SCP-174

Item #: SCP-174

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: To prevent instances of SCP-174 from manifesting, all citizens of the city █████████ in Tenerife, Spain are to be given a non-anesthetic local anaesthetic prior to hearing. Hearing aids are also provided for those who choose not to use them.

Description: SCP-174 is a phenomenon in which the sound of a cricket or other insect will manifest in an individual's ear. This will cause said individual to have a hallucinatory experience with the sound. Subjects who do not hear SCP-174 will not be affected.

The only known subject for SCP-174 is [DATA EXPUNGED]. The case was reclassified as Keter following the manifestation of SCP-███.

Addendum: Documents recovered from the residence of [DATA EXPUNGED].

To: Dr. █████

From: Mr. █████████

Subject: Son\'s Hearing

Re: Hearing loss

Dear Dr. █████,

I\'m writing this letter on behalf of my son, █████, who is getting his first hearing aid. I know it isn\'t something that shows up often in reports, but he has always had a very unique condition.

He was born deaf, but only around the age of 3 did he begin to hear. The problem was that he could only hear the sound of insects chirping in the background, and not any other sounds. We were told that this would get better when he was a bit older, and that it was just a phase. However, as time went on, he began to hear more and more. When he turned 5, he started to hear things in addition to the crickets. He would hear people talking and laugh at it, but would be unable to respond or understand what they were saying. Sometimes he would just listen to them talk, but other times they would try to speak to him and feel frustrated when he couldn\'t respond. He also began to hear birds chirping right outside his window at night and would have no idea what it was saying.

When he turned 7, his father and I took him to see one of our local doctors who performed some tests on him and found out that while his ears worked fine, his brain was unable to process any information regarding sound. The doctor said that it was probably just a case of delayed development and that we should not worry about it.

At this time, we tried to get him enrolled into a school for the deaf in ██████████, but were refused due to the fact that their maximum capacity for students was 5% of their total population. I don\'t think I need to explain why we refused this request…

Well, when our child was 8 years old, we finally got around to listening to the advice our doctor gave us a few years before when testing him. We decided to buy a hearing aid for him from a local shop in ██████████ called "Earwigs". From what I remember, it cost around 1000 euros for the pair (that\'s about $1200 U.S.). It was very expensive, but my wife insisted since she felt like she had no choice since we were so desperate for help for our son\'s condition. What we got wasn\'t what we expected though: Our son\'s hearing loss has gotten worse than ever before! He can now hear sounds that we couldn\'t even fathom hearing before! When we take him outside or walk past a fan or anything else that makes noise near us, he can hear it pretty clearly! He can even hear inside his own room at night when the air conditioner or heater is on! When he goes for a walk outside in the street or by using public transportation, he can still hear everything clearly! When we go out for dinner or a movie together with friends or family members, he can still clearly tell what everyone else is saying! To be honest with you, I don\'t know how much longer we can take this! His mind is already overloaded with sound every single day! He\'s constantly hearing sounds of traffic outside our house and all kinds of noises going on around us! How much longer can this go on? I don\'t know if we\'ll ever be able to pay off the debt on that hearing aid my wife bought for him. And if we do pay it off one day, there\'s no guarantee that he\'ll still be able to hear properly if we get another hearing aid for him! And if we don\'t pay it off… We don\'t know how long we can take it anymore!

I know this letter is quite long and I apologize for wasting your time with it. I\'m sure you\'re busy doing important work for your university and all the other things you do for your job instead of worrying about my son\'s hearing loss issues. I hope you can help me get my son back on track again and stop him from having a nervous breakdown someday soon!

Thank you.