Chapter 27: A Past Unearthed
Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I'm so very sorry that it took me so long to publish this chapter! I had tons of personal struggles overwhelming me which prevented me from writing. But despite everything attempting to strangle me, I will not let it all stop me from producing quality content for you all to enjoy. And now, with that out of the way, let me respond to the lovely reviews that you left in my absence. :)
Softkitty55, I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter despite its short length! This one is much longer, so I hope it'll be worth it as well. I'm so happy that the Licorice Rainforest is how you imagined it, and, of course, it'll be expanded upon in this one. As for whether or not Tyler and Kitsune will be eliminated in this chapter, read on!
Matt, I'm so happy the last update made your day! I tried really hard in order to make Tyler worse than his original version so that his potential demise will be even more satisfying, so I'm glad you thought I succeeded! As for the word choice you pointed out, it only occurred to me after you mentioned it that I used that word in the wrong context, but I decided to keep it since it's so dang funny. XD
emeraldphan, yup, the next elimination is coming soon! As for why Tyler and Kitsune haven't been kicked off the tour yet, Mr. Wonka and Charlie certainly have a lot of patience, don't they? I'm really pleased that you like how much I've added to the factory, so I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well, because as I said to Softkitty55, it'll expand even more upon the Licorice Rainforest! Enjoy!
Guest #1, wow, you really hate Tyler! As for whether or not that'll actually happen to him, stay tuned!
Guest #2, in an early draft of the story, the song was supposed to be extended. It was going to hint towards some of the other rooms in the factory, but I eventually decided against that, because I didn't want to give everything away. So, I changed James' singing to being distorted, and I really like your explanation of Jenna being so absorbed in her surroundings that his singing became unintelligible.
Guest #3, what an interesting food choice. I wonder where Tyler could possibly get the necessary food supplies from.
clooooooown1, what a great idea! Whether or not that will actually happen, read on!
Guest #4 and 5, hmmm, I'll consider those suggestions.
And now, with all the reviews responded to, enjoy Chapter 27, everyone!
While Tyler and Kitsune ran away to hide in the jungle and come up with a plan, the rest of the group was attempting to grasp what had just happened.
"What a brat!" Mr. Davidson exclaimed, trying to rub the pepper spray out of his eyes. "He's worse than Mindy!"
"I heard that!" Mindy Bell snapped.
As the group was struggling to look around, they saw that Daniel Sparkman wasn't rubbing his eyes, but Mr. Sparkman was.
"Why are you not rubbing your eyes like the rest of us?" Charlie Bucket asked curiously. "Aren't they hurting?"
"Hmph," Daniel snarked. "You fools wouldn't even begin to understand even a billionth of the knowledge that I possess. I always bring along things in my pockets to prepare me for any situation, and my patented pepper spray remover did the job well."
"Could we have some, my dear boy?" Charlie asked politely.
"Well normally I wouldn't even think of giving such a precious object to peasants like you," Daniel said smartly, "I suppose I have no other choice, since I'll be stuck with you for the rest of this tour. So fine, here you go."
He took out a small vile from his pocket, and it was full of clear liquid that counted its amount in small intervals. Daniel took out a small eyedropper with a bulb at the end, then motioned to Mr. Wonka first.
"Just one drop oughta do it," Daniel remarked, twisting open the lid to the vile, then squeezing the bulb on the dropper in order to suck up some liquid.
Mr. Wonka cautiously brought his head forwards slightly, then Daniel squeezed the bulb, and one drop of Daniel's special liquid went into his eye. A few seconds later, the boy did this with his other eye.
Willy Wonka was, for the first time in his life since Charlie originally rejected his offer to become his heir in order to stay with his family, completely flabbergasted. Daniel's invention had worked.
"My dear boy, I do congratulate you!" Mr. Wonka smiled, reaching his gloved hand forward in order to shake Daniel's hand, but the boy frowned and put his hand down. Mr. Wonka nervously retracted his hand, just like at the beginning of the tour.
After Daniel used his extraordinary invention with the rest of the group, Mr. Wonka put a fist up by his mouth and cleared his throat in order to make an announcement.
"My dear visitors!" Mr. Wonka announced, and everyone looked at him.
"Mr. Wonka?" Charlie whispered in his mentor's ear. "We've already begun the tour, so I don't think you need to go through this repeating again."
"Well technically right now, they're visiting our factory, so just roll with it," Mr. Wonka whispered back.
"Fine," Charlie sighed.
"I propose a race!" Mr. Wonka continued. "A race where only one can come out victorious!"
"Only one, eh?" Mindy smiled at her mother. "Sounds interesting!"
"I'd hope it'd be, little girl," Mr. Wonka giggled, causing her to frown. "Anyways, what ya 'lil tykes and your parents gotta do is simple- you've gotta try to use the vines like we did before, but at the same time, keep on the lookout for Tyler and Kitsune while making it to the other side of this here rainforest!"
"That Tyler!" Chris said angrily, slapping his knee. "I'll find him first, then teach him a lesson in bullying others with his stupid 'pranks'! He'll pay for this!"
"Calm down, son," Mr. Davidson said soothingly. "I know you're not a fan of Tyler, but you should probably think this through-!"
"And give Tyler and his mother time to create even more chaos?!" Chris gasped. "I don't think so!"
"Chris, please-!" Jenna begged, attempting to reach for his arm, but he ran away in a matter of seconds, gripping a vine and ending up in goodness knows where.
"Oh, so now he wants to try to take the top spot from me, the greatest winner of all time?" Mindy said, extremely frustrated. "No way that'll ever happen!"
Before anyone could object, Mindy was gone as well, effectively beginning Mr. Wonka's new game.
"Welp, let's go!" Mr. Wonka grinned, hoisting his cane up in the air in excitement and walking towards a vine. "But I must warn you all- ya might find yourself against more than a few obstacles on the way to victory."
"What kind of obstacles?" Jenna asked worriedly.
"Well little girl, you'll just haveta find out, won't ya?" Mr. Wonka smiled down at her, then began to swing on his selected vine.
Sighing in defeat, Jenna gripped her own vine and worried for Chris' safety.
Speaking of Chris, he continued to swing on his vine shortly before the others attempted to catch up. He felt the wind glide through his hair, and he had an enormous grin on his face. Suddenly, he saw what looked like monkeys throwing bananas at him.
"Ah, licorice monkeys!" Chris exclaimed as the monkeys began hooting and throwing yellow licorice at him that were in the shape of banana bunches. "Yikes!"
Chris continued to swing faster and faster as the bananas continued to get thrown at him in increasing quantities. At last, he saw a giant river of lemonade, and he swung over it with ease. With all of the vines taken care of, and having dodged the monkeys, he landed gracefully on the other side of the river.
Walking slowly and eyeing his surroundings, Chris saw some white leaves on the ground, and these leaves surrounded what looked like a white plant bulb. Next to it, there was a sign- "BEWARE! RAZZLE BERRIES TEND TO GET TOO ATTACHED TO PEOPLE!"
What could that mean? Chris said curiously, walking towards the Razzle Berry. Suddenly, the creation came to life, engulfing Chris between two white halves with large pink "lips" that made the transformed plant resemble a closed mouth pointing towards the ceiling of the room.
Immediately, Chris began thrashing inside the plant frantically in an attempt to escape. Suddenly, he heard steps coming towards him, and he became extremely relieved.
"Willy!" Chris shouted. "Charlie! Everyone! Help me!"
A few seconds later, the steps stopped, and the Razzle Berry opened. Closing his eyes in relief, he felt himself abruptly being lifted into the air, but this wasn't all- he suddenly saw himself in the midst of Charlie's memories!
Chris found himself standing in the snow outside of an old, worn down cottage. It was freezing, and he had to grip himself in order to stay warm. In the distance, he heard the voice of a child running towards him, shouting, "Mom! Dad! I found it! The last Golden Ticket!"
"Huh?" Chris said quietly, walking towards the door of the cottage. "Charlie? Is that you?"
A boy with chocolate-colored hair raced past him, and close by him, he saw a woman with curled up hair, and next to her was a man wearing clothes that resembled ones worn by carpenters, with a brown belt, pants, and a sweater.
Chris walked inside the cottage, curious yet cautious, and he was met with an environment not much warmer. It was warmer, for sure, but not by much. A large bed was in the middle of a single room in the house, and in it was four elderly people. The first one wore a large pair of black glasses. The second, presumably his wife, had on a thick sweater, along with a brown cap. The third was another man. He was balding, but he still had traces of white hair on the left and right sides of his head. The fourth person in the bed, presumably that man's wife, was wearing a black thread hat, and also had on a sweater. All four of these people were huddled together in that one bed. That, Chris thought to himself, must be really uncomfortable to them all in order to live in such conditions compared to the enormous house he was in back in Columbus. And where on earth does that boy sleep, and his parents?
I feel really sorry for him, Chris thought to himself. Is this really how Charlie grew up as a child, and is this really Charlie like I suspect?
"It's mine!" the excited boy shouted, running towards the bed with the Golden Ticket. At this point, Chris realized something- nobody could see him. The other woman and man in the family, presumably the boy's parents, walked in with shocked expressions on their faces. The boy handed it to the elderly man with the glasses, who slowly but surely brought it closer to his face in eagerness. Chris tensely waited for the verdict, and then it came.
"Yippeee!" he shouted, tossing off the sheets and doing a jig by him. Eagerly, he reached for his hand, and handed the two shocked parents the Ticket. Specifically, Chris noticed that the woman dropped a cutting board, and a head of cabbage. "Here! Read it aloud! Let's hear exactly what it says!"
The father read the Golden Ticket out loud by a small table with a lamp, and every single member of the family had a spellbound look on their faces. As he read it, Chris noticed that it had almost the exact wording of the Tickets that he and Jenna had found.
"First of February!" the mother exclaimed once the Ticket had been done being read. "That's tomorrow!"
"Then there's not a moment to lose, Charlie!" the elderly man shouted eagerly, looking at the lucky boy. "Wash your face, comb your hair, scrub your hands, brush your teeth, blow your nose!"
"And get that mud off your pants!" the balding man added, pointing to the boy's pants.
This is Charlie? Chris gasped. The guy who now owns the biggest chocolate factory in the world used to live in this old place?
"Now we must all try to keep very calm," Charlie's mother interjected. "The first thing we have to decide is this- who is going with Charlie to the factory?"
"I will!" the elderly man said excitedly. "I'll take him! You leave it to me!"
Chris then watched as Charlie's parents began talking among one another if the man was the right choice.
"Is this Grandpa Joe?" Chris said quietly among himself. "Like the man Dad told me? If that's true, the rest must be...did he tell me their names? I should ask Charlie…"
"Yippeee!" Grandpa Joe said excitedly, his hands shaking and reaching towards Charlie while he had an enormous grin on his face. Chris, of course, expected him to accept the offer with joy. Instead, he did something that shook him to the core.
"No. We're not going."
"NO!" Chris shouted suddenly, but no one reacted to his panicked shout. "Your factory! All the amazing things-!"
"A woman offered me five-hundred dollars for the Ticket. I bet somebody else would pay more. We need the money more than we need the chocolate."
Tears started to run down Chris' face, and Grandpa Joe sat down on his bed in sadness.
"This can't be happening…!" Chris said sadly, hardly believing what was unfolding in front of him.
"Young man," the balding man said in a wise voice, beckoning the young Charlie. "Come here."
Chris heard this, and looked back up by the bed with curiosity, wiping the tears away as he saw Charlie walk by him.
"There's plenty of money out there," he told his grandson. "They print more every day. But this Ticket...there's only five of them in the whole world...and that's all there's ever going to be! Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money! Are you a dummy?"
"No sir," Charlie replied.
"Then get that mud off your pants!" the grandfather said eagerly. "You've got a factory to go to!"
Both Chris and Charlie smiled from ear to ear as the environment around him began to distort, and the words, "factory to go to!" began to echo. He then looked around himself, and noticed that he was back in the Licorice Rainforest, its plants and sounds surrounding him.
"Take care of my boy, won't you?" a voice echoed throughout the room said in a happy tone.
"He's not a dummy," another voice echoed, and Chris looked around to see where it was coming from. He saw no source, but heard more footsteps by him. On instinct, he turned his head to see where they were coming from, and he was met with a surprise.
"Chris! We were so worried!"
Author's Note: Wow, what a crazy chapter! What was your favorite part? As for me, it was the flashback. As some of my longtime readers, like Matt, MysteriousMaker1185, and Tessa, know, one of my calling cards to my stories is inserting touching flashbacks in them. Knowing that, I knew that it was inevitable that there would be a flashback in this one. I was originally going to place a similar flashback in the Prototype Candy Testing Room, but I felt that it would interfere with the pacing and Tyler's chaos, but now that Chris is alone, I felt that would be a great time to bring that concept back. What did you think about it, and who did you think saved Chris from the Razzle Berry?
Speaking of the Razzle Berry, it originated from the GBA port of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video game, similar to MysteriousMaker1185's Wonkabots. I hope that you enjoyed that moment in the story. As usual, stay tuned for more, have a great day (or night, wherever you may be), and stay safe!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)
P.S. The next elimination will occur either in the next chapter or the one after that, so make your guesses now!