The Candy Man (Christian Borle as Willy WonkaXReader)

9.

[Author note: This chapter is a direct consequence to the previous chapter, so if you haven't read chapter 8 or you don't remember it, go read it. it's better for you to understand the story. Also,I'm very fond of this chapter: chapter 9 and 10 are the culmination of this whole fanfiction,so I would like to ask you to immerse in the atmosphere,which resembles to the moment in the musical when Christian sings "The View Frome Here". Enjoy :) ]

This elevator is wonderful: it leads to the Factory roof, where the gateway branches off into a circular glass tunnel, where you can see the whole city from above. It's a beautiful night. There are no clouds, and the sky is full of stars. I look up, observing astonished the wonder surrounding me.

-Willy, that's amazing!

-You have the same look you had in the Chocolate Room. I knew you'd love it, that's why I chose to meet you in the Immaginum. I had no doubt that you were the right person to see all of this.

-Are you telling me that nobody else has ever seen this place? No one has ever been in here? Not even an Oompa-Loompa?

-Oh, sure, sometimes some Oompa-Loompas snuck in this elevator. But nobody, except for me, came up this high. This is the place I care about the most in the whole factory.

I look at him: he has a subtle, sweet smile on his face, but I can still see a bit of melancholy.

-(Y/N), what did you know about this factory before you got in?

-Well... When I was a child, my grandma used to buy me your chocolate bars every time I went out with her. She always told me about your factory, about how your chocolate was the best in the world, and to me it was. Every bite of that chocolate made me the happiest child on Earth. My grandma talked about you as a fantastical creature, a man who lives on candies and sweets, and as a kid, I fantasized so much about you. You were my hero.

Willy stares at me, silently.

-I always looked out of the window- I continue -And saw your factory up and running, but without any movement from the outside, except for the delivery vans who collected the candies to sell them in the shops. I've always wondered how it was possible: no employees, no nothing. And especially, I couldn't figure out why you stayed out of sight. I imagined what your appearance would be for years, and when I came here yesterday and saw you for the first time it's been so moving: you're exactly the way I figured...

-Well... You must know that I opened this factory lots of years ago, even before you were born. I'm not a fantastical creature, and unfortunately, I don't live on candies. I'm just a regular man with a strong passion for chocolate... When I opened this factory I was just a boy who wanted to escape from the world around him to build one of his own. And I have succeeded: hundreds of people worked there, the kids were happy, and I was happy. But then something went wrong, and the outside world ruined everything...

-What do you mean?

Willy looks down. It must be something really painful for him. I instinctively hold his hand, which gets suddenly warm.

-Willy, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to.

-No way, you must know- Willy takes a deep breath before going on. -So, lots of people who worked here were spies paid by other candy producers in the nation to steal my recipes. Little by little, my products began to appear in stores under other brands: my chewing gums that never lose their flavor, then my sugar plumes. I fell apart. I didn't know who stole my recipes, I could no longer trust anyone, I almost went broke. All the trust I had with my coworkers was gone, everything backfired. I was convinced I had failed in everything, and I felt so stupid for believing that creating a world like this was possible. Come on, a world made entirely out of candy? How childish can I be?