“You’ll be starting out with cold cases” the
police chief tells the detective who has just arrived for his first day at the precinct. “We’ve
got more than enough to keep you busy, so head on down to the archives and get started.” The new
detective is looking forward to taking on these unsolved crimes. Cracking the overlooked and long
since forgotten cases is one of his specialties, and it brings him great joy to solve the
puzzles that no one else has been able to. The detective heads to a part of the police
station that doesn’t look like it sees much foot traffic where he finds the door labeled
“Archives”. Inside the room the air is musty, and when the detective sets down his
bag on a table a thick cloud of dust is ejected and makes him sneeze. He takes out
the list of cases he’s supposed to be working on and goes to a shelf containing
rows and rows of evidence boxes. He pulls one down and starts
looking through the files inside. It’s full of police reports, witness statements,
crime scene photos, and even bits of evidence. Hours pass as the detective goes down
his list, looking through box after box, report after report. He finds that it’s best
to take a cursory survey first and see if anything leaps out at him before drilling
down to start combing through the details. As he pulls down the last box from his list
of cases that the Chief told him to work on, he notices something. High up on a shelf,
nestled among the many identical cardboard boxes, is what looks to be a piece of leather luggage.
He can’t help but wonder what this is doing here in the archives. Is it a piece of evidence from
another case that got left here for some reason? Or did someone simply forget their bag when
after they finished looking through old files. Whatever the reason it’s here, he has a job
to do and investigating this bag isn’t on his list… But then again, he knows he won’t be
able to focus until he knows what this bag is and what’s inside. He’ll let himself take
just a quick peek then it’s back to work. The detective returns to the shelf with the
bag. It looks like it’s been here for a long time. There’s a layer of dust covering it that’s
as thick as anything else in the room. He takes it down and blows the dust off the bag. He
unlatches it and inside he finds… a folder. Is this just another report?
But what’s it doing here? Maybe they ran out of boxes one day and someone
decided to use an old briefcase instead. The detective takes out the folder and opens it.
Just as he suspected, it is another case report. It’s only a single page though, with
several photographs paper clipped to it. He takes the photos off the report
and begins looking through them. They appear to be numbered in order, and the
first picture shows a mess of red liquid and chunks of what might be meat or bone. The next two
show various angles of a badly mutilated corpse. It’s been so violently mangled though, that the
victim is barely even recognizable as a human. The detective paperclips the photos back
to the report and puts it back in the case, if this murder only has one page of evidence
to work with, then he is classifying it as a “revisit after literally everything else
in this room is solved” kind of case. The detective goes back to the last box that he
was looking through and starts flipping through the case files again, but something about that
leather briefcase and the photos inside won’t get out of his mind. Maybe there is something there.
Without even realizing it, he’s suddenly standing over the case again. He takes out the report and
starts looking through the pictures once more. Again he sees the disfigured
corpse from different angles, but the fourth picture is completely different.
This one shows what looks to be someone’s feet. But they’re up in the air, as if they
jumped and took a picture of their shoes. There’s something wrong with the picture too,
some kind of odd discoloration around the edges. It looks like an error occurred
in the development process. Why would this be in a case file? It’s tugging
at his curiosity, but no, he really shouldn’t be spending his time on this, not on his first day at
a new job. The detective places everything back in the case and puts it back up on the shelf where
he found it before deciding to call it a day. That night, he finds that he can’t sleep. The
detective keeps seeing the disfigured face every time he closes his eyes. And
why the picture of floating feet? What does it all mean? His mind is
racing, trying to make sense of it all. By the time his alarm starts beeping, the
detective realizes that he hasn’t slept at all. Later that morning, the detective
is back in the chief’s office again. The chief tells him that he looks awful, and
asks if the job is getting to him already. The detective does look terrible, and something
about the room is making him very uncomfortable. The ceiling feels too low, like it moved down
a foot or two since the last time he was here. It’s also very dim, who can operate in such a
dark room? He stands up and asks if he can turn on some more lights and before the chief can
answer he switches on more. The chief squints from the bright fluorescent lights coming on
and tells the detective to get back to work, and to make sure he gets some sleep that night.
If he can’t, then maybe this job isn’t for him. The detective returns to the archives to pick up
where he left off the day before and goes back to looking through the files on his list. But
of course, that leather briefcase always seems to be right in his field of view. Reaching out to
him. Begging him to uncover its secrets. “That's it,” the detective thinks, he has no choice.
He has to know what’s going on with this file. He takes the briefcase down again, opens the
report, and starts going through the photos again. Three pictures of a gross corpse, check. Picture
four showing someone’s feet. Nothing new there. Now it’s time to finally look at the rest.
The fifth picture is similar to the fourth, but the person’s feet look a little closer to
the ground. Wait a minute, are these in reverse order? He looks at the next. This one doesn’t
have anyone in it. It’s a picture of a table, and it looks like there is writing on
it, though the writing is very small. He leans in close and squints but he still can’t
make it out. He runs to his own bag and searches around until he finds what he was looking for…
a magnifying glass! He goes back to the picture and with the magnifying glass he can finally read
the writing… “ITS ABOVE YOU” He snaps his head up and looks above him! But nothing is there.
He laughs to himself. Of course nothing is there. Maybe the chief is right, maybe
something really is getting to him and he isn’t cut out for this job. But still, he needs
to learn more. He looks at the seventh picture. He sees now that he was right, these are
definitely in reverse chronological order. In the next picture he sees whoever took the
photos approaching the table in the room. In the tenth photo he sees them walking
through a doorway. In the eleventh he sees them opening the door to the room.
Finally, he comes to the last photo. It’s a photo of the closed door to the room. There’s
writing on the door, and the detective can hardly believe what he is seeing when he reads
it. The writing on the door says… Archives. The detective jumps up and spins around, but the
room is empty, there’s no one here but him. What’s going on? Is this some kind of prank? He picks
up the report the pictures were attached to, there must be some answers in there. The paper
appears to be a standard police report that was filled out following the discovery of a homicide.
The top of the page lists the address where the murder took place… it’s the very place
he is now, the police station’s address. Next to it is the date. It’s impossible
though. The date is… today’s. Archives can hold untold secrets, and
many of those are often quite dangerous as anyone familiar with the SCP
Foundation is already well aware. Rarely is the file in the archive itself the
danger, but that is exactly the case with SCP-767, a deadly series of crime scene photos
that are anything but what they seem. SCP-767 is the designation for a series
of anomalous objects which were recovered from a Police department's own archives. They
include a series of twelve polaroid photographs, which have been given the designation SCP-767-1
through 12, that appear to be the source of the anomalous properties surrounding the objects.
Each photograph is labeled 1 through 12 in the lower-left hand corner, though they appear
to be labeled in reverse chronological order. When viewed in reverse, that is, starting with
the picture labeled 12, the photos depict a first person perspective of someone entering
a room and examining a table. The table will have writing on it which alternates between
iterations of SCP-767, and will either read “ITS ABOVE YOU” or “ON THE CEILING” written with
a red substance that appears to be fresh blood. The next photos continue to be from a first person
perspective, and will show the person taking the photos being lifted up into the air above the
table, with wisps of black smoke visible around the edges of the frame that look at first glance
like either photo development issues or damage to the picture. The final three pictures depict a
fresh corpse that has been so heavily mutilated by lacerations that it is completely unrecognizable,
while the last picture shows a body that appears to have been virtually liquefied in some way,
with gore and viscera spread around the room. The origin of these photos is unknown, and
it’s unknown if they were ever taken at all, or merely manifested in some way. When the
photos are taken to a new location and are allowed to remain there for one week, they
will change to reflect a room within the building where they are being kept, with the
individual portrayed in the photos being an image of the last person to experience photos’
frightening effects. More on what those are later. This ability of SCP-767 to change based on the
location it is in is also present in SCP-767-13 and 14, which are the police report and the brown
leather valise that always accompany the photos. The police report has an
address and date at the top, both of which will somehow change to reflect
the current date and location of SCP-767, while the leather briefcase has a gold
monogram on it that will change to whatever the name is of the owner or head
of the structure that it is contained in. But that is far from where the
anomalous properties of SCP-767 end. Individuals who are exposed
to the photographs will experience a wide range of effects that are based on
how far into the photo series they look. Those that view SCP-767-1 through 3
will report feeling no special effects, besides the normal reaction one has
to seeing a badly mutilated corpse with most describing the photos
as “weird” or “disturbing”. Those that view the photos labeled 4 through
6 though, will usually report that they have developed feelings of claustrophobia with many
also reporting a newfound bout of nyctophobia, that is, fear of the dark, or more specifically, a
fear of the potential for bad things to happen in the dark. These fears will also vary in intensity
based on how many of the photos were viewed. Subjects who are exposed to the seventh,
eighth, and ninth photos will feel an overwhelming desire to inspect the ceiling,
and most are observed snapping their heads upwards immediately after reading the
writing on the table in the photo. In later interviews, subjects have described
the feeling as “instinctual” or as if someone had yelled the words at them like a warning.
Following this the subject will experience a sensation of being watched and will
usually report having persistent chills. Those who view the final three photos will
appear to suffer a fear induced paralysis effect when they attempt to move away from the
photos. A shadowy, black, effervescent mass will begin to form on the ceiling directly above
the subject which has been designated SCP-767-15 though the presence of this mass has only been
reported by in person witnesses, as it doesn’t appear on photographic or video recordings.
Tendrils of the gaseous material will reach down from the mass and grab the affected subject,
lifting them up into the air before violently attacking them. The subject will suffer deep
lacerations as the tendrils cut into it, before it completely destroys them, leaving them as little
more than a pool of blood and pieces of flesh. The nature of this dark cloud of gas, where it
comes from, or why it engages in this behavior is currently unknown, and attempts to stop
it once it has gotten hold of its victim have only led to those who intervene
being pushed away by a powerful force, with all weapons passing
harmlessly through the mass. In the time since its discovery by
the SCP Foundation, multiple other unsolved cases of victims that appeared to
suffer similar fates have been identified, and investigations into whether they are connected
to SCP-767 and the 767-15 entity are ongoing. The SCP-767-1 through 12 photos are
to be kept inside of the SCP-767-13 report, which is itself stored within
the brown leather SCP-767-14 valise, and the entire group is kept at an SCP Foundation
Hazardous Items secure containment center. Due to the little we understand about its nature or
origin, the entirety of the anomalous objects that make up SCP-767, including the SCP-767-15 entity,
have been classified as Euclid, and any access to the objects requires written authorization
from at least one Level 4 site administrator. SCP-767 may not be the most dangerous
file in the SCP Foundation’s archive, but it may just be the most dangerous
literal file. There are plenty other surprisingly dangerous objects that can
impact you in ways you never expected though, like SCP-1875, the Antique Chess Automaton that
is capable of powerful effects that you have to see to believe. Go watch that file examination
right now, and don’t forget to subscribe to be the first to learn about the next anomaly
from the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.
