The Woman Downstairs

Chell rested against GLaDOS's shoulder, a soft hum in her heart. Neither of them pulled apart, but neither of them remained still, either, both swaying to a tune that neither could feel.
Chell felt a hand feeling at the soft blue of her dress.

"This suits you," GLaDOS said, thankful she had encouraged Chell to try it on. "Though how did you manage to get it—?" She felt for the zipper, then noted a piece of string was attached, tucked it into the collar of her dress. "Ah," she said. "Resourceful." She tucked it back into where she had found it, readjusting Chell's hair, hand lingering a moment too long.

As she finished, Chell looked up with a warmth in her striking eyes. GLaDOS held her gaze with a mirrored softness, until she abruptly looked away. "I—" GLaDOS broke off, electronic strain in her voice. She pulled away, but still clung to Chell's forearm, as if trying to anchor herself. "I need to—" Her gaze went over Chell's shoulder, but was imprecise and distant.

She stepped backward, and Chell reached for her shoulder. "Wait," she said, gaze snapping back to the present. Then, the focus disappeared behind her eyes, and Chell could tell that she wasn't here; she was spread across the facility, trying to do a thousand things at once.

"I need to—" she repeated, then wrenched herself away and disappeared out the door.

Chell could only stand, stupefied as she stared at the empty doorframe. And just when she had dared to hope things were finally going well.

Hurt pulled at her heart, yet Chell moved for the doorway, sticking her head out to see GLaDOS walking at an accelerated pace. Chell began to jog after her, barefoot, not even stopping to put on shoes.

Chell tried to talk herself out of the reflexive her hurt. GLaDOS had seemed like her feelings were genuine—if she hadn't, then she wouldn't have chosen to kiss Chell. Not like that.

Maybe if they could just talk about this—

GLaDOS broke into a run. No, not a run. A sprint.

Chell wasn't sure she had ever seen her run before. Not like this. GLaDOS was really, really moving.

Chell moved into a jog. Maybe there was some sort of emergency going on somewhere in the facility. Something that GLaDOS couldn't take care of remotely.

As the robot moved farther and farther away, Chell considered heading back. As much as Chell wanted to know what was happening, maybe there was nothing she could do to help; maybe GLaDOS just wanted Chell out of the way.

But maybe, a tiny part of herself whispered, GLaDOS was afraid of her feelings for Chell. Maybe she was having regrets, wanting to get as far away from Chell as possible.

The metal of the catwalk grated on her feet, and even though she had done plenty of jogging around the facility, she never did it barefoot.

She was just about to turn back when the robot stopped moving.

It wasn't a gradual slowdown, like one would expect from a person. One moment GLaDOS was sprinting, and the next minute she wasn't—as if momentum didn't apply to her.

As Chell began to close the distance, the robot shifted, leaning back on her heels. She extended her arms, spreading her fingers. She twisted her wrists. Then, she rolled her shoulders, moving her head side to side as if stretching. The movement felt so human that it caught Chell off guard. Maybe she was rubbing off on the AI more than she thought.

Then, the robot sighed. Yet as Chell entered the wide room, GLaDOS didn't turn around. She didn't vocally acknowledge Chell's presence. For a moment, she wasn't even sure if GLaDOS knew Chell was approaching. But that was silly. Of course she knew.

When the AI still didn't turn around, Chell had no choice but to reach out, hand resting on her shoulder.

Then, in a flash of movement that Chell barely followed, the robot's hand snapped up, clasping around Chell's wrist and yanking her forward. She stumbled, pitching forward, but before she could catch herself, she felt another crack of momentum as her wrist was twisted behind her back. Chell gave a sharp exhale, discomfort zapping through her arm.

She swayed, dazed. But before she could twist away and figure out what was going on, the AI behind her spoke, voice careful.

"I thought," the robot said, "I told you not to touch me."

Chell made a noise and started to pull, and her wrist was immediately released. But then hard hands shoved against her spine and she pitched forward so fast that she couldn't even catch herself. Chell landed hard.

Stunned, Chell laid on the ground. She watched as the bot crossed her field of vision.

"What?" she started, squatting down to better see Chell's face. "Were you expecting another kiss?" Her hands rested on a knee.

Chell's eyes darted back and forth as she studied the robot's face, searching for clarity, but all she saw was a hard, faint smile. "Do you know how exhausting it was to do that the first time?" She made a disgusted noise. "You can bet that I'm never doing that again."

A flush of confusion rose within Chell, hot and uncomfortable. At the same time, her awareness of her body rushed up, allowing her to feel each distinct point where her body pressed against the floor. In particular, she noticed her dress riding up on her leg, snapping her out of her daze.

Chell rolled onto her stomach and began to push herself upright, ignoring the burn of the scrape along her leg.

"You look confused," the robot said, with a slight lilt in her voice and tilt of her head.

Chell halted, on her hands and knees.

The AI sighed. "I'm disappointed. You're a smart woman. Not the smartest I've ever seen, but you've shown yourself competent at solving puzzles," she said, regarding Chell with a harsh look. "Yet you haven't solved this one."

She couldn't look at the robot directly. Wouldn't. Her mind raced, but she kept crashing into dead end after dead end, no path presenting itself as an explanation. She managed one frantic look up.

"You know how I seemed surprised when you kissed me? It's because I was surprised by how stupid you were being. What happened to you, Chell?" she said softly.

And this time—the second time Chell had heard her name today from the robot, the second ever—it twisted something inside of her like a joint out of place, a negative bend that felt so wrong with that voice that Chell wished she could scrub the memory of it from her ears. She would rather the AI redact her name from permanent memory than use it like this.

"I thought you were better than that. But I guess not." The AI looked down her nose as she stood. "What happened to that anger you had? Last night, in the test chamber. You were so ready to do some real damage."

Chell pushed herself to her feet.

"And yet you would put all that aside for one shred of affection? It was honestly pathetic to watch. You were so desperate for connection that you were willing to overlook everything you two have been through before," she said. "If I had known you were that easy to handle, I wouldn't have spent months gaining your trust."

Chell's brow furrowed as she felt her brain furiously trying to work on something but it was something it had not yet made her privy to yet.

"You're still not getting it," she said. She hesitated. "I lied to you." Her eyes almost gleamed. "I've been lying to you since the moment you stumbled back half-dead into my facility."

The robot's unshakable focus never left Chell, the helpfully-tuned overlay spitting out microexpressions and broader strokes of confusion and disbelief. She took a few casual steps, and Chell took involuntary steps backward. An equal and opposite reaction.

"I lied to you," she repeated. "When you came back, I wanted to see how long it would take you to drop your guard and to trust me," she said, "but I didn't expect it to happen that fast." Disgust stained her disappointment. "This was supposed to keep me entertained for a good, long while. Since you refuse to test physically, I had to do something. But you couldn't even do that right," she said. "I've never done any long-term psychological testing before, but I slipped up enough times that I thought you were onto me. But you made it so easy for me to tell you precisely what you wanted to hear. Act the way you wanted me to act. And you fell for it. Just like that." She snapped her fingers, and Chell flinched.

The android continued to walk, but Chell found herself fixed to the spot. She felt the absence of that signal in her brain that should have fired to run, eyes trained on the robot as she took deliberate, diagonal steps across the room.

"I mean, did you really think that I felt that way about you? That I would ever give a shit about you?" She gave a bitter, angry laugh. "Oh, we have far too much history for that."

Fear jolted through Chell's confusion, finally pushing her backward.

"You killed me. Destroyed my facility. Did you really think we could sweep that under some panels and move on?" Her voice was slipping back into that less synthesized, more smooth voice that GLaDOS had phased out weeks ago. "You may be able to look past all of that, but I can't. Forgetting is not a luxury that I have, and time is not going to heal those wounds. Those scars will never go away." She emphasized with a fluid slash of her hand. "You can't expect me to not want to get even, even if it took years."

Another flash of emotion in Chell's eyes. Another few steps back. The AI just smiled wider, taking smooth, gliding steps. She shifted to hold her hands behind her back, posture rigid.

Chell moved faster, trying to put more distance between herself and the robot. Her bare heel hit a wall, sending a dull pain up her leg.

"But all experiments must come to an end," she sighed, wistful. "Including this one."

Yet as the robot took another step toward her, the lights fluctuated. Chell's eyes flicked up, and the PA system sputtered to life.

Then, GLaDOS's voice sparked through the speakers under a layer of static, urgent and airy. "Chell! Get out of there! That's not m—"

Hissing static overtook the voice. Chell's brow creased and and looked back toward the android, who had raised her hand and then closed a fist, as if physically cutting off the noise. They made eye contact.

Then, the physicality of the robot changed, like a snap between binary states. "God damn it," she said, sagging and pulling a hand through her hair, but in an exaggerated way. The AI suddenly looked less stiff, less robotic. "And I was having so much fun, too."

Chell's stomach dropped, a drowning dread rising up in its place. Not only was she moving differently, but the robot's voice—

Chell pressed her hands flat against the wall behind her, noting that without even realizing it, she had been backed into the far corner of the room. Her eyes darted back and forth between the robot and the exit, then she pushed off the wall and began to sprint toward the door.

But her frantic gaze betrayed her, and before she could make it more than a few steps, the robot was on her, pushing Chell hard against the wall. Chell let out an involuntary exhale from the force of it. "Not so fast," she said. "We're not done here."

As Chell tried to push away, a small part of her noted the way that the android's chest almost seemed to rise and fall, shoulders going up and down in a way that evoked breathing. Chell wouldn't have even noticed it if she hadn't been so used to not seeing that kind of motion, and it sent even more alarm bells up her spine.

"I'm hurt," the android said. "You still don't want to spend time with me?" She sighed. "I suppose that happened the last time we tried to have a heart to heart, too. But this time you aren't running away."

Chell pulled at the hand holding her in place. "Look at me," Caroline barked, pushing harder, and it surprised her when Chell's gaze flicked up to the robot's face, and then held it for a moment. "Don't tell me you don't remember me," she said. She gave another disappointed sigh. "I suppose we have a few minutes to get reacquainted. It has been a long time."