MidReal Story
The Face in the Shadows
Scenario: scp 096 movie
Create my version of this story
It was supposed to be a routine filming session.
We were going to shoot a horror short film in an abandoned building, and I was going to direct it.
But then we found that thing.
And now it’s hunting us.
I’m not sure if we can make it out alive, but I have to try.
I have to try for Mark and Sarah, my friends and colleagues who are running for their lives with me.
I have to try for the world, so that this thing doesn’t get out and kill everyone in its path.
We were in the editing room, watching the footage we’d just shot.
The scene was of our protagonist, a young woman who had been kidnapped by a mad scientist and experimented on until she turned into a monster.
She was supposed to be chasing her victims through the building, but as we watched the footage, we realized that something was off.
“Did you see that?”
Mark asked, pausing the video.
“No,” I said, “I didn’t see anything.”
Mark turned to Sarah, who was sitting beside him.
“Did you catch that?”
Sarah shook her head.
“What are you talking about?”
he asked, rewinding the footage and starting it again.
“Watch the window on the left,” he said.
As the footage played, I saw it too.
A dark figure standing in the window, watching us.
I frowned, trying to make out the shape of its face, but it was too dark.
It must be one of the crew members, I thought, someone who had wandered into the shot by accident.
But then I realized that it wasn’t.
We were all in the room with Mark and Sarah, and no one had gone near that window.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew who it was – or that I should have known, at least.
And then the figure moved.
It turned to look at the camera, and my heart skipped a beat.
It had eyes after all, and they were staring back at us with an intense hatred that made my blood run cold.
“Stop,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
Mark paused the footage and looked at me.
“What is it?”
I shook my head, unable to speak.
I didn’t know what I had seen in the window, but I knew it wasn’t human.
“Did you see something?”
Sarah asked, her brow furrowed in concern.
I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to say what it was – or what it looked like.
I still wasn’t sure myself.
“Is there something wrong with the footage?”
Mark asked, rewinding it to the beginning.
We watched it in silence as our protagonist ran through the building, chased by her monstrous reflection in the windows.
And then we saw it: a tall, emaciated figure standing in the window of one of the distant rooms.
Its long arms hung at its sides, almost touching the floor, and its featureless face was turned towards the camera, as if it had been waiting for us all along.
I shivered, feeling a chill run down my spine.
It was so thin, like a skeleton wrapped in skin, but there was something powerful about it too – something dangerous and otherworldly.
Sarah gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
Mark just stared at the screen, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“That’s not possible,” he said finally.
I stood up from my chair, my legs shaky and weak.
“I don’t know what that thing is,” I said, “but we need to get out of here.”
I glanced at the door, wondering if we could make a run for it or if it would be better to hide instead.
“Did you see its face?”
Mark asked, his voice hoarse with fear.
We all turned back to the screen, but the figure was gone, replaced by the empty room beyond the window.
Its face had been hidden by long dark hair, and it had been perfectly still, almost like a statue or a mannequin, until it moved to look at us with those empty eye sockets that weren’t empty after all – not really – and now we could definitely see them staring at us and it was definitely human but it wasn’t human it wasn’t human at all it wasn’t—
“Did we see its face?”
Sarah repeated, her voice rising in panic.
Mark shook his head, but his expression was grim.
“I think we did,” he said, “but it happened so fast…”
“It’s not possible,” Sarah said firmly, “it must be a special effect, or makeup, or…”
She trailed off, unable to think of a good excuse for what we had seen on the screen.
I walked over to join them by the computer, trying to control my breathing and slow my heart rate.
I knew what I had seen in the window, even if I didn’t want to believe it – even if I knew that it couldn’t be real – but now that Mark had mentioned its face, I realized that something about it seemed familiar somehow.
Not just from the window, but from somewhere else, too…
“We’re not going to get anything done standing around here,” I said finally, “let’s take a break and regroup.”
They both nodded in agreement, grateful for the distraction.
Mark shut down the computer while I gathered up my notes on the film’s script, and then we headed out into the hallway to wait for Sarah to finish packing up her equipment in the studio next door.
“It’s probably just a prank,” she said as she joined us in the hallway, “or maybe an actor who got lost on set.”
I was about to correct her when I remembered that she was a new crew member who hadn’t been there when I’d read the file, so she didn’t know what I knew – what Mark was starting to figure out too – about what that thing really was.
It was a humanoid creature, known as SCP-096 or “The Shy Guy” in the Foundation’s archives, that was capable of entering a state of extreme rage if anyone were to see its face, which could cause it to go on a rampage and hunt down whoever had seen it until they were dead – no matter how far away they were or where they tried to hide.
I didn’t know how much of that was true – or if the thing we’d seen was the same one as in the file – all I knew was that we couldn’t stick around to find out.
“We have to leave,” I told them, “now.”
“What’s gotten into you?”
“What’s wrong?”
I didn’t answer her question as I turned to Mark and ordered him to pack up the rest of the equipment while Sarah and I went back to our studio to grab our stuff.
We had to get out of there before that thing came to find us and killed us all – before it was too late…
Sarah and I were already waiting in the hallway by the time Mark came rushing over to join us a minute later with his arms full of camera equipment and his eyes wide with shock and fear.
“We have to go,” I hissed at him, “now.”
He started to ask me why, until he saw the look on my face and realized that I was serious – that something was seriously wrong – and then he stopped talking as he let go of the equipment and ran to help us pack up our stuff instead.
I’d never seen him move so fast in my life as he did then as he helped us grab everything that we could carry and then followed me back out into the hallway towards the exit while Sarah went back to lock up our studio behind us.
We were almost at the door when I heard her calling out my name from behind us and then saw her running down the hallway towards us with a pair of small black suitcases in each hand.
I wanted to scream at her to hurry up – that we needed to leave right now before it was too late – but I knew that there wasn’t enough time, so I made sure that she was right behind me as I led Mark through the hallway towards the stairs at the end of the hallway and then turned to lead them down one flight of stairs after another until we finally reached the bottom of the building.
I’d been so focused on getting Mark and Sarah out of there as quickly as possible that I hadn’t even stopped to think about anything else – or anyone else – until we finally made it back outside and I saw our car sitting in the parking lot right where we’d left it.
It was still dark outside and there was no one else around as far as I could see as we ran to our car as fast as we could and threw our stuff inside before Mark ran to unlock the driver’s side door and jumped inside.
The engine started up right away and then we were peeling out of there as fast as we could go and up onto the highway just in time to see something large and dark come running out of the woods behind us and jump onto the road right in front of us with its arms raised and ready to attack…
“What was that thing?”
Mark asked at last as we finally slowed down enough to catch our breath and collect our thoughts after what had just happened.
“Why was it after us?”
