The Monster’s Room - Chapter 69

The people who came to love Marie went mad.

It was inevitable.

Forcing someone to love her when they didn’t really feel it was bound to have catastrophic effects. This side effect manifested in the destruction of her surroundings by those who claimed to love her.

Unable to kill the ‘loved’ Marie, they attacked those close to her instead. But Marie couldn’t control her ability.

Because she was lonely.

Because she didn’t want to be alone.

She used her powers unconsciously, brainwashed others, and pushed herself into a pit of misery.

Yes.

The cause of her misery was herself. But Marie protected herself by forgetting this.

She thought it was just a coincidence that she had a strange ability and was loved, leading to her current situation. Even when doubts about her ability arose, she ignored them.

Like a child, she blocked her eyes and ears to her own faults.

And she complained.

She lamented that she was sick of love and that it ruined her life.

It was a pathetic deception.

In reality, she wanted to be loved more than anyone else. Even with her extraordinary ability to control others, she used it merely to beg for love. Marie pretended not to know this. She deceived herself along with others.

“Ugh.”

Nausea surged within her.

Marie curled up in a terrible self-loathing.

But this too remained a secret, a part of her nightmare that couldn’t be fully realized. The young monster, having sensed this, gathered its strength for a final move.

Crack.

“……!”

At the ominous sound, Marie looked up. She noticed cracks forming in the transparent wall that had been blocking the monsters. That wall was the mental barrier Marie had erected. It served as both protection from the nightmare and a defense mechanism to prevent the monsters from harming her.

Bang!

The nightmare shattered it and said, “I’ve released the monsters from their brainwashing.”

“……What?”

The child retrieved her own eyes from Marie, wanting to witness her despair up close. The monsters, previously confined, stepped over the fragments of Marie’s shattered mental barrier and exited the room.

“You should welcome them properly.”

The true nature of what Marie feared turned out to be more mundane than she had imagined.

The truth about her abilities?

The horror?

No.

“It’s the monsters who don’t love you.”

This was the reality of what Marie truly feared.

* * *

John Doe frowned at the unknown sense of foreboding.

His plans were undoubtedly progressing well. The success predicted by the future phone was unfailing, and his methods for avoiding danger were certain.

The death sentence in the third contact had already been resolved.

This was why he valued Mary Hunt so highly.

The reason was that the child could trap anomalous entities within nightmares. Even if the future phone predicted death, as long as the entity was trapped in the nightmare, the third bell would never ring.

A being whose death was endlessly postponed.

That was John Doe, and now he only needed to realize his ideals.

“Did you see something strange?”

John Doe recalled the child who had been evasive earlier. It was highly unsettling to see behavior outside his control, but he did not show it. That was how one handled anomalous entities.

He turned his attention back to Mary Hunt, who was asleep in her chair, buried in dreams.

In the dream world, Mary Hunt wielded absolute power. Thus, he decided to set aside his immediate worries and check the CCTV. It was his responsibility to verify if there were any intruders or anomalies, and despite his efforts to avoid questions, the anomaly-related insights were still troubling.

“Hmm.”

All external communications had been cut off.

The self-destruct function was also turned off.

To ensure no one could enter from outside, the facility was thoroughly closed off. Occasionally, some screens showed static. However, this was relatively common at the SCP Foundation, so it was usually overlooked.

“……Static?”

But he focused on it.

Most screens were clear, as expected. In the core of containment, surveillance was key to securing, containing, and protecting. Therefore, anomalies in the meticulously managed cameras could be seen as more than just malfunctioning—perhaps a sign.

“……”

His exceptional mind quietly analyzed the situation.

As he recalled the areas where the screen brightness had been unusual or seemed to have stopped, he began to detect something odd.

From outside to inside.

The anomaly that started from the distant sector was approaching the control room where John Doe was. He intended to act before the foreboding could take shape. It wasn’t difficult. He could initiate the facility’s self-destruct system and escape with the child.

“Ugh.”

“Child?”

A problem arose. The child, who had been sleeping peacefully, suddenly began to make pained noises and shed blood tears again.

John Doe struggled to keep his composure. He couldn’t afford to panic. It was more efficient and quicker to leave the dream to the child as planned and focus on what he needed to do.

Ring.

“……”

However, John Doe’s calm was inevitably shattered.

Riiiing.

The third bell, which should not have been heard, began to ring in his ears.

* * *

Mary Hunt was confident. The nightmare triggered by the conditions the target feared was always powerful, and even if that weren’t the case, the situation was one she could not lose.

She had freed the monsters from the brainwashing that had controlled them for so long.

So, where would that rage go?

The child envisioned Marie being horrifically attacked by the monsters.

“Cough.”

But it was Mary Hunt who was attacked.