MidReal Story
Forgotten Shadows
Scenario: The story unfolds on the first day of work for Junior Researcher Kim at the Foundation. During his lunch break, he sits alone in a corner of the cafeteria, grappling with the knowledge he has acquired about SCPs (Secure, Contain, Protect) that morning. It is then that he encounters a mysterious figure named Alastair Grey, who stands out in his gray suit, appearing out of place in the utilitarian setting of the Foundation.
Grey engages Kim in a conversation that reveals an unsettling familiarity with Kim's personal background. As the exchange progresses, Kim begins to suspect that Grey is not an ordinary individual but a memetic entity capable of consuming memories and knowledge, causing others to forget his existence. Grey's presence renders the Foundation staff oblivious to Kim, as if he were completely non-existent.
In desperation, Kim attempts to seek help but finds himself unable to communicate with anyone. Realizing he must rely on himself to confront Grey, he undergoes a series of trials and failures. Kim discovers that Grey cannot be harmed by physical attacks but can be affected by a barrage of information. He ingeniously uses his phone and a hard drive from the lab to create an "information weapon," successfully inflicting damage on Grey.
Ultimately, with the assistance of Marion Wheeler, the head of the Foundation's Memetic Department, Kim regains his memories and identity. He realizes that he is not a newcomer but a seasoned researcher in memetics. Wheeler praises his abilities and demands his continued work, analyzing Grey's patterns of behavior and determining what happens to the victims' bodies.
This narrative delves into themes of memory, identity, and the perception of reality, while also offering a glimpse into the everyday workings of the Foundation as it deals with supernatural phenomena. Through Kim's perspective, readers are taken into the enigmatic and perilous world of the SCP Foundation.
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Junior Researcher Kim Johnson sat alone in the SCP Foundation cafeteria, his untouched lunch in front of him.
He had just completed his orientation session and was trying to process all the information about SCPs (Secure, Contain, Protect) that had been introduced to him.
As he tried to eat, he found himself unable to shake off the unsettling feeling that had taken root since he arrived at his new workplace.
The cafeteria was a dimly lit room with metal tables and chairs, and the sound of staff members chatting and utensils clinking in the background filled the air.
He had unsuccessfully attempted to take a bite out of his sandwich and drink from his water bottle before deciding to unpack his lunch.
After ransacking his backpack for a few moments, he took out a sandwich and an apple from a plastic container and placed them in front of him.
Why couldn’t he eat?
There was nothing wrong with what he’d packed for lunch.
Just a simple sandwich and an apple, both no different from what he’d made for himself when he was still an undergraduate with no time or money to spare.
Kim sighed and picked up the sandwich.
He’d only just started working here, but he was already so exhausted that it felt like he’d been slaving away for years.
He had no energy left to think about all the weird things the Foundation had told him.
Maybe after eating, he could lie down on an empty bed somewhere and sleep for a couple of hours.
That should help with the headache at least.
He opened up his sandwich and frowned at the lettuce that fell out of it.
It was wilted and soggy.
He poked at it with his finger and recoiled at the slimy texture.
No wonder it tasted funny as well.
What did they put in the filling?
He lost his appetite altogether and pushed the sandwich aside, deciding just to have the apple instead.
As he bit into the juicy fruit, he couldn’t help but think about the briefing earlier in the day, when Marion Wheeler had explained to him what kind of place he’d be working at.
The SCP Foundation was a top-secret organization that worked to Secure, Contain, and Protect anomalous objects and entities from the rest of the world.
Anomalous as in supernatural or paranormal, things that science couldn’t explain but still existed nonetheless.
Like ghosts or UFOs, but weirder and much more dangerous.
Most people would never have heard about them, but they were there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting civilians if they ever got loose from the Foundation’s control.
Kim had never believed in those kinds of things before.
He’d always thought that monsters were only real in horror movies or in people’s imaginations, but according to the Foundation—
He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the memories of that morning’s presentation.
The more he thought about what the speakers had told him, the less sense any of it made.
If there were really so many different kinds of SCPs out there—hundreds of them, maybe even thousands—then why had no one ever discovered them before?
Lost in thought, he didn’t realize someone had approached him until they spoke up.
“Hello, are you Junior Researcher Kim Johnson?Nice to meet you.”
Kim looked up from his plate to see a man standing in front of him.
He had short, neatly combed black hair, slightly pale skin, and dark eyes that seemed to be staring right at him.
He was also tall, Kim noticed with some dismay.
Taller than him, at least.
And not just in height, but in the broadness of his shoulders as well.
He stood out from the other Foundation personnel in the room, all of whom seemed to prefer wearing casual clothes like T-shirts or hoodies with their jeans or slacks.
This man, on the other hand, was dressed in a full suit that looked gray in color, although it was hard for Kim to tell for sure in the dim lighting.
He placed a hand on top of the table, palm down, as if waiting for Kim to shake it.
Kim instinctively withdrew his own hand into his lap.
“I am,” he said.
“How can I help you, sir?”
The man smiled down at him, his thin lips stretching into a satisfied grin.
“It’s Alastair Grey, nice to meet you,” he said, introducing himself.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?”
Kim asked, frowning as he tried to think back on where he’d seen this man before.
He looked eerily familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
But then again, as far as Kim knew, he didn’t have any friends or family members by that name.
So why did it sound like he did?
And why did the man standing in front of him seem to know that as well?
“Not yet,” Alastair said, sounding amused by Kim’s question.
“Although I believe we’ll be working closely together from now on, if my sources are correct.”
“Your sources?”
Kim asked, raising an eyebrow.
Alastair smiled at him and took a step closer to the table, effectively trapping Kim between his chair and his own body.
There was something about the way he moved that made the hair on the back of Kim’s neck stand up on end.
“I heard you’re the best Junior Researcher the Foundation has right now,” Alastair said, leaning down until his face was just inches away from Kim’s.
His breath smelled like coffee and mint.
“I can’t wait to see all your hard work and dedication myself.”
Kim’s heart skipped a beat at Alastair’s words and their implications.
There was no way this man could’ve known about his background, but there was something in the way he said it that made Kim uneasy, like the information had been given to him as a fact, rather than as a possibility or a speculation.
He opened his mouth to ask the other man what he meant by that, but before he could say anything, Alastair straightened up and turned around to leave.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” he said with a smile over his shoulder.
“It was nice meeting you, Junior Researcher Johnson.”
Kim watched him go with a frown.
As soon as Alastair walked away, Kim couldn’t help but notice that something wasn’t quite right with his behavior.
The conversation they’d just had felt almost surreal, like it had happened in a dream or a memory that wasn’t quite his own.
But what unsettled him even more was the way everyone around him behaved as if nothing had changed.
No one else seemed to notice that anything strange had happened in the last few minutes, their conversations continuing as if they’d never been interrupted.
And when Kim stood up from his chair and looked around the room, he realized something even more disturbing: no one seemed to notice him either.
Even though the room was full of people, none of them so much as glanced in his direction when he walked past them or tried to get their attention.
Their eyes passed right over him as if he wasn’t there, like they were looking at a blank space on the wall instead of a living, breathing person.
Panic surged through Kim as he realized what was happening, or rather, what wasn’t happening.
Alastair Grey had just made everyone forget about him, and there was nothing he could do to change their minds.
Kim’s throat felt so tight that he could barely breathe as he made his way through the cafeteria, his hands balled into fists at his sides.
He couldn’t believe this was happening.
He’d heard stories about SCPs and the anomalies people encountered on a daily basis as part of their work for the Foundation, but he never thought he’d become one of them himself.
And if Alastair was telling the truth, then there was nothing he could do to stop himself from disappearing completely.
He needed help, and fast.
But who could he turn to?
Without wasting another second, he hurried over to the nearest security guard and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
The man didn’t react at all, his hands moving mechanically as he scooped up another mouthful of food from his plate.
Kim felt his stomach drop as he realized what was happening.
The other man couldn’t see or hear him either.
Alastair Grey had made the world forget that he existed, and now Kim was all alone.
He couldn’t let this happen, not without a fight.
So, with no other options left to consider, Kim straightened his shoulders and walked over to where Site Director Tara Brooks was sitting by herself on the far side of the room.
As the head of Site-17 and one of the Foundation’s most senior staff members, she was the highest-ranking person Kim could think of who might be able to help him figure out what was happening.
Maybe her security clearance level was high enough that she hadn’t been affected by Alastair’s anomaly.
Or maybe she already knew who he was and would be able to help him make sense of what was going on.
Either way, she was his best chance at getting out of this mess in one piece.
When Kim Johnson decided to join the SCP Foundation as a Junior Researcher, he expected to meet some strange people along the way.
But not this strange.
The man who’d just sat down at his table was like nothing Kim had ever seen before in his entire life.
He was tall and imposing in every way, his gray suit impeccably tailored to fit his broad shoulders and slim waist just right.
His skin was so pale that it almost seemed to glow under the cafeteria lights, his eyes so dark that they looked almost black when he glanced up from his plate and met Kim’s gaze.
He looked like a movie star or a model, someone who spent hours every day working out at the gym and getting his hair cut just right so that he always looked perfect all the time.
But there was something else about him that made the hairs on the back of Kim’s next stand up on end.
Something that told him this man wasn’t like anyone else in the room at all.
He didn’t look like anyone else, and he certainly didn’t act like anyone else either.
“I hope you don’t mind if I join you,” the man said with a smile as he sat down across from Kim and took a sip of his drink, his eyes never leaving Kim’s face for even a second.
“After all, it’s not every day a new recruit gets to meet his supervisor for the first time.”
Kim felt his stomach drop as he realized what was happening, and what the other man was saying.
And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to move or say anything at all, not even when the other man reached out across the table and placed a hand on top of his own, his fingers brushing against Kim’s skin in a way that made his whole body shiver with discomfort and revulsion.
“Don’t be like that,” the man said with another smile as he leaned in closer and gestured for Kim to take a bite of his sandwich, which was still lying on the table in front of him untouched and uneaten.
“Here, let me get that for you.Come on, don’t be shy.”
Kim wasn’t sure what to do or say now.
He didn’t know if he should stay or go, if he should take the other man’s advice or run as fast and as far away as his feet would carry him.
But something about the other man’s behavior made his skin crawl even more now than it had before, and so he pushed himself away from the table and shook his head, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as he took a step back and forced himself to look the other man in the eye.
“I’m not hungry,” he said as firmly as he could, even as his mouth watered with hunger and his stomach growled loudly with need.
“I don’t want any of that.
I’m fine just the way I am.”
“You’re not fine,” the other man said with a grin as he reached out and snatched up the half-eaten sandwich off the table and shoved it into his mouth, his eyes flickering with a strange light as he chewed and swallowed.
“You’re a mess, really you are.
But don’t worry, I can help you.
I can make it better, I swear.
I just need you to trust me first.
Can you do that?
“No,” Kim said as his fists clenched even tighter, his anger finally boiling over and spilling out of him as he glared at the other man with every ounce of fury that was burning inside of him.
“I don’t trust you; I don’t like you; and I don’t want you anywhere near me!
Just leave me alone, okay?
Is that too much to ask?”
The other man was silent for a moment, his eyes wide and staring as he took in Kim’s outburst with seemingly genuine surprise.
But then his face relaxed once more, his lips curling into a smile as he lowered his gaze and shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice soft and gentle.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, really I didn’t.
I can see now that you’re not in the best of moods today, and that you’ve had a rough time of it so far.
And I’m sure that must be hard for you.
But you need to understand that, as long as you’re here, these things are going to happen.
You’re going to get angry; you’re going to get upset; you’re going to feel things that you never thought were possible.
And if you’re not careful, if you’re not prepared, they’ll eat away at you until there’s nothing left.
“But you don’t have to worry about any of that,” he continued as he leaned back in his chair and studied Kim with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Not right now, anyway.
But maybe later, after you’ve learned a few things.
After you’ve seen a few things.
After you’ve become a few things.
And then maybe, just maybe, you’ll be ready to see me again and to talk to me again, to welcome me into your home with open arms and an open heart.
And to welcome me into your life as someone special, someone important, someone who will never leave your side or let you down or hurt you in any way.
Isn’t that what you want?
Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”
Kim wasn’t sure what he wanted or didn’t want anymore, or even if he knew how to tell the difference between the two.
All he knew was that he was angry now, angrier than he’d ever been before in his life, and that he was ready to scream his head off and tear apart everything around him until there was nothing left but dust and broken glass on the ground in front of him.
But when he looked up again and saw the other man’s face, so calm and so confident as he sat there with his hands folded in his lap and his eyes fixed on Kim once more, something inside of him seemed to go cold instead.
Something inside of him seemed to go still instead.
Something inside of him seemed to go quiet instead.
And before he knew what was happening or why, he was standing there as still and as silent as a statue as his breath caught in his throat and his anger faded away into nothingness around him.
There was something about the other man that Kim had never noticed before, something that he’d never thought about or even considered before, something that he’d never experienced before either, not with anyone else, not with anything else, not with anyplace else, not with anything else ever before.
Something was wrong here, very wrong indeed.
But what was it?
And why was it?
And how was it?
And when was it?
But most of all, whose fault was it?
Whose fault was it that Kim found himself standing there with his mouth hanging open like a fish out of water as the other man continued to look at him with his unreadable expression as he waited for an answer that Kim didn’t have yet?
“Did you really think that I wouldn’t show up here today?”
the other man asked him as Kim tried to collect his thoughts and figure out what he was going to do next.
Did you really think that I wouldn’t find you here today?”
the other man asked him again, almost chiding him for something that Kim didn’t understand yet or even know what it was, but that he felt deep down inside of him without knowing why.
“Did you really think that I wouldn’t be able to see you here today?”
the other man asked him again, almost taunting him now with something that Kim couldn’t quite put his finger on, but that he couldn’t quite escape either, not yet, not now, not ever, not anymore, not for as long as he lived, breathed, thought, or felt anything again from that moment on.
“Did you really think that I wouldn’t be able to talk to you here today?”
the other man asked him one last time, almost daring him to do something about this now as he waited for an answer that he seemed to know already, but that he wanted to hear from Kim’s own mouth instead.
“No,” Kim replied at last, his voice almost a whisper now before he cleared his throat, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, “I didn’t think any of those things at all.
But you’re wrong about one thing, at least,” he added as he straightened up, lifted his chin, squared his shoulders, tightened his fists at his sides, and looked the other man right in the eye with more determination than he’d ever had before.
“I’m not afraid of you,” he said, almost daring the other man to do something about this now, almost daring the other man to prove him wrong about this now, almost daring the other man to take away the only thing that he had left to believe in from this life now.
The other man just watched him for a moment before he spoke again.
“Well, that’s good to know at least,” the other man said at last as he smiled and relaxed a little once more, but not too much either, just enough to show Kim that he could still do this if he wanted to, whatever this was.
“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” the other man said at last as he studied Kim closely for a moment before he spoke again.
“But if it helps you any, then maybe you should be a little afraid of me.
Maybe everyone should be a little afraid of me.
I know that I would be if I were all of you out there right now.”
“I don’t understand,” Kim said again as he shook his head slowly from side to side once more.
“I know,” the other man replied as he shook his head slowly from side to side once more as well.
“But why don’t we just sit down for a minute and talk about this instead?
I think that we both have a lot of things that we need to say to each other right now.
Don’t you agree?”
Kim wasn’t sure if he did or not, but he went along with this anyway since he didn’t know what else to do anymore at this point.
The other man waved to the seat across from him and waited for Kim to sit down before he spoke again.
“Now then, where were we before we got so rudely interrupted?”
the other man asked him as he studied Kim closely once more.
“Let’s see now.
Ah, yes, that’s right.
We were talking about your parents before, weren’t we?
How could I forget about them?”
the other man asked him as he smiled once more.
“They were such nice people after all.
And you were such a nice little boy, weren’t you?
You still are deep down inside of you even now.
But you don’t always show it as much now that you’re all grown up and have forgotten so much about who you really are and who you used to be once upon a time.”
Kim’s eyes grew wide at this as he stared at the other man in shock and disbelief.
He didn’t know how to respond to any of this now that he knew that the other man had known about his parents as well as him now.
He didn’t know what to say or do about any of this either.
But then something else caught his eye and he looked away from the other man for a moment before he could stop himself from doing so as he saw it.
There was something strange about the other man’s appearance now that he could see it clearly for himself.
It was like there was a distortion around the other man’s edges that made it hard for him to focus on anything else around those parts right now.
It was like there was a flickering or shimmering around those edges that made them hard for him to see properly or completely right now.
It was like there was something coming out of those edges that made them hard for him to look around or through right now.
“I know what you are,” Kim blurted out loud before he even knew what he was saying right now.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
he asked out loud as he felt an icy chill run down his spine from head to toe.
“You’re one of those things out there that can do things to people’s heads and minds without them knowing about it right now,” he added as he felt another icy chill run down his spine from head to toe once more.