SCP004: Rusty Keys

A door to nowhere and everywhere?

Today I am writing to you about SCP-004, which is better known as The 12 Rusty Keys and the Door.

SCP004 consists of an old wooden barn style door and a set of 12 steel keys that have rusted. SCP-004-1 is the door, SCP-004-2 through to SCP004-13 are the keys. The door is in a frame at an abandoned factory, the location of which is redacted in the report.

In 1949 three children found the door while trespassing, they also found the keys in a lockbox. One of the children, now known as SCP004-CAS01, goes missing when the children are attempting to figure out which key opens the door. A month after SCP004-CAS01 goes missing their severed right hand is found eight kilometres from the door. Further searching revealed that other body parts had been scattered around the door, some parts as far as 32 kilometres away. (it is worth mentioning at this point that not all of SCP004-CAS01 were recovered, they appeared decades later, and seemed to have suffered no decomposition in that time)

The children are interviewed and reveal that upon using one of the keys to open the door SCP-004-CAS01 was torn into several pieces, each of which disappeared.

The SCP foundation then became involved and took over the investigation, the children were terminated by the foundation who then started testing and found that all the keys fit the door’s lock. They use 12 D class personnel to test the keys in the door and only two of them survive. Opening the door with any key except SCP-004-7 or SCP-004-12 caused the test subjects to be torn apart in multiple directions; however, no dismembered parts were found until much later. While two class D did survive one became catatonic, while the other was unharmed.

The class D who was catatonic was not the only class D to use this key in testing, some who did were able to be rehabilitated, one to the point where they could speak again. That class D described a massive green creature, so large that much of its body extended beyond his field of view. They also described an overwhelming primal fear when in the presence of this creature.

The Class D who was unharmed explained that upon going through the door there was an impossibly large room on the inside, like the TARDIS it was bigger than the building it was inside. The door was propped open and level 3 personnel entered and were unable to measure the room, only part can be perceived at any one time.

During further testing, it was found that ten of SCP004’s keys opened the door onto a dimension where the laws of physics and topology are significantly different than those of our home dimension. This is what causes those opening the door to be torn into pieces. The pieces end up in multiple dimensions, sometimes they come back, sometimes not.

The following year all testing was suspended due to space-time anomalies emanating from SCP004-1.

In 1999 the SCP foundation turned the area around SCP004 into site-62. Due to the time fluctuations in site-62, everyone who works there is unable to leave, their families are told they have died.

There was a power cut in 2003, and during the cut the site was in total darkness. Personnel reported sensing creatures and people, although no abnormal entities could be seen or felt.

Regarding ‘storage’ Level 1 clearance is required for basic access to SCP-004-1; Level 4 clearance is required for use of SCP-004-2 to -13.

None of the keys can or should be taken through the door. The keys can also not be taken off-site unless accompanied by two high level (level 4) security personnel.

My Thoughts

I really like this SCP.

It’s got a lovely Lovecraft vibe don’t you think? With unknowable horrors that break the mind and dimensions where man not only cannot survive but is violently destroyed on simply attempting entry.

I love the concept of something so normal and innocuous being something so incredible, which is probably why I enjoy SCP as a whole as it is a major concept of the wiki.

This SCP taps into common fears of the unknown, as well as instinctive fears of things like the darkness and the unseen threat within. Clearly, it also taps into the fear of monsters as well as our own insignificance in the grand scheme of things. This SCP strikes a terror atmosphere provoking a feeling of all-pervasive dread.

With regards to stakes, there’s a very personal stake, effectively playing Russian roulette with a door to multiple dimensions. But a wider and higher stake is that we don’t know what might come through the door into our dimension.

Overall, this is a fun SCP, with multiple elements that come together to give me proper chills.