The Monster's Room - Chapter 1
intro. Marie Garcia
Marie was incredibly unlucky.
Having come from a Korean orphanage, she was adopted by a family in the U.S., but before she even reached adulthood, that family was wiped out.
The person who took her in was Andrew Garcia, the older brother of her adoptive father. A professional hunter, he was a heavy drinker with an unpleasant smile, but he still remained her guardian until she came of age.
“Marie.”
“Yes?”
“Marry me.”
“What?”
Yes. Just until you turn eighteen.
At first, Marie thought it was a bad joke. After all, Andrew was an elderly man nearing seventy. Unfortunately, his proposal was genuine, and the only answer Marie could give was one.
“No.”
“I’m disappointed.”
Andrew didn’t get angry at her refusal. He merely gave his usual unpleasant smile and picked up his gun. It was then Marie learned that a silenced gun doesn’t make a bang sound.
“If you don’t marry me, I’ll hit the target this time.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Of course, I’m crazy.”
Andrew grinned grotesquely and aimed the gun again.
“Wouldn’t you be crazy too if I killed my brother’s own family just to have you?”
After that, she couldn’t remember much. When she came to, Andrew was dead, and she was holding the gun.
Marie was truly unlucky.
Not only had she committed a terrible crime by killing her uncle, but she had also been blamed for the crimes he committed.
As a result, she was labeled a psychopath who had murdered her adoptive family and relatives, and she was reviled worldwide. Thanks to this infamy, she didn’t even have time to hire a good lawyer before her trial.
Which ended in a death sentence.
As a death row inmate, Marie cried every night, feeling maddeningly wronged by her fate. Even other criminals looked down on her, calling her despicable.
Then, one day.
“Marie Garcia. Would you join us?”
A group approached her.
“If you help us, we’ll clear your name.”
Marie looked at the man making the offer.
He was a tall, skinny white man who looked like he could be seen anywhere, except for his deep-set glasses. The only distinguishing feature was his white lab coat and the ID badge hanging around his neck.
Her eyes scanned the ID badge quickly.
SCP Foundation
Class B
Senior Researcher John Doe
The last two lines could be ignored, but the name alone was ominous. John Doe—a name typically used for unidentified corpses. Marie looked away from the name and back at the man.
“How do you plan to clear my name?”
“Oh, it’s simple.”
“……”
Frankly, Marie didn’t trust him.
How could they possibly get her out of here, being a death row inmate? And this Foundation—if it were influential enough to do that, she would have heard of it before.
This was her first time hearing about the SCP Foundation.
“According to the Foundation’s policy, you’ll need to secure, contain, and protect anomalous entities.”
“Anomalous entities?”
“Yes, anomalous entities.”
The man, John Doe, placed his chin on his interlaced fingers and smiled.
“When do you think humanity become the center of the world?”
‘Is this guy insane?’
Marie didn’t want to converse with him, but once John Doe started talking, he didn’t stop. He described dangerous, scientifically inexplicable, or otherworldly beings that defy conventional understanding and the laws of nature, and Marie barely listened.
She didn’t want to engage with a madman.
“That’s a good attitude, Garcia.”
“……”
“Let me ask you again. Will you cooperate with the SCP Foundation?”
Marie figured he’d keep bothering her until she agreed, so she gave a half-hearted nod. John Doe clapped his hands and smiled broadly.
“Wise choice!”
As he smiled brightly, he put on a gas mask.
A gas mask? As Marie’s eyes widened, a foggy smoke began to rise before her.
“Cough, what is this, cough cough!”
“Welcome, Garcia. Or rather…”
Her collapsing body could no longer support itself. As her senses faded, John Doe’s voice remained sharply in her ears.
“D-1705.”
For the third time, Marie was indeed unlucky.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a solitary confinement-like room, receiving the bare minimum of orientation on what the SCP Foundation was through a single screen.
So, it was indeed an organization that secretly secured, contained, and protected entities that either exist or shouldn’t exist in the world. They claimed to transcend the judicial authority, autonomy, and fiduciary rights of all nations—though whether that was true or not was uncertain.
In exchange for clearing her name and receiving a pardon for the crime of killing Andrew, Marie had agreed to a contract with them.
Her classification was D.
From the fragmented information she gathered, she realized that this was the most expendable and dangerous class, reserved for those they pushed into the most perilous situations.
But now, there was nothing she could do. She had always been tossed around without being able to make a single choice.
<D-1705. Proceed with your first mission.>
The only choice she had made with full awareness was joining the SCP Foundation—though she hadn’t known it was real at the time.
