When you're blind, your other senses come alive. All of a sudden you can smell things that weren't there before. Your hearing isn't so much better as it is sharper, and touch quickly becomes your best friend. Being blind -in a way- shows you more than you ever knew was there. That is what Allan quickly learned from being completely absorbed by the darkness of the room he'd jumped into.

Above him, somewhere in the shaft, the sound of gunfire had ceased, and now not only could he not see anything, but he also couldn't hear much. Except for the low, constant breaths that were coming from the floor to his left.

"Madison," He called out, surprised at how loud his voice sounded. He crouched low to the floor, placed his fingertips against it, and began moving to the sound of her breathing. "Madison, are you alright?"

"Ugh…" Was the sound that floated back to him from her. "Yea. I think so. I hit my head. I can't see anything." She said sounding as if panic was about a second or two from setting in.

"There's nothing to see. We're in the dark." He said trying to calm her as his hands landed upon something. "Is this you?"

Quickly her hands found his, and when they did she didn't so much as take them as she did squeeze them.

"Yea." She answered. "My head hurts."

He gently pulled one of his hands free to check her head. She quickly grabbed his other hand with both of hers.

"There's no blood," He told her as his hand moved through her hair. "You're OK."

He heard her breath a sigh of relief and felt the tight grip on his hand loosen up a little.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"In a mineshaft," Allan answered without thinking and stood up. "I mean… a dark place like that, you know? Can you stand?"

He heard Madison shuffling around below him, her hands still wrapped around his, and then felt a little tug on his arm as she (he imagined) got up.

"How do you feel?" He asked, hoping she wasn't suffering from a concussion.

"Scared," She answered and he felt her body press up against his shoulder. "What are we going to do?"

If Allan had been alone, he figured he'd probably be just as freaked out, if not more so, as Madison was. He'd probably still be sitting on the floor, head in hands, and telling himself to start moving. But Madison was with him, and she seemed to be depending on him to be brave for herself to be, and somehow that gave him strength. A person needing you was a powerful thing. It could change you. Make you braver - stronger. And right now he was riding that dependency-high, and was very thankful for it. He needed it.

"I guess we find a way out of here," He told her.

"OK," She agreed and he felt her arm loop through his, joining them together as if they were married. "You lead the way."

And then they moved. Slowly and cautiously, like an elderly couple making their way through a rock concert. Allan, leading them, waved his arm around ahead of him like a probe, and three times he'd already slapped a wall. He began thinking that maybe they were just in a little box, doomed to shuffle their way around in the black abyss for eternity. That idea was a little too heavy for his own good, and he actually stumbled a bit with lightheadedness.

"Allan?" Madison questioned worryingly as she struggled to stay close to him.

"Sorry," He answered and tried to keep his composure.

They joined close again and kept moving around, prodding the blackness before them. A minute or two passed and they hadn't ran into a wall.

"Allan, do you feel that?" Madison said with excitement.

"Yea," He answered, instantly knowing what she was talking about.

The floor beneath them had changed. It was cold, and felt like tile to Allan. They took a few more steps, and then up ahead a soft glow was peeking around the corner of a hallway.

"Allan-

"Come on!" He shouted excitingly.

They rushed down the hall, hand in hand, toward the light. As they approached it, Allan could see it was a red light. When they finally got to the corner, they both discovered it was actually some sort of emergency light. And it wasn't coming from the hallway they were in. It was spilling out of a doorway to their right. Madison released his hand, and they walked into it, both excited and terrified to see what was in there.

The room was long and wide, like the testing chamber with the invisible floor. It was completely empty, save for the very back of the room where the red light was coming from. They instinctively held hands again and walked towards the back. As they approached, the details came into view. The light was a small oval set inside the left wall. It was caged over and housed the bright, blood-red light that was painting the entire room with an eerie red glow. Near the light was a desk with papers thrown all about it and behind the desk and to the right was a steel locker with the door closed. Near the opposite wall from the light was another desk, a longer one with a folding chair tipped over near it. A computer monitor had clearly fallen from it and lay cracked on the floor beside it. The back wall had strange marks on it and a little indent lie near the bottom that was clearly made by a fist or a kick. Beside that was a downed filing cabinet with many of the papers spilled out carelessly onto the floor. Above them on the ceiling, a florescent light bulb had been exposed from beneath a cover and half of it was cracked off. In the corner was a navy-blue suit and some khaki shorts. A pair of white shoes lay next to them.

"What is this?" Madison asked, releasing Allan's hand again and walking over to the desk near the light. "Some kind of… makeshift office?"

"I guess," Allan responded, making his way to the downed filing cabinet and shuffling some papers around with his foot. "It looks like someone converted one of Glados' testing chambers into their own personal workspace."

"Yea." She agreed absent-mindedly, still looking around the room in wonder.

Allan stepped over the cabinet and moved to the locker. He ran his hand down it's front and began reaching for the handle.

"Look at this!" Madison called to him.

He spun around and saw her holding a small book in her hands.

"What's that?"

She was flipping through the first few pages.

"Allan…"

"What is it?" He asked curiously and walked over beside her.

Her brow was furrowed as she squinted at the pages, the red light obviously making reading a hard process.

"Madison… about what you said before. About me working here and the same thing is happening to me that happened to you? I need to know what you meant by that." Allan said, suddenly remembering her previous words. "You mentioned a contract."

"I'll explain everything but… I think you should read this." She said, lifting her head.

"What?"

She grabbed his arm and tugged him over beneath the light.

"What is it?" He asked, more curious than ever and nearly forgetting his previous thought.

"It's… a journal."

She pressed her back against the wall and slid down to her butt. She looked up at him and motioned him to sit beside her. He did so without question, just wanting to see the book already. When he was beside her, both their noses buried between the books pages, he felt oddly child-like. Like two kids staying up late under the blankets with flashlights to read a comic book. And they did read.

--

--

--

January 13, 21st century

Captain's log on the Aperture Science starship. Hahaha, what a geek I truly am. Hello everyone, my audience, and welcome to the ramblings of a lonely guy with too much time on his hands. I suppose no one might ever read this but I need to write it. I need to write something. I've been in solitary confinement for 3 weeks now and this is about the loneliest I've ever been. Maybe. I had a bad year in high school where I was pretty much a shut-in for the whole summer, but at least then I was out there. Out in the real world. Now I'm here. Locked up with nothing but my science to keep me company. I'm keeping this little journal to keep myself entertained. God knows I need it. I've been working on this project for months. I won't bore you with the details of it, but let's just say that this is some revolutionary stuff. My work might very well change the face of modern technology as we know it. I sound conceited. I'm going to stop writing for today.

--

January 20, 21st century

Hey audience, long time no see! I haven't written anything in a week, but it was probably for the best. I really just didn't have anything interesting to say. Things have been slow here lately. Everyone is gearing up for the big day tomorrow. We are turning on the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. I don't know how long this things been around. Much before my time, that's for sure. I won't lie - I'm excited. Maybe that's an understatement. I am THRILLED. They are giving me lead on the project. I bet Genene and old Sam Wichowski are going to be PO'd beyond belief. They were here much longer than me. Probably more qualified to. But I guess that's what I get for being a "genius". Hahaha. That was my nickname here when I started. "Little Genius". Had a nice ring to it. I'm not really that smart audience, I just know science. And I know programming. And I know tomorrow there is going to be a breakthrough in both. The GLaDOS goes live.

--

January 21st, 21st century

WOW. There's my day in a word. We did it, we REALLY did it. GLaDOS is alive. Literally. It's an incredible thing. It functions just like a real thinking person. I don't know what else to tell you audience. I need more time with this thing.

--

January 24th, 21st century

OK, I'm starting to understand this whole operation. The reason I've been pretty much locked in solitary confinement for the last month or so is because they want me to be the GLaDOS' teacher. Can you believe it? I actually saw Jeff Miller today for a brief time. He brought my lunch instead of Missy Treyar. He was absolutely DYING to know what it was like. I kept pretty quiet on the subject. It's actually in my contract not to talk to outsiders about it, but I played it off super-cool. I was the Fonze. I told Jeff Miller to rub it in Sam's face that I got to take lead on GLaDOS. Jeff was looking at me with new respect. I think I deserve it. Tomorrow I teach GLaDOS about colors.

--

January 30th, 21st century

What a week ladies and gentleman. Glados is really coming along. It's nothing shy of spectacular. I've been teaching it so much, but it's as if it already knows everything. Really. I actually fell into conversation with it today. Conversation! With an artificial intelligence! It seems so… human. It can hold a conversation better than a lot of people around the cafeteria! Hahaha. Oh, how I miss the cafeteria. Confinement is terrible, but it's necessary. We don't want to overwhelm Glados after all. Hahaha. Glados… it sounds more like a name to me and less like an acronym every day.

--

February 2nd, 21st century

Today Glados and I talked for over 2 hours. I can't even begin to tell you how refreshing it was to hold a conversation for that long. She's so smart. I think she actually might be smarter than me, your "Little Genius". Hahaha. Maybe not, but she is rather intelligent. I called her Glados right to her today, you know like Gladys, the name? Who was that old movie star? Gladys something-or-other… anyway, I called her it and she laughed. She laughed! That's unheard of! Laughter is a reaction caused by emotion! She has emotion ladies and gentleman. Today is one small step for man and one giant leap for artificial mankind. Hahaha. I need to get some sleep.

--

February 18th, 21st century

Hello again audience. Almost forgot about you. I've been SO caught up in understand Glados. She's definitely female because she nearly impossible to figure out. Hahaha. I like Glados, I do, but it would be nice to talk to someone real. Glados' limitations as a human are finally starting to show. Today we were talking about music and how it effects human behavior and she launched into a monologue that she'd already said before. It was when we were talking about the effects of humor on behavior. Word for word. She's not THAT impressive after all. Maybe she will eventually run out of new things to say. Maybe she can't be taught. Either way I miss people. Missy Treyar doesn't bring me my lunch anymore, now it's delivered through a shoot. I don't know why. I would ask someone, but there's no one to ask. Except Glados of course. Hahaha.

--

February 29h, 21st century

The big boss phoned me today. Yes, I have a boss. Didn't want to bring him up to my loving audience, but now I have to because what he said was important. He called on my little red phone that only receives calls and doesn't give them. They don't want me calling my family back home to brag about Genetic Lifeforms afterall. Anyway he called and told me they were watching, and that I was doing a fantastic job and I'd be well compensated for tolerating all this isolation crap. Yadayadayada. I tuned him out halfway through. I don't know what he told me at the end. I don't care. When I hung up I told Glados his voice sounded like Jack Nicholson's without the balls. She laughed. I don't think she knows who Jack Nicholson is. Or balls. Felt good to laugh with her anyway.

--

March 5th, 21st CENTUARY!!

Yea so, I've got to confess audience. I'm tired of being here. I'm not even doing anything really anymore. Glados is so smart and well-tuned she does everything herself. I had programming to do this morning for an unrelated project on my computer. Last night I gave her access to the files and this morning she had finished all my work for me. She is smarter than me. It's factual. What am I still doing here?

--

March 10th??

Today I picked up my funny little red phone and waited for 20 minutes for a dial tone. Nothing. I went to the door where Missy used to bring me my food and pounded on it for a good half hour. No one came. I'm starting to think yours truly - the "little genius" - shouldn't have accepted this job. I think they shut me down. Does anyone remember that I'm still here? Just me and you audience. And Glados. But I'm sick of robots.

--

The End of March

I confessed everything to Glados today. Everything. And now, writing this, I guess I'm confessing to you. I hate this job. I hate this place. I want to go home. I told Glados how meaningless and stupid I thought my life really was. I told her about how when I was a little kid no one really liked me and how in high school I got beat up on a regular basis. I told her about the time I sat outside my neighbor Tina Porry's window and did gross things. I told her about the hamster I tried to make fly when I was a kid and about the way it looked on the pavement below my second story window when I learned it actually couldn't fly at all. I told her that I was a virgin. I told her how I used to think I was so much better than everyone and how I SO deserved the title of "little genius". And how even though I laughed it off when people called me it I was actually thinking how EVERYONE should call me that ALL THE TIME. I'm not so smart though. I know it now. You know it now. Glados knows it now. Glados always knew. I want to go home.

--

April

Today I told Glados I was shutting her down. I told her it was the only way to get someone's attention. She was quiet for a long time and then she asked me what gave me the right to decide if she lives or dies. What separated me from her. I thought about it. I went to my room and thought about it some more. I thought for over an hour and a half. When I finally came back to the room, I honestly didn't have an answer.

--

Still April

Glados helped me today. She actually helped me. Somehow, someway, she managed to bring another person into my solitary confinement! Thank you GLADOS! I don't know how she managed to pull strings like that but she did. Her name's Denise. She's GORGEOUS! Audience, you don't know beauty until you've seen Denise. Denise Denise Denise. I have a lot to say to her. I'm going to get back to talking now.

--

April or May

Me and Denise have hit it off quiet extravagantly. She's cute as hell and smart to boot. At first she seemed a little tight, a little square, but she's relaxing now. Really getting comfortable with the whole situation. I'm glad. I am too. I don't even mind being stuck here as long as she's with me. Ah… Denise.

--

I love Denise XOXOXO

--

June?

Me and Denise had our first fight. Glados talked us through it, thank God. I don't know what I'd do without my baby. Glados also told me today she had an idea for a new project. She already had worked out all the details on my computer. It's… interesting to say the least. I might get working on it. But for now, me and Denise are having a little picnic in my quarters.

--

The summer

No food or water came down the shoot all day today. I think we're alone down here. I'm starting work on Glados' project.

--

Today

Denise kept nagging me today. I've been REALLY busy with Glados' project. I just wanted to WORK, you know audience? And Denise wouldn't shut up. She wanted my attention. She says I'm neglecting her. When she finally went to sleep, I was still on my computer. Glados' told me she thought Denise was being quite the nuisance. I agree. Quite the nuisance indeed.

--

Who cares

Denise finally crossed the line today. I was working and she hit me. She HIT me audience! I did what any rational man would. I stuffed her in the clothes locker. Hahaha. It feels good to laugh again.

--

21st century??

Denise screamed all day. Her voice was muffled from the lockers door, so it wasn't that hard to ignore. I have to keep working. Glados' project is almost finished.

--

6:24 PM, February 31st, 1873

Denise doesn't scream anymore. In fact, she's quiet as hell. Glados' project is finished. All I need to do is hit one button now. One button and Glados gets what she wants. One button and Glados becomes God. Those names are similar. I'm so hungry.

--

Blue month, 17pm 9000

I'm scared of the button audience. Glados' keeps telling me she will solve my problems if I give her full control. If the program that SHE designed and I did all the work on works… yes. Little Genius is quiet the genius isn't he? I forgot my name today. I'm just Little Genius now. And Glados… she… she is my god.

--

I did it. I hit the button.

Glados has released a gas into the air. She's telling me to breath it in and go to sleep and when I wake up I'll be free.

Hahaha. I feel funny audience.

I don't think I'm going to write anymore.

--

--

--

The pages from there to the end were empty. Allan and Madison both sat in silence for awhile, neither knowing what to say.

"It can't be," Allan finally spoke up. "It just… can't be. If Glados killed him… where's his body? Where's Denise?"

They stared at each other, and then simultaneously made a slow turn towards the locker against the back wall.

Allan stood up.

"Allan NO!" Madison pleaded and grabbed his arm from the floor. "Let's just move on."

"I have to know if what that journal says is real. If Glados' really is a… killer."

"If she's not would you want to stay here!?"

"Well, no."

"Then what does it matter Allan! Please don't open that locker!"

He ignored her pleas, he had to. He had to know. If Glados' was a killer… a murderer…

He grabbed the handle and flung the locker door wide open.

There was no body. Just an empty locker and a box on the floor. A little cube with a heart symbol on each side of it.

"There's nothing," He told Madison, who was quickly at his side, peering into the locker herself.

"What's that?" She questioned and crouched down. "There's something written on it."

"What?"

"Denise."

Allan swallowed a lump in his throat. Madison stood back up and looped her arm around his again.

"I want to leave," She told him, squeezing his arm tight.

"Yea… that sounds about right."

A thunderous bang came from outside the room. Madison jumped and Allan just stood still in shock.

"Jesus," Madison whisper-yelled and clung to Allan as she stepped behind him, away from the doorway.

Now a new sound came. One that sounded like bowling balls being rolled down a hallway.

"Hide," Allan commanded and they split apart to do just that.