We’ve all heard of the Led Zeppelin song
“Stairway to Heaven”, a title that invokes the image of a stairway leading up to a land
of peace and paradise. But where else could a stairway lead? To a dusty attic full of old photo albums. To the upper level of a mall, where the movie
theater and frozen yogurt shop are neatly situated. Perhaps it leads to a rooftop with a beautiful
view. Or maybe, just maybe, a staircase could lead
you to SCP-2427. SCP-2427, appropriately nicknamed “A Thing
Full of Stuff”, is an extradimensional area filled with a variety of unusual and anomalous
objects. SCP-2427 can be accessed by way of a broken
stone staircase located in rural Ohio. According to local legend, carrying a sprig
of hemlock up the broken stairs will allow a person to emerge into a mysterious grass
clearing that appears to be in a forest somewhere in the United States. No matter what time a person ascends the staircase,
the solar time in the clearing will always be 2:00 PM. You know how people say “it’s 5:00 somewhere?” Well, it’s 2:00 somewhere too, and that
somewhere is here. The pocket dimension that is SCP-2427 is thought
to have been a holding area for weapons, prisoners, and artifacts belonging to an ancient cult
known as The Brazen Heart. Little is known about this relatively obscure
cult, other than the fact that they worship the demonic entity Moloch - a known enthusiast
of violent human sacrifice - and were previously thought to have been eradicated during the
Spanish Inquisition. The existence of SCP-2427 suggests that they
are very much not eradicated and are still active. They refer to these holding areas as “attics”
and though no confirmed members of the Brazen Heart have been contacted, it is considered
possible that there are at least a handful of other attics hidden around the world. The Foundation has identified seven anomalous
objects inside of SCP-2427 so far, each strange in its own beautiful, though often terrible,
way. Like snowflakes, if they were capable of killing
or maiming you. The first object in SCP-2427, aka SCP-2427-1,
is a seemingly normal fire hydrant. However, if you think there’s anything normal
about the items found here then you haven’t been paying attention. The hydrant is made out of lead, and, when
opened, it expels high levels of ionized radiation. No specific measurements of the radiation
have been taken yet, but it is definitely hazardous to human health. One unfortunate member of D-class personnel
has proven that it is a high enough level to melt human flesh. Sorry about your face, Dave. The hydrant is currently contained within
an electrified perimeter and is not to be opened under any circumstances to prevent
any further flesh melting. The last thing we need is another Dave incident. The second object contained within SCP-2427,
or SCP-2427-2, is not actually an object at all, it’s a building. Only on number two, and we’re already throwing
curveballs at you. Trust no one, surprises lurk around every
corner. This particular building resembles a large,
multi-storied sanitarium built in the 1860s. Though it is clear from the outside that the
building has, or should have, multiple stories, the inside is a different matter. Past the building’s front doors is a non-Euclidian
space consisting of a single floor and three sparsely decorated rooms with one central
foyer. The first room is the holding place for SCP-2427-3,
the second contains SCP-2427-4, and the third room contains nothing except scattered religious
documents, bottled water, and a selection of canned foods. No unauthorized staff are permitted to enter
the building, in order to minimize complications or potential employee casualties. The first two anomalies on this list are hardly
even strange by SCP Foundation standards. Sure, the hydrant can melt your face and the
building defies the laws of physics and space, but that’s just a regular Tuesday around
these parts. been there, seen that. What else have you got? Well, SCP-2427-3 is where things really get
strange. If you’re wandering through the bowels of
SCP-2427-2 and you make a wrong turn into the first room, you will find yourself face
to face with a startling sight. This entity is a combination of electronic
circuitry, a cow’s digestive tract, the hairless head of a human man, a hat rack,
several lengths of garden hose, and an unidentified crystalline structure. This creature is extraordinarily fast and
strong, exhibiting carnivorous tendencies and a very strong point of view on the world
around it. Lucky for us, it is capable of speech and
is able to tell us just what it thinks. Though this monstrosity doesn’t have much
of a right to pass judgment on anyone, cow intestine body and all, it has expressed a
violent hatred of all life that it considers “impure”. Anyone who encounters SCP-2427-3 experiences
an overwhelming desire to submit themselves for judgment, allowing the creature to determine
their “purity”. There is a rumor that, if one is judged to
be “pure”, they will have a wish granted. If they are deemed impure, however, they will
be devoured alive. If you’re tempted to introduce yourself
to the creature, your odds are not especially great. The creature has not encountered a single
“pure” being yet. In order to protect the Foundation staff working
in its vicinity, the entrance to SCP-2427-3’s room has been sealed off with a reinforced
steel door, and the windows have been paved over with concrete. Armed guards are watching the entrance at
all times. The creature must be fed one live goat per
day, in order to keep its appetite sated. The Foundation’s goat budget is through
the roof these days, but it’s worth it to keep the thing contained. Better to spend money on goats now and not
spend money on cannibalized personnel later. SCP-2427-4 consists, not of an object located
within a room, but the room itself. The room, which contains no furniture and
a linoleum floor, has a peculiar effect on the human psyche. Once a person steps foot into the room, they
lose consciousness for five minutes. During this time, they will speak freely,
listing off a variety of negative qualities about themselves. Once they wake up, they have no memory of
entering this state, or anything that they said during it. It’s cheaper than therapy, right? But it’s also much weirder, and less effective,
so you get what you pay for in the end. A member of D-Class personnel who was observed
inside of the room waxed poetic about his personal failings, beginning his monologue
with “my soul is a den of spiders” and ending it with “O hearer, whence I awaken,
hesitate not to feed my flesh and my soul to the Judge-beast.” Somebody give this guy a hug. Because the room seems to have no adverse
effects on human test subjects, except for causing everyone who hears their monologue
a bit of discomfort, there are no containment procedures in effect for it at this time. We’ve had rooms, fire hydrants, and horrible
meat-robot hybrids, and now? You can’t even trust the clouds in the sky. SCP-2427-5 is a seemingly innocent cloud,
hovering stationary over the building. When looked at by a human for more than three
seconds, the cloud will eject a ball of solid lead toward the person at a supersonic speed. That’s right, folks. This cloud can and will shoot you. It hates being observed, but it also hates
when you try to leave the perimeter. It will attack any person attempting to leave
by firing the same lead ball at them. So far, 14 personnel have been killed by this
highly aggressive cloud. And some people still think thunderstorms
and hail are the worst things clouds have to offer. So naïve. As it is a literal cloud, there is no way
to contain it, so no people in the vicinity of the cloud are permitted to look at it for
more than three seconds at a time. SCP-2427-6 is a series of 18 small trees,
spread throughout the instance of SCP-2427. Above ground, the trees look normal, though
their species has proven surprisingly difficult to determine. From an external perspective, they are simply
ordinary trees. However, radar analysis revealed that the
roots of these trees are deeply strange. Instead of the usual twisting tree roots,
the ground below these trees contains a mass in the shape of a human body. Much to the disgust of the observing researchers,
these humanoid masses occasionally twitch and move, as if alive. The trees themselves appear to be growing
from the crotch area of each humanoid figure. How’s that for morning wood? This arrangement between tree and person seems
to be some kind of punishment, as each tree is marked with a plaque reading: “The lecherous
suffer what they must and it is beautiful.” Until it can be certain that the condition
of these human roots is not contagious, these trees are to be treated as potential biohazards
and isolated in individual containers. The final object in SCP-2427 currently categorized
by the Foundation is SCP-2427-7. SCP-2427-7 is a pile of ashes and wood located
just behind a posted sign that reads: “The Liars’ Cradle.” Extensive testing has established that the
Liars’ Cradle was almost certainly used as a torture device in interrogations performed
by The Brazen Heart. A person standing within the boundaries of
the cradle, which encompasses the aforementioned circle of wood and ashes, is unable to lie
without suffering the consequences. Namely, they will be set on fire. The nature of how exactly the Liars’ Cradle
works is not certain, and more research needs to be done on it. However, this much is known for sure: it contains
no sentient intelligence, it is not aware of what it is doing. It does not kill its victims, rather it keeps
them miraculously alive as it sets them on fire, prolonging their agony and allowing
their interrogators to get the truth out of them. A series of experiments revealed that it only
immolates a person who is knowingly lying. D-Class personnel given demonstrably false
information to repeat in the Cradle without knowledge of its falsehood were not set on
fire. However, when those same D-Class personnel
knowingly lied in the boundaries, they immediately were set ablaze. It is almost certain that the Brazen Heart
cult used the cradle as a method of interrogating presumed liars in their midst. Further investigation will likely reveal human
remains beneath the Cradle itself, though this is just a hypothesis currently. But come on, there has to be some bones somewhere
beneath something as ominous as The Liars’ Cradle. Though they have only identified seven anomalies
inside SCP-2427 at the moment, there are plenty more lurking in there waiting to be discovered. In the foyer of SCP-2427-2, the Foundation
discovered an extremely ominous list of items, clearly belonging to members of the cult of
the Brazen Heart. This list included some familiar items, such
as “pilgrim provisions” also known as the canned beans and soups found in SCP-2427-2,
a Level Three Purity Proctor, a Purge Engine - disguised as a fire hydrant - and the Liars’
Cradle. However, it also contained many things that
have not yet been discovered, such as One Slaughtering Perseverance, 27 Pyre Children,
Three Ascended Cultivars, Seven Supreme Angelics, Nine Dragons, and the Brazen Heart itself. Dr. Gordon MacElroy, Site Director of Area-2427,
put out a memo to all Level 4 and higher staff assigned to the area after the discovery of
this list. Understandably, he was most concerned about
the “supreme angelics” and the “dragons”, particularly the latter. The cult, as most cults are, is fond of deliberately
obscure language, but you don’t want to rule out the possibility they’ve got a fire-breathing
lizard or two stashed away. In the meantime, as the Foundation is working
to better understand the contents of SCP-2427, the area has been sealed off to the public. A 500m perimeter has been established around
its entrance, and a fake private country club has been set up as a front. It’s only a matter of time before the rest
of the anomalies on the list are discovered, and this Thing Full of Stuff gets even fuller,
of even more stuff. Let’s just hope none of it ever gets out. Because if there are more of these attics
out there, who knows what else the Brazen Heart is hiding? Their little cult may not be as extinct as
we thought... Now go check out “SCP-1461 - House of the
Worm” and “SCP Serpent's Hand Explained” for more crazy occult activity investigated
by the SCP Foundation!
