On 12/10/2012, Matthew Hendricks, a former employee of Indigo Games, contacted the Foundation via use of SCP-3843-related keywords during a 911 call. He was subsequently taken into custody and interviewed. Hendricks cooperated fully during this process.

Interviewer: Dr McCall

Interviewed: Matthew Hendricks

<Begin Interview>

Dr. McCall: Well, Mr. Hendricks, I'd like to begin by saying we're all very grateful for you stepping forward in this matter.

Hendricks: No problem.

Dr. McCall: Is there anything you'd like before we begin? Glass of water, a coffee maybe?

Hendricks: Just…just a water, thanks.

Dr. McCall: Water, please.

(Research Assistant Bryant leaves and returns several moments later with a glass of water, which she gives to Hendricks.)

Hendricks: Thanks.

Dr. McCall: No problem. So, I'd like for us to begin by talking about Indigo Games. Your former employers, yes?

(Hendricks chuckles.)

Dr. McCall: This is amusing to you, sir?

Hendricks: No! God, no. It's just…you calling them my employers. I was one third of the company, for God's sake. It was three guys in a garage.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: I'm sorry, Mr. Hendricks, but I find that really hard to believe. Our records show several anomalous items originating from your company, and to suggest that all of them were the work of three people…

Hendricks: It's true. I guess we just…we just knew what we were doing.

Dr. McCall: I…see. Well then, can you please tell me about these other two individuals?

Hendricks: Besides me, there was Alan Tunney - he was kind of the boss - and Laura Weeks . She handled the, uh…well, the magic stuff. Alan handled the business end of things. Most of the actual, well, coding was left to me. Like I said, we weren't much of a company.

Dr. McCall: This Laura Weeks…she was a thaumaturgist, then?

(Hendricks smiles.)

Hendricks: Heh. She'd always say that, too. But come on, it's magic. Calling it something different doesn't change anything.

Dr. McCall: So. How did Sam come about, then?

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: Mr. Hendricks?

(Pause.)

Hendricks: It was Alan's idea, at first. I swear. Tron had just come out the year before and he - and he just loved that goddamn movie. Watched it I don't know how many times. Everytime he'd come back and say the same thing, waving his arms around like it was the first time he'd come up with it.

Dr McCall: I assume the idea was about…

Hendricks: (interrupting) Yes, it was about Sam!

(Pause.)

Hendricks: Sorry. Didn't mean to lose my temper there. Yeah, it was…it was about that. He wanted to make virtual reality, like in Tron. So you could get sucked into the game and play around inside that world, then come out when you got bored.

Dr. McCall: That sounds like a rather large undertaking.

Hendricks: Yeah. (Laughs.) Yeah, it was. Everything we'd done until then, that other stuff you'd said you'd seen, that was like…well, nothing. Bells and whistles. A little stuff stuck in the back of the game to make you feel a certain way, or to have these tiny tiny tiny effects on the real world.

(Pause.)

Hendricks: But, well, what Alan wanted, Alan got. Laura and I just sort of got dragged along. So Laura went off searching for a way to do what Alan was talking about. Told me she was going to check at the library. (Chuckles.) Don't know what sort of library would have what we needed, but whatever. I went with it…I went with a lot of things.

Dr. McCall: I assume she found whatever it is she was looking for?

Hendricks: That she did. She comes back three days later with this big-ass book. A.A. Gilford's What Solomon Left Us: First Tool of a Summoner. I can't forget that fucking title. I knew it was a bad idea the moment she brought in that fucking Necronomicon-looking book, but I didn't say anything. God knows why. I just sat down and listened while they talked about it, and I didn't say a thing.

Dr. McCall: Am I safe in assuming you summoned something for this purpose, then?

Hendricks: Yeah. The idea was we'd put the thing we summoned into a game, like people used to do with rings and amulets and that kind of stuff, then give it the instruction to…well, make Tron happen. God, it sounds so stupid now.

Dr. McCall: And what was it you summoned for this purpose? A demon?

Hendricks: No, no, no. We were stupid, but we weren't that stupid. Straight away, we agreed no demons. So we…went the other direction.

Dr. McCall: The…other direction?

Hendricks: An angel.

Dr. McCall: Oh.

Hendricks: I know, I know it sounds bad now, but at the time it seemed like a reasonable option to take, you know? Demons bad, angels good, that's the way we thought it worked. I didn't…we didn't know what we were doing.

Dr. McCall: I would hope not.

Hendricks: So…we managed to summon it, needless to say. Meat and salt to draw it close, the three interlocking shapes to bring it to us, and the circle to bind it. That's how Laura said it worked, anyway. It was surprisingly easy, you know. Honestly, I didn't actually expect it to work. But it did.

Dr. McCall: And the entity was originally bound to which game?

Hendricks: I think it was Raiders of the Lost Ark. We were all real excited to try it, obviously, and Alan went first, because of course he did.

Dr. McCall: And?

Hendricks: Well, he learnt how to use a whip. But that was it, pretty much. I don't mean to talk shit about, you know, a messenger of God, but I don't think it was that smart. At least not in the way humans are smart. It got it confused: instead of bringing the player into the game, it brought the game into the player. Which was still pretty amazing, of course. Just not what Alan had wanted, so he sulked about it a little. We decided to shelve it for a while. I'd been working on some vanilla games in my spare time, so…

Dr. McCall: Vanilla?

Hendricks: Oh. That's what we called the games we made that weren't, well, 'anomalous'. Those were to keep us afloat so we could keep doing the stuff we were really interested in, to be honest. One of them, some stupid dog maze game, was pretty much done. I had a contact over at Atari, so I sent it over, had him check it out. Of course, at the time, I didn't know…well, there's no way I could have known…

Dr. McCall: You didn't know it could spread.

Hendricks: No. No, I did not. It must have infected a lot of stock over there. A whole lot. And that Christmas…

(Pause.)

Hendricks: …that Christmas, E.T. came out. I know someone, probably you guys, covered up what happened. Pulled the pictures. But I saw them. The bodies. Their faces. Even thinking about the movie makes me want to throw up.

Dr. McCall: I've also seen the pictures as part of my assignment here. I have to agree that they're…well, gruesome.

Hendricks: Gruesome. I guess that's a word for it.

(Pause. Hendricks takes deep breaths for several moments.)

Hendricks: Someone over there must have figured out what was going on at some point. I heard how they buried hundreds of that goddamn game out in the desert. Should've just burnt them. What if someone had found them? Oh God, did someone find them?

Dr. McCall: Not that we know of. Please, Mr. Hendricks, try and remain calm. All of these things are in the past.

(Pause.)

Hendricks: Alright. Alright. I don't think…I don't think there's any more to tell. The three of us got the hell out at that point. Figured someone would be coming down on us hard soon enough, and we were…we were cowards. Stupid kids. We didn't want to get in trouble.

Dr. McCall: Thank you, Mr. Hendricks. Your information will be very useful to our investigation.

(Dr. McCall gets up to leave.)

Hendricks: Wait!

Dr. McCall: Yes?

Hendricks: I have a, ah, a request. Now, I've cooperated, right - I turned myself in, I didn't have to do that, right? So at least, at least hear me out.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: Alright.

Hendricks: You've got that drug. The one that makes you forget - you hear about it, in the circles I run in. An amnesiac or something.

Dr. McCall: An amnestic.

Hendricks: Yeah, that. Now, I know a lot of stuff that I, that I shouldn't know. All that happened with Indigo Games. You people could just make me forget it.

Dr. McCall: I don't think that's an appropriate use of…

Hendricks: (interrupting) Please! Please, just ask.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: …I'll file a request, but I can't guarantee anything.

Hendricks: Thank you. God, thank you.

(Research Assistant Bryant goes to leave. Dr. McCall goes to follow.)

Hendricks: Doctor?

Dr. McCall: Yes, Mr. Hendricks?

Hendricks: We…we didn't mean to hurt anybody.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: I'm sure you didn't, Mr. Hendricks.

<End Interview>