Chell's second playthrough

The Pause Menu

"Well done. Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. I'm serious, that's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that." Chell snorted. Let GLaDOS rattle about and insult her all she wanted, it wasn't going to get to her. She walked into the elevator that had been waiting for her and leaned against the glass wall once it started to descend. Chell sighed. Poor Wheatley, she though as the image of the core getting crushed under the deathly grip of the claw played over again in her head. It made her stomach twist. Like she didn't have enough horrible and worrying memories already.

When the lift came to a halt, Chell firmed her grip on the Portal gun, ready for the next test. GLaDOS voice came over the speakers once the test subject entered the chamber. "Don't let that horrible person thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."

Chell squirmed, trying to hold back any sign of emotion on her features. GLaDOS hadn't been able to mentally defeat her before, and she wasn't going to let her win now either. She wouldn't give her that satisfaction. Chell glanced around the room, trying to concentrate on solving the test. Two lasers, a cube, a portal here and a portal there. Simple enough. She portal-ed onto a ledge to get a discouragement redirection cube and jumped onto the platform that was increased in the middle of the chamber. She carefully placed the cube in the way, turning it a bit so the laser got redirected into a spot on the wall. Just as she was about to put the last portals in place, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.

Curiosity got the better of her and Chell walked towards the hole in the wall. Behind it was a small room, hidden between the panels of the test chamber. The walls were covered in drawings and writings. It must be another one of those little hide outs she'd found in other tests as well. It was clear that someone else had been looking for a place to safely hide from the camera's and the all-seeing-eye of the supercomputer. She dropped down, crushing some empty bean cans under her boots. Chell carefully ran a finger over the chalk and paint on the walls, leaving white dust on her fingertips. There were words written in black marker that caught her attention. They're watching.

That was odd, normally a message like that would refer to GLaDOS watching through the camera's. But now it said they. What was that supposed to mean?

Chell jumped a little at the sound of loud static. She quickly turned around and noticed a small radio in the corner that started to play a soft tune. It felt somehow familiar, but she couldn't place it through all the loud static. Letting out a small sigh in relief, she went back to concentrate on the drawings on the wall, trying to make sense of it. To anyone else they just looked like weird scribbles of a mad man who had gone insane in the lonely depths of the labs, but Chell knew better. Some of the messages were warnings or held any form of important information and  they had helped her in the past as well. The cake is a lie. Chell shook her head, trying to get that horrible memory of the day she almost got burned alive in the incinerator out of her head. The day she'd defeated GLaDOS. The day she almost had her freedom.

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to bring back one of the few memories she enjoyed. The one where she lay outside, in the sun, surrounded by the falling pieces of her nemesis. A short, beautiful glimpse of her freedom, before she'd been dragged back into the bowels of Aperture Science.

''Exile. It takes your mind.

You've got sucker's luck

Have you given up?''

The soft melody played into her mind, filling that helpless, painful and scared feeling deep inside of her. She'd been so close. Chell frowned. No, she wouldn't give up. Never. No matter what it took; even if she had to solve every damn test that existed, if she had to kill GLaDOS again or burn this whole place to the ground... She was going to get her freedom back.