The reason I gave Cory a more human appearance is that if he had an SCP appearance the SCP Foundation would almost immediately send the MTF to bring him into containment so they could experiment on him.

That is why I gave him a human appearance but that had a grievous wound during one of his missions in the past. However, I didn't change his origins though that I won't change.

Walking down the eternal staircase of SCP-087

It's my first day on the job, and already I've seen some really messed-up stuff. Cory thought as he and Uni kept on walking through another half-lit corridor of the facility. Keeping a close watchful eye for SCP-173. Although he knew it was useless trying to spot it since it could move at almost unbelievable speeds without a single sound, the only comfort he had was that the thing could not move when it was seen. It reminded him of the weeping angels in the famous Doctor Who TV series he would watch. It used to scare him shitless when he was a little kid. It seems like those childhood horrors just turned into reality. A deadly reality.

He took a glance down the corridor again and frowned. All of the lights were either burned out or overheated, exploding in the process. Leaving only the emergency lights to help them see. But even with that, the shadows seemed to drown out any light in the corridor in absolute darkness, thus obscuring much of his sight. Making it much harder for any of them to see what was up ahead. He was worried that that killer sculpture might appear again out of thin air. The ability to appear out of nowhere when nobody is looking If terrorist groups gain that ability, it could spell disaster for world governments. He wouldn't want to imagine the type of damage that it could cause. And this 'SCP Foundation' got it locked up. If it was so dangerous, why the hell didn't they destroy it? But there must be a very good reason why they kept them under lock and key; however, he got a feeling that Uni had more to show him. Besides, he's still unsure of what this facility really is and what his place in it will be.

He highly doubted that an organization with a secret this big would let a person like him go Scott-free. So if he somehow survived this clusterfuck, then higher-ups would need someone to blame. Someone to make an example of. To show their employees that incompetence will not be tolerated. And what is the best way to cast all the blame on the new guy? It's what all the other managers in large corporations do all the time.

FUCK HIS LUCK! Who the hell did he piss off to get into this situation anyway? If it was God giving him a message of some kind, then he should've brought a more kinder one.

Once this is all over, he'll be reporting this to ARCAM's High Council when he gets the chance. They need to know about this foundation before it gets out of hand. Feeling another spike of pain from his knuckles, Cory held back a hiss of discomfort. Knowing all too well that he'll need to go to a doctor to get his wound treated.

Fortunately, he was able to keep his mind off the pain by striking up a conversation with Uni. One of those conversations was about why he punched SCP-173. Damaging it in the process. Cory tried to brush it off by saying that it was the adrenaline that his body released that caused him to do it. And as to why the sculpture ran off, to be honest, he had no idea. The thing had the chance to kill both of them. Whether it be blind luck or some god-like being looking out for them, he has no idea. It might be toying with them. Like a predator toying with its prey. And he hated it.

"Wait," Cory said, causing Uni to stop as he took another glimpse down the corridor behind them for the fourth time. "Something seems... different."

Uni raised his right eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked, curious about what was bugging him.

"Like... I feel... out of my own body."

"That's weird," Uni said, scratching his chin before shrugging his shoulders. "Probably just the new job."

Cory nodded, accepting the answer. "That might explain it."

"Anyway, up ahead, there's some stuff that I probably shouldn't be showing you." Uni trailed off for a moment. It might not be right to show Cory these things, but the sanctity of the facility may depend on it. "Given circumstances, it seems right that I save the sanctity of the whole facility."

Guess the time for jokes is over. "About damn time." Cory said out loud," So all jokes aside, Uni. What is this place? I'm completely out of my element here and feel like we only skim the surface."

"Well, this is one of several SCP facilities. The largest, actually. They're located all over, unknown to the public, for better or for worse." Uni explained it to him.

"SCP."

"Secure, Contain, Protect." Uni said before adding, "Not sausage, cheese, or whatever nonsense you've been spouting earlier."

Cory scratched the back of his head, chuckling, "Guess it really wasn't a time for jokes. I'm down to take things seriously."

"Good, because what's up ahead is some really scary stuff. I need to know you're ready."

"I'm ready," Cory said, determined to see this through to the very end.

'Alright, good; follow me. Up ahead is the briefing room. In there, I can show you some of the case files and even some of the videotapes."

Wait a second. "Video tapes?" Cory asked, raising both his eyebrows behind his goggles.

Uni smiled widely as he walked up to the door at the end of the corridor. Pressing his key card against a nearby terminal. Allowing the two of them access to the room on the other side. The light the room emitted was a refreshing sight. Closing the door behind them to make sure nothing got in, the two of them were finally able to take a real breather from what happened a few hours ago. Cory took a long, good look at what was inside. Take note of the TV screen and the number of computers spread throughout the room.

The room itself was packed with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of old video tapes and disks that could contain secrets that a conspiracy theorist would die for.

Uni turned to Cory. "You'd be surprised. We've got some pretty useful information from people deemed conspiracy theorists by the general public."

He held a scoff since he had heard half of those so-called conspiracy theorists sprout about the US government or the world in general as utter and complete bullshit. Yes, the US government took some pretty questionable actions in the past, but that doesn't mean that all of it was true, and some of those cover-ups were for good reasons. However, some secrets are too big to keep hidden from the world, so it's better to shine a light on them and watch those secrets fade away into annual history and let the people decide for once on how to deal with it, but that doesn't mean he could geek out. Just... this... once.

"I knew Bigfoot was real," Cory muttered out loud. He couldn't help it, he was kind of a Bigfoot fan.

"SCP-1000 is a classic!" Uni said it happily and gladly.

"And even UFOs?"

"SCP-9904, SCP-1051, or even 051-ARC if you count flying vehicles as UFOs." Uni listed off.

"See monsters too?"

Uni started to become a little annoyed by all the questions. "Look, you're missing the point here."

Pulling out a chair, Cory gave a sigh as he spoke again. "There are a bunch of these strange phenomena, huh?"

Uni nodded his head as he began explaining, "As I said, there are hundreds of these in this facility. There are thousands and thousands all around the world; it's our job to contain them. The general public couldn't really handle this type of knowledge."

That, we can agree on. Cory thought, knowing the feeling all too well. Serving in Ghost Recon and ARCAM taught him a few things about this world: what's under the red tape stays under the red tape until told otherwise. Black operations, clandestine operations, secret projects—the list goes on. He would know it personally. The perfect example was the operations in Cuba and Colombia to root out the Movimiento de las Fuerzas, or MFLC, in 2010. Though he wasn't there at the time, Cory had read the reports after the war. Ghost units launched surgical strikes before finally targeting their major stronghold in the hills bearing a large radio tower. Which resulted in the shutdown of all sleeper cells still in Cuba, resulting in the collapse of the MFLC. Thus ending the conflict in Colombia and securing Raul Castro as president of the Republic of Cuba. But it would be during the Mexican Rebellion that he got inches from death's door and became a real ghost.

It was between the US-supported Mexican government and rogue elements of the Mexican army led by the Aguila 7 special forces group, which began due to strong opposition inside Mexico towards NAJSA, the North American Joint Security Agreement. But it was the Mexican Rebellion, which began just a few days later, that really kicked off. General Juan de La Barrera continued to fight after General Onitveros' death, just a few days after the Mexican Civil War.

It was by that time that Cory was a full member of Ghost in one of the teams sent into the Mexican Rebellion against the rogue general Juan de la Barrera and his rebels, self-named Los Ninos Heroes (the child heroes), who took over the border city of Juarez. Shortly after the conflict began, multiple anti-American insurgents exploded in Latin America, with Panamanian rebels taking over the Panama Canal and securing Pakistani-built Kashmir II missiles. It was during that time that he was assigned to an alpha team under the command of Captain Mitchel to help Colonel Jimenez's forces in the streets of Juarez search for the WMDs the rebels had stolen. Ukrainian Red Star IV nuclear warheads, if he remembered correctly, resided in the city at the time.

Unfortunately, during the operation to retake an occupied Super Mart to retrieve possible WMDs, one exploded inside the Mart's basement, killing an entire Mexican team and confirming that the rebels had WMDs. Heavy fighting would continue throughout the city, with the ghost-supported Loyalists slowly retaking the city. Eventually, they would kill De la Barrera during a helicopter fight in the middle of the US-Mexican border. With the death of De La Barrera, the rest of the rebels would be routed, and order would be re-established in Mexico and Latin America for the time being. The ghost's actions would be kept secret, as was protocol.

Placing all of the credit on both the US and Mexican armies' cooperation in dealing with the Rebels.

Impressed by his tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds, he was later transferred to ARCAM under the orders of the new president of the United States to establish proper diplomatic relations between the US government and the ARCAM corporation. In the hope of making amends for any misgivings about past aggressions. Obviously, a few members of Congress and higher-ups in the military were a bit upset about the decision. Seeing it as appeasement in the face of a formable advisory in their hunt for OOPArts when he finished his training and became a Spriggan, Cory was sent to protect archeological sites all over the globe and in dozens of different countries.

Sealing away hundreds of OOPArts from ancient civilizations under the guise of preserving ancient ruins, translating ancient languages, and documenting various artifacts of the distant past He fought mercenaries, terrorists, warlords, and hell, including his own countrymen, to protect those ruins so no one could use them for their own benefit. But hey, it wasn't that bad. He got into university to study history, enrolling in a short-lived acting course after one of the plays he was directing went off script, much to his chagrin. Back on the topic of keeping things a secret. The government would sometimes unclassify some of those secrets so they could be revealed to the public, but only for an extended period of time, so the shock wouldn't have that big of an impact. But this level of secrecy was getting really ridiculous.

He rolled his eyes at his friend being a drama queen. "Yeah, the oldest excuse in the book," he muttered out loud, not knowing that they were not alone.

"He's right."

In an instant, acting on pure instinct and adrenalin, Cory grabbed the stranger by the neck, slamming him onto the wooden table and restraining the man's other arm. Pulling out his pistol holster with his other hand, an M92 Berrata he had retrieved from one of the many bodies in the hallway, he pressed the barrel at the back of the stranger's head. His finger was ready to pull the trigger without a second thought. The stranger, on the other hand, cried out in pain before shouting in panic upon feeling the barrel gun digging into the back of his head.

"FRIENDLY! OW! FRIENDLY!" the stranger cried out.

"Wait! Wait! Cory, don't shoot him! He's one of our security guards!" Uni said urgently, tugging his friend's gun arm so he wouldn't kill him outright.

Taking a quick examination of the man he was restraining, Cory could see that Uni was right. The man in question was wearing standard tactical vests with the logo of an outlined circle with three arrows crossing its contour and pointing to the center. The structure is enclosed in a thin frame, which repeats its silhouette: a circle with three protruding rectangles (around the arrows' tails).

His weapon was a standard FN P90, which includes an advanced optical gun sight just like his own weapon. Letting him go, he took a few steps back to give the guard some room. Relief and anger were painted on his face. I was relieved to know that there were other survivors. And angry at him for not announcing his presence.

"What the hell, man! We're a bit on edge here. You might give us a warning next time, so I won't try to blow your head off." Cory chastised the man, holstering his pistol.

Hissing in pain, the security guard pushed himself off the table, rubbing his sore arm. "Sorry," he groaned out. "I was just glad to see someone else still alive."

"What's your name, soldier?" Uni asked

"Cooper, sir," the man identified as Cooper introduced himself.

"And Sergeant Cooper, have you seen or made contact with SCP-173?" Uni asked.

Cooper shook his head. "No, sir. The lights went out, and when I opened my eyes, everyone was... well." He trailed off, indicating what happened to the people he was originally with are already dead.

"Sergeant. I need you to listen very closely. This facility is in danger, as I'm sure you're aware. I need your help, but I also need to know if you can keep a level head. If we are under any form of attack, containment procedures will be taken. You need to know what that means."

If there were grasshoppers, they would be chirping in the background because Cooper has no idea what Uni is talking about right now as he continues to stare blankly at the blue-haired scientist. "Uuhh, yes. I think." Cooper uncertainly said.

It would seem that Uni wasn't satisfied with the answer as he spoke one more time, "Sergeant, do you understand?" Uni repeated it, but with a bit more seriousness in his voice.

"Yes, sir," Cooper replied.

"We'll be leaving the safe room at the moment. If we can't get a grip on this containment breach, the whole facility will be terminated, which serves as good motivation." Uni

"Wait a minute; back up a bit." Cory said as he approached him," The whole facility? As in everyone inside."

"That's right, the second you step up food inside the front door, you've effectively signed a binding contract." Uni explained to him," We're in it until the end, understood?"

Groaning his frustration as he clenched his teeth to keep it all in "I don't think I want any part of this crazy horseshit again, quite frankly," Cory answered honestly.

"Well, in that case, Cory, you can stay right here and hope that the lights don't flicker when you're all by yourself," Uni said rhetorically.

"On second thought, you make one hell of an argument."

"Sir, what if SCP-173 interacts with one of the other items?" Cooper asked.

Uni gave him a grim expression. "Then, sergeant, may God help us all."

"Okay, so this door was the only one breached; therefore, 173 must have gone this way, right?" Cory hypothesized, gaining a nod from Cooper, "He doesn't have some teleportation power."

Uni shrugged his shoulders. "Based on our studies... not that we know of," he paused for a moment, slowly looking in the other direction to where SCP-173 had escaped. "But unfortunately, this is the last way that I wanted to go."

"I've never been past level three, sir." Cooper was a bit nervous, swallowing a bit of spit. "What's inside?"

"Great, I'm stuck here with a couple of rookies who shouldn't be allowed past the docking bay," said Uni in exasperation, knowing that this facility might be his grave.

Cory faced his friend with a blank expression, not feeling a bit agitated in the slightest by what his friend had just said about him being a greenhorn, causing him to cross both of his arms.

"Oh, I am sorry, but did you forget me saving your skinny ass from SCP-173 a few moments ago, ah?" Cory stated, reminding him of saving his life from that sculpture before it could kill him. "You were practically pissing your own pants in fear when I found you."

The statement made Uni more anxious, and the security guard gave him a raised eyebrow in shock.

"You really encountered 173 and survived?" Cooper said it in awe.

"Hell yeah, I did." Cory answered, showing a bit of smugness on his face, "I shot a barrage of lead at it when the lights were off, then used my bare hands to punch the damn thing so much it broke my fists." To prove his point about telling the truth, he brought up his bandaged hands. The clean white cloth was now stained deep red with his blood, which was slowly growing. "And to tell you the truth, I have no idea how or why that thing let us live in the first place."

"Guess we should get moving." Uni suggested," Grab a flashlight and something to defend yourself; not that it'll likely work."

"Such an optimist," Cory said sarcastically.

Switching the safety off of his P90 submachine gun, Cooper raised his head at Uni solemnly and said, "Sir, if I don't make it, it was an honor working under your wing."

The blue-dyed-haired man stared at him in disbelief, wondering, "My god, sergeant! We just met. What are you going to ask me on a date or something?" Uni remarked in irritation.

"Yeah, sorry, sir." Cooper stammered.

Walking to the nearest racking, Cory grabbed a 100-watt flood lamp with battery power capable of lasting 24 hours, grabbing three audio headsets for each of them and the backpacks hanging on the wall. He took down two since they had to travel light if they encountered any more trouble in this facility full of unknown horrors. Then he noticed a small but sufficient pile of healthy supplies of water and nutrition bars. I am puzzled as to why someone would leave food and water behind to expire. He took a quick look at the expiration date and saw they were still edible. Seeing that no one was willing to use them in the future, Cory stashed several energy bars and water bottles in the two backpacks, knowing that if either of them became hungry or thirsty, they would have something to eat or drink. Turning around, he faces Uni, who is handing him the second backpack and another 100-watt flood lamp.

"This should be enough for each of us for the time being. Also, here's a headset, so if we get split up, we can stay in contact with each other," Cory said, giving Cooper one of the audio headsets.

"Sure, why not a whole lot of options in here?" Uni said gloomily as he put on the backpack and the audio headset. "Let's just hope you and the sergeant are a good enough shot." Cory and the security guard gave Uni a blank look before saying, "Let's get going."

Once they were done stacking up supplies from the command center, the group of two turned three and ventured out into the facility once more.

Time somehow seemed to fly by in this place. The three of them kept on moving through the facility's many dull white-tiled corridors and hallways, but now the lights were dim. Passing by countless doors containing nothing but empty rooms filled with untouched equipment and wooden boxes. Making him guess this place must be a storage area of some kind. After several minutes of walking in the same old corridors, Cory was starting to think that SCP-173 didn't pass this way, only to be proven dead wrong—no pun intended—when he came across a couple of unfortunate souls with their necks snapped. Indicating that the sculpture truly did pass through here.

As a sign of respect for the dead, Cory would kneel down to close their eyes to make it seem that they were sleeping before continuing forward. Even though he was a former tier-one operator, that doesn't mean he was just a cold-blooded killer. He is a human being, goddamn it. Though he knew sometimes that you have to get your hands dirty, someone has to be aware of the collateral damage and try to minimize it as soon as humanly possible.

Pulling out of his musings, they arrived at a janitor's closet, which was covered in growing cobwebs and dust bunnies.

"Okay, what is this? A haunted janitor's closet, Cory asked.

"Sort off."

"You should really start showing the commander some respect."

"Respect is earned, not freely given." Cory retorted.

"This is SCP-087."

Gasping Cooper lost his professional composer for a second. "Really?!"

"Sergeant, show some poise." Uni reprimed.

"Sorry, I just never thought I'd get to see it, sir." Cooper replied," I had heard the rumors."

"Rumors?! Who in their right mind is spreading rumors about this stuff?" Uni then gave out an insufferable sigh. "You know what? I don't want to know... Just... forget it."

"Okay, so tell me, why is SCP-078 so important?"

"It's 087." Uni corrected.

Groaning a bit, Cory clicked his tongue, expressing his frustration. "This job is going to become a real burden when I have to remember all this shit."

"You're the one becoming a real burden." Uni muttered, expressing his own annoyance, before continuing to explain about SCP-087. "Look, inside here it's... well, its a stairway." Cory noticed a short pause in Uni's sentences as he listened to him speak. "Only Class D personnel are permitted to enter, but given our current circumstances,"

"I won't let you down, sir." Cooper interrupted him.

"The origin of the stairway is unknown. All we know is that it just showed up one day on a college campus. There was a nightmare clearing the building; we had to tell them it was asbestos or a gas leak or something. We actually built the whole facility around the staircase since... well, it's pretty paradoxical."

Cory raises a single eyebrow at the word "paradoxical."

"Its depth is sort of unmeasurable." Uni clarified for him," There have been four explorations of the stairway, all of which were pretty much catastrophic failures. There is an unsaid rumor that there was a fourth expedition who went down there and made it the deepest, and... well, we don't talk about that anymore."

"You just don't talk about it anymore. What the hell, Uni?" Cory said in disbelief that whatever happened must've really scared the shit out of these people if they don't talk about it anymore. The inching feeling of a cover-up was clear as day.

"The data was expunged, I hear," Cooper added.

"Who keeps telling you this stuff?" Uni exploded in outrage and disbelief. "We're supposed to be professionals here, and everyone's gossiping in the break room."

"Okay, so what is it?" Cory questioned, interrupting his supposed rant.

Uni blinked since he didn't catch the question before replying, "Sorry."

Raising his left eyebrow Cory repeated the question, "What the thing in the stairway?" he asked again.

Uni became a bit skittish when he began describing what was dwelling within SCP-087: "Well, it's the face and the voice of a child." Uni answered, trying his best to explain it without revealing any sensitive information to two people who had a lower to no clearance level.

Putting one and one together, it was easy to recognize what his friend was describing: "Oh fuck, it's a ghost." Cory groaned, which was kind of ironic.

Being a former member of Ghost Recon, it was funny that the very thing that the unit was named after was now going to become a big obstacle in their little monster hunt. This day keeps getting weirder and weirder by the second.

"I didn't say it was a ghost." Uni pointed it out, but his two companions didn't have different opinions.

Cory gave him a dry look before replying, "You just described a ghost."

"If we're going to be scientific about things, perhaps we should say a specter." Cory gave Uni a dumbfounded expression, not believing

"That's just another word for a ghost," Cory argued.

"I gotta agree with him there, sir," Cooper added.

"No," Uni argued, trying to describe that the entities are not the same. "A ghost has a sort of lingering energy. Aspecter is dangerous and aggressive."

"So it's a poltergeist," Cory exclaimed," even better!"

"So a specter is, uh, an angry ghost?" Cooper wondered, scratching the back of his head.

"There are multiple definitions, but that's the one we're using here because I'm the boss," Uni said, trying to insert himself as the leader of the group but failing to do so.

"Okay, Mr. Boss," Cory said mockingly, gesturing to the door. "How big is this staircase?"

"No one's ever reached the bottom; all we know is it could go on forever."

A bottomless pit, oh the joy "And what happens when we find the monster from earlier? I highly doubt the sculpture would happily return to its cell."

"We attempt to capture it or we terminate ready then," Uni said, like they were going on a mid-day summer stroll in the park.

Cooper nodded. "Lock and load, sir."

"Ready or not, here we come," said Cory begrudgingly.

It was a good enough answer for him as Uni shrugged his shoulders and spoke up," Well, let's get in there, shall we?" Grabbing the knob, Uni opened the door.

Walking through the door and out onto the staircase, I came upon an unlit platform. Staircase. Stairs descend at a 38-degree angle for 13 steps before reaching a semi-circular platform of approximately 3 meters in diameter. The decent direction rotates 180 degrees at each platform. The design of the stairway in SCP-087 limits subjects to a visual range of approximately 1.5 flights. But in Cory's mind, "unlit" really didn't seem like the right word. He would have chosen "all-consuming darkness."

Despite carrying two powerful 100-watt lamps, the group was only capable of partially lighting the platform they were standing on, and the illumination only stretched down nine of the thirteen steps to the next platform. Already, the beginning of anomalous activity was obvious: everywhere else, darkness is just the absence of light. In SCP-087, darkness eats light. It was like a tangible, black mass that only a certain amount of light could survive, while the rest just wouldn't show.

Cory swallowed hard over a lump in his throat. The door to the hallway was closed behind them, and he could already see the hesitance of his companions to descend. Surviving to see another day felt unlikely, but it's not like they had a choice. Breaking the deafening silence, Uni was the first one in the group to speak up.

"Well, it's a lot darker in here than I imagined," Uni muttered.

"That's...terrifying," Cory added.

"Maybe. Maybe it's not as bad as they said." Cooper voiced his own thoughts to calm the nerves.

Uni turned his head slightly toward Cooper. "Keep telling yourself, sergeant, that sergeant." He remarked.

"So never been in here, Uni?"

"No, no, no, no. We don't put faculty members at risk. We just send in prisoners, convicts, and degenerates."

"That fucked up," Cory said, a little disturbed and surprised at how calmly Uni said that they used live humans as lab rats. "Seriously fucked up on so many levels."

Uni shrugged. "Better them than us," he said cynically.

"Right," Cory breathed out, "should we begin our descent into the dark staircase to capture a monster that can kill any one of us in under a second?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

Cory then coughed, indicating that Uni should go first if he really wanted to capture the thing. He is his boss, after all.

Knowing what Cory was referring to, he shook his head. "Well, I'm not going first," Uni said before turning to Cooper. "Sergeant, get in there!"

"Oh, uh, right. Sorry."

Mentally rolling his eyes at the guard, he began following the doctor's orders like a good dog of some kind as the group of three began to descend the steps to the next platform. Cory was in the back, Uni in the middle, and Cooper in the front. Nothing about the physical makeup of the staircase itself seemed abnormal; the base and walls were very plain, dull concrete with a metal handrail. The only thing that seemed unique about it so far was its strange light-bending properties.

Cooper kept his flashlight as steady as possible since his hand was starting to tremble. "Alright, nice and steady now," Cooper muttered out loud in an attempt to keep all of his growing anxiety in check.

"If you don't get a move on, we're going to be here all week," Uni complained to him, wanting to get this over with as fast as possible. "Did I mention it was a pretty big staircase?"

"Sorry, sir. I'll pick up the pace." Cooper stammered, which he did, going down the stairs much faster.

"Oh my god!"

"What!"

"Sorry, I was just thinking about how much of a nightmare it's going to be to climb back up this thing."

"Why do you insist on scaring me so often?"

"To keep you on your toes." Cory joked, making Uni

That was until they reached the 17th platform down that Cooper suddenly heard it—a soft, echoing cry.

A child's cry

It was shrieks of panic, or maybe even pain, echoing up from below.

Stopping, he glanced at Uni. "Sir."

"Yes, sergeant."

"I think... I think I just heard something." Cooper said

Listening carefully, Cory could hear a child's cry at the bottom of the stairwell. "I hear it too."

"Let's see, this is the 17th platform; uh, makes sense, I suppose."

"Wait, what? Is there a kid in here?"

"Try your best to ignore it, sergeant. If you let it get to you, it's going to be a long trip down. If it gets louder, that's when we'll start worrying."

All of a sudden, Cory stepped on something mushy. Curious, he looked down to see what seemed to be the remains of a dead body wearing a torn orange jumpsuit. "Ah, Uni, there's some sticky stuff on the ground here. I just stepped in it, and it smells terrible." Cory said, disgusted, as he pulled his foot out.

Adding his flashlight to Cory's own so he could get a better look at the body, he said, "Ah, 087-2, let's go ahead and not touch that." Uni suggested

"I wasn't planning on it," Cory stated, scraping the gore off the bottom of his dress shoes.

"Shall we continue?" Uni asked, "We need to keep moving if we're ever going to reach the bottom.

"If there is a bottom," Cory added ominously.

"Right."

Within half an hour, the group had descended a full fifty floors, with no sign of a bottom in sight. Somehow the volume of the child's crying had remained consistent throughout, as if it were moving away from the group at the same rate they were descending. At this point, Cory was beginning to feel uneasy. This was understandable, given the circumstances. He'd been watching what little there was to see the entire time, and something about the truly bottomless nature of the staircase and the every-elusive crying was undeniably eerie. Keeping them at a constant 200 meters apart

Still, they continued their descent to search for SCP-173, even as his paranoia grew. When they reached the 51st floor, he observed damage to the wall and steps; sections appeared to have been smashed to rubble by extreme force. Making him wonder who or what caused such damage in the first place.

As they descended past the broken step, he only felt his fear, anxiety, and paranoia grow. It was only his military discipline and force of will that he's currently keeping his calm so he won't crack under pressure.

When they entered SCP-087, all the lights from the entrance had disappeared. Still, they kept on going deeper. They kept on hearing the crying of the mysterious child—if it was even a child at all—and again, they kept on going deeper. At the 196 landings, even as the sergeant seemed to slip into a state of mortal terror, once again they kept on going even deeper. Every moment, he was hoping to capture SCP-173 and drag its concert ass back into its containment cell.

Soon exhausted from hours of walking down the stairs non-stop in trying to find the sculpture, Cory decided that it was time to take a short rest. If they did capture it, then they needed every bit of strength to lift its fat ass up all these stairs. "Look, I think it's time to take a break." He suggested it as he was out of breath, but Uni, on the other hand, was determined to capture the SCP to save his career.

"We need to keep moving."

Rolling his eyes Cory gave him a stern glare. "Come on, Uni, let's face it. We need to turn back. The staircase could just end up going up forever. Besides, if SCP-173 is really down here, then it's going to be a real pain in the ass lifting it up these stairs."

"That may be true, but I can't leave this place until the facility is."

"Seriously man!? What the fuck happened to you? Are you actually going to sacrifice your life for this damn job?"

"Hey, Buster I work my ass off to get to the position I'm in. I'm not about to throw it all away."

Cory's irritation with his friend's job was beginning to reach its limit as the urge to knock some sense into him with his bandaged fist was starting to be very tempting. However, he restrained himself from doing so since it wouldn't do any good; if any, it would only make things worse, only for him to make himself feel better in the short run. And he's his only best friend, so... it's his job to try to make things right, but they won't be able to capture a dark, damaged staircase.

So in an attempt to make him see, he gestured to their very surroundings, pointing out the mess they were in right at this moment, hoping to get his point to his old college friend about the situation they were in. "Look at where we are! Isn't this the exact definition of throwing it all away? Chasing some motherfucking ghost down a fucking haunted staircase Chasing down a motherfucking art piece!" Cory shouted the last part.

Getting into his face, Uni shouted back, "I told you it's a specter!"

Before the conversation could turn into a full-blown argument, Cooper's voice cut in, "GUYS!" Causing the two to glare at him.

"What!"

"What!"

Shakenly, Cooper pointed his finger up toward the stairs. Following what he was pointing at, the two young men realized that things were about to really take a turn for the worst. As the two looked up the stairs, they froze. There was something on the platform where they once stood, barely illuminated by the lights of their 100-watt bulbs.

It was a face.

It was vaguely human in size and shape, but with a few terrifying differences: it had grayish skin and no mouth, nostrils, or pupils. And yet, Cory could feel that something was making eye contact with each one of them. He couldn't move, trapped in this thing's piercing gaze.

Uni immediately recognized who or what was increasing his fear twofold. "Uh, oh no," he whimpered.

Not taking his eyes off the ghost's face for a second, Cory had to ask, "Uni is that?" He expected him to answer the question but got nothing but scared whimpering.

Cooper was no different, frozen in place in fear but mustering the courage to speak. "Should I, uh, open fire?" he asked, expecting the doctor to order him to open fire. Even though it would be useless to do so because the bullets would only pass through the anomaly,

"It's a g-g-ghost," Uni stated, stuttering out the name. "What are you stupid about, or something?"

In an instant, the face jerked forward, suddenly only about a foot away from Uni's face—eyes staring into his own—startling even this veteran of the supernatural. The sudden appearance caused the group to panic and flee, screaming in terror like a bunch of frightened little children, but instead of going back up the stairs to safety, they went deeper down the staircase in an attempt to escape it.

Deeper, and deeper, and deeper.

Taking a quick glance behind them Uni could see the face still chasing them and closing in fast. "It's right behind us!"

"It was right behind us the whole time!" Cooper yelled out," How did we not see it?"

"We! More like you. It's your job to protect me!"

Cooper responded by saying, "I'll let you down, sir," admitting his failure.

Cory was about to say a witty remake until he noticed the crying was getting louder. "The kid's voice—I can hear it! It's getting louder." He cried out.

The security guard wasn't exactly listening; he was more focused on running away from SCP-087-1 than a crying child, but he suddenly came to a halt when there was no platform.

"Watch ou-" Cooper tried to warn, but it was already too late, as in their haste to escape the ghost's face, none of them noticed the fatal drop at where one of the platforms was supposed to be as they slammed into Cooper off the edge and straight into the abyss down below.

A single thought was going through Cory's mind right now.

This is going to hurt!

Chapter Two of the Spriggan ghost story I hope you guys approve if you ask me but what the hell.