The SCP Experience - The Death Maze | SCP-4390

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

SCP Foundation SAFE class object, SCP-4390: The Death Maze  This story was derived from https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4390 and is released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Author: Matt Doggett Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewDoggettAuthor/ Website/Newsletter sign up: matthewdoggettauthor.com New Book Releases: https://www.amazon.com/Matthew-G-Doggett/e/B08FD5378Z DISCLAIMER: This episode contains explicit content. Parental guidance is advised for children under the age of 18. Listen at your own discretion. #thescpexperience #scp #scpfoundation #scpencounters #securecontainprotect #scpstories #scpexplained #whatisscp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What the hell? I say, looking around. Uh, did I just die? Just moments ago, I was at work at my new job. Now, I'm standing in front of a stone archway. The afternoon sun slants down upon the old gray stone. The cracked pathway under my feet is lined with strange-looking plants. The leaves have right angles, like little crosses. I look behind me, smoothing down the black apron I was.

wear over my black pants and white collared shirt. There's nothing but a tall brick wall there. I don't remember taking any psychedelics today, I say to myself. But maybe I accidentally did. Oh man, I'm going to get fired. Again. Sure, I smoked some weed before work to take the edge off my first day jitters, but it was just weed. I've never had straight up hallucinations from weed, unless it was laced with something. Something shifts in my head, and I feel my paranoia kick into high gear. There's a sound like stone rubbing stone. I look toward the archway and see a rudimentary face appear there in the wall.

It's made out of stone, and it blinks its eyes as if waking from a deep sleep. I tense, starting to freak out even more with each passing moment. Hello, travelers! The face shouts in a deep, deep, rocky, male voice. Nope. I shout, sprinting past the face and through the archway. The passageway continues for about 15 feet before taking a hard right.

Then there's a T intersection. Wait, you idiot! I hear the face on the wall shouting. Come back. Shaking my head, I take a right and soon come to a dead end. But there's a strange creature standing there by the wall. It looks like a beetle, the size of a cat, but with colorful fur instead of a hard shell. and tiny human feet instead of insect legs.

It looks at me with segmented eyes. I back away and turn to run, darting down the other side of the T intersection and coming to a small courtyard with a dead tree next to a pit in the middle of the ground. Looking into the pit, I see nothing but darkness. Who knows how deep it is? The passageway continues on the other side of the pit,

but there's no way around it. In the wall next to me, that stone face of the pit. appears again. Behind me, the crazy beetle creature comes waddling toward me. Backing up, I yank off my apron and toss it on the ground. Then, as the face in the wall starts yelling again, I take a running start at the pit. Just as I reach the edge, I launch off, flying over the dark void. I hit the other side with my arms over the lip and the rest of my body inside the pit. The impact knocks the breath out of me. But I managed to keep my grip on the ground.

Grambling up and rolling away from the pit as I finally suck in a breath. I get to my feet and lurched down the passageway, turning the corner and coming to another courtyard. Only this one doesn't have a pit in the middle. Some kind, a labyrinth, I say, breathing heavily. I can still hear the face in the wall screaming about something. I take a moment to listen and only hear the words, On your own.

What is happening? Thinking I should get to high ground and see if I can find a way out of here, I look for a good place to climb a wall. The place is clearly old. The walls are pretty crumbling, like they belong in Rome as tourist attractions or something. I find a spot that looks fairly promising, testing here and there to make sure the foot and handholds won't give out on me.

The wall looks to be about 30 feet tall. I reach up, get a good grip, and then start my ascent. But as soon as my feet leave the ground, something strange happens. It's like the wall stretches out before me, making the handholds farther away than they were just a moment ago. Weird, I think, searching for alternative places that will hold my weight. I move up another couple of feet, and it happens again. Looking down, it seems like I'm much higher than I was. Like I've gone up six feet instead of two.

But when I look at the top of the wall, it seems. even farther away than when I first started climbing. I move up some more, and that's when I look at my right hand on the wall. When I gripped the small outcropping of stone just a moment ago, my hand fit around it like a baseball. But now it's like I'm holding a softball. The wall's not getting taller, I realize with shock. I'm getting smaller. To test this out, I move up some more, paying close attention to my hands and feet. Sure enough, they seem to shrink as I go up. Oh, please, I muttered, starting to move back down. Please don't be permanent. But as I move down the wall, I get bigger again. When I put my feet back on the ground, I'm pretty sure I've returned to my

normal size. This is some Alice in Wonderland shit, I say. Okay, so climbing the wall is out. I have no choice but to keep going. I'm sure as hell not going back to where that creepy beetle was, not to mention the shouting face, no way. I moved down the corridor, rounding a corner to see a woman hunched over a steaming cauldron. She wears a raggedy black hooded cape and has an overly long and hooked nose, complete with warts and all. Ducking back around the corner, I wonder what I should do.

Just as I'm hoping she didn't see me, I hear her cackle. Come out, come out, young. man. She says, there's no hiding from me. What are you going to do to me? I shall. Cook me? She cackles again. Not unless you turn into a chicken. Then she starts making the chicken sound. Nobody calls me chicken, I say under my breath. Rounding the corner, I march up to the witch and stand with my hands on my hips. She laughs maniacly, exposing a mouth dotted with brown teeth and a tongue like an excited slug. Looking around, I see no way forward. There's just a blank wall beyond the witch, nowhere to go. I'm no chicken, I say. She doesn't need to know that I ran like a chicken with its head

cut off, away from the stone face on the crazy beetle. No one needs to know that. We'll see. The lady says, when she's done laughing like a maniac, she turns to her cauldron and brings out a ladle of the grimy green liquid from inside, holding it out to me. Drink. No way. I say. I'm not stupid. I thought you weren't a chicken, eh? If you are no chicken, you must drink. I press my lips together as I look at the liquid in the ladle.

I shake my head. Theo? A familiar voice says from behind me. I turn around and see one of my co-workers, a pretty girl about my age. Her name's Nova, and she's coming toward me with a concerned look on her face. Nova? I say.

How are you in my hallucination? Oh, wait. you're not really here. I'm just hallucinating you because I think you're pretty. I bet that's it. My comment seems to give her pause. She blushes, then shakes her head. No, this isn't a hallucination.

It's... She stops herself, searching for words. I don't know what it is. Just drink the stuff so we can go. I'm not drinking that, I say. It's my hallucination, and I'm not drinking it. We don't have time for this, Novos says, stepping forward.

and grabbing the ladle from the smiling witch. Nova brings it to her lips and drinks the whole thing. Her eyes go wide. Uh-oh. She says, just before her mouth stretches open, and she throws up about a hundred small springs that bounce across the ground. Then her eyes turn into even more springs, and the bouncy little pieces of wound metal pour out of her.

After a moment of this, she bursts apart. Springs flying everywhere. What the fuck! I shout, noticing out of the corner of my eye that there is now a little bit of my eye my eye that there is now a passageway where there was only wall moments earlier. I turn and run down the passageway, moving frantically this way and that, hitting dead ends and turning around to go the other way. I continue on like this for what seems like 10 minutes before I come to a courtyard with three closed doors in the opposite wall. A small grayish humanoid with pointy ears and long

fingers appears in front of the middle door. His eyes are large and watery and he's wearing a ragged Tunic. I flinch away from him, but he puts his hands up to placate me. It's okay, he says in a squeaky voice. I'm only here to test your smarts. I will not harm you. Test my smarts. Oh, great. He smiles. I have three riddles for you. If you get them all right, you can continue on. You're getting close to the end now. But if you get them wrong, well, then you lose. I lose. Lose what? Did you not listen to the rules? The little guy asks.

What rules? I have no idea what's going on. He strokes his hairless chin for a moment, then shrugs. Well, it's not my job. My job is riddles. So, let's get started, shall we? Before I can answer, he continues. I am full of holes, but I hold water.

What am I? What? Wait, just tell me what happens if I lose. You have ten seconds to answer. Ten seconds. Shit. Full of holes? Water. I think about this, racking my brain for several precious seconds. Five seconds left. Better hurry. A sponge, I say.

You're a sponge. Very good. One down, two to go. Now, there are two fathers and two sons in a room. But there are only three people in that room. How is this possible? But that's four people, I say. Wait, I get it. Because it's a grandfather, a father, and a son, right?

Correct, last riddle. The little guy steps over to the first door on the left and gestures at it. In this room, there's a raging fire. He steps to the middle door. In this room, there are two lions that haven't eaten in years. Then he steps to the door on the right. And in this room, there are explosives that will go off whenever anyone enters. Choose the right room, and you get to continue.

You have 10 seconds. Wait, can you tell me again? Fire, lions, and explosives? How big is the fire? Is it the whole room? The guy shakes his head. No hints, no clues. Choose wisely.

This isn't a riddle. I shout. It's a sick, twisted game. You have five seconds. I count down in my head, panicking as I tried to figure out which one I should take. Then, when there's only two seconds left, I rushed to the first door.

The fire door. Shoving it open, I step into a room engulfed in flames. The heat is immense, and I feel it scorch my skin immediately. I turn around to run back out, but there's no door there anymore. Just a stone wall. I scream and bang on the wall as the flames sizzle my flesh. I've never felt such pain. It's the worst thing in the world.

And I feel my consciousness slipping away after what seems like an eternity. I'm grateful I won't be in such pain for much longer. Lazzang sur-joled, and the powerence -moving for 15 minutes. We're like it's the hour

dojo. Prere to play. Live the pleasure with the Ojo the casino in line that proposes the new recent machines

to do you to do you to get to do on BacBas Bonanza without the need to make and with the payments

instantane. Hey! I've gained. Woo-hoo! Sontire the pleasure Play-Ojo 10-18 and plus first,

first depot only depo only depo $1% $1% $1%% $1% $1% pay for

responsible, DeCons it's never too early to plan your summer story in europe with west jet from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets begin your next chapter book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent west jet where your story takes off i'm suddenly standing back at the entrance to the hellish maze i look down to see that i'm unscathed and unclothed i'm completely naked but the good news is i'm no longer in pain My lungs no longer burn with inhaled smoke. I'm alive.

Oh, good, you're done. I spin around to see Nova standing with her arms crossed next to a door in the stone wall behind me. It takes me a moment of staring at her. She's only wearing an apron. For me to remember, I'm naked. I quickly cover my crotch with my hands, but manage a smile. Before I can say anything, she uncrosses her arms,

revealing a folded apron in her right hand. She tosses it to me. Then she makes a big show of covering her eyes so I can put it on. Okay, I say when the apron is on and tied around my waist. I'm done. Nova turns around. She's about to say something when a booming voice sounds from behind me, where the archway is. Hey, asshole!

The voice says, You're supposed to listen to the rules first. Not go running around like a crazy person. Sorry, Stony. Nova says to the stone face in the wall. No need to show. out. Don't call me that, you fucknuckle. How many times do I have to tell you not to... Nova grabs me and pulls me through the door that I'm sure wasn't there before. Suddenly,

we're back in the Italian restaurant's basement, the smell of baking pizzas and pasta, making my stomach growl. She shuts the door to the walk-in fridge behind us. Never go into that one. That's the bad walk-in, she says. Didn't anyone tell you that? Now that she mentions it, I do remember Leo saying something about not ever going into that walk-in. What the hell was that? I ask her. And why don't you, I don't know, lock it or something? Truth is, I don't know what it is.

Some kind of weird game. And we've tried locking it. The locks always disappear. We've tried stacking stuff in front of the door, but that stuff disappears too. So we just don't go in there. At least not while we're on the clock. Speaking of which, Leo's piss.

Am I fired? I ask. I doubt it. Everyone gets one strike with that walk-in. Just don't do it again. I nod blankly, looking at the door. What about our clothes? We have some extra sets around for this purpose, she says. I'll have to grab them. She pauses before asking. So how did you die? A room full of fire, I say. Oh, that riddle. Really? You couldn't figure it out?

I shake my head. It's the lions. Two lions who haven't eaten in years. They're dead. If lions don't eat for years, they die. Oh my God, I say. So stupid. Wait, what about the pit?

How did you get across it? The dead tree, she says. You push the dead tree across and walk over. Man, I say. I'm not very good at crazy interactive mazes found under Italian restaurants. Nova smiles at my job. joke, then pauses, thinking, So, you really think I'm pretty?

I blush, then grin at her. Most definitely. Nova grins back. SCP 4390 is an extra spatial area located beneath Giordano's Italian eatery on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The singular access point to the area is located in the restaurant's basement,

currently disguised as a non-functional walk-in refrigerator. The space beyond the entrance to SCP-4390 is a massive, cavernous area containing a large, constantly shifting labyrinth built out of stone. The entirety of the space is overrun with thick vegetation, little of which appears to bear any resemblance to anything found on Earth. Additionally, several species of small reptilians and flying creatures, as well as larger, seemingly mammalian entities, live in and around the labyrinth, though these creatures also do not resemble anything found on Earth. The majority of these creatures are not outwardly hostile, though several species have been shown to have territorial behaviors that can display as hostility towards intruders.

SCP 4390 appears to have been designed as a massive game. The labyrinth contains several intelligent entities alongside the plants and animals, many of whom appear to exist within the structure to create unique challenges for travelers. These challenges must be met, or the players must die within the labyrinth for the game to end. If all members of the party reach the end of the labyrinth or are killed, all members of the party will reappear at the beginning of the labyrinth, restored to their physical forms. However, if the party does not clear the labyrinth and all individuals perish,

upon materializing at the labyrinth's entrance, they will be without any of their personal possessions, including their clothes.