“Candice Hayes, we have thy confession. A witch as brazen as you… shall be burned at the stake!” The crowd gathered in the small room bursts
into a cheer as the Judge hands down the sentence. The accused woman doesn’t react though,
she looks neither scared nor afraid, but simply resigned to her fate. No time is to be wasted in carrying out the
punishment that the judge has decreed. A pair of constables grab the woman by the
arms and take her away. A mob follows along as the woman is led through
the town, taunting and jeering, calling her a witch, a wife of satan, and worse names. She doesn’t seem affected by them though. In fact, she looks as if she can’t even
see them. Her attention is focused solely on one mysterious
woman who walks along with the crowd, and yet somehow seems disconnected, as if she
isn’t truly there either. The two women maintain eye contact as the
constables keep pushing the condemned woman along. They lead the woman outside of town to a tall hill. The ropes binding the woman’s hands are
cut and she has just a moment to rub her sore wrists before she is forced to the ground
and lashed to a piece of wood as another group tosses the last logs onto a nearby pile. Once she is securely tied down the constables
step away, but then another man wearing a hood approaches. He carries a large club and without hesitation,
begins beating her legs. The woman’s composure finally breaks and
she cries in pain from the cracking of her bones. The crowd only cheers louder at the screams
from the witch. The beating has left the woman’s legs mangled,
but this is far from over. The woman, still strapped to the wood, is
placed on the pyre, where she hangs like a scarecrow above the combustible material. The judge steps forward out of the screaming
mob carrying a torch. He loudly exclaims that for her crimes, she
will be burned until dead. But the judge doesn’t step forward. He instead announces that another will have
the honor of lighting the flame. Another man steps out of the crowd and takes
the torch from the judge. He walks towards the pyre and looks up at
the woman. She’s exhausted from the beating, but she
lifts her head. She doesn’t look at the man with the torch
though, she’s looking past him, locking eyes with the mysterious woman who walked
along with the crowd. The man looks angry, slighted that she won’t
even meet his eyes in this final moment, and without another moment’s hesitation, he
tosses the torch onto the pyre. The wood lights instantly, the tinder combusting
and turning into a huge, roaring fire. The crowd also erupts into even louder cries
of celebration as the woman screams from inside the blaze. The man watches as the woman is lost behind
the fire and the smoke, and eventually her cries too are hidden behind the crackles and
pops of the flames. He doesn’t move until the fire has nearly
burned itself out. Most of the crowd has left at this point,
having gone back to their homes content with the role they played in doing the Lord’s
work. As the constables pull a charred torso down
from the wood and unceremoniously toss it over a steep side of the hill, the man finally
turns and starts to walk away, a tear rolling down his cheek. The judge approaches and places a hand on
the man’s shoulder. “There there,” the judge says, attempting
to comfort the man. “You’ll find a new wife soon enough.” Hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft
in Colonial America, and while it is likely that many were falsely accused, there is reason
to believe that some were under the influence of or were themselves, what we now describe
as anomalies. And SCP-3998 is just such an example. Better known as… The Wicker Witch Lives. SCP-3998 is a human cadaver which dates from
the late seventeenth century that is covered in fourth degree burns and is missing its
legs. There is also evidence of extensive blunt
force trauma, but it's not known if the beating or the burning was the ultimate cause of death. At some point, the remains were collected
and fastened into a scarecrow that is held together with wicker, nails, and wire. While a scarecrow fashioned from a cadaver
is rather unconventional, what brought SCP-3998 to the SCP Foundation’s attention were its
other anomalous attributes. It constantly secretes a flammable liquid
from its bones that primarily consists of ethanol and human fat and every night between
11pm and 4am, the corpse ignites. This fire doesn’t cause any damage to the
corpse though, and it is unknown how it produces the flammable liquid or ignites. 3998 does not keep its flames to itself though. It appears that the SCP targets those who
have either killed or physically abused a romantic partner, causing them to catch fire
as large quantities of boiling ethanol appear in their stomach. Their midsection will eventually melt and
then explode, leading to amputation of the lower half of their body. The fire burns both incredibly hot and unnaturally
fast, and is unable to be put out until SCP-3998 is extinguished. A number of historical documents related to
the case have been discovered and made available to Foundation researchers that shed light
on SCP-3998, including excerpts from a 17th century diary belonging to a woman who lived
near where the cadaver was discovered. In the entries, the woman describes attending
the wedding of her neighbors, Aiden and Candice Hayes, though Candice did not seem especially
happy with the arrangement. Candice is characterized as someone who likes
to keep to herself and who does not conform to the era’s idea of a good wife. As a result, it appears that she became the
victim of abuse at the hand of her husband. The diarist hypothesizes that Candice has
brought this fate upon herself due to her behavior, which may stem from her being under
the hold of the devil. In other words, the neighbor believes that
Candice is a witch. Others must have had the same suspicion, because
we also have records of Candice’s interview with a Judge William Stoughton, who questioned
her about the accusations of consorting with evil spirits. Candice readily admitted to this, though she
disagreed that it was in any way evil. She told the judge that the rituals and magics
she practiced were not inherently good or bad, and that anyone was capable of using
the same tools. She went on to explain that she hated her
husband, that she had been forced to marry him, and that he had been nothing but cruel
and violent towards her. Candice also mentioned a name, Clovis, that
the judge assumed to be the demon that she has made her cursed pact with. Candice appeared to offer no defense or excuses
for her actions, and the judge sentenced her to die by burning at the stake, with her husband,
Aiden, being the one to light the fire. The story of this witch trial was typical
of the time, and that likely would have been the end of what we know about SCP-3998, but
another historical document was located that has truly given a new perspective to this
anomaly. A sealed letter found in the cellar of a home
that is addressed to Candice, though it appears to have been written after her death. The letter is from her secret lover, and describes
how they collected Candice’s burnt bones from the bottom of the hill before binding
them together with wicker and wire. The letter then describes how Candice’s
husband has recently restocked his own home with gin, which is well known to be extremely
flammable. The letter ends with an affirmation of the
writer’s eternal love for Candice and is signed… Clovis. But perhaps the best information we have about
the origin of SCP-3998 comes from an obscure local tale that was passed down orally for
years and eventually documented on an urban legend website. The legend tells of a woman who promised her
soul to a she-devil who taught her magic but also offered companionship. When her husband found out, he contacted the
local authorities and had the woman arrested. She was tried, her legs were broken, and she
was hung up like a scarecrow before being burned alive. Her body was dumped off the side of a mountain
but the she-devil collected her bones and gave her life again. The need for revenge burned in the woman’s
heart, so in the middle of the night she doused herself in her husband’s gin, set herself
on fire once more, and fell upon him as he slept, burning him alive so he could suffer
the way that she did. SCP-3998 is currently held in a Secure Holding
Locker in Site-34 that is fireproofed and vacuum sealed to prevent it from igniting. Every morning at 9am, 3998 and its locker
are cleaned to remove the secretions of flammable liquid. D-Class personnel who have been convicted
of domestic abuse crimes are to always be kept at the site to ensure that they are the
targets of SCP-3998, which when it’s not allowed to ignite, will result in them only
feeling mild discomfort in their head and chest rather than spontaneous combustion. Due to its relatively easy method of containment,
SCP-3998 has been classified as Safe. However, recent developments have caused the
Foundation to rethink this classification. Despite 3998 being securely contained, the
number of arson related homicides in the state of Massachusetts have actually increased following
containment, with many showing the same damage to their body as would be expected in a victim
of SCP-3998. And while it may be that these are the result
of a yet uncaught serial killer who simply happens to employ similar methods of killing
their victims, a recent re-examination of the SCP-3998 corpse has revealed more troubling
details. The body of SCP-3998 does not belong to Candice
Hayes, and in fact appears to be a male who was in his thirties at the time of his death. Following these new revelations, re-classification
of SCP-3998 to Euclid is pending. Whether SCP-3998 is the body of Candice’s
husband Aiden, forced to endure an eternal punishment of burning again each and every
night, or if its some other unfortunate victim of a violent and painful death is unknown,
as is the ultimate fate of Candice and Clovis. But with the deaths that would appear to be
attributable to SCP-3998 showing no signs of stopping despite containment, it can only
be assumed that… The Wicker Witch… lives. Now go and watch another entry from the files
of Dr. Bob, and be sure to subscribe as we delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s
classified archives.
