Heck!!!

He is walking down the halls of Black Mesa, heading over to the dorms where all the low level employees lived. On his way back to his dorm, he feels eyes on him, like he was being watched. Gordon glances behind himself, and notices a guard behind him, going the same way.

The outfit was typical of a level one guard. Gordon immediately feels anxiety build up in his chest, but he shakes it off. The guard… is probably just going to meet up with a friend, or something. Gordon shook his head. No need to get all worked up for something that wasn't about him.

He glances to the side, and the guard is just staring at him. He gulps, immediately averting his eyes. It's— It's probably just because he's the only one in this hallway. Yeah, that's— that's probably it.

Either way, it's not something Gordon needs to think about. He's had a very long, and tiring day, and he just wants to get home, collapse onto his shitty twin-sized mattress, and pass out for the next eight to twelve hours.

But, of course, nothing ever wants to go Gordon's way.

As he is fishing for his keys in his backpack, he hears footsteps approaching him. A quick look over his shoulder shows it's the level one guard approaching, and Gordon can feel his palms start to sweat. "Evening, officier," Gordon greets, digging as fast as he could through his bag. Why does he always carry so much random shit with him? "Is there anything I can help with?"

The guard doesn't reply as he reaches into his pocket. "It's nothing personal, really," the guard says, stepping closer to Gordon. Before he even has a second to react, the guard's hand is over his mouth, and he feels a small prick on the side of his neck. "Just bad timing."

Gordon thrashes as soon as the prick happens. He kicks his legs out, hands balling into fists to hit the guard. But it was too late — whatever he just got drugged with works fast, and he could already feel the strength leaving him. The guard says something else he doesn't pick up as his limbs go heavy, and Gordon could feel their hands under his arms. His vision darkens, and Gordon Freeman goes unconscious. 

All of this to say, what the fuck.

He opens his eyes, and something indescribable was in front of him. Abstract shapes moving through each other like they weren’t physical, bright colors flashing and blinding him. He scrambled wherever he could to get away, and in just a blink it was gone. Instead stood what looked like a regular guy — a low level security guard. But their eyes practically were glowing a bright, piercing yellow under the shadow of the helmet.

“What the fuck?!” Gordon’s heart was racing in his chest. 

“oh,” they say, staring at him. “you’re alive.”

The person — thing? — in front of him sat down, knees crossed as their fingers drummed against their knees. Gordon, on the other hand, was scrambled into a corner, putting as much distance between himself and the creature in here. He was thoroughly freaking out. “What the fuck is happening?? What are you?”

“that’s rude,” the thing says, their voice monotone. “s’not like i’m askin’ what you are.”

“Because I’m a fucking human!” Gordon snaps, even though he should definitely not be angering the thing in front of him, no matter how human it looked, "everyone is a human!"

"'m not human," the thing in front of him replies quietly, and Gordon holds back a scream. He knew that! Humans don't do whatever the fuck he saw!

"Okay — Okay, I fucking— I knew that," Gordon hissed, running a hand through his hair. "Do you— what the hell's going on?"

"they brought you here," they reply, "but you're alive so i can't eat you."

I'm sorry, what?! "You were going to fucking eat me?"

"s'not a big deal," the thing has the audacity to say. "no one's judging you for eating meat. mr… judgemental. man."

"People aren't eaten! People don't fucking eat people!" Gordon hisses, hand gripping his hair. "So— fuck. They— The fucking scientists brought me to feed you? Have they done that before??"

"oh yeah," they say without hesitating, as if this isn't a massive deal. As if the people that had gone missing weren't feeding his co-workers — his friends — to this fucking thing! "they're normally, uh… not alive. though."

Okay. Okay, this is fucking awful. Gordon's going to be fucking killed here by whatever this creature is, after only learning what's been happening to the other missing people. Fuck, Gordon's just going to be a missing person now. He's— He has friends. He fucking— He had people who cared about him! He has a fucking pet goldfish in his dorm, but it's going to fucking starve to death now because Gordon's getting fucking fed to this fucking demon thing.

"woah, hey, it's ok," the creature says, taking a step towards Gordon. He snarls his teeth at the thing like a wild animal, all of his instincts telling him to not be near this thing. They back up, hands in the air as they sit against the opposing wall. "uh. not gonna hurt you."

Like he's gonna fucking believe that. He said it themself — Gordon was brought here as nothing more than a fucking meal for this thing— Gordon wasn't going to believe a word it said. No matter how fucking human they want to look like. Fucking hell — it was about to fucking eat Gordon if he didn't wake up when he did! 

He knew he was starting to spiral. His thoughts kept circling back on themself, repeating the same worries and fears as his hands pulled on his hair, the pain keeping him somewhat grounded. The creature was talking again, and he really should be paying attention in case they decided to attack or something, yet everything sounded too loud and he couldn't focus on anything.

He jumps as something lands on his shoulder. "do you have your, uh.. passport?"

"What?" Gordon's eyes snapped up to the thing, the random question snapping him out of his thoughts. "My— My passport?"

"yeah," they respond, "how else, uh… how else 'm i gonna know if you're good or not?"

"What?" A laugh sputters out of Gordon. "Why— Why would I have a passport?"

"y'know," they say, without elaborating.

Gordon lets out a small breath. "Please just… just give me anything to work with, man," he says, gently taking their hand off of his shoulder and putting it down. "If you're gonna— eat me or whatever, just do it now."

"whuh?" They blink. "why would i do that?"

"It— You literally said that's why they fucking kidnapped me, man!" 

"nuh uh." They back up, leaning against the opposite wall again. The cell — container, thing— it wasn't very big at all. It looked just a bit bigger than his dorm, although there was a glass wall dividing the room in half. Now that Gordon's looking, he could only see a small cot in the corner next to where the creature sat currently, along with a single toilet and sink. There was… quite literally nothing else in the room. On the other side of the glass was a pile of bags and purses in a pile, and if he quints, he could see his own bag on top of everything, thrown off to be discarded. Then, on the closest wall to the cot, was a heavy metal door that must lead into… somewhere, where the high level scientists could come in. Gordon shivers at the idea of them walking in and just… watching him. "what's your name? friend?"

Now it's Gordon's turn to blink at the thing in confusion. Friend? Where did they pick that up from? "Uh. It's Gordon — Gordon Freeman."

They bark out a laugh, a loud, jarring thing. "more like gordon cellman. gordon trappedman."

This really wasn't how Gordon's night was supposed to go. He runs a hand down his face, sighing. "Sure, man. What's your name?"

"'s benrey," the thing — Benrey — says. They don't say anything more, seemingly focused on a loose thread on their vest. Gordon takes this time to just— fucking think. He was meant to be fed to Benrey. But they didn't eat him, for some reason? Because he was fuckin' alive?

But there is no way he's making this out alive. Either Benrey will get hungry, and actually fucking eat Gordon — or another Black Mesa scientist will walk in, and just shoot him. Keep him silent through his death. And fuck, man — he had so much he wanted to do. He didn't want to fucking die.

— — —

Gordon is resting on the bed, eyes closed as he's just trying to… relax isn't the proper word here, but he's not quite sure what to replace it with. He and Benrey had… talked, for a while? And they said they weren't going to.. eat him (something about humans being scary? For some reason?? It's not like he's stuck in a cell with whatever 'Benrey' is), and so he was laying down on the cot.

Last Gordon knew, Benrey was sitting on the ground next to him. They said they prefer it — saying it reminded them of home, which Gordon decided to ignore and file away, and not think about it. Either way, Benrey was either sitting or laying on the ground on the other side of the small, twin-sized cot attached to the longer wall. He's drifting in and out of sleep, and his mind is filtering out every sound he hears. 

A loud, guttural growl causes Gordon to shoot upright, heart racing. He was facing the wall, his back to Benrey (God why did he do that?), and by the time he scrambles around to defend himself, it was too late.

Benrey is abstract. Their face is split open once more, the dozens of shapes clipping through each other in a way that makes his head hurt. But they're facing away from him, and Gordon's mind finally catches up with his ears as he hears Benrey growling at someone. 

"— and we're best friends, so you can't hurt him, 'cuz we're gonna play heavenly sword later—" What? Gordon fumbles to grab his glasses, throwing them on his face and completely freezing up.

On the other side of Benrey, the other side of the glass, was a man with a gun. It was directly pointed to where Gordon's head just was, if it wasn't for Benrey stepping in and defending Gordon's sleeping form. The guard shouts at them, brandishing what appears to be a taser of some sort, and it only seems to make Benrey angry. They beat against the glass, causing the whole wall to shake as both Gordon and the other guard flinch. The guard starts the taser once more, before quickly backing up through the open door and fleeing. 

What was that? Benrey defended— no, protected Gordon in his sleep. Risked themself getting shot for — for someone they've known for less than a day? Gordon's racing heart slows down as he tries to think of reasons.

The obvious one that comes to mind is pact bonding. It's not unusual for evolution to cause animals to be pact bonded — hell, humans experience it, the social species humans are. Perhaps this is the same case for… whatever Benrey is? But, then again, it hasn't even been a day. Maybe twelve hours. And that's only if it actually was pact bonding! Benrey is— Gordon doesn't know what Benrey is. A demon, some sort of supernatural, he doesn't fucking know — but nothing he's been told has been anything similar to pact bonds.

Benrey's staring at Gordon expectantly, and he blinks, meeting their eyes— and they look light blue and yellow — Gordon swears they were just a bright yellow before. They look humanoid too — no longer abstract in a way that feels like Gordon's looking at what a migraine feels like. 

Gordon shakes his head. "Sorry — What, what did you say? I…" His voice drifts off, rubbing the back of his neck as his breathing calms.

"i asked if you're ok?"

Is he okay? Gordon doesn't know the answer. No, because he could have died there. Yes, because he is still alive, only because of Benrey. Yes, because Benrey protected him. "Yeah, man — thank you? For uh. Not letting them kill me."

"nah," Benrey shakes their head, though it seems unnatural — something they must have learned recently. Probably through watching the scientists here. "no one's allowed to hurt my friends."

Gordon should probably unpack that this creature considers Gordon a friend. At least it was better than being thought of as a pet? So Benrey sees that he has some consciousness at least. That's… hopefully reassuring. He'll— He'll deal with that later. Probably whenever his brain leaves 'holy shit I'm going to fucking die', mode.

Well, now that the adrenaline has mostly left Gordon's body, he is exhausted. He feels like he's been awake for way too long (as long as you ignored the fact he was quite literally drugged), yet he still couldn't even bring himself to fully fall asleep in front of Benrey. His muscles ached, and the exhaustion came from deep within his bones. He pushes his glasses onto the top of his head, rubbing at his eyes with the palms of his hands.

He wasn't going to be able to force himself awake for long. "Hey, buddy?" Gordon asks quietly, and if he wasn't already leaning on the wall, he would have fallen to the ground. Benrey lets out a confused sound, staring at him, waiting for him to continue. "If you're gonna eat me, do it while I'm asleep, yeah?" His eyes close, the back of his head lightly hitting the wall.

"whuh— no. 'm not gonna eat you, bro. we talked about that."

Gordon snorts at that. A weird demon creature just called him bro. God, this really was like some fucked up, evil dream that he's having. Hell. Maybe when he wakes up, he'll wake up back in his dorm and this all was some evil fucking dream. Gordon lets out a breath, and says, "okay. If you do, though. Make it quick, yeah?"