Dr. Anderson Montgomery, a researcher for
the SCP Foundation, was 35 years old when he received the call he knew would change
his life forever. He was one of those guys you could best describe
as married to the job. He’d never shown any interest in outside
hobbies. As far as anyone at the Foundation knew, he’d
never developed a love life or had any real enthusiasm toward the idea of one. He’d devoted all his time and energy to
work: Grinding away, putting in the hours, and doing whatever his employers asked of
him. And now, he was going to be punished for it. The call came from a Senior Site-19 Researcher
Dr. Gregory Vandivier, an old, stern Foundation veteran he’d worked under on a few projects
in the past. Dr. Vandivier, with his trademark calm, authoritative
voice, said, “You’ve been selected for SCP-231 duty. You’ll be working directly under my supervision. Pending the results of the mandated psychological
evaluations, you’ll be assisting me and the rest of the SCP-231 team in carrying out
Procedure 110 Montauk. I look forward to working with you.” The feeling was not mutual. When the call ended, the normally stoic and
professional Dr. Montgomery was in a cold sweat. He’d heard legends about SCP-231 and of
Procedure 110 Montauk. The Foundation has needed to do some extreme
things to keep dangerous anomalies contained - from sacrificing people to SCP-2845, The
Deer, and SCP-974, the Treehouse Predator, to murdering any civilian who gets too close
to SCP-823, the Carnival of Horrors. But Procedure 110 Montauk is a different league. It’s a containment measure so horrifying
that for many at the Foundation, it’s literally unspeakable. The knowledge of his impending transfer drove
Dr. Montgomery to do something he’d never done before: Socialize. He asked around to some of his fellow Site-19
researchers, querying as to whether any of them had performed - or knew anyone who had
performed - Procedure 110 Montauk on SCP-231. He was met with many blank, haunted faces,
and stares that seemed to look right through him. They told him that nobody in the history of
the Foundation had ever taken on Montauk detail and not accepted a course of amnestic therapy
afterward. Nobody who’d done it wanted to remember
their part in the atrocity. And perhaps that was the only consolation:
Once you’ve done it, at least they’ll give you the choice to forget. As Dr. Vandivier had alluded to over the phone,
the battery of tests performed to prepare Dr. Montgomery for his new duty was extensive. He was given the Milgram Obedience Examination
- which involved being ordered to knowingly give an innocent man electrical shocks. You have to score at least 72 on the test
to qualify for SCP-231 detail. Thorough background checks were conducted
into every facet of his life. No stone was unturned in making sure that
Dr. Montgomery would be the right man for the job. And nobody was less certain about the answer
to that than Dr. Anderson Montgomery himself. He knew about SCP-231. Everyone at the Foundation did. After all, if there was a 100-megaton nuclear
bomb sitting in your bedroom closet, wouldn’t you at least want to know that it was there? That was what SCP-231 was all about - except
that it makes a nuclear weapon look like a gentle kiss goodnight in comparison. If ever SCP-231 is compromised, it means the
end of reality as we know it and the beginning of a true nightmare. It’d all started with a warehouse a long
time ago. A warehouse purchased and registered under
the name, “D. Spivak”, believed to be the infamous Person of Interest Dipesh Spivak,
a power player in a little cult known as The Children of the Scarlet King. As the name suggests, they worship the eponymous
Scarlet King, one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in the entire multiverse
- a Nightmare God who represents chaos, cruelty, and primal violence. The Scarlet King’s followers were constantly
planning and executing new attempts to allow their master into our reality, and the latest
one was centered around this humble little warehouse on the edge of a city perhaps not
too far from yours... Noise complaints had caused suspicion to fall
upon this warehouse - screaming and chanting in the dead of night. Loud footsteps. Scraping metal. When the police arrived to check in on the
noise complaint, they were met with startling force. Robed strangers with heavy weaponry, gunning
them down left and right. What on earth were these maniacs defending
in there? A drug lab? Arms dealing? Human trafficking? The true answer would be even worse. Luckily for the first responders, they had
an unexpected cavalry swoop in to save the day: A well-armed and well-trained SCP Foundation
Mobile Task Force. They repelled the cultists and soon took over
the investigation, only to find that the terrible secret inside the warehouse was going to be
a handful - even for them. Seven girls, chained up and neglected, each
one the victim of horrible rituals and deeds by the cultists, appeared to be at the late
stages of pregnancy. The Foundation escorted the seven girls away
to a secure containment chamber, apprehending a few of their captors alive, and also managing
to collect a series of notebooks detailing the disgusting nature of the rituals. It was a perfect example of how sometimes,
mere humans can be the greatest monsters of all. Speaking of monsters, something awful happened
the night that the seven girls - designated SCP-231-1 through 7 - were brought in. During the recovery operation, SCP-231-1 began
having violent contractions and then suddenly gave birth. The incredibly aggressive anomaly she gave
birth to that night killed not only her, but over a hundred others - the doctors and researchers
who were unlucky enough to be in the area, and many of the trained Foundation soldiers
that were sent in to stop it. It became quickly apparent that this situation
was out of control, and each one of the remaining six girls might give birth to an even more
powerful threat. Senior Researcher Dr. Robert Montauk was brought
in to take over the SCP-231 case. The debate would go on among Foundation staff
for years as to whether he was the best or worst person for that particular job. You see, Dr. Montauk had a storied history
with the Children of the Scarlet King, the cult that had created SCP-231: Many years
before, his younger brother, Jacob, had gone missing, never to be seen again, and he believed
that they were the ones behind the disappearance. Naturally, Dr. Montauk thought a little revenge
was in order. Many at the Foundation believe that this rage,
this desire to get back at the cultists and the Scarlet King, caused him to create a procedure
as horrifying as the one that would forever bear his name. He conceived it after obsessively reading
through the cults’ notebooks, and conducting brutal interrogations against the members
of the cult that they had captured. He had taken the cult’s own inhuman methods
and reverse engineered them, making them even more barbaric in the process. It was an act so devoid of compassion and
decency that many believe Dr. Montauk would later go insane and become an enemy of the
very Foundation that allowed him to exact his revenge. Since then, SCP-231 has become an anomaly
marred by tragedy after tragedy. Foundation scientists attempted to terminate
the pregnancy of SCP-231-2, but instead, this simply induced her to give birth. It was another huge disaster, with scores
of people - SCP-231-2 included - being killed in the process. SCP-231-3 is believed to have died due to
the sheer intensity of the Procedure 110 Montauk protocols, and once again released an entity
in the process that went on to cause a massive loss of life. SCP-231-4 was given a sample of SCP-500, the
Panacea, which is a collection of pills that can cure anything. It did cause her to successfully eject the
231 fetus, but this fetus then went on to cause another mass casualty event, killing
SCP-231-4 and so many others. A botched application of the Montauk procedure
was what set off SCP-231-5, and resulted in not only a huge number of additional deaths
but the destruction of Site 231-Aleph - the entire site used in the holding of SCP-231
specimens. The Montauk procedure also caused the incident
with SCP-231-6, though in a slightly more indirect way. A rogue agent had been driven mad with guilt
by his part in Procedure 110 Montauk and tried to escape with SCP-231-6. The resulting firefight caused SCP-231-6 to
give birth, killing her, the rogue agent, and everyone else unlucky enough to be caught
nearby. Every time one of these incidents occurred,
the disaster got worse. By all current Foundation projections, if
ever SCP-231-7 gave birth, it’d be a coin toss on whether it caused an XK-Class End
of the World Scenario. And that’s not the kind of risk the SCP
Foundation can ever leave to chance. Performing Procedure 110 Montauk at least
once every 24 hours on SCP-231-7 was the only way to ensure humanity’s continued safety
from the Scarlet King. The D-Classes forced to perform the procedure
first-hand are even given explosive collars, so the Foundation can literally blow their
head off if they show a moment’s hesitation. All these thoughts and so many others were
swimming through Dr. Anderson Montgomery’s mind when he was finally escorted to the secure
and secretive facility where SCP-231-7 is kept and Procedure 110 Montauk is carried
out. It’s so classified that Dr. Montgomery needed
to be blindfolded and switched between seven different vehicles during the journey. He was told that if ever he attempted to remove
the blindfold in transit, he would be immediately shot. No questions asked. When he arrived, he found himself staring
into the stony face of Dr. Gregory Vandivier. A weathered man who had seen things he wished
he could forget. When young Dr. Montgomery walked with him,
they walked in relative silence, except for when Dr. Vandivier needed to deliver an order. You just didn’t talk about the kind of thing
they were about to take part in. Though Dr. Montgomery could feel it looming
over him like a shadow. They passed through more security checkpoints
on the way to the control room, as Dr. Montgomery’s palms began to sweat. He wished with everything in him that he could
turn back, that he could run for his life, but there was no time. If he did that now, he’d probably catch
a bullet in the back. But would even that be better than this? The two doctors soon arrived in the control
room. Monitors everywhere showed an empty room with
a single bed. Curiously, Dr. Montgomery noticed that a D-Class
was fluffing a pillow on the bed. That’s when the countdown began. Procedure 110 Montauk was about to commence. The sheer anticipation had Dr. Montgomery
on the edge of vomiting, and when the doors opened, and a heavily pregnant SCP-231-7 entered
the chamber, he almost fainted. The girl laid out on the bed. Moments later, a lone D-Class entered the
room. He was carrying a book. He took a seat on a chair near SCP-231-7’s
bed, and said, "Hello again, Katherine. I brought you a new one tonight, it's called
Goodnight Moon. Is that okay?" He then, to the immense surprise of Dr. Montgomery,
read SCP-231-7 a bedtime story until she drifted off to sleep. And with that, Procedure 110 Montauk was over. Dr. Montgomery didn’t understand. Had he gone insane? Did his mind invent all of this just to be
more comfortable with what he was actually seeing? But before he could ponder anymore, Dr. Vandivier
placed a fatherly hand on Dr. Montgomery’s shoulder, and finally gave him his explanation. The piece of the puzzle that made everything
come together. You see, Procedure 110 Montauk has never been
a monstrous method of torture. It’s never been a horrific atrocity. But for it to work, everyone needed to believe
it was. After all, The Scarlet King doesn’t watch
over everything like some biblical God. He only feels, and what he feels strongest
of all is terror, hate, and revulsion. No harm ever needed to befall Katherine, the
girl known as SCP-231-7, because the worst thing imaginable had already happened to her. The Foundation instead did something far more
clever: Through lying to even their own ranks, they lied to the Scarlet King, too. It was fear alone that sold the lie. Enough fear to mask the scent of their hidden
compassion. And it was a lie that the Scarlet King himself,
along with the rest of us, bought hook, line, and sinker. After all, evil doesn’t beat evil. Good does. Now go check out “SCP-001 - The Scarlet
King” and “Children of SCP-001 The Scarlet King - Is SCP-999 Really His Son?” for more
on the Scarlet King and the way his horrific deeds affect our world!
