 U, or I, was written by Marcellus D. Reigns on the SCP Wiki, it is under a Creative Commons 3.0 share-alike attribution license, a link will be in the description. You can't remember the last time you ever saw the sunrise. You think about it for a while, but that last memory of sunlight is so old and faded by now that you can't even describe it accurately if you had to. It's been dark for so long, days and nights have just led together. And now? Well, now you can hardly tell when it's daytime or nighttime. So much has changed since the blackout. You remember waking up here, but not where you were the night prior, had the Wickerman got to you? You notice a flickering light in the distance. It's not that far from where you are, maybe a 10 or a 15 minute walk through the void if you speedwalk. You glance down at the match you have in your hand, such a tiny thing, that matchstick, but it was the best source of light you could find before you left home. The matchstick burns down to the nub, scorching your fingertips. You bite back a yelp, wouldn't want the grooves to find you. You fiddle with the matchbook in the dark for a minute before thumbing your finger over its contents. You count the matches slowly, one, two, five, eight, eight matches left. If they burn as slow as they have been over the last few days, you figure that you could be able to figure out whatever that light source in the distance is before your last match burns out. You shudder at the thought of traversing the void without a light. The screams of your old traveling crew is still echoing in the back of your mind. You shovel those thoughts down into the recesses of your mind and you start walking. You've gotten quite good at that walking. You chuckle. The thought of having to get good at something that was already second nature to you again was... is absurd. The match didn't do much to expand your field division, but you felt comfort in knowing that your chances of falling into a wickerman's trap or stepping on a shard of rusted metal were lower if you could see, if only a little bit. Not to mention the added benefit of keeping the grooves at bay. You scold yourself for thinking about the monsters again. The light in the distance was closer now. Only a few dozen paces away by your estimation. Maybe it's a generator. No. It's too faint to belong to one of those massive hunks of metal in industry, so it must be something else. But what? There's a growl coming from behind you. Right to your left. Are you right? It seems to be coming from all directions at the same time and yet coming from nowhere as well. You collect your matchbook and frantically scan the ever-increasing field division you have. There's nothing around you that you can see. Nothing but dirt, half-eaten corpses, and claw marks on old cars and stones. Claw marks? You move closer to one of the ancient cars on the side of the road and you touch it. It's cold and dead. Nothing like the void that surrounds you. When you fill your way around the car's exterior, you come across those claw marks you saw a moment ago. You thumb over them and the metal around the marks feels warm. You lean in closer and bring the match right up to the surface. There's blood in the grooves the claw marks made. There's a roar that tears through the darkness, drawing your attention behind you as your match burns out. You feel your chest tighten as your eyes strained appear through the inky darkness. You cannot see anything but you know that something has seen you. The ground beneath you starts to shake. You can smell rotting fruit and donkey shit now and the smell only grows louder every second. You try to light another match but can't. The stench overpowers you and you double over and vomit. With trembling hands, you pry open the rest of the car door and climb inside. You apologize to the occupant, a lone skeleton with half of its body missing. But before you can close the door behind you, you feel something wet and slimy wrap around your ankle. The thing yanks on your leg and you feel as if it'll tear the whole limb off if you don't do something. You try to hang on to the other car door but the thing is stronger than your grip and you're forced to let go. You clutch the center console now desperately kicking at the groove that has a hold of you. The creature roars and pulls on you harder now, breaking your grip on the console now your hand finds itself hanging on to the handle of the door you entered from. More appendages slither around your torso from the darkness and work in tandem to release your grip and drag you away. The air rushing past your ears hurts. You can only barely hear the groove opening its mouth to take a bite of you. Your thoughts race at a thousand miles an hour as you smell the scent of rotten meat blasting up at you from the mouth of this predator. Adrenaline flows through your veins and time slows to a near halt. The heave you push the grooves tentacles wrapped around your waist far enough away from you to slip your hand through you take a match out but as you're about to light it the groove thrust you sharply to the side knocking the match book out of your hand. It roars in your ears deafening sound coupled with a stench that burns the hairs in your nose. It flings you down and you hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of your lungs. You scramble away from the group but it latches on you again and pulls you back into the air. You realize that you still have a single match in your hand. The tentacles are slick and wet so you tear a piece of your shirt off and you dry off a small patch of the groove's skin. Your breath escapes you as the tentacles tighten around your chest. You could feel yourself slipping away into the darkness still you try again and again and again to light the match. You don't want to die here. The next thing you realize is that you're falling again. This time you land on your back knocking what little air you had left in your lungs out of them. You gasp gulping in all the oxygen you can as fast as you're able and you can see again. As the groove roars again you look away you cringe as huge globs of spittle land on your back dripping down your shirt into your pants. You gasp as you hold the match close to your chest to avoid getting it wet. To your left you notice the matchbox to your right you see the car. An idea forms in between your ears as you scramble to pick up the matchbox. The creature attempts to grab you again but you hold the match between yourself and it as you run back to the car and pry open the gas tank. You hold the lit match in between your teeth as you light another. You glance over your shoulder and you catch a glimpse of the creature. The groove was one you'd come to identify as the profane. Most of the creature's body was obscured by the darkness. Limited range of your matchstick only revealed a small portion of your body. You gasp as you notice a beak massive and lined with teeth larger than you. Opening and closing faster than your eyes could track. In the mouth of the creature was a tongue long slender that thrashed about wildly as it shrieked. A conglomeration of tentacles spread out from all directions. You cannot tell where in the darkness they're extending from but more and more appear out in the void and attempt to grab you. You tear yourself from gawking at the massive creature and throw the lit match into the gas tank. You barely have time to scuttle away as the gasoline in the tank ignites and explodes into a raging inferno. The creature attacking you shrieks and withdraws into the darkness. You can feel the heat from the explosion burning the hairs in your arms. But you're safe. For now, at least. Thank you very much for watching. If you enjoyed the video, please hit the subscribe button and then hit the notification bell next to that so you're notified when I upload new videos. And then head on over to patreon.com forward slash decimarian and pledge at any level like everybody here on the screen already has, including mc. Keshe mill who has pledged at $40 and synderiki who has pledged at $100. It is nice to know that I'm not alone out here and I will see you all again on Tuesday.