"Well," Violet said, "I guess I should call my mom now so she's already outside by the time we get out." She pulled out her cellphone and called her mom. "Hi. Yes, Mother, we'll be ready soon, so come pick us up now, 'kay? Thanks! Love you too! Bye!" She hung up. "'Kay, she's on her way."

The elevator doors opened to an open doorway with a pad next to it on the wall for fingerprint scanning, which was off. "You see?" Mike said. "I told you the security systems would still be down."

The four kids walked through the doorway and into a room filled to the brim with file cabinets along every inch of every wall. "Yep," Violet said. "This is where Wonka keeps all his secret recipes alright. Let's just be quick and get out."

Mike quickly scanned the file cabinets, searching for the "E" section. Once he found it, though, he realized that all the "E" files were separated into multiple cabinets. He eventually found the one they needed, though—the cabinet labeled "ES-EX". He opened the cabinet and frantically searched for the one labeled "Everlasting Gobstoppers", but he found another one that made his furiously moving hands stop in their tracks. "Essence of Life", it read on the file folder. He lifted it out from the cabinet and held it carefully in his hands.

"Mike, what are you doing?" Violet asked, panicking. "We need to find the 'Everlasting Gobstopper' one."

"I think we should take this one instead," he replied softly.

"Why?"

"Don't you realize what I'm holding in my hands right now? It's the answer to all of life's questions! Imagine what the field of science could accomplish with the knowledge inside this folder. And I'm gonna find out what it is right now." He opened the folder and started to read the document that stated its ingredients when, suddenly, the entire room was enveloped in a harsh, red light, and alarms started blaring.

"THEY CAUGHT US!" Violet yelled as she dashed towards the elevator. Veruca and Augustus ran right by her side. Mike didn't know what to do at first, so he panicked and dropped the file and sprinted towards the elevator with the rest of them. Mike pushed Augustus past the doorway and he ran through it himself just as it was sealed shut with a thick, metal door. "Hurry! Let's get in the elevator!" Violet said as she pushed the button for the door to open and climbed aboard. Once everyone was inside, she pressed the button, "ENTRANCE HALL".

"Did you get the recipe?" Violet asked Mike.

"No."

"Not even the 'Essence of Life'?"

"No, I'm sorry. I-I panicked and I just—"

Violet groaned. "Mike, you really messed up our plan. You realize that, right?"

"I messed up our plan? I'm not the one who wandered off to some random room in the factory waiting for the others to find me." He looked towards Augustus.

"I said I vas sorry!" Augustus said.

"Sorry isn't good enough, Weinerschnitzel," Violet said.

"Violet, what's wrong with you?" Veruca asked.

"What's wrong with me? How about what's wrong with all of you? I'm the only one who didn't do anything stupid tonight."

"I knew your 'niceness' was fake all along," Mike said. "I knew you were still the same jerk you were on the day of the tour."

"Mike, I really don't care anymore. All I want is to get out of this nightmare of a factory."

"And I didn't mess up completely; I still have an Everlasting Gobstopper in my backpack. That's sure to be worth something, right?"

"Yeah," Violet said, a little less angry now, "but it still won't be anywhere near as valuable as the actual recipe itself. But I suppose it's better than nothing."

As soon as the elevator doors opened to the shrinking hallway they were greeted with on the tour, everyone started running towards the front door. As they were about halfway down the hallway, though, the small double doors on the opposite side that lead to the Chocolate Room slammed open, and there stood Willy Wonka himself. He wore no top hat, but was wearing a purple robe with a black trim, purple gloves, and black slippers with golden "W"s on them. He gasped and yelled "It's you guys! What a horrible thing to wake up to from my beauty sleep!"

Violet and Veruca didn't even look back and pushed the front door open and ran out to the factory courtyard. Mike looked back at Wonka and tried to keep running, but his conscience was keeping him from doing so. He still kept running, but at a slower and slower rate until he stopped at the end of the hallway. Augustus caught up with him, stopped to catch his breath, then looked behind to see Wonka walking towards them. Augustus looked at Mike with a guilty expression on his face, then looked outside towards the courtyard, then back at Mike, then decided to run out the door with the girls. But Mike didn't move one inch. His feet were kept planted on the ground, even with the imperious Wonka ever approaching.

Wonka stopped walking once he was about a foot away from Mike. He looked down into the boy's intense, brown eyes. Mike looked up into the man's deep, violet eyes. Neither of them moved a muscle. They just kept their eyes locked onto each other's eyes, staring.

A/N: I'm sorry this one's a bit shorter than usual, but there's another chapter after this and it will be longer, so stay tuned!