Disclaimer: I do not own 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' or any of its concepts - I am not affiliated with Warner Bros or Roald Dahl. I am making no profit from this story.
Copyright: Kate Goldin and Enoonmai are © to me.
There is much magic in the world, of that there is no doubt. It is more common than most everyday people would dare believe. But magic does not group together, it spreads itself out, hiding in the most unlikely places, lurking in the shadows, locking itself away from society and watching from a distance. And that is why people do not often see it, unless they know where to look.
Kate Goldin was one of those people who knew exactly where to look. She saw the magic, and it saw her just as clearly. Though she saw 'magic' as a term used commonly in 'civilized society' for things that apparently did not exist, or could not possibly exist, or could not be explained away by everyday logic. But these…impossible things…were as real as anything else in the world – they just didn't show up all that often. And even when they did show up, those who saw them would still refuse to believe their eyes – refusing to let their lives be influenced by something they did not understand.
Maybe that was why the creature currently hovering in the sky above Kate's head was not being pursued by legions of helicopters and army tanks, or being hounded by panicking people. Dragons were not a common sight in London these days, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
Not that there were many people around to be panicked. It was a surprisingly quiet day in a surprisingly quiet area of London.
Kate, who had been walking briskly down the street, now came to a halt. She looked around, then looked slowly up at the sky, and then sighed. Well, at least now she knew why she had been drawn to this odd place.
Of course, Kate knew that she was not the only one to have odd things happening to her all the time, not by a long shot. Though, in all honesty, she was the one usually asking for it – purposefully searching for the magical things in the world. But, as we discussed earlier, magical things are not easy to come by, and require a great deal of knowledge and understanding to find – something that Kate happened to be quite good at. It was her job, after all. A lone investigator for a very special organization – the Society of Paranormal Research and Defence, they called it…
But Kate was not working today – no missions, no meetings. She had woken up this morning with a strange urge to go for a long walk, and so she had done so, without any idea of a purpose or destination, just following her instincts. Instincts and – as Kate had only just realised as she stared up at the dragon in the sky – something else as well. It had led her to an area of town that she did not recall having ever visited before. Apart from the slightly old-fashioned appearance of the buildings it was just another suburbia, and yet there was also something distinctly different about it – somehow it felt like a place to be taken notice of, though Kate knew not why. And she had not simply wandered into this place, but had been drawn to it, at the request of an old friend…
Yes, Kate was indeed very familiar with this particular dragon. So familiar, in fact, that the two of them shared a sort of connection. They had a lot in common, one might say, even though one looked decidedly different from the other.
"And there was me thinking you'd have something better to do." Kate called out, jokingly yet carefully, for her companion was a vicious one and did not take kindly to being disrespected.
The dragon, meanwhile, was spiralling lazily downwards, eventually settling on the high stone wall that Kate had been wandering alongside before she had so suddenly halted.
"And there was me thinking that you were more observant than most humans…" the dragon answered dryly, before turning its head suddenly.
Following the dragon's line of sight, Kate turned around, and found herself facing a set of tall iron gates, locked and bolted. And, beyond that, set far back from the heavy walls that surrounded it, a gigantic factory.
But it was not just any old factory. The magnificent, towering building was stylish and elegant, its walls and towers coloured a pure white-grey, looking more like a modern-day castle than anything else. Against the cloudless blue of the afternoon sky, it positively gleamed.
Awe-struck, Kate drew close to the gates and curled her hands around the bars. "Wow. This…this place is special, isn't it…" Kate mused, glancing up to her perching companion, who nodded its head.
Kate looked back to the factory, now frowning pensively. This factory was a place that she felt she should know about, but she couldn't quite remember…
"Oh…I know this place. It's…what is it… That name…that weird name…"
As Kate stood at the gates, wracking her brains, a man happened to walk past, and on catching Kate's mumblings and seeing her struggling with her memory, decided to help her out.
"That's Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory." The man said to her, pausing near the gates. He then happened to glance up at the creature perched on the wall, and was suddenly hurrying away very hastily.
"That's it!" Kate exclaimed happily. She turned around to thank the man, but found that he was already quite far down the street, still hurrying and occasionally pausing to glance behind him.
Realising what had spooked the man, Kate arched a knowing brow at her now grinning friend, before saying, "I remember now – this factory was all over the news a few months ago. Five kids won a tour round the factory – it's an incredible place, apparently. Nothing else like it in the world. But it's strange – there was so much hype about it beforehand, yet afterwards it all went quiet. And apart from that one occasion, as far as anyone can remember, no one's ever gone in, and no one's ever come out. Quite the mystery."
Kate paused for thought, then continued, "So…why are we here?"
"I want to go into the factory." The dragon answered simply.
"Any particular reason why?" Kate asked lightly.
"I want to see what's inside."
"Don't we all." Said Kate with a smile. "Though somehow I don't think Mr Wonka would appreciate your company."
"He has no choice." The dragon growled. "Nor do you." It added scornfully.
"Right." Kate muttered darkly, suddenly looking very wary of the dragon looming above her. "So how does this affect me?"
"I need your help to get inside. You shall be the distraction."
Kate could not help but laugh at this. "Out of the two of us, somehow I don't think I'd be the one that Mr Wonka would find distracting. Besides, it's alright for you – you can just fly away if the going gets tough, while I'd be stuck in there being punished for trespassing. Nope, I'm not doing it!"
Kate shook her head determinedly and started to hurry away.
"I said you had no choice!" The dragon snarled menacingly, before suddenly launching itself off the wall and swooping down towards Kate, grabbing hold of her arms with its strong claws and hauling the young woman high into the air.
Kate yelped in surprised fright as she was hoisted upwards so fast that it felt like her stomach had been left behind on the pavement below. A moment later she was crying out in pain as she felt the sting of the dragon's vice-like grip – its sharp talons digging deep into her shoulders, drawing blood. Immediately she began to scrabble frantically, trying to wrap her arms and legs around the dragon's slim torso in an attempt to balance out her weight. The dragon also appeared to be having trouble staying aloft in the current situation, and so allowed Kate to lock her arms around its neck, before snapping its foreclaws down to grip Kate's waist instead.
"What on earth are you doing!" Kate yelled over the rushing wind, after catching her breath. She could see that the dragon was still struggling and straining in its flight – it was, after all, not all that much larger than herself. Kate could also see that they appeared to heading straight for one of the factory's many sky-scraping chimneys.
"Please don't tell me we're going down one of those!" Kate called anxiously. "They all have giant furnaces at the bottom, don't they!"
"The biggest chimney, the central one, is in fact a tower, and has no furnace." The dragon responded smoothly.
Still clinging on for dear life, Kate nodded glumly. She could see now, as they drew nearer to the colossal tower, that there were tiny windows running round the sides – she could imagine there being a winding staircase inside.
"But, if it's a tower, isn't it closed off at the top?"
"No - I have already been down there once. Its roof had been left broken, free for us to enter as we please." The dragon replied. "There is a staircase toward the bottom, which must lead down into the factory."
Kate nodded again, but frowned. There was something very unusual about this factory and the way it had been put together. "So…once we're down there, what happens?" She asked warily.
"We will split up as soon as possible, so that if one of us were to get caught, the other would remain free to explore the factory while the workers are occupied." The dragon replied calmly, its tone suggesting that it certainly did not plan on being the one who got caught.
"Right." Kate sighed heavily, her guilty conscience already weighing as heavy on her shoulders as the dragon's steely claws. "Well, this is completely against the law, but seeing as I have no choice – let's do it."
On reaching what was left of the tower's roof, Kate saw for herself what the dragon had meant. The roof had been made of glass, but was now completely shattered, the metal railings bent upwards as if something huge had burst through it from the inside.
So…Maybe someone or something had left the factory after all. More mysteries…
The hole in the glass roof was so large that the dragon did not even need to pause in its flight, instead simply tucking in its wings and dropping neatly through the hole and into the tower's gloomy interior. There was more than enough room inside for the dragon to spread its wings wide and glide gracefully down, and it was not long before the unlikely duo reached the staircase.
The dragon carefully set Kate down at the top of the stairway, and since it was unable to hover for more than a few beats, it too was then forced to land, clinging like a garish bat to the narrow steps.
The stairway was, as Kate had suspected, running in a gentle spiral round the curved walls. But, because the stairs were narrow and fixed to the walls, there was still a wide gap in the centre, and there were no railings or banisters on the stairs to stop one from toppling down…
Kate knew that the dragon would not let her fall, yet still that knowledge could not stop human instinct from kicking in – immediately she shrunk back from the edge and pressed her back to the wall, grimacing.
Despite this, Kate was still thoroughly relieved to be standing on a solid surface again. She quickly overcame the vertigo and now turned her attention to her tortured shoulders, cut and bloody thanks to her companion's razor talons. The wounds were stinging terribly, as she found out after experimentally flexing her arms, though strangely she did not seem particularly concerned. She had, after all, suffered much worse in the past…
And so the pair of trespassers began their journey down the long, spiralling staircase, Kate in the lead with the dragon following close behind. Their progress was infuriatingly slow for the restless dragon, as Kate was being very tentative in her steps due to the precarious stairway, but they had travelled in silence for a good ten minutes before Kate happened to voice a concern that had been bothering her since entering the tower.
"You know, I'm surprised we haven't run into any sort of security system yet. You'd think that in a big secretive place like this there'd at least be some sort of…"
All of a sudden, a blaring, wailing noise sounded out from unseen speakers, echoing loudly round the circular walls and causing both girl and dragon to jump.
"…alarm."
With an angry growl the dragon immediately launched itself into the air. There was then a great flurry of wings as the dragon tried desperately to achieve a hover and turn itself round within the cramped space…
But in the same moment that the startled dragon took flight, a large hatch that hadn't been there before suddenly snapped open right next to Kate, and immediately a powerful suction from within the hatch started to drag Kate towards it. Kate yelped in panic as the relentless vacuum took hold of her and dragged her back against the wall. She flung her arms out to stop herself as she stumbled backwards into the dark space where the wall had once been, but there was nothing to grab on to, and so she toppled helplessly through the hatch, sliding away down a narrow, sloping tunnel. The hatch instantly snapped shut behind her, the alarm abruptly ceased its wailing, and the tower became silent once again.
With flailing wings the dragon resumed its perch on the now deserted staircase, snarling fiercely, but resigned. The plan had worked – Kate had been captured, and while everyone's attention was focused on her, the dragon had been left free to do as it wished.
Alone now but grinning dangerously, the dragon continued its decent into the heart of the chocolate factory.