Who doesn’t love a party, right? A lot of us jump at the chance to leave all
our troubles behind and get together with friends and family for a good time, celebrating
a special occasion while unencumbered by the weighty responsibilities of everyday life. Parties give us an excuse to kick back, to
meet new people as well as catch up with old acquaintances, and mark a holiday or someone’s
birthday in the most memorable way possible. Or at least, they can be when you’re one
of the guests invited to a party. But when you happen to be one of the poor
souls tasked with organizing one, they can change from an exciting and much-anticipated
social gathering to a dreaded time-sink of organizational and logistical chaos. Can you tell I needed to organize O5-1’s
141st birthday party recently? I’m still recovering from the stress… But I’m not the only one suffering from
this particular kind of anxiety. For a young man named Alex, planning an upcoming
shindig was turning out to be that particular kind of absolute nightmare that anyone who
has ever tried to organize a party will be all too familiar with. It had seemed like such a long time away when
Alex had first drawn that short and oh-so unlucky straw. Two months, on paper it sounds like forever,
plenty of time to get everything ready. But the list of jobs that needed doing before
the dreaded party date only seemed to get longer and more complicated with each day
that passed. You see, normally Alex thrived at keeping
himself organized, every part of his life usually running like clockwork. The trick, as he’d found, was to pay attention
to what he could control. Naturally, in life, the unexpected usually
tends to happen. But Alex had learned that by regimenting his
daily routine, having specific times for certain tasks, and scheduling the week’s events
on his calendar, he could keep himself pretty on top of everything. It was that organizational mindset that meant
that Alex’s friends decided to nominate him as the sole planner for an upcoming surprise
birthday party. Of course, being organized and in control
of one’s own life goes completely out of the window when trying to coordinate all the
various moving parts needed for a party. It had been left up to Alex to sort out where
this celebration was going to be held along with who would be attending, the entertainment,
food and drink, setting up group chats to update everyone, along with a whole cavalcade
of other important party factors, each one fraught with its own potential problems. From the beginning, it was an uphill battle. The first venue Alex had booked had to cancel;
the whole building needed to be fumigated because of a rat problem. Guests were RSVPing at a sporadic rate, some
would confirm their attendance, only to back out days later. With the party date drawing closer and closer,
the planning had become a perfect storm of problems that were all out of Alex’s hands. In an effort to regain some control, he raced
out only a week before the party, stocking up on finger foods and beverages that were
all extremely overpriced. But by now, the party was only a few days
away and Alex was acting in a blind panic. You see, it was in that panic that he reached
for something, throwing it into his shopping cart without fully thinking about it. It was a piñata, a hollow, paper mâché
animal designed to be filled with candy and hit with sticks until the contents burst out. Sure, it was a childish party game, and in
the back of his mind, Alex wasn’t sure why he’d picked it up. Maybe part of him thought everyone would find
it amusing, a bit of quaint, nostalgic entertainment. He barely noticed how it didn’t even seem
to resemble any known animal and was instead shaped like a strange cross between a unicorn
and a llama. Alex was too lost in everything else he still
had to do to think about the piñata for too long. His biggest mistake was deciding not to put
it back in the corner of the party store where he’d found it. Arranging for the surprise to take place at
one of his friend’s houses, Alex’s party seemed to be coming together at long last. But still, he was in a state of panic, with
only a rough estimate of how many people were going to be there and no clue who might show
up or not. Gradually, the guests filled in, and the more
of them that did arrive only caused Alex further worry that he hadn’t bought enough food
and drink. Much to his frustration, a few who had canceled
managed to change their other plans last-minute, and made it despite saying they wouldn’t
be able to. Despite everything coming together, the whole
event still felt like an unmitigated disaster. Even after the guest of honor arrived, the
surprise was sprung and the evening was in full swing, Alex’s brain was still in organization
mode. If a drink got spilled, he dashed in and mopped
it up to avoid any lasting mess. The same happened if food was dropped or chairs
were knocked over. Truth be told, it was actually stopping Alex
from being able to enjoy the party he'd spent so much effort organizing. “That’s your problem, man!” Milo, one of his friends, told him. “This is a party, stop trying to control
everything, stop worrying and you never know, you might just have some fun tonight!” “I suppose you’re right,” Alex sighed
a reply. “No way, you got a piñata?” Milo had spotted the brightly-colored animal
covered in what looked like tissue paper. Instantly, Alex felt embarrassed that he’d
picked it up, fully expecting to be a laughing stock for bringing it to the party. Surely everyone here had outgrown a party
game like that? And yet, to Alex’s complete surprise, minutes
later his friends were taking turns being blindfolded and swiping at the piñata with
a bat, trying to break it open so its candy contents would come spilling out. As he watched Milo take a huge swing and miss
the piñata by a mile, Alex couldn’t help but laugh, not even noticing himself relaxing
and enjoying the night’s celebrations. Soon enough, it was Alex’s turn to be blindfolded. Eyes covered, spun around, unable to see anything
but total darkness, he took a wide swing at the piñata. Miss. Pulling back the bat, spurred on by the chorus
of his friends laughing around him, he gave it another go. This time he felt it hit, the vibrations traveling
down the bat and into his hands told him it had connected. Aiming blindly for the same spot, Alex gave
another swing, this time with much more power behind it, certain he’d break open the candy-filled
cardboard creature. The bat connected again, hard enough to knock
the piñata off the string keeping it in the air. Hearing his friends cheer and whoop, Alex
lifted the blindfold to see the piñata lying on the ground a few meters away, then turned
to the group around him. “One more to break it open?” he asked,
met with laughs and nods of approval. Lifting the bat again, Alex brought it swiping
down towards the piñata with, he was sure, enough force to break it open. But as he struck it, something strange happened. Or rather, what was strange was that nothing
happened. The piñata still didn’t break. It shouldn’t have been possible - after
all, Alex was sure it had only been made of flimsy cardboard and paper mâché. The whole thing should have come apart by
now. And yet, the bat had lazily glanced off the
piñata, the inanimate animal seemed to resist the oncoming bat as if it was nothing. By now, the other guests at the party were
looking somewhat bemused at Alex. They too had been expecting the piñata to
break, and a shower of the candy within to come spilling out. Not wanting to lose face, Alex made the instinctive
decision to take one final swing at it… only to find he couldn’t. His arm wasn’t moving; it had, less than
thirty seconds ago, he’d been able to lift his arm but now it was rigid, locked in place. Alex’s lower body was in much the same state,
unable to move as if his feet had been stuck to the ground, legs too stiff to take a step. The only part of his body Alex could still
move were his eyes, which now darted franticly over the faces of the party guests. Their looks of bemusement or excited smiles
were all rapidly washing away into stares of confusion and concern. Some of his friends started asking what was
wrong, but he couldn’t reply. When Alex tried to speak, his jaw stayed clenched
shut, teeth pushed together so hard that they might shatter, tongue and tonsils frozen still. Some of the guests drew closer, waving hands
and clicking fingers in front of Alex’s face, trying to elicit some kind of movement
from him. A few thought it was a joke, waiting for him
to suddenly move and shout and frighten them for a cheap laugh. All the while, Alex was trapped in his own
skin, locked in a body that had somehow become a prison the moment he’d stepped closer
to the piñata. His eyes caught sight of Milo, dashing into
another room and returning with a phone in hand. He punched in three numbers to call the emergency
services, although it did little to calm the rampant internal panic Alex was feeling. The paramedics arrived at a record speed. By the time the ambulance pulled up at the
house, most of the other party guests had either stepped way back from Alex – still
standing frozen in place – or had left the party altogether. As the EMT’s rushed in and started asking
if he could hear them or say anything, Alex tried with every ounce of strength to get
his mouth to move. “Yes,” he wanted to say, to scream, just
to let all the mounting panic out. “I can hear you! I’m awake, I’m in here! I just can’t move.” Despite their best efforts, the paramedics
couldn’t get Alex to move, instead trying to lay his rigid body down to begin CPR. One of them gripped his hands together, about
to start chest compressions while everyone still at the party watched in silence. The paramedic gently pushed down on Alex’s
chest when, just like a piñata, it burst open. For a microsecond, Alex’s eyes widened in
pain and shock, before rolling back. His chest split, as if it was made of paper
mâché instead of skin and bone. Inside, where his lungs should have been,
was a pile of candy. The party didn’t end with a bang that night,
but with a horrified scream. Later that night, after the rest of the party’s
guests either fled home or were urged to leave by the confused paramedics, the police were
called to the scene, roping off the room where the apparent ‘accident’ had happened. Although curiously, it seemed that the piñata
had somehow vanished. Maybe someone removed it, after all, it’s
not like it just got up and walked away, right? Meanwhile, Alex’s remains were taken to
the local mortuary and handed over to the pathologists for an autopsy. They noticed, despite only having died recently,
the body seemed to be severely dehydrated, to the point where the limbs, the outer skin,
and various internal organs were brittle; The pathologists that examined the body made
another startling and confusing discovery when they opened up what was left of Alex. More candy was growing out of his organs;
there were over a thousand sugary pieces, each one individually wrapped in unmarked
foil, without any logos or branding. Needless to say, the pathologists examining
Alex’s corpse were understandably left baffled; they had never seen anything like this in
any cadaver, barely able to come up with a cause of death. How had his body gone rigid and left him completely
unable to move? How had candy been able to start growing from
his internal organs? And, most importantly, who or what had done
this to Alex? Well, here’s what happened. Something that Alex had presumed to be nothing
more than a harmless party favor filled with delicious treats was far from just an ordinary
piñata. You see, it was actually an instance of SCP-956. Although, we can hardly hold Alex entirely
at fault for assuming there was nothing different about this particular piñata. On the outside, SCP-956 does appear to be
an unassuming cardboard creature made of paper mâché, or at least that’s what it feels
like it’s made of. But the surface of SCP-956 is actually constructed
of unidentifiable fur, glue, sugar, and – most unnervingly – human tissue. SCP-956 is an entity that normally remains
in an inactive and docile state, displaying no intelligence or active hostility. Unlike any ordinary piñata you might buy
from a local party store – which are designed to break upon impact – SCP-956 manages to
maintain its structural integrity against most forms of external damage. Whether bludgeoning it with a bat or applying
crushing force with fists or kicks, the piñata will show virtually no change in its state. The only effective way to leave any lasting
damage is through the use of flames or gunfire, and you might have a hard time finding any
of those at your average piñata party. However, when an unwitting human victim comes
within a five-meter range of SCP-956, and for a long enough time, the entity’s further
anomalous qualities will activate. The piñata will render its victim totally
paralyzed from head to toe, diminishing their motor functions and leaving them unable to
move any part of their body, save for their eyes. This doesn’t kill the victim, however, just
immobilizes them. They retain full awareness – just like Alex
did – but can only helplessly look around while being unable to flee. And why would they need to flee? Well, because once it has frozen a victim,
that’s when SCP-956 begins its approach. The piñata will switch from being an inanimate
object to a creature capable of movement, and proceeds to physically attack its immobile,
vulnerable human target. It doesn’t stop, continuously bludgeoning
at the victim until, eventually, their chest ruptures and a pile of candy comes tumbling
out like an avalanche. As for why SCP-956 didn’t try to attack
Alex this way, maybe someone else at the party knocked it aside without noticing, or perhaps
the paramedics managed to make it to the scene before the piñata had its chance. Whatever the case, the candy produced by a
victim of SCP-956 seems to be formed using their internal organs and bodily tissues. It is unclear how quickly this candy begins
growing after a person is exposed to the piñata, however, it appears that the amount of candy
produced is dependent on how much time the victim spends in close proximity to SCP-956;
the longer they’re close to it, the more pieces of candy come spilling out when they’re
opened up. As for the candy itself – commonly referred
to as SCP-956-1 – as you might expect, it’s far from anything you’d buy in an ordinary
store. And its negative effects aren’t just limited
to toothache or sugar rush. The pathologists that performed Alex’s post-mortem
were lucky none of them made the grave mistake of actually eating any of this cursed candy. If they had, they could have experienced violent
seizures upon consuming the sugary confectionary. Within three minutes, the candy that had come
bursting out of Alex’s insides would have made a person drop to the ground unstoppably
convulsing, with a chance that they would also experience a potentially fatal cardiac
arrest. Animals will usually also suffer these effects
upon eating instances of SCP-956-1. In humans, however, the effects of the SCP-956-1
candy seem to vary. In most cases, those who consume it will experience
the aforementioned seizures with an additional five percent risk of heart attacks. But other instances have shown an entirely
different side effect that somehow manages to sound even less appealing. The second of the candy’s side effects begins
with a process very similar to the immobilization caused by exposure to SCP-956. A person, after having consumed the candy,
will lose control of their body’s motor functions, becoming unable to move. However, the first key difference is if they
remain in a standing position, with their arms resting in front of their body. The next is the rapid and grotesque sequence
of bodily changes that follow. Firstly, their hair rapidly begins to fall
out, shedding in clumps until it is replaced with paper mâché, that grows over every
inch of skin. Next, their bones and muscles are forcibly
rearranged, crunching and contorting unnaturally until the affected person can no longer stand
the same way they used to. In fact, by that point, they aren’t a person
anymore; within nine minutes of eating the SCP-956-1 candy, they will have been transformed
from a human being into a piñata. From that moment onwards, they are another
instance of SCP-956. As you may have already guessed, the Foundation
has done us all a service by rounding up existing instances of SCP-956 and all the candy produced
by the pernicious piñata. And that’s a lucky thing too for any of
you would-be party planners out there. After all, nothing is harsher to the celebratory
atmosphere than a piñata that fills people with human candy that comes bursting out of
them. Just ask everyone at Alex’s party. Although, maybe it’d be a good idea to avoid
buying a piñata for your next get-together, just to be on the safe side. Now go and check out “SCP-2003 PREFERRED
OPTION” and “SCP-3790 DEPARTMENT OF ABNORMALITIES” for more stories to frighten the life out
of your party guests.
