The following interview was the fourth conducted.
Date: February 5th, 2003.
Interviewer: Dr. William Hoskins, SCP-2632 Project Head
Subject: SCP-2632
Location: Site-88, Section C.
Dr. Hoskins was instructed to create a rapport with the subject to induce cooperation. Those portions of the interview have been edited out for brevity.
SCP-2632: To be perfectly honest, I was hoping for life in prison.
Dr. Hoskins: Why?
SCP-2632 pauses for several seconds.
SCP-2632: I haven't told you how I got this way yet.
Dr. Hoskins: No. Would you like to?
SCP-2632: That's been something I've needed to get off my chest for a while.
Dr. Hoskins: Well, I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you. Let's talk.
SCP-2632: Every time I've told someone about it, I've ended up killing them.
SCP-2632 taps on the glass partition separating him from Dr. Hoskins.
SCP-2632: Don't think that's going to matter so much anymore though. You ever been to Crossroads, Wyoming?
Dr. Hoskins: No, I haven't.
SCP-2632: Beautiful little town. At least it used to be. Moved out there with my wife and little brother in 1867.
Dr. Hoskins: Who were they?
SCP-2632: Bethany Manfred and Jacob Manfred. My brother was a fucking coward, stayed out of the war. My wife's father and brothers died during Sherman's March. Her momma had died a few years back. She didn't have anywhere to go, so I picked her up.
Dr. Hoskins: And you went to Crossroads?
SCP-2632: Yeah. Jacob was going to help me set up an undertaker's business. Greedy son of a bitch had a good idea. We were burying a man every week.
Dr. Hoskins: And then?
SCP-2632: I started to get it into my head that we could do something about all the death and destruction. I promise you it was noble at first. Met an Indian in the saloon. I thought he was just talking crazy but once I sobered him up he told me about a ritual. He said he couldn't die. That got me fucking interested.
Dr. Hoskins: What happened to the Indian?
SCP-2632: That's complicated. See, he told me about how he and four of his friends had enacted the ritual. Turned out there was one catch: people who'd participated could hurt each other. It was the only way you could die.
Dr. Hoskins: Okay, then what had happened to the others?
SCP-2632: He'd gotten paranoid and that was that. The little son of a bitch had killed 'em. All of 'em.
Dr. Hoskins: Right. So then you enacted the ritual as well?
SCP-2632: After a time. Took me a bit to get all the things together I needed. But the way the shakes was getting worse, I was trying to hurry.
Dr. Hoskins: And then?
SCP-2632: Then I made the dumbest mistake I've made in a long, long life. I brought my brother and my wife in on the thing.
Dr. Hoskins: So you all performed the ritual?
SCP-2632: I did most of the hard work, there were some unsavory bits I don't think either of them could've stomached. But when it was over we all knew our whole world was different.
Dr. Hoskins: What happened to your brother and your wife?
SCP-2632: She was 24 when we finished. He was 36. I was 68. My body barely worked any more, even if it wouldn't ever get worse. Exactly what you think happened is what happened.
Dr. Hoskins: They began an affair?
SCP-2632: Right under my goddamned nose. I hadn't told them about the catch, so they didn't know that I could hurt them if I wanted to.
Dr. Hoskins: And did you?
SCP-2632: Not at first.
Dr. Hoskins: But you did eventually?
SCP-2632: What I did was take some of the children's bones I'd used in the ritual and planted them in Jacob's house. Then I paid the Sheriff a lot of money to go do his job and search the place.
Dr. Hoskins: What happened to your brother after that?
SCP-2632: Sheriff arrested him. The trial was short enough, sentenced him to hang the next week. I pretended like I was on his side. Told him I'd give him a bit of morphine so he could fake being dead.
Dr. Hoskins: And did you?
SCP-2632: Yeah. I laughed at the hanging. I was worried someone'd notice. Could barely keep his head up. He was still sleeping afterwards when I carted him out to the hole in the ground I'd dug. Seven feet straight down.
Dr. Hoskins: You buried him?
SCP-2632: I did.
Dr. Hoskins: What did your wife do?
SCP-2632: She wasn't happy. Showed up at the grave as I was dumping him in. Told me everything, said when he woke up they'd be leaving town for good.
Dr. Hoskins: What did you do?
SCP-2632: I smashed her in the back of the head with the shovel and threw her in the hole.
Dr. Hoskins: You buried them both?
SCP-2632: Yeah. Her dead and him sleeping. He didn't wake up before I was done.
Dr. Hoskins: What happened after that?
SCP-2632: I left town myself. Nothing tying me down.
Dr. Hoskins: Were you ever worried that your brother would wake up and dig his way out?
SCP-2632: Dirt has weight. He was stuck down there at the bottom for 120 years.
Dr. Hoskins: 120? You said you moved to Crossroads in 1867?
SCP-2632: Yeah. See, I been all over the world, but I always come back to Crossroads every once in a while. Some people might call it guilt, but honestly I just needed to know that the one man who could hurt me was still in the ground.
Dr. Hoskins: And he isn't?
SCP-2632: No. He isn't.
Dr. Hoskins: What do you mean?
SCP-2632: Back in '92 I made another pilgrimage out there. They were building a shopping center over the old graveyard. Big ol' machines went in and dug the whole area up.
Dr. Hoskins: Did they find your brother?
SCP-2632: They must've because he found me. Never saw him. Fucking coward caught me from behind. I ain't been hurt like that in a long fucking time. I ran and ran. I still don't know why he let me go.
Dr. Hoskins: What did you do after that?
SCP-2632: I went home and panicked. Figured the one sure way to avoid my fate was to sit in prison. So I headed out to Mount Rainier, killed a camper in Paradise, and sat next to the body until a hiker found me.
Dr. Hoskins: Right.
SCP-2632: If I'd been smart I'd have picked a state with no death penalty at all. But I fucked that up too.
Dr. Hoskins: Are you still worried about him coming for you?
SCP-2632: Not now, I don't think there's any way he could even know I'm here.
Dr. Hoskins: Why do you think he wants to come for you?
SCP-2632: I mean, are you serious?
Dr. Hoskins: Sure. Just for the record.
SCP-2632: Can you imagine not being able to move, not being able to breathe, and not being able to scream for 120 years?
Dr. Hoskins: Wouldn't that have driven him insane?
SCP-2632: Sure. I bet he went insane a few times down there. And right back to sane again. There's nothing I can say to change his mind. Probably not even angry anymore. He knows what I did and why I did it and he won't stop until I'm hurt just as bad as he was.
Dr. Hoskins: Alright. Thank you for your time. I imagine we'll have more questions for you tomorrow.
SCP-2632: Fine by me.
