I'd like to think that after last week's example you've understood it. That the Foundation's decision not to intervene with this... bug, isn't based on malice, but necessity. As you can see, that virus is normal. We move when no one else can, but we're not heroes... and never will be. You know well what we do here. The experiments. The horrors we feed. Sometimes we have no solution other than to lock things in a very dark place and pretend they don't exist. And on certain occasions, the darkness itself is the problem...
It's one of the oldest stories in the world, right? A monster in the darkness waiting to eat you, kill you, or something worse. The Foundation keeps a good quota of those... but today is different. Many of those involved in the project don't last long. They request transfer, consume amnestics willingly... or resort to lead. It's not easy working with children, especially when they're the only victims.
SCP-1819: The Condition
What you're seeing in the file are the effects of SCP-1819. We're not sure if we can call it an "illness", but it's something more than a "condition". SCP-1819 affects only children between 4 and 13 years old, and is characterized by extreme skin sensitivity to the absence of light. The first symptoms appear after about four hours in darkness, or as the lab brains say, any value below 0.1 lux. Pain, itching, edema, blisters, skin falling off. At first glance, any doctor would think these are sunburns... but the symptoms worsen as the "darkness sessions" repeat, or become longer.
Those affected by SCP-1819 often develop skin neoplasms, and in most cases die from melanoma before reaching puberty. Tissue analysis revealed the presence of "retroviral elements" with a single functional gene encoding an enzyme, SCP-1819-E. That enzyme apparently triggers the formation of pyrimidine dimers... but that's common under ultraviolet radiation. For some reason we don't understand, visible light inhibits the enzyme, and we also didn't detect viral particles.
Still, SCP-1819 is contagious among children. Proximity and direct communication are necessary, but we've seen cases where drawings or letters written by the victims were enough. All they have to do is... discuss their nyctophobia. All children affected by SCP-1819 are terrified of the dark, and are convinced that something is there. The most disturbing part is that the descriptions are identical: a figure with a single, bright, burning eye. At first we thought it was a mental component of the disease, but the new data points to a memetic element. Maybe the one-eyed monster isn't so imaginary...
We can't attack or contain. Our only solution is to keep those children in the light. All adults are immune, but if a young person with SCP-1819 survives, they will remain contagious to other children for life. The last page of the file holds testimonies... I hope you can bear it.
Appendix 1819-A1: Interview Excerpts with SCP-1819-X Instances
SCP-1819-3: “Mr. Spiky was always mean, and he told me about the monsters in the dark until I cried. Mom said there was nothing in the dark and that I shouldn't be afraid, and Mrs. Jackson says the Sun can give you cancer and we should be careful. Why are adults afraid of the Sun and not the dark...?”
SCP-1819-8: “Dad always says that 'I need to grow up' and not be afraid of the dark. I told him about Mr. Spooky but he doesn't believe me. Spooky feels lonely because nobody plays with him like before, but he told me I'm a good boy... and that he had a gift for me. He also told me that I should share it with my friends, so we'll all play together...”
SCP-1819-21: “It burns, the darkness burns, I was crying and mom was screaming, and Mr. Inky was laughing. Now they leave me in the light, but what happens when you die? Inky says everything is dark... forever.”
