SCP-2740 It Wasn’t There

The walking dead, dripping and rotting, withglowing eyes and sharp teeth. A huge, black wolf, stalking through the woodsas you walk home alone in the dead of night. Even the horrors of the SCP Foundation: Theold man, SCP-106. The grey, shrieking nightmare of SCP-096,and the relentless hatred and violence of SCP-682. All these things frighten people, even thestaff of the SCP Foundation. But one question still haunts them. One terrible, awful question. What’s in the attic?.

What’s in the attic? What is in the attic? There is a certain time of night where itseems as if day will never come, where the shadows have stretched long and heavy acrossthe floor, and the air is thick with a sense of shapeless dread. Past midnight, but far before the relief ofdawn, it is the time of night when terrors come to life, where fear sits on your chestand refuses to let you breathe easily. Right now, it is that time of night in theLee family home, and, with a knife under her pillow and disaster on her mind, Olivia Leecan not sleep.

She holds her breath, listening to the soundsof the house around her. Her siblings were asleep in their respectiverooms, snoring away in the kind of peaceful slumber she could barely remember. Her parents, whispering together downstairs. She can't make it out, exactly, but she hasa theory. They're talking about her, most likely. What else could they be discussing? After so many years of seemingly endless fighting,shouting, slamming doors, a porcelain vase, or expensive china plate smashed against awall, she can feel the tension reaching a.

Boiling point. No doubt her parents are plotting, discussingwhat to do about her. They could kick her out, but she's only 17. No, she has the sneaking suspicion they havesomething else planned, something more drastic. That's why she snatched one of the kitchenknives yesterday, just in case. She can feel it under her pillow now, itspresence radiating through the cool pillowcase against her cheek. Things have never been quite right in thishouse, in this family. Since she was little, she could feel an auraof wrongness clinging to everyone, to everything.

It's only gotten worse over the years, condensinginto a fog that chokes her when she tries to act like everything is normal. Like they're a perfect, happy family. Her parents might be content to keep up thecharade, but she won't. Not anymore. She's been preparing, packing a duffel bagof clothes, food, a little bit of money, everything she needs to get out of this house, out ofthis town, once and for all. If they try anything tonight, that will bethe sign she needs to cut and run. Olivia's thoughts are interrupted by the soundof footsteps outside of her room.

Two sets of adult footsteps, not her siblingscoming to complain of a bad dream. Her parents. She holds her breath, waiting for the footstepsto pass, but they stop just in front of her door. The knob begins to turn, and she curses herselffor not locking it. This is it. Whatever force in this house has made themresent her all this time, it has driven them to act. As the door creaks open, Olivia snatches theknife out from under her pillow, brandishing.

It in front of her. Her parents look more angry than surprised,as if they were expecting this from her. They shout at her to put the knife down andlisten to what they say. Olivia refuses, It's the only leverage shehas in this two-on-one confrontation, and she isn't about to give it up. She snatches the bag out from under her bed,and she slowly backs her parents up against the wall. This close, she can see the desperation inher mother's eyes, and smell the spirits on her father's breath.

Her hand trembles and her eyes fill with tears. Suddenly, there is a sound from above, somethingheavy, shifting and moving across the floor. The sound makes Olivia's blood run cold. Up there, that's the attic. There's nothing in the attic. Or at least, as far as she knows. She's never been up there, could never forceherself to climb the ladder up into the darkness without every fiber of her being rejectingit, every primal instinct screaming at her to get away.

For as long as she can remember, the attichas been a place she never wanted to go. There's the sound again, louder this time,more insistent. It turns her stomach, a chill running downher spine. Whatever is up there, she needs to get asfar away from it, from this house, as possible. She drops the knife, letting it clatter tothe floor, and she tears out of the room with her duffel bag. She can hear her parents behind her, callingher name, begging her to listen, threatening her if she doesn't, but she shuts out thenoise. The only thing on her mind is getting outof this house.

As she runs, she can hear that sound in theattic following her, somehow right above her, no matter what part of the house she is in. She doesn't even bother to put on her shoes,flinging open the front door and sprinting out into the night in her socks. The door slams behind her, and suddenly Oliviais gone, disappearing into an open world where she can breathe again. Back inside the house, the family she leftbehind is still taking in the reality of her absence. Above them, in the attic, something shifts.

After Olivia leaves, the mood in the housebegins to shift. Her parents, Franklin and Yvette, had hopedthat her absence would make their home seem lighter, but in fact, it's been the opposite. They used to be able to ignore the attic,to glance at it and feel the gnawing sensation that something important, something terrible,was waiting up there, then keep walking and move on with the rest of their day. But now, without their eldest daughter, thethorn in their side who constantly aggravated and disappointed them, the feeling is gettingharder to ignore. Slowly but surely, thoughts of the attic wormtheir way under the couple's skin until there.

Is little else that they can think about. The house has taken on an eerie silence. It doesn't sound like this is a house wherea family of five, formerly six, but now five, live. It sounds like a grave. Franklin cracks first, gives way to the pressureto climb the ladder, and see what is up there in the attic. One morning he wakes up, drinks his coffee,then summons all of his strength, grits his teeth, and starts to climb.

He grabs the first rung, and begins to pullhimself up. One step, one rung, then another, then another,slowly making his way up into the shadowy unknown above. He reaches up with an unsteady hand, and pushesthe door open. Just as his head crosses the threshold ofthe opening into the attic, everything goes dark. Franklin suddenly opens his eyes, and findshimself sitting back at the kitchen table, his wife across from him, his children playingin the next room while the sound of Saturday morning cartoons blares from the television.

He blinks, rubbing at his eyes. Was it his imagination? Did he just have a vivid daydream about climbingup to the attic? He asks Yvette, and she swears that she neversaw him get up from the table. He drank his coffee, looked lost in thoughtfor a moment, and then he snapped back to attention. She didn't see him do anything else. She shrugs it off and turns back to the newspaper. Franklin can't shake it off that easily.

He goes about the rest of his Saturday asnormal, helping tidy up the house, playing in the yard with the kids, and staring offinto space. But all the while, he is thinking of the attic. He could swear that he climbed that ladder,and would happily swear it in front of a judge. But it didn't make sense. None of it made sense. He decides to try again, or maybe for thefirst time. His head aches from the effort of trying tosift through his memories and find what he could be missing.

Later that night, after he and his wife settledown for bed, Franklin sneaks out of the bedroom. He tiptoes through the hall until he reachesthe ladder up to the attic. Looking at it in the dark, he feels a senseof foreboding, as if his subconscious is warning him to turn back. He fights through the feeling, climbing upthe steps one by one. He pushes open the door, climbs up through,and then…he opens his eyes, lying on his back in bed, his wife fast asleep beside him. What the hell? Did he fall asleep and dream it?.

But why would he dream the same dream twice,once at the kitchen table in the bright light of the morning? No, that can't be it. Still, he needs to check one more time, justto be certain. He trudges out into the hall, climbs backup the ladder, and opens the attic door. Once more, he opens his eyes in bed, as ifit was all a dream. But he knows better. Somehow, the attic won't let him look inside. Whatever is up there, it doesn't want to beseen.

He tries to put it out of his mind, to closehis eyes and drift off to sleep, but he can't stop imagining the climb up to the attic,can't stop trying to picture what could be hiding above his head. This is his house, dammit! He should know everything going on in here. It just doesn't make sense. Franklin doesn't sleep at all that night. He just lies there, eyes shut, mind replayingthe memory of his failed climbs over and over on a loop.

The next day he tries one more time, onlyto find himself sitting in his easy chair and watching the television. He tries again throughout the day, every timeunable to reach the attic. Yvette notices the change in her husband,but doesn't dare ask what caused it. Whatever it is, he is growing increasinglydistressed, angry, and terrified. She can guess what it might be about, andcan feel that same uneasy feeling whenever she walks past the attic. The question of it gnaws at her, but she'safraid to try and look for herself. She can see what it's doing to Franklin andimagines what it might do to her.

As the week goes on, Franklin and Yvette trytheir best to ignore the attic, but it grows more difficult with each passing day. By Sunday, Franklin comes home from the officewith a box of his things, announcing that he has quit his job. He wants the family to move away from thehouse and have a fresh start somewhere else. He has a meeting with a realtor tomorrow todiscuss selling the house. Yvette starts to protest but thinks betterof it. Best to let Franklin have his way when hegets his mind set on something. Besides, if they can move out of the house,maybe she won't ever have to find out what.

The trouble with the attic is all about. The next morning a realtor comes by to meetwith the Lee's. He has great news! Someone has already put in an offer on thehouse, and it's way more than what they paid for it! For once, things are really starting to lookup for the family. They sit on the couch with the realtor, reviewthe contract, and prepare to sign the paperwork. Franklin picks up a pen and gets ready tosign on the dotted line. But the instant the pen touches the paper,he's at the kitchen table again, Yvette sitting.

Across from him with a cup of coffee in herhand. She stares at him, wide-eyed. She didn't forget this time. They both remember being there, ready to signaway their house and start a new chapter of their lives, when all of a sudden, like theskipping of a scratched record, there was a blip of some kind, and they were back here. Franklin rushes to the phone, dialing therealtor's number in an attempt to get a handle on things. It rings once, then an error message playsinforming him that the number he is trying.

To reach has been disconnected. He looks up the realtor, but finds that thereal estate agency he was with is no longer in business. Somehow, everything has changed, and theirlucky break has vanished into thin air. Franklin throws his coffee cup across theroom in a burst of rage, and it shatters against the wall in a flurry of hot coffee and ceramic. The kids stop playing in the other room, comingto check out the source of the loud sound. Yvette shoos them away, then quietly beginsto clean up the mess. And they carry on that way, until bedtime.Franklin goes to bed early, exhausted from.

Seething all day about the lost opportunityto sell the house. Yvette stays up, reading a book on the couchwhile the rest of the family sleeps. Just as she goes to turn the next page, shehears something. A voice, coming from upstairs. It isn't Franklin, it isn't one of the kids. It's a voice she hasn't heard in a littlewhile. It sounds like Olivia. Yvette can't quite make out what her daughteris saying, but she knows that it's her. She's certain of it, just as certain as sheis of the fact that the sound is coming from.

The attic. She's been avoiding it all this time, afraidto become haunted by whatever has been vexing Franklin, but she can't resist it anymore. She may have run her out of the house, butOlivia is her daughter, and her mother's instincts can only be suppressed for so long. Slowly but surely, she walks to the attic,and begins to climb up. Hearing the noise, the children leave theirrooms to come and see what is happening. “Mom, what are you doing?” One of them asks, but Yvette does not answer.

All she can hear is Olivia in the attic. She still can't quite make out the words,but if she can just get up there, get inside, she knows that everything will become clear. She pushes open the door, and climbs up intothe inky blackness above. Back below, the children stare at the ladder,listening to the sound of hushed whispers. It goes on for several minutes, before Yvetteclimbs back down into view. “What was up there?” One of the children asks. Yvette turns to look at them, her face pale,her eyes hollow.

She shakes her head, silent for a long moment. When she speaks, her voice trembles with amixture of confusion and horror. “…I don't know. It wasn't Olivia.” As days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months,and months turn into years, the Lee family tries everything they can think of to makelife with the attic bearable. They try to ignore it, but that doesn't workanymore. They attempt to have the house demolished,torn down so they can build something new on top of the rubble, but after they signthe papers, they wake up in bed and find that.

The construction company no longer exists. Franklin tries to investigate the attic again,but it just won't let him inside. If he ever makes it all the way up there,he isn't able to remember it. One day, in a fit of desperation, he takesout an ad in the newspaper, asking for help from someone experienced in the unexplainable. He doesn't expect much to come of it, butthe ad draws the attention of a secretive organization. A group of men come to the door to speak withthe Lee family, identifying themselves as members of an organization they will onlyrefer to as “The Foundation.”.

The men from The Foundation attempt to climbinto the attic, only to find themselves standing at the front door again. They begin scribbling down notes after thisoccurrence, whispering to each other and saying words like “cognitohazard” and “reality-altering.” The Lee's don't understand much of it, butthey can tell that it's nothing good. The men from The Foundation block off thehouse with caution tape, put up a notice of a highly dangerous gas leak, and then askthe Lee's to come with them. Over the next few days, Dr. Dorsett of theSCP Foundation conducts interviews with Yvette and Franklin regarding the nature of the attic,and their experiences with it.

He also speaks with the children that stilllive with them, as well as several of their neighbors. Following these interviews, the Foundationattempts several more manned explorations of the attic, as well as a few unmanned explorations. However, these attempts prove unsuccessful. In the days following these attempts, theFoundation discovers that all records of them have disappeared, and that the investigationattempts appear to have never actually taken place. The research team is desperate to put thepuzzle together and realizes they are still.

Missing one piece. The runaway daughter, Olivia. The Foundation tracks her down, living undera new name and working as a landscaping contractor, and brings her in for questioning. She is surprisingly cooperative, almost unfazedby the bizarre situation. Dr. Garrett is selected to conduct the interview,and he meets Olivia, now Rebecca Feldman in an interrogation room. He begins the interview, saying, “Ms. Feldman,what I want to discuss with you is a phenomenon associated with your parents home, likelylocated in the upstairs-“.

She cuts him off. “The attic, I know. I thought somebody would come after me aboutthat. I just didn't think it would be so soon.” Dr. Garrett is surprised at her cavalier attitudetoward the attic. He asks if she’s aware of the phenomenonoccurring in the house. She nods, and says, “I left my parents whenI was a kid, Dr. Garrett. We… we had always fought.

They weren't happy with the choices I hadmade, the things I believed in, the people I spent time with. There was anger there, so much anger I thoughtit might suffocate me. When I left, I felt like I could breathe again. I never went back after that, but… sometimes,I can still feel it. You know how you feel when you're dreaming,and you're trying to run from something, but you can't see it, and you don't know if it'sreally there, but you run anyway? That's how it feels.” He asks her what prompted her to leave herparents.

Rebecca looks down at her hands, folded onthe table, before she speaks again. “There was one night, we had a fight, andmy dad was drinking, and mom was even worse off at that point, and… I had kept a knife under my pillow for a longtime, in case something happened, and they came into my room that night. I don't know what their intentions were, butI drew it and backed them into the wall. The whole thing felt like I was being choked,and that was the first time I heard it, something moving above me. I dropped the knife and ran, and I didn'tlook back.”.

Dr. Garrett only had one more question forher: Whether she knows about anything in the attic? She looked up from her hands then, meetingGarrett's eyes. “There are always secrets, doctor. There's only so much hate that can build upin a place before it starts hating you back… I don't know what's in the attic, or if there'sanything up there at all, and I don't think I want to.” With that, she stands up and leaves the room. The Foundation plans to detain her and investigateher story further, to try and get to the heart.

Of the truth. But the next day, they can't find her. As more days pass and they are unable to trackher down, they come to a disquieting conclusion. According to all available information andlegal documentation, Olivia Lee does not exist. Dr. Garrett insists that he spoke with her,and continues to review the transcript of their conversation. She remains clear as day in his memories,and in the minds of her family, but in reality, or, whatever the entity in the attic moldedthis reality into, she never existed at all. Check out the Dr. Bob Patreon and become ajunior researcher today!.

Now go and watch another entry from the filesof Dr. Bob, like SCP-1550 Dr. Wondertainment's Custom Pets.

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