fifteen years later...
"You know, Willy, I still don't understand why you don't give up this foolish sweet-making business. Yes, it brings you money, but there are many other more worthy things you could be doing with your time. I think you were much better off when you closed-"
"Brielle, I don't want to hear it. You should leave if you don't like the way I do things."
Brielle dropped the chocolate bar she was holding into a bin on a cart being pushed past by a pair of Oompa Loompas. The Oompa Loompas cringed and walked faster to get away from the extremely pale woman. "You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me. Might I remind you who it was that had a crazed employee try to kill him shortly after this factory opened, once it was discovered what had happened to him that caused him to be so reclusive? And do I really have to remind you who it was that saved said assassination target? Who nursed him and brought him fresh blood for nearly a month until he was-"
"Enough," Willy shouted, overturning a tray of glass lab equipment in his anger. "I don't need you to sit around and patronize me for my career choices. I had enough of that from my father when he found out that I wanted to be a chocolatier. I don't need it from you, my only companion on this dark road, as well."
Brielle was stunned. In the fifteen years she had been living with her fledgling, never once had he ever shouted at her in this manner. In fact, she couldn't recall a single time that he had even raised his voice to her. She remained still for a long time, just staring at Willy, whose face was flushing deeply with the blood he'd consumed earlier in the evening. But as soon as she recovered, she slipped off the stool she'd been perching on and removed her coat from the rack in one corner. "If that is how you truly feel about me, then perhaps it is time I left you to your own devices. After all, I can't spend the rest of my years with a fledgling to whom I can't even speak anymore. Once my blood combined with yours, my ability to speak with you in your mind vanished and I am forced to speak with you as a mortal would. I despise mortals and yet, day by day, you try ever harder to remain in their world. Well, I won't stay here and watch you descend into madness. For mark my words, that is where you are headed." She paused long enough to slip into her coat and button up the front, then put on the leather gloves which she'd hidden in the pockets. "I would say 'goodbye', but that sort of sentiment would imply that I wished to see you again and I do not. So I shall say nothing else." Bowing slightly, Brielle turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door shut as she went.
After Brielle left, Willy dropped to his knees, utterly confused as to what had just happened. The events leading up to Brielle's departure were all tumbling about in his brain, but somehow, he was unable to put them in order. Was what she said true? Would all of this really drive him mad? Without Willy there to hold everything together, the company would fall apart and the Oompa Loompas would either be deported back to Loompa Land or they'd be used in scientific experiments. Just the thought of either option happening to the poor, innocent beings Willy had come to care for over the years they'd been living and working in the factory made him shudder. There just had to be something he could do to keep them safe.
Willy puzzled over all of his options, each one more horrible than the last. On the one hand, he could simply carry on as he had been and hope that Brielle had been lying about his going mad. On the other hand, he could do as she had suggested and give up on the business entirely. That one would certainly have to be a last resort.But then he remembered something that he'd been considering during the time that he'd had the factory closed several years ago. He'd been thinking of, instead of closing the factory, handing the entire company over to someone else, but of course only after teaching them everything they would need to know about running a global sweet-making business. But who could he really trust with something this important?
There was always Daniel Wheeler, the contractor Willy had worked with on building the factory. Some time early in the building process, Daniel had mentioned having a dream when he was younger of working for a sweet company, but he had switched over to being a contractor because he'd realized that, in the long run, contracting would probably be much more profitable for him. The news that Willy wanted him to take over the company for him would be wonderful for Daniel, at least if Willy's assumptions about the man were correct, but there was one small problem. Could Willy actually trust Daniel to run things they way they always had been once Willy left or would he just change things to the way he thought they should be? In the back of his mind, Willy knew that would be the case with just about anyone he asked. Everyone wanted to do things their way, without any regard for the way they'd been done in the past.
In fact, the only people you could honestly trust to be true to their word were children. Every child Willy had ever listened in on the thoughts of, for the most part, kept to their word and were completely honest, most of the time. Yes, even children had their faults, Willy remembered how horrid he'd been at times when he was a child, but on the whole, you could trust a child with your life. After muddling over it for a moment, Willy knew this was his only option: find as perfectly honest and good a child as he could and virtually raise him, or her, to run the company. Of course the child couldn't be too young or too old. Too young and they simply wouldn't be able to understand what it was he wanted them to do. Too old and, well, depending on how old, they would be far too much like an adult for Willy to be able to mould them how he wanted. But how to actually go about the process of finding this child? Searching through their minds would take too long and asking them to- Willy stopped mid-thought. The idea was so simple. It was so crazy that it might actually work. Ask children to come to the factory and meet with them to determine what they are like and if they are good enough for my purposes.