(Matilda's POV):

Silence hits my ears as I come back to consciousness. I wake up to find myself in a dimly-lit room which seems to have its temperature set to only-just-bearably cold. But unfortunately, I can't see anything else. Even with my glasses, my vision is blurry.

"Where in the name of sanity am I?" I ask as I sit up.

I try to get to my feet only to find I don't have much in the way of coordination at the current moment. I end up sitting on my knees as I take in my surroundings, my vision beginning to clear up.

"What happened to the others? I gotta find them!"

"Hello?" a muffled voice calls from nearby.

I blink rapidly in shock.

"Hello?" I repeat back.
"Is someone here?"

As my vision clears back up, I get to my feet and lean against the walls, which are icy cold unfortunately, to support myself.

"Keep talking please."

"Are you a friend or foe?" the muffled voice asks.

"Neither," I reply.
"My name is Matilda Prescott."

For a few moments, there's no reply.

"Wait. Matilda? You're here?"

"Yeah," I say confused.
"Do I know you?"

"It's Charlie! Charlie Bucket!"

My stomach flips as my vision finally begins to return to normal.

"Charlie?" I exclaim.
"What in the name of sanity are you doing here?"

"You didn't hear?" he replies as I follow his voice.
"I found the last ticket. They thought someone had already found it, but it turned out to be a fraud."

"I couldn't check the newspaper."

"Why not?"

"Kind of a long and ridiculous story. I think I'm close to you."

I turn a corner made of boxes and skid to a halt. In front of me is a giant statue in the shape of a boy. Could it be?

"Charlie?"

"Matilda! I can hear you much better now."

I get closer to the statue. As I do, I catch a whiff of a familiar scent.

"Wait. Charlie, are you encased in…chocolate?"

"I'm afraid so," he sighs.

"How? Why?"

"I don't know. One moment, Wonka told me that I had won. Then I felt a blow to the head and now I'm in here."

"Can't you just break it open?"

"I tried, but it's impervious to force."

"Then how—?"

All of a sudden, a slightly ridiculous idea comes to me. It may be his only chance of escape, though.

"Charlie, I think we have to eat your way out of there."

"Eat it? But aren't you allergic to dairy?"

"I'm only slightly allergic. I can take a bit of dairy."

I go for the arm and take a bite out of it until I find that it's horribly bitter.

"Oh no," I groan.
"It's baking chocolate. Charlie, you gotta help me out. I don't want to eat all of this by myself."

I reluctantly continue to eat the rest of the arm until I can see Charlie through a hole. He's currently chomping down on the legs of the figure, but I can tell he's struggling too. Baking chocolate is not something most people would willingly eat, and for good reason.

Unable to handle the taste much longer, I begin to spit out what I bite off. Charlie soon has the same idea, and about ten minutes later, we've managed to free him from the chocolate boy.

"Thanks for saving my rear end there, Matilda."

"No problem."

"So what are you doing here?"

"Well, to make a long story short, Wonka wants to make me his daughter. Don't ask why. Some nonsense about creativity IQ and world domination."

"World domination?" Charlie gasps.

"Yeah. It seems Wonka's not as great as I imagined him to be. He's also turned our friends into squirrels and has attempted to kill the other four ticket winners."

"So James—?"

"Was right, I know!" I growl.
"Don't rub it in."

"Sorry. So what now?"

"Well, I want to kill him. He murdered my father."

"He did?"

I nod sadly.

"How? Why?"

"To make THAT long story short, my father was the one who made me known to him in the first place. Wonka took my father in place of me to use as a source for ideas, then when he outlived his 'usefulness,' Wonka killed him."

"So are you gonna kill him?" Charlie asks.

"Are you nuts?" I exclaim.
"This guy is certifiably psychotic, I'm sure of it. He's attempted to kill those kids who stepped out of line on the tour somehow. If I'm not careful, he might kill me TOO."

"So what then?"

All of a sudden, I hear the door knob jiggle.

"Hide," I whisper harshly to Charlie as I push him behind a stack of boxes.

I come back to the front of the room where I awoke, hoping that maybe it's a familiar face.