With the weekend ahead of her Allison returned from work on Friday night and got straight back to working on her lesson plan which she had not even started apart from doing the research. With a cup of coffee on her desk she reached into her draw and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, she was never a heavy smoker only when she was working alone at home, it seemed to keep her focused. When she got online she found herself looking for more candyman stories, most read exactly the same as the night before until she stumbled upon the article about the death of Simon almost a week prior. She didn't want to read it as she knew the boy and didn't want to face the Grisly facts and just go on in ignorance about what happened to him that night. But she read it anyway and wiped the tears from her eyes when she was done. When her vision cleared she saw the footer connected which was a link leading to the article about Julie Singer, the teenage girl killed some eight years prior at the exact same location as Simon, Haymen house, the tower block right next to Simon's. She was shocked to discover a similar murder in the same town just three miles from where she was sat. The details were almost beat for beat the same as Simon Banks. She read that the housing complex where Julie was killed was still standing though abandoned.

She sat and thought for a while about what that place would be like right now. Would it tell some kind of story? Or would it have been completely stopped and look like all of the other abandoned flats.

...

She pulled her car into the square of the housing complexes by almost nine pm that night, her camera sat on the passenger seat next to her. She parked up amongst the car's of the residents and got up. Seeing teenagers hanging in the play park drinking, they abandoned complex was beyond them. She made sure she had everything she needed in her messenger bag, torch, camera, pen and writing pad before she walked along the path next to the park.

'Hey babes, where you off to? ' one of the teenagers called after her from the park, she ignored him and kept walking. 'Lovely white thing like you should be careful around here' he added. It unnerved her as he couldn't have been older then fifteen. When she got a good distance away from the park she turned to see that none of them had followed her. She slowed down when she got to the abandoned complex, she grew colder when she searched around the building for an entrance. With her torch brandished in front of her she lit up her way and came across the burned out side entrance. Her torch cut though the light as she held her camera in her other hand she began to take pictures of the graffiti sprayed on the walls. She made herself jump a few times when she would accidently kick a half empty can of beer which spilled something that defiantly didn't smell like beer on the dusty floor. She ventured further along the corridor until she came to the first open flat, taking a look back to make sure her exit was clear just in case things got too much before she went inside. The air inside was much thicker than the rest of the building, dust swirled in the light beam of her torch. It was almost like the domicile itself was breathing in and out. She shone her light around the walls and snapped photos of the graffiti on them. Phrases until anything she had ever seen before. Her surroundings told her she was in what used a living room by the sight of an over turned sofa on the floor. She moved past it and down the corridor to where the bedrooms and bathroom would be, it was very much the same lay out as her condo although her's was more open plan like an American studio apartment. As she walked slow three was a sweet smell in the air which replaced the stench of stale urine from outside the flat, it was getting stronger the closer she moved to the open doorway in her right. The smell reminded her of her childhood when she would go to the fair in the summer with her grandparents but shouldn't quite pin point what it was. She smelled freshly fried sugar coated doughnuts, summertime toffee apples, no it wasn't either of those it was the candyfloss she recalled. She let out a long breath when she saw the hole In the wall above the broken sink which seemed to be a tunnel to the flat four doors away. She stood looking through as the hole got darker and darker the further it went when all of a sudden it seemed the final hole and the room beyond it lit up slow and dimly as though someone had lit a candle. Allison lifted her camera, peering at the view finder she snapped a few pictures before she felt something heavy on her shoulder at the same time she heard the voice close enough to her ear

'What the bloody hell you doing in here?' It bellowed, she screamed.

...

Her cigarette was lit by the detective inspector before he lit his own, he was no older than forty and had a headful of jet back hair which hung slightly to one side. His eyes were brown and deep which almost looked golden in the light of the flame.

'Sorry about that in there, thought you might have been a smack head, an authoritive tone normally sends them packing without any fuss' he explained himself to her.

'I'll try not to be offended by that' Allison said feeling safe with the fact there were two uniformed police officers in the flat and she was stood out in the night with the detective having a smoke.

'I think you know what I mean' he chuckled 'what were you doing in there anyway?' He asked her.

'Just a little research for something I'm writing about' she explained, wouldn't be a lie if she put her research to use now would it?

'I'd be awfully bad at my job if I believed you were writing about run down council flats now wouldn't I?' He said.

'you can believe that if you want, it would make me seem more harmless' she ssssed back at him. 'Actually I read about the murder that took place in there, papers seem to want to point out that Simon Bank's murder was really similar'

The detectives smile faded as he sucked on his teeth and looked about for rouge ears that maybe surveying.

'Not working for the press are you? An apprentice or assistant maybe?' He said in a hushed tone.

'No nothing like that, I'm a English teacher at Barker Grove Comp' she said.

'Good so whatever I say won't end up in the tabloids first thing in the morning will it? ' he asked seeing she was already digging for her note book in her bag, if she was a reporter she was a poorly prepared one at that.

'Not a word trust me, and if I do use anything you tell me I won't mention any names' she assured him.

'Hm, not that it matters anyway as most of my colleagues already know this so it's going to be leaked at some point soon' he said before leaning in closely.

'The bank's murder seemed to match the singer murder almost down to the last detail, one thing we didn't tell the press is that Simon's mother and father heard the lad screaming that someone was coming through the wall. The bathroom door was locked from the inside. The mother heard two different distinct bangs, the ones coming from Simon on the door and the other much louder coming from the wall within. There was a crash and Simon let out a high pitched shriek before both parents heard the sound of hacking and grunting and they said it wasn't the grunting from their son'

Allison's heart started to beat hard against her ribcage as she listened to the details the papers didn't know about her former student.

'I went back and listened to the singer emergency call and it matched how Mrs banks described her sons murder'

'Thinking copycat or the same man?' She asked taking down notes in her own way of what the detective told her.

'Too early to tell for sure but it makes perfect sense to be the same sick fuck doesn't it?'

'The candyman?... '

He scoffed at the mention of the name 'you're not one of those are you? ' he asked but she responded fast.

'I know it sounds silly but aside from all the myths and supernatural stigmas that follow on from them but... what if somebody has taken the name? What if the candyman does actually exists?' She asks.

'That's something that's been floating around the station for years but we can't lead with that because of what that name has become. Maybe it is some nutter who loves being known by that name but we need him and his real name, not some shocking headline'

'Understandable but you do know that if you do apprehend him the headline WILL say 'Candyman Caught' in big bold black letter splattered all over the front page' she said with conviction.

'You know for a teacher I'd say you're being underpaid' he smiled 'well look I got to get back in there and get my job done, if there's anything more I can help you with, within reason of course give me a call' he said handing her a card emblazoned with his name; DI Aiden Todd. She stared at it for a moment and called him before he went back inside.

'Detective? What are you actually doing in that flat?' She asked.

'Like Its said, both murders match, so we need to see if there was something we missed six years ago, have fun with your paper'

As Allison made her way back to the car, the gang of youths in the park were looking in her direction so she tried her best to make herself look calm and paced as she walked, as she passed the young black boy stepped forward out of the group.

'Don't go looking for him' he said, his tone had changed from before. 'Don't bring him out'

She stood for a moment and just looked at him, them, all their faces were the same, blank with fear in their eyes. She walked on to her car.

That night she was far too tired to get on with any work at all so she called it a night and went to bed after leaving her photos of that night to upload on her laptop. She started to doze, eyes getting heavier, not even the tapping of a bee trying to enter her room through the window swayed her.