'It's all a load of bullocks!' Scoffed Alfie as he and Simon walked across the green to where the bonfire had been set. Simon threw some cardboard boxes onto the pile.

'Im telling you it's true, police never caught the bloke who did it, and even my dad has stories about him from when he was younger' Simon said, trying to make Alfie believe his theory on who murdered Holly Bennett a week ago.

'It was a home invasion mate, simple as that, sounds abit shite to admit it but there are some sick twats out there who would do that' Alfie retorted throwing junk from the trolley onto the bonfire they had been cleared to light that night.

'If it was a home invasion I think the police would have released information about the murder to the public to see if they can find who did it'

Simon stopped for abit as he pulled out a box of cigarettes offering one to his unswayed friend. They sat on the slight embankment and smoked together.

'You ever heard of Julie Singer?' Simon asked. Alfie shook his head and looked puzzled as though he should know her.

'Sinead Singers sister?' Simon tried to light the bulb abit brighter.

'Oh I remember Sinead she was in our year when we were in the juniors' he recalled

'Yeah then her sister was killed and the family moved away' Simon said laying the groundwork for the tale he was about to tell.

'Wasn't she killed in a home invasion aswell? Alfie asked.

Simon took a long drag of his cigarette and looked out to the abandoned tower block ahead which once housed many working class families was now a den of drugs and classless depravity.

'She was babysitting Sinead that night, she got grounded for smoking I heard so she really kicked up a fuss about it. She sent Sinead to bed so she could stay up and watch horror films while their parents were away for the night. She heard a banging coming from the bathroom so she went to investigate, there was no one in there and Sinead was fast asleep in her bed. A little while later she heard the banging again and thought it was coming from the flat next door so she went to complain. But she saw the flat was unoccupied and the door was padlocked shut from the outside. So she went back and tried to forget about it but the banging was happening again even louder this time. She panicked and phoned the police telling them someone was coming through the wall. They told her it was probably teenagers trying to scare her. She said she needed help, she was screaming and crying on the phone while the banging was still happening, the last things the operator heard were several loud crashes and a horrible scream. The line didn't go dead so when the police finally arrived they broke in to discover little Sinead covered in blood and crying as she sat in the hallway lit by a red glow coming from the bathroom light, Julie's body had been almost ripped apart by something inhuman, but the most disturbing thing the first responders saw that night was the fact Julie was telling the truth the whole time, whoever killed her had in fact got to her through the bathroom wall from the other flat, and there was a hole on the other side of that flat that which led to the one next door and so on.'

Alfie had been entranced by the story Simon had told him, he had never seen his friend look so haunted, he even waited a few seconds looking at him to see if he would break out in laughed but he only shuddered having creeped himself out from the story.

'Mate don't be fucking about like that its not funny... ' Alfie said before been cut off by Simon who had gotten frustrated.

'I'm not making this up its all true, the only reason you won't believe it is because the police can't make sense of it and they're never going to catch him?'

'Him? Don't you mean them?'

'No I mean him, it's one man'

'What man?'

'... The candyman'

'Candyman is... '

'A myth I know, but it's the only way to explain it, maybe Julie called him'

'Maybe the candyman has some truth to him but he can't be called through a bloody mirror that's just impossible'

'Come on then' Simon said getting up and starting towards the old tower block.

'Where you going? ' Alfie called after him but got no response. He got up and ran to catch up with his friend just as he got to the foreboding structure.

'We're not going in there, this is where smackheads go to shoot up'

'Trust me we will be the only ones in there' Simon said leading his friend around to the side entrance which doors had been burned down months earlier. It was pitch black Inside and utterly stank of stale urine and rotten wood. Alfie had never been inside before, and always stayed well away from it when he came to hang out with Simon, who he was now following down the corridor and past the stairwell to the first flat. Alfie didn't read the graffiti painted on the walls aside from 'Bigin fingered Allie' and 'Bez woz ere' but had he taken more notice he would have seen haunting dogmas such as 'Be his Victim' 'Groin to Gullet' and the phrase which anyone who believed in candyman knew most 'Sweets to the Sweet'

They entered the first flat which had been mostly emptied apart from old boxes, a scruffy turned over sofa and tattered wallpaper.
'This is where it happened, this is where Julie died' said Simon standing right outside the bathroom, turning his head to look inside as Alfie stood slightly more down the hall. He stepped slowly towards him as his eyes looked around, seeing the faded brown specks of blood which had been sprayed against the wall agasent to the bathroom. He turned into the threshold of the bathroom and he almost gasped when it saw it looked just how he imagined it when Simon told him the story. The sink was smashed and hanging from the wall by its pipes, the mirror above it resembled monsters teeth complete with blood which had dripped from its points long ago. And there it was, the hole candyman came thr...... no it's not that's just silly Simon was just trying to scare him.

'She called his name.... ' Simon told him. 'She called him and he killed her'

'Thats enough' Alfie spun around to face him 'it's not true, she was just killed by some head case who broke in at night'

There was a long silence between the two of them as they just stared at each other, Alfie was getting angry because his friend believed it was all true. Simon walked back where they came from and further down the dark corridor to the last flat and just like the others, it's front door was ripped from its hinges as Simon led Alfie inside to the darkness. Alfie's heart was beating hard as he stood in the dark open room and it almost skipped a beat when it room suddenly part illuminated buy a candle on the small table in the corner of a room, he didn't talk as he lit all the others brightening up the room enough for Alfie to see that over the years it has become some sick shrine to the mythical monster, graffiti depictions of him with his hook dripping in blood, exposing his rib cage which had been hollowed out. In one corner of the room were old dried up bee hives. And then finally the mirrors, different shapes and sizes hung on the walls all around the room.

'I didn't believe in him at first, just thought it was a story to scare kids, but then I found this place' said Simon.

'This is beyond fucked up, I mean how is this still here?' Alfie protested.

'Police figure its not hurting anyone so they just leave it, not enough people making noise about it, that or they would rather pretend it doesn't exsist'

'Why are we even here?'

When Alfie turn from the hives and to Simon he saw he was looking into a mirror.

'He's in my dreams Simon, I can almost hear his voice whenever I'm alone, I sometimes think I see him'

'Its all made up Si, the stories have just been messing with you'

'Well let's see'

'See?'

But before Alfie could figure that out Simon had began.

'... Candyman... '

This is just silly.

'... Candyman... '

Why is he so determined to scare me

'... candyman...'

He's shaking, why is he shaking.

'...candyman...'

His voice cracked.

'...candyman... '

Alfie suddenly felt a false haze of doom in the area, the joke was over and he was done with this.

'Yeah, well done can we leave now this place is beyond me' Alfie said but his friend stared into the mirror still.

'He didn't come, I... I thought he was real' Si said as he turned to face Alfie, his face was pallid and his eyes ringed red as the fear had brought him to tears.

'Even if he was real, why would you call him after all the stuff he's meant to have done?'

Simon couldn't find an answer he could only look at Alfie defeatedly. They both left together but that night when Alfie was laying in bed he remembered a piece of the graffiti scrawled on the wall In the living room; 'Belief will become the reality'.

He was woken in the early hours of the morning by sirens so he got up and took a look out of his window. Police cars and an ambulance were flashing in the square. He looked to see right across the square the police were heading into the flat where Simon lived. His father was hugging his mother as she cried into his chest, police were taking statements from panicked looking neighbours as paramedics brought out the body bag which his friend was enclosed in.