SCP-072 takes on the form of a very large, disembodied, translucent hand, the "fingers" of which taper to a sharp point. SCP-072 will only spawn from infested beds. It requires three conditions to emerge: first, the would-be victim must have entered REM sleep. Second, the victim must leave a foot or feet exposed to open air. Third, the room must be in complete or near-complete darkness (< 5 lux). It can be considered an opportunistic predator
At this point, SCP-072 will emerge from the foot of the bed, first tapping on the subject's foot until they awake. The subject will then be paralyzed, unable to move or scream for help. The entity will then, very slowly and sadistically, cut off portions of the victim's foot or feet, until the foot or feet has/have been completely removed, up to the ankle. SCP-072 will cut off its victims' flesh in stages, taking with it the pieces of flesh for unknown purposes (possibly consumption). The victims reported an immense pain as SCP-072 was in the process of mutilating them. Once done, SCP-072 would disappear, leaving its mutilated victims in agony. As long as the wounds were properly treated, the process was not fatal, although the victims will nonetheless have lost their foot/feet, and suffer from extensive psychological damages as well, notably stress related to sleep
SCP-072 can also "contaminate" any bed within 10 meters of an active instance. How it "reproduces" or travels between beds is completely unknown. It is also unspecified whether the SCP-072's instances are part of a single entity, different entities linked to a "hive mind", or different entities altogether
