Jailbreak: A Disney Fan Fiction

Chapter 17

Once everyone was out of the secret room (which McQueen secured again by hitting the button), the man introduced himself as Mr. Chen. He bid them all to sit down (except Lightning, who simply parked himself) before he began to speak.

"I've worked in this park for nearly fifty years, and the higher-ups at the Walt Disney Company call me their most trusted man. I suppose I've earned the title; in all my years here, I've learned some of the most valuable, and sometimes darkest, secrets of the company."

Red exchanged a glance with Marty, but the two said nothing. They'd ask about the Internet rumors later. Right now, Mr. Chen was giving them answers.

"The biggest secret in all of the Disney Company is–or was–in the room you uncovered. Very few people know about it, and fewer are ever given permission to see it. I am one of those few who know about Walt Disney's Charm."

He looked at Red. "What is your name?"

"Red Ramos."

"Red, go ahead and open the journal."

She'd forgotten that she was holding it, but she opened the book. It was several hundred pages long, and some of the handwriting was so old that it was barely readable. However, she was able to make out a few drawings and words. They almost looked...familiar...

It clicked, and she realized what she was reading. She looked at the date on the page, and read the faded ink again. "This is the story of Disney's Cinderella," she breathed. But that movie had come out in 1950. The page here marked a date in 1908. Yet the version written on the page was identical to the animated film, right down to the mice.

Mr. Chen nodded. "Keep reading."

She turned a few pages. Here was the plot of Tangled, on a page dated in 1909. One hundred years before it would be released in movie theaters. And yet the page featured a perfect drawing of Pascal and Maximus.

She kept turning, eventually showing it to Marty. Here was the plot of A Bug's Life, ninety years before it was released. Here was Frozen, one hundred and three years early. Here was Encanto, Mulan, Winnie-the-Pooh...How was it possible?

"I don't understand..." Marty managed to say, though he was in as much awe as Red.

"When Walt was a little boy," Mr. Chen began, "he stumbled across something extraordinary. A small indestructible trinket in a shape that he'd never seen--"

"What did it look like?" Red interrupted. The man turned around, taking a piece of paper and pen from a desk. He drew something on it, then held the paper up for all to see. The characters clearly didn't recognize it, but the kids knew it right away. It was the shape of Mickey's head. 

"Walt eventually learned that this trinket, which he eventually called the Charm, had the ability to travel to other worlds. All he had to do was wish to go somewhere else, and with a flash of light the Charm would take him there.

"Once he'd learned how to go to new worlds, he learned how to go to specific ones by describing facts about them. He'd say, 'Take me to a world of talking animals', and there he'd be, in the world of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse."

"He actually met Mickey?" Red was surprised. She'd always thought that Mickey had been Walt's creation.

"Actually, no." Mr. Chen continued. "While the Charm could take people to other worlds, it made them invisible to all who lived there. Walt could feel their rain, eat their food, hear their voices, and even touch them if he felt so moved, but (although they could feel him if he touched them) the denizens of that world could never see him. Eventually, he decided that this was for the best. In a way, he did meet Mickey, but Mickey never met him. Still, Walt became quite fond of the mouse, though he first became famous for other characters that he met.

"Anyway, Walt began to take notes of the stories that he saw whenever he traveled with the Charm. He could see a thousand different stories in a day, for no time would pass on the outside while he was there, and he didn't age or hunger while he was in another world. Thus, the sheer amount of stories in his journal."

"Did he use the Charm all his life?" Red asked. She knew a lot about Mr. Disney's life due to her research. Along with becoming very famous later in life, he'd been a soldier, had several siblings, and had raised a family. How could something like the Charm have been kept a secret for so long?

"No," Mr. Chen answered, "he stopped using it so much when his family moved in his later childhood. He admits in the last page of the journal that he used it once or twice to check on 'old friends' in high school, but after he left high school he shut it in a box and trusted his parents to keep it safe, as well as made them swear to neither open the box or give it to anyone else. By the time his parents passed away, he had become successful, and felt that the box would be better left in his care. He kept the journal with him at all times, however, which is why it's so worn." He gestured to the book. "He used the stories and drawings to make several of his movies and cartoons, and likely would have made more had he lived longer.

"Upon his death, his will stated that the Charm and journal should be locked away, only to be seen by the most trusted of Disney employees. Those employees followed his wishes, but first they copied down every page from the journal. This is why so many of its pages have been made into well-loved movies. Once that was done, they went to Disney World (which was still in the planning stages) and ordered that Cinderella's Castle have a suite installed for lucky guests. In said Suite, they turned what would have been a walk-in closet into the room you saw. In here they hid Walt's treasures."

"And they've been there ever since? No one's touched them until now?" Marty asked.

"...No. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that a cast member has broken into the Suite and used the Charm for selfish means. Twenty years ago someone thought they'd revolutionize the Fantasmic show by bringing the real Maleficent from her home." Mr. Chen sighed and put his hand on his forehead. "That was a lot of paperwork."

"But, wait, how did Daniels even know about the Charm?" Red wanted to know.

"That I don't know. This is the first time I've truly spoken of it in years. But I'm not the only one who knows of it. The housekeepers who work at the Castle only know that they aren't supposed to touch the button on the fireplace, and that the guests are warned not to touch it either. We've told them that it's a heat detector to keep the fireplace from acting up. But some people like to talk...it's possible I might have to do a massive debriefing..."

He shook his head. "What matters right now is finding that Charm. As soon as possible."