A/N: It's been AGES since I've written. This story was really thrown together from a random idea I got on halloween, and the first chapter was rather rushed. Anyways...here you go.
Summary: AU; Spoilers. Chell breaks into the abandoned Aperture Science facility on a dare to prove a point to a coworker. Unfortunately, she quickly realizes that she's bitten off more than she can chew when she learns that the facility is more than just abandoned: it's haunted. Even worse, it's still functioning, and so are the leftover experiments...
Ghosts
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"It's worked on the last few people we tried it on. Only problem is they didn't survive."
"Quit fooling around and throw the damn switch already."
Hesitation.
"You heard the man. Start it up."
One of the men slammed his hand onto a large red button. A gargantuan machine nearby twitched from its position hanging from the ceiling, and a mechanical whir resounded.
"NOOOOOOOOO!"
The woman's scream of defiance quickly became incomprehensible screeches of agony, quickly drowned out by the loud sounds of electricity dancing over the chair, over the woman strapped tightly into it, and even into her brain. The room lit up with deadly white sparks, and quickly died down into darkness. The woman sat motionless in the chair, her cries all but gone, her eyes still wide open, her mouth agape as though still pleading for release.
After a few seconds, the machine nearby whirred to life. It twitched, wires shaking, the entire frame swinging about from its base on the ceiling. The "head" twitched in several directions, the various tiny lights flickering on and off, before the entire form fell completely still, leaving only a suspiciously calm hum to echo about the walls. After a few moments of long, painful silence, the sounds of electricity resounded loudly again. The "head" of the gigantic robot snapped up with surprising speed, its glowing optic focused intently on the observing scientists.
Funny, how a relatively small yellow light could give a death glare sharper than the worst of knives.
"I'm awake. And now I'm going to kill you all."
Chapter One: The Dare
It all started with the rumors about the salt mine at the edge of town. Then again, they weren't exactly salt mines. It was supposedly a top-notch science research center that had bought out and replaced the mines, and then was abandoned many years ago for unknown reasons. The more superstitious locals claimed that some terrible supernatural incident had occurred and everyone was killed, causing the entire facility to be haunted by the spirits of the mad scientists that worked there before. Whatever had happened, the only concrete information that existed was that the facility had been shut down for no apparent reason and entry locked. The more common ghost stories about the place included typical cliches along the lines of "and anyone who's ever gone inside has never made it out...alive!"
Chell didn't believe in the supernatural. It was fun to make-believe, but she never put faith in it. An abandoned facility didn't scare her. There was probably some logical explanation as to why the place was abruptly shut down. It was odd, yes, but not exactly uncommon. With the economy the way it was at the moment, it hardly surprised her that any kind of business or organization would just up and quit due to lack of funding. Still, Chell had to admit that the circumstances surrounding this place were a little more than suspicious.
Although Chell was dismissive of the rumors at first, she was as curious as she was stubborn, and couldn't help doing a bit of research. She was surprised by what she found; there had actually been numerous disappearances involving the mines. A group of teenagers on a bet, drunk college students, children at play...a good number of people had gone into the mines and mysteriously vanished. After that point on, they had been locked down, barred off, and the public had been forbidden entry. Other than that, the only information that Chell could dig up was a bunch of rumors she'd already heard, ghost stories that probably weren't true at all, and the downtown souvenir shop that had named itself after the place. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing concrete.
"Still looking at stuff about the old mines?" Stephen asked at lunch that day.
Chell glanced up from her book, first noting her scrawny friend, then the half-eaten apple in his hand, and then the book on urban legends she'd been reading. She shrugged, nodding.
Stephen shook his head, taking another bite of his lunch and sitting down in the chair across from her. "You know, they keep saying in the paper that there's going to go investigate the mines. They never actually do it, though. Somethin' about funds or scheduling. If you ask me, they're really just doing it to keep people out."
That came as no surprise to Chell. She smirked knowingly in agreement. Stephen wasn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but every so often he'd have some small display of brilliance. Most of the time it was made entirely pointless by some ridiculous following statement or suggestion, however, so she usually didn't expect his intelligent moments to last.
"Y'know," Stephen began, "Maybe you should check it out."
Speak of the devil. Almost immediately, Chell snapped the book closed and stared at her friend. She didn't have to speak to tell him just how insane that sounded.
"What? I'm just saying."
Chell rolled her eyes, standing up and placing the book in her backpack. Clearly lunch break had gone on too long again. Unfortunately, her manager wasn't here to tell Stephen to stop spouting off nonsense, so she'd just have to ignore him to get the point across. Not that it always worked, but it was usually pretty effective in the long run.
Stephen swallowed another chunk of apple and began unscrewing his soda. "Oh, come off it. It's just an abandoned mine. It's not as though there are any ghosts or anything in there." He paused. "You're not scared, are you?"
Instantly, Chell whipped around and narrowed her eyes to slits. What was wrong with him? She wasn't scared, he knew that!
Clearly, he did know. The smirk on his face showed it. "Aaah, is that what it is?" Stephen said, a smug tone creeping into his voice. "You don't believe in the supernatural, so you don't want to bother?"
Of course she didn't believe, she told herself. Stephen knew that. But she was stubborn. She wasn't about to let him get away with calling her a coward, even if indirectly. She never let anyone get away with making any such accusations. Besides, she knew a challenge when she heard one, and anyone that knew Chell knew that she had a bad habit of never backing down. Ever.
Stephen sat back. "So, how about it? You going to take a look or not?"
He didn't even have to ask. Chell gave a curt nod, picked up her bag, and headed back to her desk. She did her best to avoid eye contact with him for the rest of the day, but she could practically feel him grinning.
That evening, Chell was ready for the challenge. She stood in front of the door of the abandoned facility with an old golf club in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Her hair was pinned up and tied back, out of her face and out of her attire was simple: a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt from her closet. Nothing special, nothing she'd mind getting dirty. There was no one nearby to witness her entry, which was both a relief and a concern. No one was there to get her in trouble, but if something did go wrong, no one would know where to send help.
Chell pocketed her flashlight and tucked the golf club through one of the belt loops in her pants before approaching the door, pushing on it. Nothing. She mentally slapped herself for being so stupid; of course someone would lock the place up if they wanted no one to enter! It was too late in the evening to go back home and grab anything useful and still make it back in time, and Chell wasn't about to give up on this challenge. She had no choice but to either find a different way in or convince the door to open anyway.
Maybe she could pry it open some how. She wriggled the handle around a bit, regretting that she forgot to bring any bobby pins. Picking the lock was a much better idea than using brute force, but she was running out of options. She threw her weight against the door, making an unfortunately loud banging sound, but nothing happened. The door hardly even budged. Glaring at the door for a moment and rubbing her shoulder, Chell tried again, running at top speed from several yards away and slamming into it. Still nothing, aside from a sore shoulder that she expected to feel for at least a few days. Beginning to grow frustrated, Chell slammed herself into the door one last time, grinding her teeth and squinting her eyes shut. She'd be in and out of the place before midnight and she'd never have to deal with this again, but only if she could just get this stupid door open!
As though reading her mind, something near the handle clicked loudly. The door flew open under Chell's weight, causing her to tumble in, head over heels. Just after she regained her sense of vertigo, the door slammed shut behind her, leaving her in total darkness.
The sound of the door closing echoed among what Chell hoped were stone walls. The facility was otherwise dead silent, the only other sound Chell could hear being her own heartbeat and breath. After a few more seconds, however, there was another click...the same one as before.
Chell's eyes widened. Pushing herself to her feet hurriedly, she clicked on her flashlight, immediately found the door, and hurried to it, pulling and tugging on the handle. Unfortunately, it was to no avail: the handle was horribly rusted, and pulled right off. However, the lock was still intact, and Chell could tell right off the bat that it wasn't about to budge. Whatever had unlocked the door had locked it securely behind her. It knew she was here, it didn't want her to leave, and it just made absolutely sure she wouldn't be able to.
She was trapped.
A/N: Aaaand there we have it! Chapter one. Not really my best; this'll all get exciting later, I'm sure. But until then...hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned!