The written word can be a powerful tool. It has been used to speak truth to power,
to allow readers to journey to distant stars, and to explore the forbidden love triangle
between a human girl, a vampire, and a werewolf, in my personal favorite book series of all
time. Literature can be a truly incredible force,
and like anything capable of enacting great change, it can be used for good or for evil. In August of 2006, the home of the leader
of a religious group known as the “Church of True History” was raided by authorities. There, they found a variety of illegal materials,
but they also discovered a collection of books. One of the books found was a 450-page hardcover
book entitled, “Chronicle of the 20th Century.” Though it looked like an ordinary history
book, concerns surrounding the religious group and its leader led the police to analyze its
contents more carefully. And if you’re familiar with a certain other
anomalous chronicle, you may start feeling nervous right about now. The book’s publisher was listed as Interworld
Press, located in Chicago, IL, but an investigation into the publishing company revealed that
the company was never registered in the United States. Not only that, but the street it was supposed
to be located on didn’t even exist. One officer, a man named Detective Carl Jones,
was assigned to read through the book and take thorough notes on anything else unusual
he might find. The book consisted largely of newspaper clippings
and short articles, covering significant events from January of 1900 to December of 1995. As Jones flipped through the book, he found
that it was well-written, thoroughly researched, and most importantly, it was largely accurate
to recorded history. At least, it was, until he reached 1956. From around June 15, 1956, onward, the events
described began to veer off course. They did not match any version of history
Jones was familiar with or anything he had even heard about. It went from a standard retelling of history,
to a sincere account of what appeared to be an alternative version of history. The strangeness did not end there. Jones’s colleagues noticed that as his examination
of the book progressed, he began to behave erratically. He expressed confusion, and his demeanor took
on a dazed quality. He would make statements about events from
the book as if they were fact, and when corrected by one of the other officers, would become
frustrated and overwhelmed. He began to have violent outbursts, throwing
a coffee cup against the wall while arguing with another man assigned to the case with
him. He overturned his desk chair, knocked papers
to the floor, and even tore out pieces of his own hair. He was given a psychological evaluation, and
found to be struggling with panic attacks, nightmares, and paranoia. Still, Jones insisted that he continue to
read through the book. As he continued to read, fellow officers noticed
that it was not only his mental state that was affected. His physical state began to change as well. Dark circles formed under his eyes, a clear
sign of exhaustion, a scar appeared on his cheek where there had previously been only
smooth skin. His knuckles became bloodied, though he swore
up and down that he had done nothing to cause it. While sitting at his desk, the officers stationed
nearest to Jones heard something small clatter to the floor. He looked up, and found that several of Jones’s
teeth had fallen out, for seemingly no reason. Finally, and most horrifically, Jones collapsed
to the floor and became unresponsive. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died
within hours. An autopsy produced more questions than answers
as his cause of death was declared: radiation poisoning. The police officers on the case proceeded
to interrogate the religious leader they had apprehended, looking for clues into the mysterious
demise of their fallen colleague. He said only that he had owned the book for
two years, and that he imbibed illegal substances to “hide from the truth.” A week later, he slipped into a coma, presumably
from withdrawal, and died shortly after. The police were at a loss for explanations. How could a book cause this much damage? Only one officer among the group had any inkling
of what to do here - And that was because they were actually an undercover field agent
embedded in the precinct by the SCP Foundation. The book was soon whisked away, the relevant
figures were given amnestic treatment to forget what they had seen, and the dangerous tome
was logged onto the Foundation database under a new name - SCP-592. SCP-592 appears to be a perfectly ordinary
book at first glance, but it has been shown to cause delusions, paranoia, and a variety
of physical changes from small shifts in appearance to extreme, even deadly, wounds. Understanding that the book possessed anomalous
properties, the Foundation set to work trying to determine how exactly those properties
worked, and what triggered them in those who read its pages. It was found that those who read only the
first half of the book and stopped would be completely fine. But those who read the book past the point
where the events began to shift away from recorded history, otherwise known as the Point
of Divergence, would begin to experience the adverse effects. Once a subject passed the Point of Divergence,
they would begin to accept all of the divergent events described as absolute fact. If someone attempted to speak with them about
the differences between the divergent events and real recorded history, the subject would
become upset and agitated. Even subjects who lived near the location
of events described in the book formed new, vivid memories revolving around personal experiences
related to the event. Even if the content of the memories could
be debunked, no matter what they would insist that what they had read in the book was the
truth. As they progressed deeper into the book, physical
symptoms would then begin to manifest. Usually, these began to appear around ten
years after the Point of Divergence and would worsen as the mental symptoms became more
severe. One subject’s widow noticed a scar on his
body after his death, which had appeared during the course of his exposure to the book. She was surprised to see it, and said that
she had not noticed it before. The Foundation became increasingly concerned
with learning how the book worked. What was it that made it affect people this
way? Its influence was both physical and mental,
suggesting a possible combination of both memetic and chemical effects. Dr. Grayson and the Foundation’s Chemical
Forensics team set about studying the chemical properties of SCP-592, in order to determine
if its pages contained any substances that could explain its disastrous effects on the
human mind and body. Small squares of paper were cut from several
pages of the book, cut so small that no more than one word was contained on each square. The squares were then analyzed and screened
for any anomalies. When the results came back, Dr. Grayson and
his team were deeply disappointed. The book’s pages are made of standard cellulose
and wood, printed with completely ordinary black and yellow inks. There are some unusual chemicals present in
the cyan and magenta inks used - suggesting it was perhaps made in a location or plane
where chemical quantities differ - but none of them are unknown to science, nor could
they be responsible for any of the damage the book has done to the people that read
it. This meant that the book’s effects cannot
be explained away by a new chemical compound or sophisticated bioweapon, something that
the Chemical Forensics department could study and develop an antidote for. No, SCP-592 is much more mysterious and much
more powerful than that. SCP-592 is contained in research cell 1611-E
in a steel box in the middle of a frosted glass cubicle. In the same cubicle is a table, two computers,
a scanner, an internal network connection port, and two pairs of goggles which must
be immediately put on by anyone inside the cubicle. These goggles function to distort the text
and images of 592, rendering it impossible for anyone wearing them to read while wearing
them. The first of the two computers is an analysis
machine, while the second one functions as a firewall. Both computers have been outfitted with custom
software and hardware in accordance with the Testing Protocol, and the network port cannot
be used by any device other than the firewall. The computers and the scanner are kept off
when they are not being used in an experiment and must be immediately turned off following
the completion of any experimentation. The front and back covers of SCP-592 must
be covered in thick black tape at all times. So what is the testing protocol? Unscrambled human eyes are no longer permitted
to look at the contents of the deadly book, so the Foundation had to come up with an alternative. Since computers aren’t capable of experiencing
psychological distress - well, most of them aren’t, SCP-079 might beg to differ of course
- the research team decided to find a way to analyze the book using a computer system. For all testing, the book is scanned one page
at a time, and then sent into the analysis machine. The machine has been modified so that it does
not store the original scanned version of the image, and instead converts it promptly
into an analyzed version of the original content. The image is then promptly erased from the
system’s RAM as soon as possible. This process allows the research team to study
the contents of SCP-592, without exposing themselves or any other human subjects to
the adverse effects of the book. Because those under the influence of the book’s
effects are unreliable witnesses, this is considered the only way to ascertain an accurate,
neutral understanding of what is written in these cursed pages. There are two different analysis protocols
in place: one for analysis of text, and one for analysis of images. Because understanding of the book’s specific
language could trigger adverse effects, and drive the remaining members of the research
team to madness, the computer analysis of the text must be as vague as possible while
still providing necessary context. The language used is analytical in tone, describing
the subject matter discussed, the tone of the original entry, and any incidents related
to the specific passage. For example, one piece of text analysis is
as follows: “The passage is describing human conflict. The human conflict is of an ideological or
religious nature. The passage seems to be lamenting in tone. The passage contains the numbers 2000, 1977,
and 16…It is certain (98%) that the passage contains a reference to both SCP [REDACTED]
and SCP [REDACTED].” Not especially descriptive, but that’s the
point. Anything more detailed, and the research team
- not to mention everyone watching this video at home - might be susceptible to the effects
of SCP-592. For a clearer picture of how unsettling the
book’s contents can get, we have to turn to, well, the pictures. SCP-592 contains approximately two hundred
illustrations. When a scanned page inputted into the computer
includes an image, it is put through several convolutions and transforms in order to analyze
and summarize its contents in a manner safe for human consumption. The original image’s record is promptly
destroyed. It is during this process of image analysis
that things get even eerier than they already were. The images in the book are not the sort of
thing you’d see in an ordinary history book. The general subject matter of the pictures
is what you might expect: people at various points throughout the 20th century, photographed
at historically significant events or just living their regular lives during a significant
time period. But something about them…is wrong. While one Researcher was looking through the
computer analysis of the book, he came across an image analysis that made his blood run
cold. The page read, in simple text:
“Date: 1st April 1963. Location: Unknown bedroom with Western furnishings. Type: Full color photograph. Subject: The image contains two adult persons
standing, one human child sitting on a chair or stool, and SCP-[Redacted]. With 100% certainty the persons in the image
should have facial features. With 100% certainty the persons in the image
do not have facial features.” Now go check out “SCP-1025 - Encyclopedia
of Common Diseases” and “SCP-1230 - A Hero Is Born” for more spellbinding book-based
anomalies!
