Review response time!
Sonny April - I'm glad you have your own little theories, you shall have to keep reading to find out if they are correct.
Softkitty55- Thank you so much it's just I feel ashamed if my chapters are too short, but this is a MUCH longer one! I'm glad you're loving my work.
Dragonserpent18- That's an interesting opinion you shall have to read on to find out more.
MattTheWriter072-Thank you for your positive words about the candies I made up (I'm not good at that) I hope you like this chapter!
Derek- Wow its seems a lot of people liked my story in your comment! I hope they find this chapter just as enjoyable.
Melonhead- Thank you!
Fled out- I'm glad you like the use of that quote :)
Girlpower54- You shall find out now!
"Come on Claudia, you don't want to miss anything!" Eleanor called out just as the group were walking to their next destination, taking Claudia's arm so she and Eleanor could walk around the factory linking arms.
Charlie smiled at the two girls blossoming friendship.
Steven and his brother were right behind the chocolatier, walking far away from each other as possible. Joseph was in front happily humming to himself while Steven walked behind him, rolling his eyes and huffing at his brother's childish excitement.
As the two younger girls walked relatively close to their guardians, Fiona turned to look at Sonya with a smile," so are you finding the tour interesting?" Fiona kindly asked.
When she didn't get a response Fiona tried to get Sonya's attention by calling out her name in case she hadn't heard her. But when she was greeted to yet another long silence, Fiona made the decision to tap her on the shoulder.
However, her decision did not go down well with Sonya as she quickly turned on Fiona, forcefully pushing her to the ground as she yelled out a loud "no!"
The sudden commotion had caused Claudia to rip away from Eleanor's arm, trying hard to conceal her anger towards Fiona.
Soon enough everyone else had gathered round to where Fiona was still lying on the floor, groaning in pain.
"What's going on!" Charlie shouted, pushing past Steven to see what had happened.
"Auntie, why are you on the floor?" Eleanor wearily asked a few moments later, shocked at what she saw.
Fiona struggled to talk due to the impact of the incident. "I was merely asking Sonya a question…. And s-she pushed me." Once Fiona had explained, Eleanor and Charlie both assisted in helping her get back up on her feet.
Everyone's eyes soon shifted to Claudia and her mother.
"She doesn't like to be touched," Claudia explained before turning to her mother to ask if she was alright.
"Right let's just move on and keep our distance from each other, okay?" Charlie suggested which no one objected to.
"Come along then, there's still loads more to see," Charlie said in a more happier tone of voice.
Once everyone had begun to follow Charlie Eleanor was about to go over to Claudia to apologize but Fiona grabbed her arm to stop her.
"I think we should give them some space, like Charlie said," Fiona said, sighing when seeing Eleanor's sad reaction.
Eleanor silently nodded her agreement just before giving Claudia and her mother a guilty look, which they did not see.
Eleanor's mind was soon distracted from the incident as Charlie stopped at a door, with huge rainbow letters that read, The magnificent maze!
"The magnificent maze, what's that dude?" Joseph asked the chocolatier, who was about to give him an answer until Steven sharply interrupted.
"Let me think, it may be a maze that pretends to be such an exaggerated word like magnificent…"
Steven stood in a mock thinking position before snappily saying, "it's a maze you fool!"
"Don't insult me bro" Joseph sadly mumbled, looking down at his feet in embarrassment.
"It's not an insult, I'm just describing you," Steven added seconds later, leaving Joseph stuck in an awkward silence, finding it difficult to come up with a good comeback.
Hoping to put an end to this pointless interruption Charlie soon stepped in.
"As explained by Steven it is indeed a maze, but it's a maze where even the dead ends hold surprises!"
With that Charlie opened the door to reveal a long bendy maze-like passage, each corner that resembled a dead-end led to a door but these doors had no labels.
"How are you meant to know which your room you're going into if there are no labels?" Steven questioned as soon as everyone had looked around.
"You don't, that's the point," Charlie replied.
Charlie then turned to look at the three kids before focusing his attention on Eleanor.
"Eleanor would you like to pick a door?" the chocolatier asked, earning himself a wide grin in response.
"Yes please!" Eleanor exclaimed as she thought about which door she wanted to pick.
"I chose that one Mr. Bucket," Eleanor said, pointing at a door towards her left.
"On we go then" Charlie replied before leading everyone to Eleanor's chosen door.
Once everyone had walked over to the door Charlie was quick to open it, letting out a small smile when seeing the guests reactions.
"It- it's incredible" Fiona stated just as Charlie leads the guests into the room.
The room resembled a jungle like appearance, decorated from top to bottom with red and yellow ropes hanging off of tall green trees. Surrounded by thick bushes and various types of wild animals including birds flying around, insects and reptiles scattered across the room. All the guests could do was stare at the scene in front of their very eyes.
Some even pinched themselves in case they were dreaming.
"Now this people is my latest addition to the factory, the jungle room! These ropes you see over there are the fizzy rhubarb and custard ropes which I specifically designed for this room." Charlie explained, lifting the rope with his fingers so everyone could have a good look.
"The fizz is to make sure the ropes go as high as possible for when someone swings on them!" Charlie happily added, his smile turning into a grin when seeing Eleanor's reaction.
Before Charlie could carry on, a sudden squeaking noise filled the atmosphere as a large light brown bird swept through the air, slightly hitting Claudia with its wing as the bird made its landing near Steven's foot.
"That's a very big bird Mr. Bucket" Claudia stated, even if it didn't fascinate her that much.
"Oh yes and the biggest of it's kind too, it's called the Banoffee bird" Charlie proudly introduced, the bird bowing its head straight after the introduction.
Eleanor then looked up at the bird, enjoying the banoffee pie scent it gave off.
"Now since I think I've got everything covered, does anyone have any questions?" Charlie asked, looking around the room as he spoke.
"Er, are all the animals friendly?" Eleanor asked while shyly putting her hand up, Charlie smiled in response.
"Of course they are, and what's even more remarkable is that you can actually ride on this bird" Charlie replied reassuringly, earning an excited grin from Eleanor.
Satisfied that he had explained everything he needed to Charlie took a confident breath before saying, "right people I think I'll let you have a couple of minutes to explore before moving along, is that alright with everyone?"
Each guest nodded before being dismissed by the chocolatier.
The bird which had been standing in the same position since it's introduction soon caught the eyes of both Joseph and Eleanor. Just as Eleanor had gotten close enough to get on the bird she was shoved aside as Joseph claimed his victory.
"Make way squirt" was all Joseph had to say before telling the bird to fly, leaving Eleanor confused and disappointed.
"It's as if you've never seen a bird before" Steven mumbled just as his brother had left.
Having noticed Eleanor's sadness Fiona soon found something to distract her as she pointed out that no one was using the ropes. Eleanor took the newly given opportunity to explore, already dashing towards them. She then grabbed hold of one of the ropes and gleefully giggled as she found herself swinging back and forth at a high distance while doing backflips in between, at quite a fast speed.
Fiona found a bench conveniently next to the trees with the ropes, softly sighing Fiona leaned back and enjoyed the view of Eleanor having fun.
Not too far away Steven had walked over to the nearest tree which gave off a peppermint scent, he then heard a small roar coming from the top of the tree. Looking up he saw a little jelly like jaguar staring at him as if it wanted to play.
Steven didn't respond as he was soon distracted from the view of his older brother, flying through the air, standing on the birds back while shouting out, "I'm Mario the invincible!" Steven facepalmed himself, shaking his head in shame.
Claudia who had wandered off further into the jungle discovered a fudge hammock hanging on on a thick branch of one of many trees, taking a moment to get on the hammock Claudia soon found herself drifting off into relaxation.
Sonya came to join her daughter a few seconds later, looking up at her before diverting her gaze onto the floor.
Claudia could only look towards her as she then heard the chocolatier calling for everyone to come back to where he was, announcing that it was time to move on.
Joseph who was still flying around on the bird suddenly felt a few stones being thrown at him, causing the bird to jump which made Joseph fall off it with a loud thud from where he landed.
"Why bro?" Joseph feebly asked, looking up at Steven when having figured out that he was behind the stone-throwing.
"It's time to leave" Steven briefly answered before dragging his brother to join the others.
"Are we all present and correct?" Charlie asked once everyone had returned, "good on we go!"
Once everyone had left the room it was up to Claudia to chose the next room. Picking a door that was behind the group, all the guests had to take a few twists and turns before reaching Claudia's chosen room.
The guests didn't have to wait long for Charlie to lead them inside, this time the room was surrounded by all different types of chewing gum neatly displayed inside various glass cabinets.
Claudia made an extra effort to act happy about her choice of room.
"Now this is my glorious gum room, there are over fifty types of chewing gum currently on display here." Charlie happily explained.
The chocolatier then went over to one of many glass cabinets and pulled out two pieces of gum, one was white and the other was a brown color.
Holding up the white gum first Charlie smiled as he said, "this is just one of many three-course meal chewing gums I make."
There was a mixture of intrigued and disgusted reactions soon after Charlie spoke.
"Why would anyone want that?" Steven sharply interrupted, glaring at Charlie as he clearly didn't share the chocolatiers enthusiasm.
"As I was saying this piece of gum is a three-course meal all by itself and it fills you up, for example, this one happens to be garlic bread, shepherd's pie, and apple crumble." Charlie carried on, ignoring the blue haired boy's question.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Eleanor cheerfully exclaimed.
Charlie smiled at her as he then held up the brown colored gum. "Or if you feeling more naughty this one contains nachos, fish and chips and chocolate gateau which gives it it's brown color."
The chocolatiers smile continued to grow when seeing the astonishment shown by Eleanor and Fiona.
All of a sudden Eleanor's attention turned to one piece of chewing gum which was in a separate small glass case with the words work in progress, DO NOT TOUCH written on it.
"Ah well, this piece of gum has been a special case of ours for quite some time," Charlie said a few moments after noticing Eleanor's curious gaze.
"What's wrong with it?" Eleanor asked, eager to know all about it.
Charlie cleared his throat. "Well, this particular chewing gum is tomato soup, roast beef and blueberry pie with ice cream, however as great as it sounds there is a major defect when it comes to the dessert, which turns whoever tries it into a ten-foot tall blueberry. And to this day we still have no idea what it is that's going wrong inside the gum nor how to fix it."
Eleanor silently nodded her head in response.
"I would let you lot explore this room, but since I cannot allow you to touch anything I think it's best we move along," Charlie said, gesturing for the guests to leave the room.
While most of the guests obeyed Charlie's instructions Eleanor remained standing inside for a few extra seconds, slowly opening the case which had the defective gum inside. Giving it a quick squeeze she found a sudden gush of blueberry juice squirt out into the palm of her hand, staring for a single second as she watched the juice trickle down all the way onto her arm. She then quickly placed it in her pocket, wiping her hand on the inside of her sleeve before running to catch up with the others.
"Now people, it would be my honor to show you a room of my choice" Charlie informed once Eleanor had joined the rest of the group, earning a mixture of excited and dull reactions.
Taking everyone's silence as a yes Charlie soon lead them to the room of his choice, again this room had no label but a few muffled noises could be heard from inside.
"Whats with all the noise dude?" Joseph asked, raising an eyebrow at the suspicious sounds.
"Brace yourself" was all Charlie said in response as he opened the door with a grin on his face.
For the first time in ages all the guest's eyes widened in awe as they were greeted to the view of many animals walking around the room, some guests even had their mouths wide open from the impact of the scene.
The guest remained silent as Charlie welcomed them into the room, now fully embracing the groups of animals who were now staring at them with friendly eyes.
"This my dear guests is the animal's room, where all the animals are edible but don't worry they won't feel a thing!" Charlie explained in a proud manner.
"Mr. Bucket how many species of animals do you have here?" Fiona asked, keen to get an answer from the chocolatier.
"Well in this room there are about thirty different kinds of animals, each with their own individual flavor" Charlie replied.
"Like what?" Steven impatiently blurted out.
Muttering something under his breath Charlie managed to bring himself to explain.
"For instance, we have the dolly mix dogs, the pineapple and pear parrots, the licorice ladybirds, the raspberry rabbits, the snozberry slime snakes-"
"A snozberry? Are you just making up flavors because your 'creativity' has finally gone past its sell-by date?" Steven bitterly questioned, imitating air quotation marks when saying the word creativity.
"I doubt that snozberries even exists" Steen muttered soon afterward.
Charlie frowned, "oh you should never doubt what nobody is sure about."
Steven raised a confused eyebrow in response to the chocolatiers weird answer.
"Oh and we mustn't forget the coffee crocodiles, the milky mice, and I should mention those cute cocoa cats!"
Eleanor's eyes lit up when hearing about the cats, instantly reminding her of Pablo and Patch back at home.
"Aww, they are so adorable!" Eleanor exclaimed happily, just about managing to stop herself from losing control and petting them without the chocolatiers permission.
Smiling to himself the chocolatier then said, "they sure are, and the best thing about them and all the other animals is that they resemble all the features of their non-candy species" Charlie explained in a relaxed tone, a little smile appearing from the corner of his lips as he watched the guests reactions.
But not all of them were positive.
Eleanor's facial expression in particular dramatically transformed from one of astonishment to one of distress.
"They're not made of real cats are they?" Eleanor shrieked, fear clearly marking her facial features.
Before Charlie got a chance to calm her down Steven decided to interrupt once again.
"Look it's obvious they have been genetically modified to look, sound and behave like cat. Animal testing wouldn't be allowed in a crummy factory like this, any thicko knows that!" Steven snapped, rolling his eyes at Eleanor's shock.
Fiona gave her niece a comforting pat on the shoulder, silently telling her to ignore Stevens's nasty words.
At this point, the chocolatier decided to step in.
"Anyway, that's enough rambling on so let's skip to the enjoying ourselves part!" Charlie exclaimed as he gestured for the guests to split up and investigate the animals.
As usual, Eleanor and her aunt were the first ones to decide where to go first as they chose to see the cocoa cats.
"Hello, little puss," Eleanor said quietly as she tried not to frighten the cat, who only a few moments later rubbed its head against Eleanor's hand, softly purring.
"I think it likes you" Fiona gently stated as the cat she was with put two paws on her legs, it's face right in hers so that Fiona could hear it purr right in her ear.
As Eleanor continued to give the cats some fuss, out of the corner of her eye she could vaguely see Sonya keeping herself as far away from the animals as possible.
Eleanor couldn't help but let out a small gasp when seeing a parrot approach Sonya, only to be angrily swatted away with her gloved hand. The parrot then flew back to the others, with a look of terror as Sonya started to fold her arms as if to hide them.
"Auntie, why does Sonya cover herself up?" Eleanor whispered, glancing over to Sonya who did not see.
"I haven't got a clue, buts it's not polite to stare" Fiona whispered back. Eleanor instantly took her eyes off of Sonya when realizing she had been staring at her.
Going back to stroking the cocoa cats she hadn't realized that she had also been watched.
Claudia's POV
As I gave the room a quick scan, the opportunity to get part three of my plan done and dusted couldn't have come quicker.
However, I must say that during these past forty minutes, I have made the sudden realization that even the nicest of people have their flaws.
You see I am usually quick to figure out the pros and cons to a person, but this is something I should have seen a mile off.
Curiosity. That one word that should have made it's way through to my mind a lot sooner. It's practically obvious who I am referring to when I say this.
Eleanor Mai, the one whose kindness and curiosity are her friends, but are also the same qualities that can become her foes when placed in the wrong hands.
An example being that I caught her staring at my mother, whispering things to her aunt about her. If she was to be the last kid standing in between me and claiming the prize I could only see it leading to disaster. It starts off with her asking more questions, figuring me out, telling the others her newfound realizations, ending with my entire plan falling apart right in front of me. Which is why I can no longer afford to keep up this friendship.
So without further ado, I manage to come up with the purrfect plan to put an end to this rather worrying theory.
First things first I had to get the full view of my next subject, who had now been left on her own as Fiona had left to visit the milky mice.
Once I got that covered I then had to yet again come up with a distraction, which is harder now there are fewer people around, meaning that I have to be extra careful not to give myself away.
As they say, there's nothing wrong with being bad, it's getting caught that does you in.
And it didn't take long for me to get the distraction I needed as Joseph Fox had somehow managed to get himself tangled up in the snozberry slime snakes. This soon caught Charlie's attention as he and most of the others (apart from Steven who looked as if he couldn't give a toss) ran up to Joseph, desperate to rescue him from the snakes as their grip became tighter each minute.
Eleanor was also about to join in with helping to save Joseph, but luckily I managed to get to her first. Gently patting her shoulder I then gestured for her to follow me into the farthest corner of the room, quickly glancing at a long wide tube. While I had no idea where it leads to, it was just the right element for my plan.
This next part I must admit was quite awkward, given the fact that my mother had purposely pushed her auntie over and I hadn't made the effort to speak to her until now.
So I start off what will hopefully be a short conversation with, "look I know I haven't been very friendly for the last half an hour or so, but I just wanted to apologize and make things right."
Eleanor smiled while giving me a look which said all was forgiven. Having successfully earned back her trust it was time for me to move on to the next step.
"But now I must tell you something very important, but you cannot discuss this with Charlie or anyone else," I said with a serious look to show that I mean it, Eleanor gave me a silent nod of agreement in response, a look of curiosity forming on her facial features.
Now it was time to turn things up a notch.
"There's no easy way to say this but when you inquired about the cats being made with real cats, I'm sad to say that Charlie lied to you." This was all I needed to earn a disturbed but questioning look from Eleanor.
Now for the big reveal.
"While I was exploring the room I heard noises coming from this tube right here," I say as I saw Eleanor starting to shake in fear of what else I had to say.
"It wasn't easy but it took a few minutes to figure out that these noises were ones that a cat makes."
I had to imitate a small meowing sound which echoed from inside the tube, I was pretty impressed with my skills.
What made it better was seeing Eleanor's distraught reaction, which almost made me grin with delight, but now wasn't the appropriate time.
She hesitated before finally speaking. "C-Claudia do you think... T-that they k-kill those cats…?
I shrug before replying with, "who can say" in the most sorrowful voice I could manage.
Eleanor then looked as if she was about to scream and cry at the same time, as she gasped in horror of what I had just told her.
"Just take a few deep breathes," I tell her, and luckily for me, she did as I told her. Besides I can't have the whole room knowing about our 'discovery'.
"Do you think we could do something to save them?" I hear Eleanor squeak out, even though I could tell she was still in the process of absorbing all the horrifying information.
"I don't see why not," I said in agreement. (I know it seems foolish but it all makes sense in the end.)
"But the question is how can we do it?" Eleanor asks quietly, looking at me for an urgent answer.
"Well, we have to come up with a plan and quickly otherwise..." I didn't need to say anymore as Eleanor had already begun plotting something in her head, a few moments later she was bursting to get her idea into action.
But little did she know I had my own.
So as I let her explain her plan I tried to see how it could work along with mine. Once Eleanor had finished telling me I decided to give her some constructive feedback.
"We need to be more clever than that, I mean if someone sees us we will both be questioned and that wouldn't look good. Was all I said which Eleanor understood.
So I then say, "instead of why don't we be a bit more technical about it." Eleanor didn't seem to get what I meant, but she soon would…
To be on the safe side, I take another look around to see the others still struggling to get the snakes to loosen their grips on Joseph.
Now that I'm certain no one was watching it was time for the grand finale.
"We need to go down one at a time" I whisper. And before Eleanor could question my motives I then add, "maybe it's best if you go first, besides you hold a lot more knowledge of cats than I do.
"Yeah" Eleanor agreed quietly as she began to prepare herself to save the 'cats'.
I too was preparing for a big moment, her big moment.
But as usual, it has to take longer than I intended as Eleanor suddenly tells me she has doubts.
All I said in the most remorseful voice I could manage was, "Eleanor those animals right now are pleading for someone to save them after all, those innocent animals are unable to speak out from abuse, but we can speak for them."
Now that smashed anymore doubts out of Eleanor's mind.
Just as she was about to go down on her own accord she stopped for the second time before saying her glasses needed cleaning. So by this time I usually would have lost my temper, but now I think about it why waste a perfect opportunity to speed things up a bit.
All of a sudden I accidently bump into Eleanor as she was trying to spot where the speck of dirt was, instantly knocking her glasses onto the floor near my foot. Soon afterward she was scrambling around for them, unaware of me bending down to get them.
"Don't worry I got them," I say before kicking them as far away as my leg would let me, luckily they weren't in viewing distance.
"Let's go over here," I tell Eleanor, taking her arm and leading her closer to the tube.
"My- my glasses" she wearily states, still fumbling for them even though they were nowhere near her.
"Let me clean them for you" I kindly offer as I look to my right to make sure no one was secretly witnessing what I was about to do.
As her feet got that little bit closer to the edge, she began to get suspicious of whether I did have her glasses or not.
And then the moment I had been longing for finally came!
My last words towards that girl were "I'll see you at the bottom" before I happily pushed her down the tube, making no effort to hide an amused grin as I watched her stumble into the tube, helplessly sliding down to her destiny.
I then made a dash for it when Eleanor started screaming ,until she could no longer be heard.
Just as I had managed to rush over to the Dolly mix dogs, the terrified shouting from Fiona suddenly filled the atmosphere as she frantically called for her soon after hearing her nieces screams.
"Eleanor, Eleanor Mai where are you, my dear?!" Fiona continued to shout, getting more panicked by the second. Soon enough Charlie and the Fox brothers were also calling her name, hoping that she would respond.
I decided that now was the time to find Eleanor's glasses and place them at the scene of the crime.
I had to run pretty quickly to be able to pull this off, which I managed to do. Seems like running can be a benefit in the long run.
After a few more calls for Eleanor, I made my way towards the chocolatier, silently pointing towards the entrance to the tube where her glasses had been messily placed.
Once everyone had gathered around the same spot as me, the only words that came out from my mouth were, "I think I've found the rather unpleasant answer to your calls."
For a pure minute, the whole room had been silent. That was until Steven dared to break it.
"Looks like she took quite the stumble towards the deep end there" Steven commented, giving me a weird look.
"That's a long way down dude" Joseph added, not helping the situation whatsoever.
"But I don't understand, why she would want to go down there" Fiona whispered, shock clear in her tone of voice that took Stevens gaze right off me.
"I - I honestly don't know what to say at this point" Charlie whispered to himself, me being the only one able to hear him.
Fiona did look at me for a split second before turning to Charlie, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Mr. Bucket, please tell me where that tube goes" Fiona cried.
Charlie sadly sighed as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That tube goes directly to the old sneezes and smells room, I shall send two of the Oompa Loompas down there immediately to rescue her."
Charlies announcement was soon recognized with respect as the two Oompa Loompas emerged into the room, instantly getting to work on their quest to retrieve Eleanor.
"Maybe I should come too" Fiona offered in a slightly more stable voice than before. She then received a tug at her floral skirt, not that she needed one as an Oompa Loompa carefully placed her into a seated position.
"Are you certain my niece will be alright?" Fiona asked, her arms heavily shaking from the impact of the sudden turn of events.
"You have my word that she will be completely unharmed," Charlie reassured with a small smile before Fiona and the two Oompa Loompas disappeared down the tube.
Charlie was left with a sad stricken facial expression for a few seconds, it almost made me feel bad.
He soon snapped out of it when realizing that me and Steven were the only kids left, as well as our chosen guardians.
"Come one, we still have lots to see," Charlie said in a happier tone, but I could tell it was forced.
As our group of four were being led towards what looked like a dead end. I turned to look back at the crime scene one last time, until one of the dolly mix dogs quietly growled as I left the room.
I glared at it before returning my focus on what was ahead of me.
Although I'm proud that I had once again managed to pull off another stage of my plan, an unusual twisting sensation began to form inside my stomach as I'm now one step closer to achieving my main priority.
Eleanor may not have been demanding, self-centered or unbearably harsh, but not even her unlimited amount of kindness and good will could help her.
As for her curiosity, that certainly didn't do her any favors.
Because as they say, curiosity killed the cat.
Now you may rest!
Do you ever just have that one chapter you don't feel 100% proud of? Well, this is the one for me because I have a fussy brain! But I hope you lot enjoyed this chapter.
Oh and thanks again for all your lovely reviews as they help me out a lot :)