Review response time!
Dragonserpent18- I know you have been looking forward to this chapter for a while, so enjoy!
MattThewriter072- Aww I'm glad you like the Lovey dovey licorice, I wish you luck for the future!
JOHNHAMMOND1993-The answer to one part of your review is within this chapter!
Softkitty55- Well I like to keep my readers on their toes! I hope this chapter gets your approval as the story is far from over :)
Girlpower54- You shall find out what happens right here, right now!
Sonny April- I'm glad you liked to see Steven finally go. I do hope you enjoy this chapter!
"We're too late" an Oompa Loompa sadly stated as they approached the room Charlie and the Smith family had just left.
Eleanor and Fiona sighed as they too were disappointed in what they had just witnessed.
Eleanor then looked up at her aunt with a questioning look. "Will Steven be okay?"
"Only time will tell Miss Mai" the other Oompa Loompa responded in the same sad tone of voice.
"Where are they taking him?" Fiona inquired just as she noticed two other Oompa Loompas, plus Steven's brother traveling inside a glass elevator.
"I assume they are going to the reversing room, however, I'm not sure they will get there in time." The same Oompa Loompa said, concern expressed in his voice.
At that very moment, a long deafening silence began to fill the atmosphere, as no one knew what to do or say about the current situation.
Until Eleanor's lips formed a smile as if she had come up with a plan.
"Can we go to the inventing room?" was Eleanor's sudden question that instantly put an end to the long silence.
The Oompa Loompa standing closest to her gave her an odd look. "What makes you inquire about this?"
Eleanor gave him a beam as she explained her motives. "So even though you may be able to fix some of the aftermaths of each child's incidents, I thought I could help fix the rest. If that's okay with you of course?"
The two Oompa Loompas took a few seconds to talk it through before coming up with a decision.
"We have come to the decision that we shall let you go along with your plan, but we must know what you want to accomplish out of this." An Oompa Loompa said, turning to look at Eleanor as he spoke.
Eleanor then lets out a proud smile as she explained herself.
"Well…"
Claudia carefully eyed up the glass elevator as she and Sonya stepped inside soon after Charlie.
No one spoke throughout their entire time traveling in the elevator, not even when Charlie pressed a button which Claudia wasn't able to catch a glimpse of.
The elevator suddenly shot upwards at a very fast pace, nearly causing Sonya to collapse on the floor due to the impact of the speed.
It wasn't until the elevator finally stopped that Claudia asked the chocolatier where she and her mother were being taken. However, her question was answered by silence as Charlie lead them into a room labeled, The projection room, in bold silver letters.
As Claudia and her mother walked into the room all that was there for their eyes to see what a huge white screen, with a projector placed on the pure white ceiling. There was only one Oompa Loompa in the room, sat in a white chair with a controller in his left hand.
"Charlie, why are we in here?" Claudia said after having looked around for a few more seconds.
Charlie turned around to face her before answering her question. "Well, if you look at the screen you shall see for yourself."
Immediately after saying that the room suddenly went pitch black before the projector suddenly displayed a dark blue background with the words, CONGRATULATIONS ON BECOMING THE NEW HEIR OF THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY! In capital letters in a golden color. This was soon followed by multiple fireworks appearing on the screen, each firework displaying a letter of Claudia's name going by the order of the rainbow until it spelled out her full name, also in capital letters.
Claudia smiled during the entire presentation.
"Now," Charlie said. "There is only one thing I have left to do before you can officially become the heir to the chocolate factory."
Claudia gleefully looked up at her mother who elbowed her as if to silently say, you did it, my girl!
"Claudia Smith, I must get you to sign these papers which basically says that you have to promise till the day of your departure that you shall not betray, or do anything to violate the contract. And that you agree to the terms and conditions of course."
"Oh yes," Claudia said with a smile, with a gleam in her brown eyes.
"If you and your mother wish to sign here and then everything will be sorted," Charlie said.
As Claudia and Sonya reached out towards the pen that they were to sign the papers with, the pen suddenly flew out from Claudia's grasp just as she was about to write her signature.
Before Claudia or Sonya could pick it up Charlie beat them to it.
"Oh, I do apologize, please, do sign the form, " Charlie said as he passed the pen back to Claudia who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Alright then" was all she said before returning to sign the form. However, the pen decided to fly out of her hand again, just as she was about to sign the form just like before. Only this time Claudia began to get annoyed while Sonya folded her arms in frustration.
Charlie then went to pick up the pen, but this time his facial expression had more of a serious edge to it.
"Oh goodness me I really don't know why this keeps happening. Why don't you just write your name just here, after all, it would be my absolute pleasure to work with someone such as yourself." Charlie said in a voice that created an uncomfortable feeling in Claudia's stomach.
Just as Claudia was about to grab the pen out of the chocolatiers hand, she was suddenly the victim of a surprise as he snapped his hand shut so she couldn't get her hands on the pen.
"Mr. Bucket, don't you want me to be your-"
Claudia was then cut off mid sentence.
"Of course, I would be delighted to have you as my heir..." Charlie said as he eyes seemed to go darker.
" If I was a complete idiot!" he suddenly roared, making Claudia and Sonya jump in shock.
He then snatched the form from the desk and forcefully scrunched it up into a little ball, before throwing it into the bin which swallowed it up.
"Did you actually think I would let someone who is as sly, manipulative, deceitful and nasty such as yourself!"
Claudia frowned at the chocolatier. "I don't know what's got that into your head, but you have no right to insult me with such harshly spoken words," Claudia said, trying to defend herself.
Charlie chuckled. "Oh don't I?" This was all Charlie said just as the room went pitch black for a second time before several camera screens appeared on the much bigger one. All showing a footage of each room that Claudia and her mother had visited at different stages of the tour.
"You see this room is designed for me to look at any room I need to, particularly when something goes wrong with any of the candies, the machines that make them or if an Oompa Loompa gets injured," Charlie said, turning to look at Claudia and Sonya who looked as if they had seen a ghost.
"However, that's not the only use this room has to offer," Charlie added.
He then told the Oompa Loompa to click on one of them smaller screens labeled camera 1. This screen showed the footage of Claudia in the chocolate room, breaking the fences that were protecting the sticky toffee puddles from anyone's presence.
Claudia took a step back from the chocolatier and the projector screen. "What is this, some freakout?" she questioned seconds later.
"Oh, I think you know" Charlie replied just as another footage was showing Claudia picking up some of the goo that she had thrown at Mandy, which lead to the fight between her and Steven.
"Mandy's accident was certainly no accident was it?" Was all Charlie had to say to get a response out of Claudia.
"Anybody could have put me on that footage to make me look bad."
Charlie shook his head at Claudia's reply. "Oh but the fun doesn't stop there!"
The screen then goes onto showing another footage, but this time in the inventing room where a figure could be seen running out of the testing room holding something. The Oompa Loompa in charge on the controller then zoomed into to reveal the figure was Claudia with the fizzy lifting drink tucked under her arm.
Charlie turned to look at the glaring girl. "I specifically remember telling everyone not to enter that room, but it didn't seem to stop you from getting your grubby hands on it to trick poor Fernando into drinking it."
Claudia groaned as Charlie then got the Oompa Loompa to bring up the footage of her and Eleanor standing near the tube that she had pushed Eleanor down.
"Now this was truly disturbing for me to witness, " Charlie said as he looked down at the floor for a moment. He then focused his attention back onto the huge screen in front of him.
Last but not least the footage of when the group had gotten stuck in the room Charlie hadn't planned on taking the guests came up on the screen. This particular video was aimed at when Claudia had been talking to Joseph at what the transformation tablet could do.
"Even though you didn't do much here, you still messed with Joseph's head while knowing how easily influenced he is. Plus you wanted Steven gone just as you wanted for the others."
Claudia huffed as she gave up with trying to defend herself.
Charlie then approached Claudia and Sonya while saying, "so you thought you could cheat your way through to victory? I'm not a stupid man Claudia, I know when something's not right with the factory. I've been working here for over forty years!"
But before Claudia could even think of what to say Charlie then walked up to Sonya, he wore a facial expression that seemed to be analyzing her.
"What are you staring at?" Claudia asked with a hint of fear in her voice, just as Sonya had taken a few steps back from the chocolatiers questioning gaze.
Charlie frowned. "Why do you look so familiar?" The chocolatier questioned, completely ignoring Claudia's as he maintained his attention to Sonya, not taking his eyes off her at any moment during this time. Sonya took a couple of steps away from him as if she felt trapped in his presence.
"Stop it you're scaring her!" Claudia exclaimed as Charlie continued to stare at her mother, who whimpered and took another couple of steps backwards while holding Claudia's hand.
Instead of responding Charlie then turned towards the Oompa Loompa, requesting him to show a footage of when Sonya had nearly fallen over in the inventing room. He looks at one moment, in particular, the moment where Sonya's leg had stretched at a longer length than an average person could.
That was when it suddenly dawned on Charlie.
"Wait, are you-"
Unfortunately, before Charlie could get his sentence out there, Sonya had made her escape from the projection room, stumbling as she ran across the corridor. The fact she wore black high heels did her no favors when it came to the running part.
That was until Sonya angrily yanked them off her feet before chucking them at Charlie, one landing on his left foot as it flew across the corridor while the other one smacked him straight in the face. Causing him to tumble over onto the floor, but he was soon able to get back up on his feet and chase after her.
"Mom come back!" Claudia shouted as she picked up the shoes that her mother had not so long ago thrown at the chocolatier.
Although she was aware of her daughter's frantic calls, Sonya decided to keep on running but at a faster pace because her high heels were no longer slowing her down.
After having been running for what felt like a lifetime, Sonya quickly glanced at a door that said, Nut sorting room, in bright pink letters. Breathing heavily from a mixture of exhaustion and fear Sonya dashed inside to see a room full of squirrels tapping nuts that popped out in front of them at an impressive speed.
Looking around she saw that a large majority of the nuts they tapped were placed next to them before being sent off ready to use, while a very limited number of them were tossed onto the floor where they rolled onto the floor before disappearing down a hole.
"Mom!" Claudia shouted just as she had reached the entrance to the nut-sorting room, with Charlie following closely behind her. Suddenly Sonya heard the door burst open as she saw her daughter and the chocolatier try to stop her from going any further.
What they didn't expect was for her to jump over the gate she had been holding onto to catch her breath after all the running.
"Mom!" Claudia shouted again, moving towards the gate herself in attempt to get her to come back.
Sonya who had made it clear that she wasn't going back towards the chocolatier or Claudia, it was time for Charlie to speak up.
"Sonya, the squirrels don't like being disturbed during their work. I strongly advise you to get away from them!" Charlie warned.
Despite Charlie's warning, Sonya made no effort to move away, instead, she did the opposite and walked further back causing the all the squirrels to turn and stare at her.
"Mom please, they could be dangerous!" Claudia shouted with concern. Now desperate for her mother to be back by her side.
Again Sonya refused to move a single step towards her daughter or the chocolatier.
"Please, I beg you, get away from them before they attack!" Charlie called out. Once Sonya heard the word attack, she slowly walked back to where Claudia and Charlie were standing behind the gate.
But as she was making her way towards them she was greeted to a shock as one of the squirrels made a noise, causing Sonya to jump and hit the nut it had been in the process of tapping.
Then at that moment the same squirrel made a louder noise before the whole gang of them suddenly pounced onto Sonya. At first, Sonya was able to push them away from her without any problems, but soon enough the gang of squirrels became stronger as a group which meant that Sonya began to struggle to fight them off.
But that wasn't all she needed to worry about as she soon found herself trapped by the gang of squirrels, who wasted no time in continuing their attack. Ending up with Sonya being pushed to the floor with a loud thud.
Claudia gasped as she saw her mother being aggressively pinned to the floor, on the other hand, Charlie looked anything but shocked as if he had wanted this to happen.
"Get off me you vile vermin!" Sonya wailed as some of the squirrels began to investigate her by clawing at her gloved hands, her feet along with the rest of her body, while the others held her down so she unable to move.
Having had enough of seeing her mother being more or less tortured by the little rodents, Claudia snapped her head round to glare at the chocolatier.
"Don't just stand there, help her!" Claudia yelled, her glare only becoming deeper when Charlie didn't make a move.
Claudia looked as if she wanted to punch the chocolatier. Those thoughts were swiped from her mind when she and Charlie both noticed the squirrels had stopped investigating Sonya. And instead of the squirrels testing to see if Sonya was a bad nut, they simply just stood there as if they knew something Charlie didn't. Claudia was unsure whether to be concerned or grateful.
Her thoughts were then cut short as the squirrel which Claudia assumed was the boss of the gang jumped on top of Sonya's chest, making an alarming low squeaking noise. Claudia could only stare as she along with her mother were clueless as to what that noise could have meant.
But it was only a few moments later that Sonya was abruptly exposed to something more shocking, as the squirrel that had previously jumped onto her chest started to look at certain parts of her. After some kind of signal was made, the same squirrel along with a few others began to suddenly tug at the gloves on her hands, her jet black hair, and sunglasses.
Claudia could only stare at the chocolatier before deciding if he wasn't going to save her mother from the savage squirrels, she would do so herself. However, by the time she had yanked the gate open and ran halfway down the stairs, the squirrels had managed to rip the gloves off of Sonya's hands.
"No, no no!" Sonya pleaded moments before the squirrel that had been on her chest for the entire procedure viciously pulled at Sonya's supposedly jet black hair. Only to find that black hair was in fact a wig, as it was tossed onto the floor, revealing her face to be an interesting shade of blue, just like her hands.
Claudia clamped a hand over her mouth as if she was about to vomit.
Seconds later Charlie put up a hand before shouting out, "stop, get back to your stations!" Which instantly got the squirrels to let go of Claudia's mother, who was heavily breathing from the disturbing events that she had just gone through.
Claudia then rushed down the steps to help her mother get back up on her feet as if to cover up what had just happened. But before either she or her mother could say anything, Charlie approached the two girls with a stern look, his arms folded across his chest.
"I recognize an old face when I see one" was all Charlie had to say which didn't earn him any kind of response.
"So, after many years we meet again." Charlie continued. "Unfortunately for the wrong reasons."
The two girls could only stare at Charlie as he carried on talking.
"As nice as it's been to see you again, I must insist that you and Claudia should-"
The chocolatier was then unexpectedly cut off from his sentence as Claudia walked up to him, with a smirk on her face.
"Look, my name's not Claudia Smith, it's Samantha."
Samantha Beauregarde.
That's another chapter complete, there are about nine more to go so stay tuned :D
To keep you lot busy what do you think will happen in the next chapter?
Anyway that's all from me for now, I do hope this chapter satisfies you all :)