It was a heavy day when the news of Simon Banks' murder hit the school, it was all over the news first thing in the momday morning and everyone was shocked that it happened in this small community. The last murder around these parts was back in 1999 and that was a drunken fight that got out of hand. It was a peaceful community and had been that way for the longest time but to Allison Becker it felt like those days of safety were gone, when a innocent teenage boy could be killed in his own home it felt like the beginning of the end.

Her 4th period class after lunch, English 5A were normally a lively lot, hard to tame but in the fun way seemed to have been replaced by a group which seemed to have lost all hope and perhaps they had, when you're that age and you hear one of your own has died it is a loss of innocence, life isn't all that easy and from this day on it only gets harder.

'Alright everyone, turn to page 52 of hamlet please, we are going to have a quick recap before we move to act two, scene one'

No one budged, how could they even consider focusing on this day?

'Look everyone, I'm absolutely devastated about what happened to Simon but at some point we all need to move on and....why am I even trying to make you work?'

She gave in and sat on her desk, not at, but on. She looked at them all, she had never seen them look like this before, there wasn't a smile to be seen in the whole room.

'Simon was a lovely lad and he didn't deserve what happened to him but I have to say that in these days, things like this happen every day, mainly in more populated areas so yes this is a huge shock' she told them all.
A voice came from the back of the class room. 'His mom and add have been taken in for questioning, they say no one else could have done it, no signs of a break-in'

'The door could have easily been left unlocked, anyone could have walked in and done it' another voice said.

Then another 'I bet it was his dad'

Another 'he did it to himself'

Before long all the voices were going at once, arguing, she couldn't pick anything out of the commotion.

'Alright, alright just settle down we won't know anything until official news has been released so please don't go telling people and starting rumours about what happened'

They all settled down.

She heard a name that hit her like a freight train. Candyman.

'Wait, what was that?' She asked for the student to pipe back up and repeat themselves.

'They say it was the candyman' a small voice in the back said. It was Katie Munroe the quietest student in the class who's family came from Jamaica. She was smart and one of the easiest students to work with but she hardly said a word, Allison thought it might be because she had not fully lost her accent.

Allison walked over to her desk where she was drawing in her sketch book.

'Say again sweetie' Allison asked calmly just to make sure she said the name she had thought she heard her say.

'My Grandpa said it was the candyman... ' she said looking up from her art work.

Allison knew of the tales of the candyman, just like all the other kids she grew up with, her father used to tell her like his mother told him when he was little more than fifty years ago and she was taken aback by the fact someone Katie's age knew who the candyman was. As a child she was deathly scared that candyman would come for her if she didn't go to bed on time or brush her teeth. By the time she was eleven she knew that candyman was just a story.

'You don't really believe that do you Katie, candyman is just a story' Allison said quietly in fear mention of the name would bring laughter from her class mates.

'Isn't Jesus just a story? Millions of people believe he exsisted'

'Wait who's candyman?' A boy asked. When Allison looked back at Katie her expression was deadpan but there was a hint of fear in her eyes.

Allison made her way backwards to the front of the class.

'You want to know who candyman is?' She said with a smile, this pricked up a few more ears around the room as she looked at them, this might be a way out of the awkward situation she found herself stuck in.

'Candyman is a very different take on the boogeyman, when I was younger he was what my mom and add used to get me to behave'

'Like the grey lady?' The boy asked.

'Exactly like the grey lady but with a difference' she said and saw she had each of them eating out of the palm of her hand.

'You have to say his name in the mirror three times for him to come, once you say his name three times he will appear behind you breathing down your neck' she said to them with a hint of narrative in her voice as though she was telling them this as though they were sat around a camp fire.

'Five times' Katie said 'you have to say his name five time's

'Did you ever say his name, Miss? ' the boy asked

'Me? No I was far too scared because I thought he was real'

'Why don't you give it a try?'

'what?'

'Yeah go on, miss. Say him name In the mirror see if he will come, who knows he might be cute and just want a kid's a girl had said, the class laughter at this, all except Katie.

'Nah that's just silly' Allison said

'Oh come on miss' someone said

She smiled and shook her head as the class began to chant.

'Do it, do it, do it'

She gave in and walked to the back of the class room where there was a mirror hanging over the sink full of art supplies which needed to be washed. The mirror was old and splattered with paint she could barely see herself in it. She scoffed to herself a little.

'Candyman, candyman, candyman, candyman..... candyman' she let out a stuttered breath as for some reason she went cold.

'And I thought I'd be able to get a snickers off of him, you know I'm not me when I'm hungry' Denny Wallace, the class clown cut the silence and the class burst into laughter. The bell sounded for the next period and all made a quick getaway in a better mood than when they entered. But Katie was the only one to take her time leaving and she stopped in front of Allison.

'Normally I shake my head at ignorance, but I think what you just did may have saved a lot of lives, because no one here today knew about candyman, and they leave here today thinking it's just a myth, so they won't take it seriously' she said before she began to walk away.

'Wait, wait Katie, what do you mean by that?' Allison asked.

Katie turned and stared at Allison for the longest time.

'Alot of people though out history have died in his name. They either called him or they didn't believe in him, you are both of those people, when you hear his voice, don't run, don't hide, do as he says because you just knocked on his door... so he's going to answer you' Katie said and she didn't blink once.

...

Katie's words played in Allison's head the whole day, even as she was driving home she remembered the look in her eyes, she was only fourteen years old, when did a teenager ever believe in a ghost story so deeply?

That night she was doing research for her lesson plan, thinking after today that for the or creative writing module it would be a good idea to take a look at urban legends. Things like the stranger in the house, the killer in the back seat and the body under the bed. They interested her but she would laugh to herself at times and shake her head but she thought they were quite important to literature as some of these stories had been going around for hundreds of years.

Allison was a woman very grounded in reality, things like the boogeyman and other monsters didn't scare her, losing her family and not being able to pay her rent scared her so she had no issue reading this stuff in the dark with only the light from her screen illuminating a small secton of her condo. She really enjoyed some of these stories, the ones she had never read before such as Mr Cardboard hands, Spring-Heeled Jack and Charlie No Face. She was very entertained by the story of The Hook, a rambunctious couple getting it on in a car hear the emergency report of an escaped mental patiant from a near by facility with a hook for a hand. The girl becomes unnerved and asks the boy to drive her home, much to his dismay he does so. When he gets her home he gets out the car to let her out and hanging from the door handle of the passenger side is a bloody hook. She smiled and scrolled down to the comment section of the page to read what people thought of it. Short spits such as 'old' 'not even scary, Saw is better' made her smile but that smile soon went away when she saw a comment which said; 'this reminds me of the candyman' someone responded under that saying 'but candyman isn't real, this actually happened' another under that saying 'oh you really think so? Give this a read' with a link to a news page under that.

She clicked on the page out of Interest and was hit by the headline which said 'I told her not to say his name' and it went on to be an interview of a woman who believed her friend to have been killed by the candyman after being dared to say his name in the mirror five times. The article went on to mention other similar murders over the years all over the country. Many of them just read as random home invasions with no mention of the candymans name but murders in the same vein did mention his name. Neighbour reports stating they heard really loud banging on the walls and screaming, all of which stopped before police ever arrived. Allison felt herself starting to breathe hard with her hands shaking a little as she went deeper and deeper Into this very real rabbit hole so she decided to call it a night. She managed to get the thoughts out of her head as she got changed and got into bed.

She woke up a few times in the night from bad dreams, the last time she woke up she looked over to where her wardrobe door was slightly ajar, he eyes shot open when she thought she saw the glimmer of a hook which listened in the moonlight coming from behind the door. She reached and turned on her bedside lamp and looked again to see it was just the metal hook of a coathanger on the door knob, she smiled relieved stil breathing hard as she sat for a moment. She finally calmed down and decided to go back to sleep, if she had still been unsure and believed she saw the hook she thought she saw she would have looked closely, if she went to the foot of her bed she would have seen in the floor just below the door a very small collection of blood drops which had dripped from candyman's hook as he whispered her name to wake her up

'... Allison.... '