Willy and Charlie stood in the hallway paralyzed with fear as the footsteps grew ever closer. Willy managed to shake himself out of it in time to look down at Charlie and whisper "Get behind me Charlie. I don't want you to be held responsible for this." Charlie looked up at him in surprise for a moment, but quickly obeyed. He was just thinking how mature and responsible it was for Willy to have gone rather out of character and take charge like that, when the owner of the footsteps finally appeared around the corner.
Before Charlie even caught a glimpse of the stranger, Willy let out a bloodcurdling screech and flew behind him. He popped his head out right above Charlie's right shoulder, took one more look at the figure, and screamed again.
"AAAAAH!"
"Mr. Wonka!" Hissed the boy. "Not so loud! You'll scare it away!"
"I'll scare it away?" Willy whispered back. "I don't even know what it is!"
Before Charlie could turn back around to finally try to address the stranger, Willy let out another surprised scream and shot out his arm from behind Charlie, pointing out ahead of them.
"Look! There's more of them!"
Sure enough, when Charlie turned back around, he found that there were at least a half dozen pairs of eyes staring back at him. He was finally able to get a decent look at them without Willy interrupting and he had to admit, they made him feel a bit uneasy himself. They were all dressed in the same outfit, a uniform Charlie supposed. They wore a strange sort of backwards overalls that cris-crossed in front, striped socks, and white shoes adorned with orange pom-poms on the toes. As for the people themselves, they were short, no higher then 3 feet tall Charlie guessed, and they were all a bright, vivid orange. This would have been odd enough in itself, but they also had thick snowy white eyebrows that looked as though they had been painted on, and to top it all off, each had a head full of bright green hair.
There was a long pause where neither the strange men or Charlie said anything, and Willy continued to crouch behind Charlie trembling. Finally, Charlie realized it was up to him to break the ice.
"Um, hello there." He started uneasily." We seemed to have uh...accidentally found our way into your... place. We're really very sorry, and we'll be happy to leave if you could just show us the way out."
The men continued to stare at poor Charlie, who now was beginning to grow flustered. He decided to attempt to make conversation one last time. "I'm sorry! We should have introduced ourselves. My name is Charlie, and this is Mr Wonk-" Charlie was interrupted by a sharp poke in the back, courtesy of Willy's cane. He realized if they were in the factory of one of their competitors, giving away their identities certainly wouldn't be helpful. He bit his lips and waited, hoping the men wouldn't have picked up on what he had just said. To his dismay, his words had quite an effect on them. They immediately turned towards one another and whispered. Finally, the one they had first seen in the hallway gestured for them to follow him. Willy and Charlie looked at one another, shrugged, and followed the little man down the hallway.
As they followed him down twisting halls and sharp turns, they passed by rooms that looked vaguely familiar. It was incredibly odd seeing machines and rooms so different from their factory producing things so eerily similar. Charlie noticed that the more rooms they passed by, the more frustrated looking Willy became. He bent down and whispered to Charlie. "I don't know how they managed to do it, but those deplorable spies have found a way into my factory! When I see who's behind this..." Willy wasn't able to finish his threat however, as they had arrived in front of what appeared to be the office of Willy's nemesis.
The small man gave a tentative knock on the door, and was answered immediately. "Come in."the voice from the other side of the door said in a business-like voice that let you know that it's owner was very busy.
Willy straightened his coat, adjusted his hat, and snatched up his cane in a tightly clenched fist. He took a deep breath in preparation for the tongue lashing he was about to give, and burst though the office door. Charlie could just barely see inside the office, but he was able to see Willy stop dead in his tracks and let out his breath in one quick exhale.
I don't know about everyone else, but the '71 Oompa Loompas gave me the creeps. Sorry this chapter took a bit longer, I'll try to update the next one more quickly. Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated!