Sanitarium Containment Procedures

Midnight Madness

Shilo Wallace shivered in terror. She could hear footsteps. Lots of footsteps. They echoed down the long hallway in which she stood and they were getting louder and louder with each passing moment. As the footsteps continued to get louder, Shilo felt herself getting dizzier and dizzier. That stupid blood disease of hers was kicking in again. It was the anxiety. It was making her lose focus, and her sense of stability was slipping away just as fast. Now was probably the absolute worst time for something like this to happen.

Unsure of what else to do in a situation like this, the sound of the footsteps about 20 feet away now, Shilo began to hyperventilate. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. The girl reached out to touch one of the hallway's walls and the moment the cold metal touched her fingertips, she was able to gain some semblance of balance again. She began to back up as quickly as she could without her own boots making any noise. Already, her mind was formulating a plan. She had just left her father's office a few moments ago so she wasn't that far away from him and she knew he would still be there. It was her intention to just slow back up down the hallway until she reached his office again. He would know what to do! He was in charge of the Keter Floor here at the SCP Foundation after all. If there was anyone who could help her right now, it was him!

But Shilo never reached her father's office again. She didn't need to. Instead, when she had been about 20 paces away from it, she finally heard a human's voice echo down the hallway, and the sound scared the living daylights out of her.

"Absolutely not!" the voice snapped. Part of Shilo's shock came from the fact that she had not expected to hear a voice that spoke perfect English. Seldom few of the SCPs of the Foundation had that capability. But part of Shilo's shock also came from relief. If this truly was a human voice that she was hearing, then there was no danger at all and there was nothing for her to fear. Shilo found this thought immensely relieving. Besides, it wasn't every day you heard someone talking so freely here on the Keter Floor this late at night.

What's more, though it took her a moment, Shilo realized that she recognized the voice. It belonged to one of her fellow "classmates" here at the Foundation. They were all training to become full employees one day so, up until the day they received that full distinction and title, they all affectionately referred to themselves as students of the Foundation. It was more refined that "trainee" or "recruit" or "cadet" or "apprentice". And this voice that Shilo was hearing belonged to one of her fellow students. Maybe she'd only been at the Foundation for about the month and maybe she didn't know exactly who the voice belonged to, but she could still recognize the voice as being a friendly one and that was all that mattered. She was not dealing with a rogue SCP after all.

"Thank goodness," Shilo breathed to herself, exhaling slowly as she fought to recover her breath. But as the footsteps continued to draw near, a small surge of anger entered Shilo's heart. Seriously, who on earth was out here on the Keter Floor so late at night? It was way past curfew! Shilo was only here because she was speaking with her father, and he was only here this late because he was finishing up some paperwork. Shilo had a right to be here, but she was doubting that these people did! And Shilo was guessing there had to be at least two given the 'absolutely not' line, which implied a conversation. Slowly, Shilo's fear turned into annoyance and incredulity. She finally moved forward, taking a bold step towards the sound of the conversation. She made sure to stomp her boots against the cold metal floor as she walked along.

"What was that?!" the same voice as before jumped when it heard the sound of Shilo's boots, thumping against the floor. Shilo felt a dark pleasure rise up in her chest in response to the sound of genuine fear coming from the voice. Then at last, Shilo finally got a chance to actually see who it was that was out here so late. Faces were finally put with voices as Shilo rounded that last corner. They belonged to two young women about her age, maybe a few years older at max. One of them was a blond and the other was a brunette. Shilo answered the question with a sharp tone.