Chapter Text
The four of you climbed up the large dark winding staircase, Sun and Moon being ahead of you all, and the reporter who seemed to be the only one who knew of the secret passageway walked in the back, making sure you were all withing rage of being shot just in case.
Moon kept glancing back at the woman curiously before pausing on the staircase, making everyone stop in their tracks.
“Keep going.” The woman behind you demanded.
“Princess lemondrop?” He said suddenly, making you looked at him in confusion. You looked back at the woman behind you, seeing her expression remain the same.
Sun blinked at Moon and looked back at her. “Vanessa??” He asked incredulously. “Vanessa Afton??”
You looked back at her. You remembered her giving you that first name before, but the last name had a different form of familiarity. Afton was Willaim Wonka’s real surname.
“So you do recognize me.” She said dully.
“More process of elimination. Your hair is much darker than when you were a kid.” Moon frowned. “You used to come play with us back when we were allow to just shed our shell’s naturally…”
“What are you doing back here? Your father wasn’t in during the autumn night!” Sun asked
“Yes he was.” She spat. “He never came home! Haven’t heard anything from him! This idiot says they didn’t see any bodies or anything, so what happened?!” She demanded, nudging the gun harder to your head, making you grunt.
“No one killed him!” Sun insisted. “Trust me, that would have given us bragging rights and no one here would have given that up!” She jammed the gun so hard against your head and involuntary whimper left your mouth, making Sun flinch.
“Maybe don’t be insensitive to the one with the gun, Sun!” You huffed.
“I-it’s true! We all hated him, killing him would have given us status and respect! No one would have kept quiet about that one! Well, except maybe nightmarrione, but…” He frowned and looked at you.
You were the only one in the taffy room that night. Yourealized how bad it looked and put your hands up. “I didn’t see anything.” You insisted. “Marionette trapped me in their box for safety, so maybe he snuck past everyone and got out?”
“No one left here after that night. No one but you.” Vanessa spat you. “He told me about a bunker he made in the building, I bet he’s there. I don’t know where it is, but his office probably at least have the building blueprints. Now MOVE!”
You were all shoved up to the door at the very top of the stairs. Sun and Moon paused at the door, Sun looking back at Vanessa.
“Uuuuuuuh Key?” He asked
“Dad always forgot his keys. Spare is on the doorframe.” She said shortly.
Sun reached up on the doorframe and found the key, unlocking the office with the fancy W on it.
It was empty, dusty and baren of anything cheerful or homely. Very much a work office of a man who didn’t want other’s getting too close to. You glanced at Vanessa, who lowered her gun slightly, her eyes glazing over the room with nostalgia. You wondered if she had been hoping to find a corpse, or any form of closure to know where her father was.
She started digging through the drawers of his large Mahogony desk, seeming desperate for a note, a map maybe, you honestly couldn’t tell. You looked around the room as well, looking for anything to help her. She did take you hostage, but the sooner she could be satisfied, the sooner you could get her out and arrested.
Sun and Moon also looked around with interest, probably wondering if they could find anything that might help them run the factory smoother or something.
Vanessa slammed the drawer in frustration before searching in another one, obviously not finding what she was looking for.
You came closer to the wall, the bookcase, anything really. There was a book or two on the shelf, but one was a photo album. You took it off the shelf and looked through. There were pictures of a little girl, with a couple little boys. There was also William himself, standing in front of the shiny new factory. Next to him stood another man you didn’t recognize. Maybe a sponsor or something.
You turned the page and squinted at saturated photo, mostly white and blurred, but you could make out a vague shape that looked familiar, but you couldn’t place what it reminded you of. The photo next to it also had some familiar figures. You squinted at it curiously, making sun come over and look over your shoulder.
“Oh Nooooooo!” He squealed and covered his face. “Oh turn the page already!”
“What??” You frowned and looked at the strange picture of silver skeletons with round faces.
Sun tried to grab the book from you, trying to hide his picture.
“Hey don’t break it!” You said and tried to get it back before it could rip. As you grabbed harder, you suddenly realized the over-saturated picture felt bulgy and wrong. “Wait wait!” You said swiftly, making Sun pause his pulling.
Vanessa paused her searching to watch you all as well. You pulled out the picture to find a card like a hotel key card behind it. You held it up to show it to her. “Is this what you’re looking for?” You asked.
“Must be.” She snipped and rushed over to snatch it from you. She looked around the room again and found a card reader right next to the main door. Noticing it now, it seemed odd that anyone would have a card reader, inside the super secret room. What would you be scanning to unlock?
She walked over to it and tapped the card to the reader. A mechanic sound hummed in the room, making you all freeze up. The stairs that could be seen from the open door moved upward, but with the soft lightness that filled the room, you realized the whole room was an elevator, taking you all down farther and farther. Through the door you passed the Taffy room again, watching Nightmarrionne’s tentacle-like vine whip around the room as you all passed them. The room grew darker with the decent, the door remaining a shadow after passing the taffy room.
Then, the room thudded to a stop, and all was left to do, was explore the darkness out the door.