Interview with Danielle Sawyer, community member local to SCP-2975. (Excerpt)

Danielle Sawyer: I admit, I didn't even know about the whole world-ending thing. I just thought this had gone on long enough. Something had to be done about that damn house, and that cult holed up there.

Interviewer: And there was resistance to this?

Danielle Sawyer: Oh, like you wouldn't believe. "Oh, it's just our local people-eating haunted house. You know how it is, you just have to know when to avoid it. Oh, no, you can't tear it down, it's a traditional part of our community! That cult is a charming piece of local color! They've been here for generations, one of them's on the City Council, and isn't he nice and respectable? This is just a phase, usually they only sacrifice two or three homeless girls a year. Just give it some time!"

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: Sometimes I just don't know what is wrong with people.

Interviewer: How many people were involved in protecting the house?

Danielle Sawyer: Well, if I'm being honest, we're all culpable. I grew up knowing about the house, of course. It only ate a few people a year. Most of them fed to it by the Order. People always said it was okay so long as you don't go to the wrong part of town, or went only with the protection of the White Sun cultists there.

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: There were a lot of people who found it fascinating, actually — it was something of a local attraction. People from all over the world came to observe it, and from some other worlds, too. They called it "a symbiotic architectural hive-mind generally not observed in baseline realities." And the caves under it, "a portal to the True Dream", "the Gate of Horn", "the Pit of Eternity". I did a little reading on it as a kid, for a class report in high school. Never understood it as much as I pretended to, but I got an A, so hey.

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: Then the cultists started looking around for fresh sacrifices, I guess for the end-of-the-world thing people are talking about, and outsiders stopped coming to check it out, and a few less well-liked locals disappeared into the night over the course of a couple weeks… and people still made excuses, handed out more great advice. Jokes, like, just don't wear skimpy clothing, you know they like their sacrifices nubile. But seriously, don't go outside at night. Just keep your head down. And that's how it was. No one wanted to do anything at all. Even the ones who didn't like it, they said it wasn't really our business. No one wanted to be the one to make the first move.

Interviewer: I see. What made you change your mind?

Danielle Sawyer: Well, judge me if you like, but it was when I found out they were starting to target Mages. First it was some of the more otherworldly tourists, and then the particular townsfolk who started disappearing… I started noticing they were all people with magic in their blood. I'm not surprised, in retrospect, now that I know what the big ritual was. Rituals like that need magically rich fuel, so I'm told. I'm no Mage myself, but you know, I did have an aunt who was a witch… I started worrying about my own skin, I guess. If my aunt had magic in her blood, maybe I had a bit in it too. And maybe I'd be next.

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: So I'm not proud, but… that's when I knew I had to draw the line. That's when I started getting people together to destroy that House once and for all.

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: Anyway, I wasn't happy about calling in you Jailors. I don't trust the police and I don't trust you. But I had a friend who'd heard that there was a way to contact some friendly Jailors if you knew the right people, and then she told me she did know the right people, and… it seemed to be the only option we had left. You sure did get the job done. And I guess the world could've ended? So… I'm glad it didn't. Congratulations for all that, at least.

[Pause]

Danielle Sawyer: I'm glad the Memory House is gone. Still, though… I have to admit this town won't be the same without it.