A firefighter is running through a burning
apartment building. The air is thick with black smoke as burning
debris crashes down around him. In the chaos, he’s been split up from the
rest of his crew. They’ve probably already exited the structure,
and based on the conditions, he probably should too. But just as the firefighter turns to head
back down the stairs, he hears something. There are cries coming from a room down the
hall. The firefighter runs to the door, there’s
definitely someone inside. He can hear their voice as they cry for help. “I’m coming!” the firefighter yells,
but when he tries to open the door it won’t budge. He backs up and throws his body against it,
again, and again, and again until finally the door bursts open. A wave of heat and smoke hits the firefighter,
but he can see who was crying for help. There across the room, hiding halfway under
the bed, is a young girl. She’s clutching a stuffed rabbit and crying
with fear. The firefighter takes a step towards her but
he can feel the floor start to give way and has to step back. It will never support his weight. He’ll need the girl to crawl to him, it’s
her only chance. He beckons for the girl to come to him as
more flaming debris rains down. The little girl starts to crawl towards him
slowly at first, but then faster. She’s almost to him when there’s a loud
crack. The fireman can only watch as the floor collapses
beneath the little girl and she falls. But suddenly she stops. The fireman can’t believe it, her shirt
has caught on a damaged pipe and she hangs in the air as her stuffed rabbit is swallowed
up in the flames below. The fireman reaches out for the little girl
as she extends her hand towards his. They both stretch as far as they can, just
a little further, they’re almost touching. Almost there… Just as their fingertips touch, the rest of
the floor gives way, and they both fall. Outside, multiple crews man hoses and fight
against the blaze, trying to contain the fire which is quickly getting out of control. There is a cry from one of the teams, and
men start running as a large portion of the building collapses. “Was anyone still in there? Where’s John?” the fire chief asks anyone
he can find. But no one has seen him. Just then, in the entrance of the building,
a figure appears, silhouetted against the flames. It’s John. He steps out of the burning building, his
suit looks like it has been completely melted by the flames. Somehow he’s alive, but he’s alone. As the other firefighters rush to help him,
he looks like he is in a daze. They ask him what happened, if there’s anyone
else inside who might still be able to make it out, but he can only stare at them. A few weeks later, John is sitting in the
firehouse. His fellow firefighters can still hardly believe
that he made it out of that inferno unscathed. But while the fire miraculously didn’t touch
his body, it seems to have made an impression in other ways. He’s once again at a table with numerous
papers spread in front of him. One of the other firemen from his crew starts
teasing him about working on one of his projects yet again. What is it this time? Is he doing his monthly budget again? Checking credit card statements for fraudulent
charges? John is working on his retirement plan actually. That fire may have shown him that life can
be cut quite short, but it also taught him that it’s important to get your life in
order, so that the time you do spend on this earth is well spent. The fireman is laughing at John’s newfound
fiscal responsibility when the bell starts to chime. No more jokes, it’s time to suit up and
get out. The firefighters arrive at another large structure
fire. A man rushing out of the building tells them
between coughs that there’s still people inside. The firemen don’t hesitate and head into
the building. They search the second floor and see a door
with smoke billowing out from underneath it. John checks the door for heat and gives a
thumbs up. They open the door and head inside. The smoke is so thick that neither of them
can see much of anything. But then, through the smoke, they spot something. A woman is lying on the floor. They both step towards her when a beam comes
crashing down from the ceiling. They both leap out of the way, and the fireman
barely escapes being crushed. He stands up and asks if John is ok, but no
response. He quickly looks around but he can’t see
him. It’s as if he just vanished. But there’s no time to figure out what happened. He scoops up the woman who coughs as he picks
her up. She’s still alive. As the fireman exits the building with the
woman, she appears to have completely regained consciousness. The chief approaches them, but the fireman
can only shake his head as if to say “John didn’t make it this time.” The woman who was rescued from the fire is
in the hospital. The doctors can hardly believe it, but she
tells them she’s fine, and x-rays of her lungs show that there’s nothing wrong at
all. It’s as if she hadn’t just been carried
out of a building where multiple civilians and firefighters were killed. The doctor tells her that they’ll need to
run a couple more tests, but if those come back clear then he doesn’t see any reason
to hold her. As he is leaving her room though he stops
and turns to her with one last thing, she has some visitors. The woman seems confused. As the doctor exits the room, a group of several
people in dark black suits walk in. They look like FBI or CIA agents, but they
don’t have any badges. “Good afternoon, ma’am. We’re from the SCP Foundation. We’ve been looking for you.” As the Foundation agents took this young woman
into custody, researchers were already preparing a containment cell for her, though once she
got there she would have a new name… SCP-069. This anomaly is a humanoid entity, though
its exact appearance can vary dramatically thanks to its bizarre ability. Whenever SCP-069 is left alone with a recently
deceased person’s body, 069 will acquire its exact appearance. And not only will SCP-069 look like the recently
expired individual, it will also take on their physical mannerisms, their voice, and even
their patterns of speech, allowing it to look and sound exactly like the person who just
passed away. In the same moment that it begins mirroring
the person, the corpse will also disappear by a process that Foundation researchers have
yet to understand. The body vanishes without a trace, leaving
only the new SCP-069 instance alive and well in its place. This doppelganger will be virtually indistinguishable
from the original, with even DNA and fingerprint tests coming back as a match for the original. Friends and family will have no idea that
an anomalous entity has taken their place, since in addition to taking on all of the
physical qualities of the deceased person, SCP-069 will also gain their knowledge and
memories. They will act exactly as the person did, with
only one single difference setting them apart. Those who are around SCP-069 in the days and
weeks after its transformation, will notice that the person will suddenly start expressing
a strong desire to “get their life in order” with that vague phrase relating to any number
of potential tasks. These can include resolving outstanding obligations
in their life, either personal like paying back an owed favor, or financial such as resolving
debts or making long term life plans like opening retirement accounts and updating their
last will and testament. They will also often make efforts to visit
with extended or estranged family members, rekindle friendships that have been allowed
to languish, or other acts of closure, the kind that can build up over a lifetime and
are often put off until it is too late. SCP-069 seems to retain no knowledge of its
previous impersonations, and it will not carry any memories or abilities from one instance
to another. When an identified SCP-069 entity has been
asked why it is engaging in this new behavior, it claims to have no ulterior motives, besides
an overwhelming desire to get their life straightened out since, after all, you never know when
an unforeseen injury or death might occur. 069 itself experiences pain, injuries, and
death just as a normal human does, but those similarities end at the exact moment they
expire. When SCP-069 “dies,” its body will rapidly
decay, turning to dust almost instantly. The Foundation has tried to preserve its body
or at least stave off the rapid decomposition, but so far all attempts have failed. After it has died, SCP-069 will then re-manifest
at the site of the most recent human death, regardless of its proximity to where 069 died. There does not appear to be any distance limitation
to this ability, and the largest such jump the Foundation has recorded is to a death
that was 675 kilometers away from where its previous form died. This anomaly first came onto the SCP Foundation’s
radar after field agents learned of a firefighter who appeared to miraculously survive an extremely
deadly building fire which claimed the lives of two other firefighters and eleven civilians. The firefighter had walked out of the building
unscathed, despite his suit and equipment suffering an amount of damage that their wearer
should not have been able to survive. Roughly three weeks later the same firefighter
responded to another large building fire. He was lost inside a smoky room and was presumed
to have died despite his body never being recovered. A single civilian was rescued, and much like
the firefighter, appeared unharmed, a virtual impossibility given the extremely smoky conditions
from which she was saved. An SCP containment team, Mobile Task Force
Xi-3 also known as The Body Snatchers, were sent to the hospital where she was recovering
the next day, and SCP-069 was identified and taken into Foundation custody for the first
time. Containment of this particular anomaly would
prove to be quite tricky though, especially when its abilities were not fully understood. Several years after its initial capture, a
guard assigned to SCP-069’s cell was killed during a containment breach by another SCP,
and the proximity of the guard’s corpse to SCP-069 allowed them to take on their form. Though it was quickly discovered that the
jump had taken place, and SCP-069 was returned to containment, they remained insistent that
the Foundation was making a mistake and imprisoning one of their own. Over time though, their protestations waned
and eventually SCP-069 became relatively compliant and cooperative with staff. That is until a huge mistake was made that
would necessitate a drastic change to its containment procedures. A junior researcher who was assigned to 069,
accidentally let slip that the Agent’s family had been informed of their untimely death.This
seemed to greatly distress 069, and they reacted to the news by attempting to commit suicide. It’s unknown what exactly triggered this
response, since just being told that they were an impostor did not appear to have this
effect in the past, but something about the family learning of the original person’s
death seems to have a profound impact on SCP-069. Following this event, SCP-069 has been placed
on suicide watch, and plans to use other recently deceased SCP Foundation employees as possible
targets for its ability have been suspended. SCP-069 continues to live in the form of its
former guard, and is housed at Humanoid Containment Site-06-3. It continues to insist that it actually is
the deceased agent, and still expresses a desire to “get its life in order.” Despite looking, sounding, and acting exactly
as the former Foundation agent, it is not to be treated as if it is that person, no
matter how tempting it may be for former friends and co-workers of the departed to have one
last visit. If SCP-069 ever attempts to, or is successful
in breaching containment, it is to be subdued using non-lethal methods. Should SCP-069 die while in containment, Foundation
Agents are to closely monitor any reports of incidents where it appears that someone
has somehow escaped certain death, a telltale sign that the person is now actually SCP-069. In the meantime, the Foundation will continue
to study this strange anomaly, which has been classified as Safe, and though we may never
fully understand its abilities, perhaps there’s something we can learn from it when it comes
to Second Chances. Now go and watch another entry from the files
of Dr. Bob, like SCP-3998, the Wicker Witch Lives, for another strange tale of an SCP
that may not be exactly what it seems, and make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications,
so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s
classified archives.
