I decided I absolutely needed more alcohol for this and headed to the bar to get a drink. As I made my way across the room, I noticed that people were acting off. Yes they were dancing, they were talking, but it felt weird.. scripted almost. And suddenly I didn't feel at ease. Why would I follow a stranger to his house? And then follow a weird basement tunnel? Where were we? Why hadn't we heard any sign of life from Willy Wonka? My heart began to race as you realize that this party was just a trap. As I looked around, people started suddenly turning into oompa loompas in clouds of orange glitter. I can't believe we fell for that.
I turned to make a run for the exit, grabbing Bestie and Ben on the way, but the doors slammed shut. I spun around to see that the oompa loompas were closing in around us, blocking our escape. The cheery atmosphere at the party had disappeared, replaced with the feeling that maybe this was it.
"Welcome to our little party" one of the oompa loompas sneers. "We've been waiting for you."
And there he was, on the elevated stage at the end of the room, Willy Wonka. In his full glory. He was wearing a skintight, black glittery suit with a miniskirt on top. His iconic hat had made way for a giant white fur hat, matching his giant white fur boots. His eyes were shaded by futuristic sunglasses that made him look almost inhuman. But most striking about the outfit was his flowy, fiery cape. It was so long it should have reached the ground, yet it didn't. Even though there was no wind in this place, the cape was moving... almost floating. He was holding a giant candy cane. There was no other explanation than that Willy Wonka was an evil wizard.
The air was thick with the smell of burnt sugar as the evil sorcerer Willy Wonka ordered his army of oompa loompas to 'get us'. I stood my ground, ready to face the wicked magician and his minions.
Willy Wonka cackled with delight as he raised his candy cane, unleashing a barrage of magical candy at us. I dodged and weaved through the air, narrowly avoiding the deadly sweets. But the oompa loompas were closing in, armed now with giant lollipops and chocolate-covered swords that appeared out of nowhere.
With a fierce battle cry, Ben charged towards the army of oompa loompas, somewhere still determined to convince them to join our cause. He, like no other, knew that these innocent creatures had been brainwashed by the sorcerer and needed to be freed from his clutches.
The oompa loompas, however, were relentless in their attacks. They pelted Ben with a hail of candy, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. But Ben refused to give up, fighting with all his might.
"It won't work!" I shouted, back to back with Bestie, fighting off oompa loompas.
"What do we do?" Bestie cried out.
"Listen to me! Willy Wonka isn't who he says he is! Look at him! He's trying to kill me and the people I love. And why? Because we were going to tell the world about his evil schemes! Wake up, oompa loompas!" Still nothing seemed to get through.
"They must be under his spell or something!" Bestie yelled over the sounds of battle.
I hadn't stopped to realise that that is typically what evil wizards tend to do. Of course. The candy cane!
"We need to destroy that candy cane! It must be like his staff!" I yelled roughly in Ben and Bestie's direction.
Don't ask me how I pulled this off, but somehow right after I said this, I managed to disarms an oompa loompa and pick up his chocolate covered sword.
"Keep close!" I shouted at my friends. Bestie was holding a sharpened lollipop and Ben had managed to get his hands on a licorice whip. The deafening sound of the whip and the clattering of swords filled my ears as we huddled close together, slowly making out way to the edge of the stage. Hands were reaching for our feet, chocolate sprinkles were flying around, we were entirely being overpowered by the large amount of oompa loompas in here.
"Ben! Bestie! Cover me" I yelled as I dragged a stool from next to one of the tables in a last-ditch attempt to get to the evil sorcerer. I hurled it at the wizard with the blazing eyes. And by sheer luck, or maybe plot armour, it hit his staff. And his staff cracked clean in two.
The oompa loompas fell still in their rubble. Looking completely like they had just woken up in the middle of a sleepwalking episode, they started asking themselves where they were.
"I don't know where you are, but I do know that your little boss Willy Wonka is trying to Willy us the Wonkity out of existence." They all seemed to have registered that part of the evening. So the oompa loompas realised what had happened, and they were not happy about it. For the first time I saw something like fear behind the sunglasses of the fashion disaster that represented Willy Wonka. He stumbled. Then turned around and ran. At the end of the stage was his elevator. The glass elevator!
"Stop him!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
But we were too late. In a whirl of red, orange and yellow glitters, the sorcerer turned around. We thought we had definitevely lost the battle. And we would've had, if our friend Will hadn't decided to give us his super-villian speech right at that moment.
"You might be asking yourself, why me?" He cackled. "It's because of your friend." He pointed his demonic finger at my best friend. "You shouldn't have been in love with her. Do you know why she stayed? Why she didn't just DIE like any normal person would have?" The memory of the kiss I shared with ghost Bestie came rolling back. No not right now, I need to fight!
"Because she was in love with you! And aren't you too...? Cute romance you have going on there." His face was starting to morph as he said it. His chin grew pointier, as did his ears and he started to look more and more like something straight from hell. "But now she's two people. Or maybe only half. Because oh yeah. Her ghost's dead!" Evil laughter filled the room. I turned to look at bestie. Her face was pale, even for someone who'd been a zombie for a while now. Her eyes were tearing up.
The words Wonka had said did hit me, they hit me hard. It was true. Who I was looking at right now was only a shell of the girl I loved. And even if there was a soul growing inside of there, it would never be the bestie I shared my life with. Even though she seemed like it in every way.
"But for now, I say, Adios amigos! I will find an army and I will destroy you! The world will never know my secret!" Willy Wonka no longer looked human. He was a demon at best and a goblin at worst. Slammed the door of the glass elevator shut behind him and shouted a command, inaudible to any of the observants in the room.
