This is the first of my stories which I consider good enough to be published. I am really proud of this, not because of its quality or something, but because it is the first story that I have managed to finish. Also, even though I consider myself to be fluent in English, when writing at least, I feel the need to let you know that it isn't my first language. For the shake of the cliche.
So this is my first attempt at horror. There are some brutal scenes that contain major character deaths described in detail which may upset some, so, DON'T LIKE DON'T READ.
That's all. Have fun.
...
It was midday. Willy Wonka was ready to get his lunch. All was good until he sat down on his chair- his back hurt as if he were eighty. Taking his fork with his left hand he noticed the wrinkles that he would swear weren't there two hours ago. "Not again" he thought. He quickly finished his lunch and sprinted to a lab with a maroon door- as fast as his back allowed him to of course. He sat on a small stool and looked at his reflection in the mirror, a makeup mirror he had had for over ninety years. A sad smile played on his face as his grey skin appeared ashy compared to a few hours earlier. He reached for the small box under the table. He opened it and carefully took a pill from the small pile, there were only a couple left. He put it in his mouth and swallowed it, not bothering with some water. He had watched the process hundreds of times but he was still as fascinated as ever with his own creation. He watched fondly as his skin got tighter around his face, his spine straightened, his hair got shinier. His cheeks got a nice rosy colour and a few minutes later he looked thirty again. "I have to make them last longer" he thought absently as he strode down the corridors of his beautiful factory.
...
"Please enter" a robotic voice echoed and the five children with their guardians rushed inside, not looking back at the heavy door that shut behind them. Soon they were inside the building. "Hello, hello." Wonka greeted them. Everyone started sweating and squirming because of the high temperature. "Please take off your coats, put them anywhere. I have to keep the temperature high because that's what my employees are used to. What a nice coat you have there mr Salt, is it pure leather? You'll have to let me try it on sometime" he said tiptoeing around his visitors. "But who are your workers, Mr. Wonka?" Charlie hesitantly asked. "What did you say kid? Do speak louder next time, I am deaf on my left ear. Now, let me take you to the first room, the day is so long and we have so little to do! Oops reverse that..." "Damn pills" he thought.
After a good ten minutes of walking they found themselves before a door so small that seeing it, one would hardly believe that something as magnificent as what they were about to witness was behind it.
"Yes my friends, everything in this room is edible" Willy Wonka said proudly, yet his face had this subtle expression of malignant impatience. To prove his point he bent down, picked up a lemon sugar daisy and gracefully ate it, urging the others to do the same. Hesitantly at first, they all started tasting the sugary vegetation of the room. Distracted by the deliciousness of Wonka's creations, all but the creator failed to notice the fat boy stuffing his mouth with chocolate from the river, his round body dangerously close to the surface. Wonka's eyes shone with excitement and he had to stop a sinister grin from spreading across his face as the fat boy lost his balance and fell into the thick brown river.
"HELP! HELP, MOMMY HELP ME!!!" The boy's wails were music to his ears. Mrs Gloop let out a scream so loud that ensured everyone in the room would be left with some sort of minor hearing impairment. "Please, someone help my son, he doesn't know how to swim, he will drawn!"
"Will he." Wonka thought. Yet he approached the panicked woman not to break his façade. "Don't worry madam, your son will be just fine." He said, punctuating the last two words and turned to look at the boy who was being sucked up into a transparent tube that led God knows where. God and Wonka. But he couldn't tell the anxious parents, could he, now? The Oompa-loompas were singing some song about the unlucky Augustus Gloop but nobody was listening. Wonka snapped his fingers and a tiny man in skin-tight uniform appeared in front of him. "Take Mr and Mrs Gloop to the...waiting room please" Wonka ordered. Everyone stared in shock as the oompa-loompa dragged the couple out of the edible paradise.
"Augustus's loss was an unfortunate event but don't worry my friends, he will be taken care of once we are able to locate him." Wonka said with a smile. "Now let us move on to the next room I would like to show you, which can only be reached using my magnificent pink caramel boat! Admire it!"
And soon enough a shiny light pink semi transparent and elaborately decorated boat appeared from somewhere in the river. No one seemed to pay attention to where it actually came from. They all jumped into the boat, no one bothered by the fact that, should the Gloops have been there, there would have been no vacant seats for them. "Let the journey begin!" An enthusiastic Willy said. As they flowed along the river, the children asked questions, too many questions and it was bothering him. Finally they arrived at the next room where another one would be lost.
"DAD! DAD! I WANT A SQUIRREL BUY ME THIS SQUIRREL NOW DAD!" Verruca's annoying voice ordered her father whose face had turned a particularly bright shade of red. After a lot of negotiating, Verruca realised that words wouldn't get her what she wanted, so she decided to take action and go in the room herself.
"No, no, no, please don't, miss Salt" Willy Wonka advised only half heartedly so, after all he didn't want to sound too convincing. A fight between the well trained squirrels and the helpless girl took place, weirdly much to everyone's amusement, until Verruca's shriek broke them out of their slumber. They all watched unable to help as the poor girl was slowly pushed towards the swirly hole in the centre of the room. Only when she was dangerously close to the white and blue gate leading to the factory's «trash» did Verruca's parents actually go to assist their offspring. Yet, they were able to do little but get sucked down the hole themselves.
No one thought of them for the rest of the tour. Realising that all eyes were on him, Wonka smiled widely. "Children" he said to no one in particular. He turned to continue walking along the corridor to the next room, he stopped however when nobody followed. He flinched when he heard Mr Teavee.
"Are you serious mister Wonka? Two children just got lost and possibly severely injured in your factory and you are going to do nothing about it? Not even make sure they are okay yourself?" Willy turned to face him. "Mr Mike's father, I am deeply moved by your interest about my guests' well-being, allow me however to assure you that they are in great hands and right now they are probably sitting in the waiting room having the time of their lives sipping hot chocolate and watching a fascinating documentary about cocoa seeds. Now, we have a tour to finish, if that is okay with you of course" he said, sarcasm evident in his voice and the continued walking towards the next door.
"This, this my dear friends, I believe is one of my greatest inventions so far" Wonka said proudly, presenting to them his gum machine. "Watch this" he proceeded to press a small purple button and tilt a joystick to the left. The machine started making odd noises and a few seconds later a drawer shot out of nowhere. Wonka's gloved hand delicately picked the flat grey rectangle.
"Who can guess what this is?" He asked, lifting it above his head.
"It's gum of course" Violet stated, chewing on her own piece of gum passionately.
"Exactly. But it is not just a regular piece of gum, it is a three course meal in the form of gum" Wonka shot an angry look at Violet. "Don't chew so loudly, gum is disgusting, who likes chewing on a piece of plastic" someone asked something but he didn't listen.
Next thing he knew, a short blonde girl grabbed the gum off his hand and without missing a beat shoved it in her mouth. "This is a bad idea, please spit the gum you stupid girl"he recited and then simply watched as the show took place before his eyes. He watched as violet's expression changed as she chewed though the first two meals and stayed mostly quiet as the girl turned into a violet inflated balloon. After the room had gone quiet, all eyes turned on him.
"Mr Wonka what will happen now?" The concerned voice of Violet's mother asked. "Not to worry Mrs Violet's mother" Wonka said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. He subtly made a signal with his hand behind his back and soon a small team of Oompa Loompas arrived to roll Violet and escort her mother to God knows where.
"Well, the fewer the merrier, right? hehe" Wonka stated for a minute at his remaining guests. He had a fantastic group consisting of two small kids who looked quite similar, if you asked him, a tall balding man who he assumed was one of the boys' father and an old creep. He smiled.
"Let's continue" and with a pirouette he turned around and started walking along another corridor, four sets of footsteps following behind him.
" Here is a room I would like you to pay attention to" he said, not turning to look at the kids. "In that room lies my greatest innovation, a great creation that will become the advertising system of the future. However to function it requires high levels of radiation and the lights are too bright, could you give me a moment to get in there and grab some glasses for us all to wear?"
And with that he opened the door just enough to slip in, just enough for the others not to be able to see that the room was nothing but a simple room, with bright green walls and roof and nothing else inside. A few seconds later he came out of the room holding five helmets, a screen attached where the eyes should be. "These will prevent the radiation from messing with your head" he said quietly and handed them the goggles. Wonka didn't put on his.
They all went into the room, in which, thanks to the spectacular visual reality glasses, they saw the wonder of telekinesis unravel before their eyes.
"I wanna try it" Mike said and confidently stepped on the platform which promptly transferred him to the screen on the other side of the room, effectively shrinking him to the side of a large cockroach. A few minutes later Mr Teavee was leaving the room, tiny Mike in his pocket, accompanied by a suspiciously polite Oompa Loompa.
Wonka was left staring at Charlie and grandpa Joe, smiling rather awkwardly. The two remaining visitors were lamely staring at Wonka but not actually Wonka, VR Wonka through their goggles. Little did he know that the real man had long left the room.
Charlie looked at Mr Wonka's hologram with wide eyes when the older man announced to him that he would gift him the factory. An entire factory, all for him? That would be a major turning point in Charlie's and his poor family's life. Imagine how famous he would be, "Bucket chocolates" would be on the shelves of every shop in the entire world. Or should he keep Wonka's name? It was much more pleasant to the ear than "Bucket". Besides Wonka was already famous, he wouldn't even need to advertise the company. And all these Oompa Loompas, would they be at his service? It would certainly facilitate his day to day life, however it did not seem moral to him to have tiny powerless creatures cater to his every and any want and need. How cool would that be though?
Thoughts raced in little Charlie's mind, as the young boy sat in some sort of waiting room with his grandpa, this time without the helmets, waiting for Wonka to finish some unfinished business with the other members of the group.
VERRUCA
She was terrified. She didn't know where she was. She could feel the rubbish around her and the rather unpleasant smell indicated she should be in the garbage room. she could hear her father muttering nonsense in the distance but she could not pay attention. The warm and humid environment made her almost pass out.
For the past few days, or minutes, she wouldn't know, she had been lying among the rubbish. At first she had tried to escape, soon however she gave up.
She kept dozing off, she could hardly keep her eyes open. Soon she was out cold, being tired and sick from the smell. She didn't even feel it, when the fire started burning her flesh. She didn't hear her father calling her name until the last moment. All she knew now was peace and darkness.
VIOLET
Violet was sitting on a spotless white and quite uncomfortable chair in the corner of an equally spotless white room with no windows. She was fully conscious, and aware that her mother was not in the room. She felt numb.
In the other corner of the room was a weird machine, a white table above which there was a rather heavy looking rectangular piece of wood? About the size of the table.
It felt like she had been in the room for less than an hour when the door opened and Wonka walked in, closing the door behind him. He sat next to her on a chair. . "How are you, dear?" He asked. Violet didn't reply. "Ok. Well you seem not to have gotten rid of your little blueberry problem, so why don't you let me fix it for you." He took a syringe out of his pocket and gently pressed it into Violet's arm, injecting her with an orange liquid. Almost immediately she started deflating and returned to her normal Color.
"I hope you feel better now darling" he smiled. "Why don't you go lie down on that table over there to rest a bit? You must be exhausted. Well it's not the most comfortable thing but I guess it is better than nothing..." He helped Violet on the table. As soon as she laid down the piece of wood started descending on her, eventually crushing her.
There was a cracking sound of her bones breaking under the pressure and soon red stuff started oozing from the crack that had formed between the table and the wood. Dark red blood stained the walls. Not a single scream was heard.
Mrs Beauregard, half sedated, watched expressionlessly through a tv screen as her daughter was being murdered. Wonka had decided to keep her, she would make a good Oompa Loompa.
MIKE
Mike was having the time of his life. He had been made to swallow a pill that turned him back into normal size and was now playing video games with a friendly Oompa Loompa that was in his opinion a very good opponent.
He heard a knock at the door and soon Willy Wonka was standing in front of him. "Hello Mike! I see you are having fun. Well, sorry to spoil it for you but it seems that it is time for you and your father to go home. You will be escorted by a truck full of chocolate, and remember, you can use your ticket anytime to get free chocolate from any shop that sells Wonka products."
That evening Mike returned home with his father, content with having visited Wonka's famous chocolate factory. He took a bite of chocolate with strawberry filling that tasted kinda weird and dozed off. When he woke up he no longer remembered his trip to the factory.
CHARLIE
It had been about two hours since Wonka had left Charlie and his grandpa waiting.
"CHARLIE! CONGRATULATIONS! I AM THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT YOU ARE THE BIG WINNER!"
Wonka exclaimed bursting in the room, yet the expression on Charlie's face did not match his excited one. The tired boy only smiled faintly. Was the man crazy? Had he changed his mind about that factory? The thoughts ran through his head, a thousand miles per hour. "How bout my family sir?" he asked tentatively. I can't leave them behind and come live to the factory.
Wonka pretended to be thinking for a moment. "Yes,YES right, your family. Ermmmm of course they will be able to come live here with you! And what an extraordinary life they will have! Full of adventures and tasteful experiences! In fact, why don't we go fetch them now!"
~three hours later, the bucket family and Wonka gathered in the factory ~
"How glad I am to have all of you with me this evening!" The man said. The family didn't seem to notice that even though it was pitch dark when they left their home, a sun was shining brightly through the factory's windows. "Now I'm afraid I will have to steal our little Charlie for a few minutes, just to arrange a few things with him. My friends here, the oompa loompas, will take good care of you. If you will follow me now, Charlie?" And with that they sprinted down the corridor.
"In here!" Wonka opened a door and entered a room with Charlie. The heavy mahogany door shut closed behind them.
~Three weeks later~
All was good in the factory. Everything was running perfectly. Not a single grain of dest to be seen. Not a single machine screeching. All seven new oompa loompas had completed their training.
Wonka felt a familiar pain in his back, indicator that it was time for yet another pill. He opened his little box, now full to the brim with his special rejuvenating pills. He swallowed one with some wine. He would be good for another half century or so.