remember, and - and it'll have to be you, now, I suppose. I've waited so long for someone, anyone... > > //Pause// > > **SCP-9799-1:** It's night outside, isn't it? The electric light is blaring and whining at me. Turn it off, Ronald. Make it stop, won't you? > > //<End log>// @@ @@ [[div style="border:solid 1px #999999; background:#f2f2c2; padding:5px; margin-bottom: 10px;"]] [[=]] **[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-9799/offset/0 Previous document]** | **[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-9799/offset/2 Next document]** [[/=]] [[/div]]