A long white hallway stretched out behind them, peppered with large steel doors and lit in a lurid glow by the evenly-spaced incandescent bulbs in the ceiling. Some of these doors had not been opened in a long time. This was a good thing, thought Adam Mikkelsen. If ‘reason’ and ‘caution’ were virtues worth extolling, most of these doors would never be opened again. Just locked up, barricaded beyond all measure, and sunk deep into the earth to become a distant memory. But quite a few were opened regularly, with ‘curiosity’ swatting away the other virtues like bothersome flies. These doors had existed since the building of this facility, which, while relatively new itself, has nonetheless stood its ground for decades. In stark contrast, the door in front of Adam had only been around for about a week. It wasn’t as though it was recently installed. Rather, it inexplicably popped into existence one night at the end of one of the building’s long, door-studded hallways. 

         Dr. Hanani was absentmindedly clicking her pen while analyzing the door intently.

         *click* *click* *click* *click*

         After some thought, she began: “Well, it seems to display some limited intelligence. Enough to grasp some abstract concepts, but not enough to figure out how to spell?”

         “So you think this is the work of an intelligent agent?” Adam asked.

         “I wouldn’t bet otherwise.”

         In front of them loomed the large wooden door inset into the wall, with a horizontal metal bar meant to be pushed. Above it was a white plastic sign with the word “EXLT” spelled out in glowing red letters. Even outside of the misspelled word (or unknown acronym), a couple other oddities were sprinkled around on closer inspection. For one, the door seemed to have two sets of hinges, one set on each of the sides, so it was unclear which direction the door would swing open, if it could even open at all. Additionally, if Adam squinted (he wouldn’t dare get too close), he would make out strange warpings on the dark wood of the door itself. Small bumps and indentations, as well as a couple of long streaks that looked like shallow cuts. Adam swallowed to contain his nervousness.

         “Do you uh… think it’s malicious?” Adam ventured.

         “In our line of work, it would be safe to assume. But if so, so far it seems unable to openly assert any influence in our reality, beyond the manifestation of this door. So we must weigh the potential merits that an investigation with D-class subjects can bring us. On one hand, if we can discover clues to this door’s shaping, or ways to exploit this anomaly, it could provide great benefit. All of the most impressive Foundation technologies have been created this way. On the other hand,”

         Dr. Hanani slowly clicked her pen again for emphasis.

         *click*

         “It seems so blatantly a trap.”

         This hesitation caught Adam off-guard. He knew Dr. Hanani to be perpetually bold, spitting in the myriad faces of danger that ooze and snarl down these halls, and an infuriating contrast to his own habitual caution. But as much disagreement as it led to in their working lives, it was also one of the many reasons he liked her. 

         Adam once again cleared his throat before replying, “We can place reality anchors around the anomaly and keep to observation for now. Maybe put off any investigation for later and only if it seems necessary? It popped so suddenly into existence I can’t help but hope it might pop back out. If we could ever be so lucky… And anyways, like you suggested it seems suspiciously like a designed trap. It’s hard to imagine much good coming to people who are tricked into wandering through an anomalous door masquerading as an exit.”

         Dr. Hanani seemed to chew on this thought for a while. Finally, she responded, “I agree with setting up reality anchors and sticking to observation for now, Dr. Mikkelsen. It will take time to fill in the paperwork for an exploration anyways. But the potential value of discovery is still strong enough to merit further investigation. How does that sound?”

         This was a win, where Adam was concerned. He readily agreed.

________________________________

         It had been a week since the mysterious door had appeared, now codified: SCP-8247. A week to process the paperwork for a D-class subject investigation, and a week in which the door had shifted its form multiple times. This was despite the Scranton Reality Anchors that had been set up in a close perimeter. First, it became a bathroom door, with the gender sign on front displaying a blue stick figure with four legs. Then, a grand bank vault door with, impressively, no obvious quirks. At least, no obvious visual quirks. For some reason the vault door smelled strongly like anchovies. Finally, a couple of days ago, it assumed its present form. A ragged wooden door held shut by a simple latch, with a large placard hanging from a nail, reading: “Free Cakee Inside!!” 

         And now, the D-class subject investigation was in progress. The Foundation had always used D-class subjects – people who had volunteered to assist in the Foundation’s research in lieu of their death sentences – as convenient testing tools. Dr. Hanani was sitting at a desk in the center of the office with a visual feed from cameras attached to the D-class subject’s visor, and a small microphone off to the side. Adam hovered to her left, arms crossed and face taut with concern.

         Dr. Hanani drew the microphone close to her and began.

         “Okay D-11629, for this exploration I will refer to you as D-1. Is that clear?”

         “Yes, m’am.” D-11629 responded. “Do you think there’s really cake on the other side?” Adam could imagine a snide grin as he said it. He was always nervous around D-class subjects, given each of their dark histories.

         Dr. Hanani ignored D-1’s question. “Alright, D-1, proceed to the door and open it slowly. Then describe to me what you see.”

         The subject walked slowly to the door before resting his hand against the latch. He then – slowly – slid the latch inwards and pushed the door open with a creak, and on the other side lay the inside of a dimly lit, wooden hut. A second wooden door lay on the wall opposite, and two small windows were inset on the two walls to either side. In the middle of the room there was a small and slightly dilapidated wooden table and chair, both looking as though they were built by an amateur, with the legs not equal in length for either piece of furniture and some rusty screw heads sticking out near the joints of the furniture. Sitting on top of the small table was, lo and behold, a cake. And this whole hut was, of course, here instead of the foundation-approved reinforced plaster wall that was still vainly detailed in the building’s floor plan.

         “Doesn’t look half-bad honestly. Minus the furniture.” The D-class subject mused.

         Dr. Hanani flashed a look of irritation, then spoke again. “Please gather a sample of the cake, D-1. Then go to the window and take a look outside.”

         He took out a small plastic box from his toolkit at his waist, alongside a thin steel spatula, carefully scooping a chunk out of the cake to place into the box. While doing so, he noticed a paper note on the table behind the cake. 

         “What’s this then?” D-1 said, while picking up the note and holding it up to his visor. On it was scrawled the words ‘PLEAS COME QUICKKLY BFFORE IT MELTS’ in messy handwriting. Dr. Hanani looked up to Adam with a note of confusion, before returning to the microphone:

         “Keep the note with you too, D-1. Now please get a visual of outside the window as well.”

         The D-class subject nonchalantly stuffed the note back into his pocket, before walking slowly over to the window, careful to keep the wooden floors from creaking. He soon reached the window and took a look outside, seeing a yellow field of grass between the hut he was now in and some trees in the distance, green leaves covering their fractal branches.

         “That’s strange…” Adam muttered, transfixed on the scenery. 

         Suddenly, in the distance, among the trees, a large creature lumbered forward. It was covered with dark brown fur and strode atop four legs, with its shoulders around six-and-a-half feet high and a long black beard dangling from its head. Taut muscle appeared to bulge from its shoulders and back. Its face protruded outwards and was tilted to one side, with a single large, pitch-black, and unblinking eye gleaming at D-1 through the distance. Most notable of all though were the huge branching horns on its head, covered with blood and seeming to have strips of flesh dangling throughout.

         It stood there, paused, waiting, and observing. 

         After a tense few seconds Dr. Hanani instructed, “D-1, I advise that you slowly return via the door you entered through so that we can analyze the samples and footage we’ve obtained. Slowly.”

         Without a word, the subject obliged, backing away and around the table while continuously facing the creature in the distance, who continued not to move a muscle. He worked the door handle behind his back and was through.

________________________________

         In one hand, Dr. Hanani held a fork and was picking at the food on the tray in front of her. In the other, her pen, which she clicked intermittently while staring down at the clipboard to her left.

         *click* *click* *click*

         Adam watched and waited for her to say what’s on her mind, eating his own black and blue salad and listening to snippets of other conversations around the Foundation cafeteria: “So then, it shot its tongue out like, 6, 7 feet. I didn’t even know it had a tongue… “

         Without even looking up, Dr. Hanani began, “The cake lab results just returned, perfectly normal. In fact, they even reported it tasting good, and for the sake of my sanity I really don’t want to ask them how they determined that.”

         “I mean, if they tested it and found it was normal I guess it should be okay?” Adam ventured.

         The glare he got in return told him otherwise. 

         He continued, “Nevermind, you’re right. What do you make of the notecard though? Does this sentient force really want us to come eat its cake so badly?”

         “I don’t know. It seems ridiculous from our point of view but I’ve wasted too much time trying to get into the heads of anomalies before, and I don’t intend to waste the effort again now. The scenery and that creature, however, merit further investigation. Should we try to make contact?”

         Adam had initially been excited to work on a case outside his usual domain, which were technological anomalies. But the presence of an alien being that they would be interacting with had him nervous. The closest he had ever gotten to this prior was when he was working with a superintelligent AI inside of a hand calculator. But even then, it had quickly decided on nihilism and then burned its own circuitry, so Adam ultimately wasn’t forced to engage in any alien diplomacy. 

         Adam swallowed. “Personally, I would recommend that we do some reconnaissance of that world first. Send in a scouting team with stealth capabilities and hope we don’t run into that creature again? I think it would help us greatly if we could learn more about who or what or even where we’re dealing with prior to trying to engage them.”

         Once again, Dr. Hanani chewed on the thought, clicking at her pen while she did so.

         *click* *click* *click* *click* *–*

         Unexpectedly, the clicking stopped, and Adam looked to see the pen partially collapsed in Dr. Hanani’s hand. The smushed pen then began, bit by bit, to slowly stretch down her hand, bending and elongating without breaking. Dr. Hanani was stunned looking at the pen, while over the speakers of the cafeteria an alarm suddenly blared.

         ‘CODE BLACK: XK-CLASS SCENARIO DETECTED. CODE BLACK: XK-CLASS SCENARIO DETECTED. CODE BLACK:-‘

         Adam stood up in horror, as a panic quickly consumed the Foundation cafeteria. An XK-class scenario meant the end of the world, that the Foundation had failed. Looking back at Dr. Hanani, he now saw that her glasses, too, had begun to slowly stretch and bend downwards past her nose and cheeks, while her face was frozen in a look of dread. Watching the shape of the glasses slowly distort, something clicked in his mind.

         Adam jumped from his seat, grabbed her arm, and shouted “We have to go! Now!” This seemed to shake off her daze as she then stood up abruptly. Adam turned and started jogging through the cafeteria back towards their work offices, looking back once to make sure she was following. Faced with the throng of lawless pushing and rushing people, he grabbed Dr. Hanani’s hand to make sure they didn’t lose each other, noting a renewed adrenaline rush when he did so. He steadily pushed around and through the chaotic mess of alarmed faces. 

         “WHERE are you GOING?? Don’t we need to go to one of the safe houses?” Dr. Hanani shouted over the tumult. 

         Without turning around, Adam yelled back, “You and I both know that they aren’t equipped for this. The note… the whole time it wasn’t a trap! It was trying to help us.”

         He could hear no response afterwards and was sure Dr. Hanani knew what he meant, what he was aiming for. As he opened a door into the main hallway, he noticed that the clocks on the wall had begun melting too. Even the clothes on his body clung to his skin more, and flapped around emphatically as he was running. Or was the clinging due to his sweat? He couldn’t tell. His attention then re-focused on the door, and Dr. Hanani’s hand still in his. 

         They picked up their speed, as the crowd of frenzied workers had thinned dramatically since they were mostly heading in the opposite direction. Adam wondered if he should try dragging any of them with him, but figured it would be too long to explain, and too hard to convince them. He also didn’t feel sure enough of his conclusions to risk dragging their lives into his scheme. But at least Dr. Hanani seemed to agree with his judgment.

         They were close to the door now, and his whole body felt weird and sluggish. His mind was consumed with nausea, and he didn’t, or couldn’t, dare think of what could be happening to his body. Either the floor or his shoes – or his feet – felt muddy and elastic. But the door was then finally within reach: its familiar ragged wooded front with a cheap dangling placard. Adam wasted no time shoving the latch in and pushing through the opening, collapsing onto the rough wooden floors of the cabin. He heard a second body thump to the floor, knowing that Dr. Hanani had made it too. Then a creak and a slam as the door somehow closed behind him. The feeling of the skin of his legs and torso pressed against the wooden floor told him that his clothes had melted off sometime in the escape. But the nausea still continued to escalate and Adam’s head was spinning and spinning… until he passed out.

________________________________

         When he awoke, he saw Dr. Hanani, also naked, by the windowsill, holding a note in her hands. His head was still throbbing, but at least the nausea had mostly subsided. With great effort he slowly lifted himself up to his feet. Dr. Hanani turned to him as he did so, and he saw that her eyes were red and cheeks wet. 

         “There’s a new note,” she said, softly. Adam walked forward, dazed, to take it from her outstretched hand. He turned back toward the door as he did so, and observed that the door they had entered through was gone, replaced by a plain wooden wall similar to the other sides of the rickety cabin. He turned back to her and then looked down to the note in his hands. Once again, messy handwriting, now spelling out:

         ‘IM HAPPY YOU NADE IT – AND SOSOSORRRY’.

         The realization of all that had happened was slowly dawning on him. The life he had abandoned, the world he desperately escaped. There was… too much, right now. He had to focus on things to do, distract himself with the present. Healing would come later.

         He turned to her again and swallowed, before asking in a cracked whisper:

         “What now, Eve?”

________________________________

Image Of Creature Obtained From Exploration #8247-01

Note: This story takes place in the SCP universe. Check it out for tons of other interesting (usually sci-fi horror) reads~