Two teenagers cautiously approach an old,
decrepit house. The house looks like it was built hundreds
of years ago and from the outside, it appears to be in a serious state of disrepair. The walls are cracked and weathered, the roof
looks to have holes in it, and one of the decorative columns has completely collapsed. The teenagers have heard rumors about this
dilapidated home though, and they have heard there are riches still to be found inside. One of the teens starts walking up the stairs
onto the porch, but his friend seems reluctant to follow. Is he sure that no one lives here? The braver of the teens tells his friend that
he’s been watching the house for days and hasn’t seen anyone come in or out. The only signs of life have been a very faint
light visible between the cracks of the house’s boarded up windows. And he’s not even sure if he actually saw
any lights or not. If there is anyone in there, it’s just some
crazy old person. They can easily scare them off and loot the
house at their leisure. His friend still doesn’t look sure, but
the other teen proceeds to take out a lockpick. He tells his friend to keep a lookout while
he works on the door. He doesn’t need to keep watch for long though,
since the lock almost immediately opens with a loud click. He opens the door carefully, but it still
squeaks loudly. Through the crack he can’t see much of anything
inside, it looks very dark. “Come on,” he tells his friend, as he
slips inside. His friend looks nervous as he watches his
friend disappear into the house. Suddenly there’s a loud crash! “Oh no, we’ve been caught!” he thinks
as he spins around. But he doesn’t see a police officer coming
to arrest them or a nosy passerby, instead he watches as a cat chases a rat into some
trash cans, knocking more of them over. He breathes a sigh of relief as he watches
the cat come out of the pile of trash, holding its prey limply by the tail. He turns to follow his friend into the house
but is stopped when the door snaps shut in his face. He tries the doorknob, but it’s locked. He taps quietly on the door. No response. He taps a little louder, whispering “Hey,
what’s going on?” but still no response. What is going on? Inside, his friend is also pulling on the
doorknob but it’s no use, the door won’t budge and the lock won’t turn. He also tries tapping lightly on the door
but there’s no signs from outside that anyone has heard him. He’s trapped. He looks around the darkened room. Just like the outside, the interior looks
like it hasn’t been updated in hundreds of years. Dust and cobwebs are everywhere, like no one
has set foot inside in decades, and yet, on several small tables and shelves around the
room, are lit candles. With no other option, he decides to move deeper
into the house. He creeps into the next room, which is in
much the same condition as the first, dusty and old but with several candles placed around
that give off just the faintest amount of flickering yellow light. Not only does someone still live here, but
they’ve lit these candles recently. He takes a folding knife out of his pocket
and opens it, holding the blade out in front of him. Just then he hears something. A noise like footsteps, and it sounds like
it’s coming from upstairs in the room right above him. They might be coming down to look for him. He needs a place to hide. He spots a sofa near the corner and tries
to get down behind it as much as possible. As he grips the edge of the sofa with one
hand, he suddenly drops his knife to the floor and uses his now free hand to stifle a scream. He looks at the hand that was just gripping
the sofa and sees a long sewing needle plunged deep into his hand. Was this stuck into the couch? He pulls the needle out of his hand, it nearly
went all the way through, and holds the bloody wound up to his mouth, trying to stop the
flow of blood as he waits and listens. The sound of footsteps finally stop. Whoever is walking around, it doesn’t sound
like they’re coming down the stairs to find him. He has to get out of this house though, there
must be another way out. He picks up his knife and quietly moves to
the next room. Once again, it’s in the same condition as
the last. But wait, what’s that in the corner? Is that a person lying there? Outside the house, his friend is looking through
the same trash that he saw the cat hunting in. Ahah! Just what he was looking for, an old wire
hanger. He runs back to the old house, untwists it,
and inserts the thin wire into the lock. Inside, the trespassing teen gets closer and
closer to the thing in the corner. It’s so dim though, with the only light
coming from the candles that he still can’t make out what it is, but he feels strangely
compelled to find out. He picks up one of the candles off of a nearby
table. Outside he still can’t get the lock open,
but he’s got to keep trying, he can’t leave his friend trapped inside. He’s standing right over the thing in the
corner now. He kneels down and brings the candle close
to see what it is… and screams. His friend throws down the hangar in frustration
before sitting down on the porch. He can’t figure out why his friend was able
to open the lock so easily and now it won’t move. Did something in the mechanism break? He doesn’t know what he’s going to do
though, should he call for help? The police will arrest them both if he does. How long should he wait though? It feels like his friend has been stuck for
a long time and he hasn’t heard anything from inside. What could possibly be happening in there? Should he just leave and hope that his friend
is able to escape on his own? Just as he is wondering what to do he hears
a click behind him. He turns around and tries the door handle
but it’s still locked. He looks down and sees the wire hanger. Maybe he’ll give it one more try. He sticks the hanger into the lock and hears
the lock pop open almost instantly. He tries the door handle and this time, the
door swings open. He stands there looking through the cracked
door into the dark house. He’s terrified at the thought of going inside,
but he can’t leave his friend in there. If he’s in trouble then he has to save him. Gathering up all of his courage, he enters
the house and sees the same thing his friend did, a dusty old room. He takes a step into the candlelit room and
freezes, there’s something in the middle of the room. It’s a chair that’s turned away from him,
but he can see that someone is sitting in it. But wait, is that his friend? “Hey” he calls in a loud whisper, but
his friend doesn’t respond. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Still no response. He starts walking towards his friend, but
stops when he hears what sounds like footsteps coming from the room above him. He’s got to get his friend and get out of
this house. He checks over his shoulder to make sure the
door is still open before starting to quietly move towards his friend again. He’s close enough that he can reach out
and shake his shoulder, but his friend doesn’t react. He walks around to the front of the chair
and sees his friend. Except it’s no longer his friend. Staring back at him are two empty eye sockets. His mouth has been pulled back by stitches
of thread into a horrifying permanent grin. But worst of all is what he hears. It’s the sound of the front door… slamming
shut. Privet! Today’s file is a special one and comes
from the Russian branch of the SCP Foundation. It’s SCP-1098-RU also known as… The Theater of Living Puppets. SCP-1098-RU is a two story house located in
a small Russian city which appears to have been constructed in the Baroque style, which
was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and is characterized by its exuberant details. The house is likely several hundred years
old and is in an advanced state of disrepair. The local government administration has marked
the house for demolition multiple times, but for reasons that remain unknown, these plans
are always scrapped or indefinitely delayed. All of the doors that lead into SCP-1098-RU
are locked, and the windows are all boarded up. Anyone who attempts to damage the house, even
just by removing the boards from the windows, will experience an odd anomalous effect that
compels them to instead protect the structure and cause it no harm. This effect only wears off when the subject
moves at least fifty meters away from the house. The only way to enter SCP-1098-RU is through
the front door, which even though it is locked, is easily able to be picked open which causes
no harm to the house and prevents the anomalous effect from overcoming the subject trying
to gain entrance. Once someone has entered the house, they will
find that the door closes behind him and locks itself. The lock can not then be picked open again
for one hour. The interior of the house matches the exterior
stylistically, also appearing to have been designed in the Baroque style and in a poor
condition. The house is quite dark since there are no
electric lights present and all of the windows are boarded up, blocking any outside light. The only illumination comes from the lit candles
that are placed around the house, which appear to be constantly replaced and lit again when
they burn out. The sound of slow footsteps can be heard inside
the house though the room they are coming from seems to change. The entity producing the sounds has been classified
as SCP-1098-RU-1, and it is thought that it is also responsible for the placing and re-lighting
of candles around the house, as well as several other anomalous effects. The Russian branch of the SCP Foundation first
became aware of potential anomalous activity related to SCP-1098-RU after the disappearance
of multiple teenagers was linked to the location. In interviews, many of their friends and family
reported that their last known locations were near the site of the old Baroque style home,
and several had expressed a desire to investigate the house before they disappeared. Local police investigated the house, which
only led to them disappearing as well. After learning of the strange activity connected
to the house, the Foundation took over the investigation, planting a cover story that
“Totalitarian Sects” were responsible for the disappearances, while class A amnestics
were administered to all relatives of the missing teens. The Foundation immediately began investigating
the house, but carefully, since they had already seen how easily people could go missing inside. In the first excursion into the house, a remotely
controlled robot fitted with a camera was sent inside. Just like when a person enters, the door closed
and locked behind the robot, but its camera feed continued to broadcast images to the
researchers outside. As the robot explored the run-down house’s
rooms it found something much more disturbing than just lit candles. In several of the rooms, corpses were discovered
which were later identified as being some of the missing teenagers. All of the bodies found had their eyeballs
removed and thick threads had been sewn into their arms and legs, as if they had been turned
into giant living puppets. Some of them also had stitches in their chest
and face areas. The face stitches appear to have been made
to force the face to have a certain expression, while the chest stitches may indicate that
organs had been removed. No signs of decomposition were present though,
despite some of the bodies likely being many months old. Several objects were also found next to the
bodies including surgical knives, needles, thread, and at least one artificial eye. Exactly one hour after the robot entered the
house the camera ceased broadcasting images and all contact was lost. For the second excursion into the house, the
Foundation decided that a human being would be more effective at gathering information
than a robot. A Class-D personnel was given a flashlight,
a camera, and a radio and sent on a mission to attempt to remove objects from the house
and to locate the robot from the first research mission. The D-Class entered the house, and researchers
noted that from what they could see on the video feed, that the layout of the house hadn’t
changed. Candles were still present around the room,
though it was clear that they had been replaced by fresh ones. As the D-Class explored the first floor of
the house, he reported that he could hear footsteps coming from different parts of the
house, and on one occasion that they sounded like they were coming from a room he had just
left, but when he returned to that room no one was present. He wasn’t able to locate the missing robot,
but did find the same corpses that the robot had. He was ordered by the researchers to pick
up one of the surgical knives and try bringing it out of the house, but the moment he picked
it up, all contact was lost. A third mission into the house was then tried,
this time with another remotely controlled robot, though this one was more advanced and
equipped with a thermal imager and audio recording equipment. This robot was also better suited for exploration
and was capable of climbing stairs so that the Foundation could finally find out what
was on the second floor of this strange house. The robot entered the home and ascended to
the second floor. As it explored the rooms, it found one particularly
strange one that appeared to be operating as a kind of sewing workshop, with huge amounts
of thread, needles, and other sewing supplies spread across multiple tables. Dark red stains covered many of the tables,
but no bodies were discovered in the sewing room. The robot continued to explore the second
floor though, and soon discovered many more corpses, accounting for nearly all of the
missing teenagers, the police that had vanished, as well as the missing D-Class personnel. All of them had been dressed in 18th century
style clothing and their eyes had been removed and replaced with artificial ones, giving
them a perpetual glassy eyed stare. Long, thick threads had been sewn into their
arms and legs as well. The sound recording equipment on the robot
captured the same sounds of footsteps that the D-Class had reported, but the thermal
imager didn’t locate any signs of life. The researchers decided to call an end to
the experiment and began guiding the robot back out of the house, but just as it reached
the front door the connection was lost, and the robot has never been located. One final expedition into the home was approved,
this time using another Class-D personnel, whose mission was to explore the entire house
including the second floor, before attempting to leave the home. The D-Class entered the home as normal, but
immediately reported feeling a strange feeling that the other D-Class hadn’t mentioned. He told the researchers listening that he
was experiencing an intense headache and pressure in his ears, and that he could hear what sounded
like someone crying in another room. None of the equipment picked up the crying
sounds and the D-Class was ordered to investigate further. He approached the room that he claimed the
sound was coming from, but still nothing was detected on the audio recording equipment. He was ordered to enter the room, and though
he seemed scared and reluctant, eventually he did so. Once inside, he reported seeing a young girl
wearing an 18th century style dress. The girl was dancing, but crying as she did
so. Just like on the corpses that had previously
been found inside the house, threads were connected to her arms and legs, but these
ones were pulled tight and stretched up towards the ceiling. The D-Class followed their path up but they
disappeared into the darkness, reporting that it looked like there was no ceiling at all,
just an inky black void where something was manipulating the strings attached to the girl,
forcing her to dance. None of these visuals reported by the class
D could be seen on the video feeds the researchers were watching. As far as they could see, he was staring into
an empty room. The D-Class was ordered to continue watching
this strange recital though, and after five minutes, all of the communication devices
ceased working. The video feed was lost too but the audio
continued to record for a few more seconds, during which time a sharp clap noise was heard. The D-class began screaming as a deep male
voice spoke a phrase in Latin. “Et perficiendi sit pretium”... The performance must be paid for. No further signs of the D-Class were ever
found. SCP-1098-RU has since been fenced off to prevent
the general public from being able to enter it. A patrol team of four security guards is always
on site and anyone who attempts to gain entry to the house is to be detained, interrogated,
and administered class B amnestics. Additional research into SCP-1098-RU is ongoing,
but requires approval from at least two members of the O5 Council and to date, no further
expeditions inside this anomaly which has been given the object class Euclid have been
authorized. It is still unknown who, or what exactly the
entity inside of SCP-1098-RU is, but it has been designated as SCP-1098-RU and some in
the Foundation have taken to calling it by a nickname… The Master of Puppets. Now go and watch another entry from the files
of Dr. Bob, like SCP-026 After School Retention, for another terrifying anomalous location. And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications,
so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s
classified archives.
