Just to note that for some reason reviews don't seem to be showing up, so please don't be put off to leave one it just means that I will be a bit late reading them. I thought I should let you know, anyway over to the review responses.
JOHNHAMMOND1993- Sorry about misspelling your name, I was tired when writing the review responses last time. I'm glad you liked Fernando and Bryant making up and you shall now see if Mandy learns her lesson or not.
Softkitty55- I think many people are happy to see the changes made to Bryant, and you will find out whether Judy and Mandy learn their lesson.
Sonny April- I'm glad you took an interest in the anti-bully blobs and all I'm going to say in regard to your theory that Steven may be a victim of bullying that chapter 20 will give you an answer.
MattTheWriter072- Ok I'm a little confused as to why you think Fernando could be like the salts, or it may just be me being dumb. However, you're not the only one to like the anti-bully blobs and they MIGHT make an appearance in the next chapter.
Let's get reading peeps :D
"Mother!" Mandy screamed for the second time, her screams earning her nothing in response.
Within an earshot, Mandy could hear the other guests whispered concerns behind her.
"Where did she go?"
"Will she survive?"
"Oh, I hope she doesn't get hurt!"
As she listened to each and every one of them a stomach wrenching feeling suddenly made itself known, causing discomfort for the little blonde girl.
Without warning Mandy suddenly charged towards the ladder, only to find herself being pushed back when placing a hand on the side rails.
"Don't, it's too dangerous!" Charlie warned, giving her a serious glare. A glare she wasn't used to receiving.
"Come on sweetie" Fiona encouraged, gently pulling Mandy away from the ladder. The blonde girl looked up at her then Charlie, her facial expression the portrait of fear.
Just then an Oompa Loompa walked up to the chocolatier, who bent down until the Oompa Loompa was able to whisper something in his ear, pointing his finger to his right. The group watched with bated breath as the suspense got to them.
All of a sudden Charlie rushed over to where the Oompa Loompa had been pointing towards, the guests soon followed him to discover the dreadful scene in front of them.
Pushing her way past the terrified guests Mandy's eyes widened in horror at what she saw. Unable to say a word, Mandy, along with the others helplessly watched as Judy was seen hanging onto the edge of the platform, shouting for help while the hamsters scratched at her hands so she would let go and fall into the crusher beneath her. The clanking noises the crusher made didn't help the situation whatsoever.
"Somebody help me, please!" Judy pitifully begged, keeping her eyes squeezed shut, unable to even dare to look down.
"We need to help her!" Eleanor exclaimed, looking towards her auntie in fear.
"She will be crushed into smithereens," Steven chortled soon afterward, grinning at the very thought of it. In return he received a handful of unamused glares, some even shook their heads in disgust.
"Don't you ever know when to stop!" Violet snapped, in response, Steven grunted accompanied by an eye roll.
"Well don't just stand there, do something!" Mandy shouted over the arguing, her blue eyes as cold as winter when glaring at the group before focusing on Charlie, who was discussing something with a rather large group of Oompa Loompas.
Mandy was about to yell at him to actually do something when she heard distant talking coming from her left. It wasn't long before the culprit was exposed.
"Bit late to care isn't it" Samantha grumbled, instantly gaining Mandy's expected attention.
"What do you mean by that!" Mandy spat, slowly walking up to Samantha with a fierce facial expression.
"Oh let me see" Samantha sarcastically began. "Mother I want this, mother I want that. No, not that one, it's not good enough for a prissy princess like me!" Samantha's imitations of the smaller blonde girl only angered her more.
"How dare you, nobody within the likes of you should talk to someone as important as me in such a disrespectful way!" Mandy scolded, the younger Beauregarde laughed at her expense.
"And that's exactly your downfall," Samantha replied, who had unintentionally caught the attention of one of the Oompa Loompas within the large group.
Mandy tilted her head in confusion before growling out of anger. "If you are somehow attempting to lower my expectations for someone who's practically a peasant under my foot, you are mistaken!"
The rest of the group could only listen in to the mini argument, despite a couple of the adults trying to break it up. Both times proved to be unsuccessful as the two girls rebelled against their attempts.
"Ok, if I'm such a peasant then why are you wasting your so called importance on me? Yeah, very logical" Samantha sneered.
In response, Mandy took a couple of steps closer towards the jet black haired girl with a dark scowl. "You will regret insulting me you pathetic little worm!"
"Oh I'm sorry, did I offend you by telling you the truth about yourse-" Samantha was suddenly cut off mid sentence as all the lights went off, leaving the room pitch black. After having to adjust to the new setting, it was the sight of the crusher that stood out from the rest, which seemed to have gained volume within the past minute.
While trying her absolute best to ignore the ear-grating noise of the metal bars inside the crusher smacking against each other, Mandy looked over to where her mother was still holding on to the edge, hoping for the slightest chance she would be able to rescue herself.
However, her hopes soon began to wear thinner than before when the devastating sight of what she was holding onto began to disintegrate. To add to the unpleasant situation, pieces from the edge of the platform that did crumble off descended into the jaws of the crusher, making Judy cower in fright.
"Please, someone help me. I don't know how much longer I can hold on for!" Judy exclaimed in a panicked voice, sending alarming chills down her daughter's spine. "Ow!" she yelped seconds later as the hamsters who had appeared to stop with their attacks returned at full force, making it crucial for her to keep her grip on what little remained of the edge of the platform.
During the time Judy spent shouting for help, the chocolatier and the Oompa Loompas had appeared to have put their discussion to a close. Mandy wasted no time in stomping over to them, demanding for them to save her mother along with the hamster she still craved to have.
You'd have thought throughout this drama she would toss away all thoughts of getting what she wanted in order to help her mother, Samantha thought to herself, wincing slightly if it had been her mother instead of Judy.
Taking a look around the room Samantha soon found herself to not be the only one having doubts. Standing right in the middle of all the action since the reveal of Judy's possible fate, Eleanor and Fernando was engaging in their own conversation in between their guardians.
"Why aren't they helping her?" Fernando whispered to Eleanor who hushed him when noticing something in the distance.
"Look over there," Eleanor said, nudging Fernando's shoulder to get him to look in the same direction. "Someone's moving" she added, Fernando, nodded in agreement, proving her to be correct.
Suddenly the sound of faint drumming, along with a shrill whistling sound echoing across the whole room signaling the hamsters to get back to their stations distracted everyone from what they were focused on. As the drumming became louder by each beat, four Oompa Loompas them made their way to stand in front of Judy who was still clinging onto the edge. The rest then gathered around Mandy with a bright spotlight shining on her, causing her to whimper just as they burst into an English style rock song.
The mean little urchin, Mandy Perkins,
is always searchin' for something lurkin'
Once she sees it, she demands it now!
And she just simply doesn't care how.
She would do anything for something nice
But in the end, was it really worth the price?
Especially with her mother's life
Quite literally under the knife.
Can't you see the reflection in the mirror?
If not, I can quickly make this clearer:
You are yourself, but with greedy, evil eyes
It doesn't take much for the viciousness to rise.
You demand for things that are fancy and fine,
but all that luster will lose all its shine.
You throw a tantrum when things don't go your way
So here is a message that's here to stay:
Your mother will never be your slave
So we hope you learn to behave
or else the end of your happiness will draw near
and that smile on your face will soon disappear.
At one point in the middle of the song two Oompa Loompas had brought out a mirror in front of Mandy, which displayed her reflection but in a demon form with evil red eyes. Mandy cringed at the sight of it.
Once the song came to an end and the lights had coincidentally come back on, Judy felt the edge of the platform she was holding onto finally snap. Screaming as she fell she was soon caught by the same large group of Oompa Loompas, who held out their hands to break her fall.
"No!" Judy yelled before realizing that she was in fact in the arms of many Oompa Loompas. As her eyes widened in a mixture of shock and relief she was soon lowered onto her feet.
"I'm never doing anything like that again!" Judy bellowed as she was brought back to safety. Her voice shaky, and her body trembling violently while being lead by Fiona and Charlie to sit by the wall to calm herself down.
"Oh, my days" Judy whimpered, wobbling slightly when taking her time to sit down.
As she was handed a drink from next door the guests let out sighs of relief from the fact that Judy was now safe and sound. They then went into mini conversations as they waited for the chocolatier to tell them where they would be going next.
However, unlike the rest of the gang, Mandy was unbelievably stunned into silence, having not said a word since the beginning of her song.
Judy, on the other hand, had plenty more to say.
"I could have been crushed into ashes!" Judy shouted, tears glistening within the inside of her glossy eyes. She tried to speak again, but nothing apart from a squeak could be heard from her lips.
"Hey," Fiona said in her naturally soothing voice, "it's alright now, you just calm down love."
Judy gave her the tiniest sad smile in return, which Fiona took as a silent thank you. Fiona then sat beside Judy, giving her comforting rubs on her shoulder that seemed to relax her despite, the occasional snuffle.
Watching how her auntie was reassuring Judy, Eleanor then turned to glance at Mandy who shared the same look as a puppy that had just received a hard kick. Deciding to focus on her for a moment longer, she could instantly spot a remorseful look creep up on her facial features.
Walking up to the unusually silent girl, Eleanor gently touched her shoulder as if to say you know what you need to do. That was all she needed to encourage Mandy who soundlessly looked up at her before brushing past Eleanor towards the still shaky figure of Judy Perkins.
"Mother?" Mandy asked quietly while timidly walking up to her mother, her voice barely above a whisper. Judy slowly looked up at her distraught looking daughter, sighing softly when bowing her head back down.
"I'm sorry" she mumbled, her attempts at holding back the pool of tears desperate to roll down her cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Mandy.
For a few seconds, Mandy could only gawp at her mother before saying something that took the others by surprise. "No, I- I' should be the one a-apologising" she stammered, high levels of emotion clear in her voice.
Mandy then did the same thing Fiona had minus the comforting rubs. The greed that had once occupied her eyes vanished, having now been replaced with the sorrow from the harsh reality of her actions.
Struggling to look at her daughter all Judy could do was bit her nails anxiously, taking deep breaths as she tried to find the right moment to speak. Mandy was more or less in the same position, that was until she decided to be the one to break the awfully painful silence between them.
"Mummy, I don't like seeing you upset" Mandy admitted before quietly adding, "please talk to me." Judy didn't say a word, instead, she continued to stare at her hands as if she had no clue what was going on.
Realizing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere Fiona decided to step in with a few words of her own. "Judy, I have wanted to ask you this for a while, is there a reason you spoil your daughter the way you do?"
Within seconds of asking Judy's head snapped up to look at Fiona then her daughter before sighing in despair as she prepared to explain herself. "I- I'm not like most parents" was all she could say without feeling the strong urge to burst into tears.
"How?" Fiona softly asked, gently encouraging the older woman to let out whatever she was wanting to hold in.
"Well look at me, I'm barely the youngster I was many years ago. I was forty years old when I had Mandy after many failed attempts, and even then as a baby, I struggled to meet her needs. For instance, when she had just started crawling, I couldn't crawl around the room with her like any other parent would because I would experience back pains and get tired easily."
Judy cleared her throat before carrying on. "It didn't get any easier as she got older. I remember this one time I took Mandy to the park and there was another young girl who was playing with her mother, she must have been in her early twenties. Because I wasn't able to run around with her for too long, I just sat on the bench and watched Mandy happily play by herself. However, the mother of the other child soon noticed me not playing with her and stated that I should be interacting with her instead of using my age as an excuse to be lazy."
Mandy gasped at the impact of what her mother was revealing, but there was more to come.
"That wasn't all she said. She also told me that if my old age was holding me back I should give Mandy to someone who was younger and more able to look after her!" Judy's eyes filled with tears for the second time, a sight her daughter couldn't bear looking at. "That memory left me with a type pain that no back ache could ever square up against. It was also that very moment where I made it my mission to give my Mandy what she deserved, but in alternative ways."
Fiona and Eleanor both gave Judy a look of sympathy, while the other guests showed some understanding of where she was coming from. Even Samantha's facial features softened when listening to Judy's story.
"But now at the age of fifty, I find myself nearly unable to even do that anymore." This was the last thing Judy had to say to earn a rather unexpected reaction from her daughter
"I don't need you to buy me loads of expensive things!" Mandy protested, shocking the others who were listening in on them. "I just want us to be a happy family not matter what people think."
Looking up at her with some sadness still noticeable in her eyes she managed to whisper out a fearful sentence of, "is that what you truly want?"
Mandy silently nodded, lightly leaning her head against Judy's shoulder as she snuggled into her embrace. Judy then wrapped her arm around her daughter, to fill in for the unspoken words that weren't needed.
During the whole time, Charlie and the Oompa Loompas had spent watching the Perkins they both shared an accomplished smile, before coming to the decision that it was time to move on.
"Right people I think we've stayed here long enough so let's get moving!" Charlie announced, gesturing for the guests to follow him to the door. Once everyone including Fiona and Eleanor who helped the Perkins up from where they had been previously sat gather round the chocolatier and the Oompa Loompa standing next to him, Charlie proceeded to lead them out the room and along a corridor.
During their walk, Mandy couldn't help but look behind to where Eleanor and Fiona were happily talking to each other. Then almost instantly her mother caught sight of her daughter gazing at the Mais. "Go talk to them, I don't mind," Judy said, earning herself a thank you as she watched Mandy rush off towards the Mais.
"Hey" Mandy greeted when tapping Eleanor's shoulder. "I just wanted to say thanks for earlier, and I owe you an apology for all the times I've been rude to you today."
Eleanor gave the smaller blonde girl a thankful look. "Apology accepted " was her simple reply, leaving Mandy with a sense of relief.
Their conversation temporally came to a halt when Charlie wanted that the area they were about to walk through was one of the coldest parts of the factory. Seconds afterwards they had indeed entered the cool area, it was then Mandy noticed Eleanor shiver slightly that put a thought into her head.
"You must be cold in that cardigan" Mandy stated, "why don't you borrow my coat?"
Eleanor who seemed quite surprised at Mandy's suggestion could only shiver more as she tried to find the words to decline her offer. But Mandy had practically made the decision for her as she voluntarily took off her coat and waited for Eleanor to take it.
"You can wear it for the rest of the tour if you like?" Mandy offered, placing her coat into Eleanor's hand who politely accepted it.
"Thank you" Eleanor replied, noticing Mandy's smile growing wider when putting on the tiger skin coat around herself. Shortly afterwards Mandy skipped off to catch up with her mother.
Samantha who had gone unnoticed by the other two girls let out a warm smile of her own when seeing the obvious difference Eleanor had helped make to the formerly bratty girl. Another reason how she was the perfect person to be Charlie's heir.
While most of the group continued to talk amongst themselves Charlie and an Oompa Loompa were in a conversation of their own. "Another job well done?" the Oompa Loompa questioned.
The chocolatier took a glance at the Perkins, a pleased look spreading across his facial features when nodding with agreement. However, their feelings of achievement were soon put behind them when Steven could be heard mumbling various insults mostly to do with how he wouldn't fall victim for their pathetic tricks.
Charlie and the Oompa Loompa turned to look at each other as if to say, we still do have challenges ahead of us.
Five more chapters to go people!
Once again you can thank Dragonserpent18 for helping me with the song lyrics!
What are your thoughts on this chapter?