We're doing something a little different for this account - this is primarily a modern day OC fic and a largely original story set in the universe of the first Candyman film, because I had an idea and I really wanted to see where I could take it. I hope you like it.

Be kind and stay spooky, everyone.

-Inky

She was a volunteer, and she'd said that seven times today. Sophie wasn't sure what part of her suggested authority to the point that other people went straight to her to ask what was going on; she had the baggy blue t-shirt and khakis everyone else in the group were asked to wear, and none of the badges the actual coordinators were wearing.

Maybe it was because she wasn't frightened by this place. Oh, it was certainly daunting - the roof was too high and light poured in from unexplained angles, causing the puddles that shouldn't have formed to glimmer and twinkle against their rotted surroundings. What must have once been great murals were washed away and faded, and all that remained were hints of faces, figures, their definition and detail lost to the ages. The place reeked of death, putrid and sickly-sweet, muted only by the musk of the stagnant water.

Still, Sophie thought as she walked down the long corridor with the rest of her group, there was a beauty to this. The architecture was rotted and decayed, but she had a strong imagination, and she could picture what it must have once been. Somebody had crafted this space, once upon a time, it was just that the story was long over. She placed a hand on one of the walls, tracing the outline of what looked like a painted eye. At her feet were short and fat stubs of wax - the third batch she'd encountered since they'd entered this old structure.

The guide had been mystified when they'd encountered the stubs - just wax, sitting by itself, littered with candy wrappers and rusted straight razors. It had been Sophie who'd identified them; maybe that was why everyone thought she was in charge.

"Candles," she'd said before, in response to the guide's rhetorical question. And they were candles - old wax stubs, dirtied and long past the point of any use. There were at least four batches of candle stubs, melted and burnt into each other, all pressed up to walls and damaged beyond repair.

Just like the rest of this place.

"So what do you make of it?" The arm was around her shoulder before she could realize what was happening, and Sophie instinctively ducked out of the way. Marcus looked disappointed, but she didn't feel particularly guilty; she'd made it very clear she didn't like when people did that.

"What do you mean?"

"This place." He gestured to the area, his other hand going into his pocket. "Hidden away for god knows how long, not even torn down with the rest of Cabrini Green, just left to rot? It seems strange to me." Sophie nodded, reaching up to adjust the tie in her hair. Her curls were falling out again - sometimes she wished they were just a bit more curly, so they'd lock together more and not be so prone to falling out of place. She wasn't entirely sure that was how it worked, but it was a nice fantasy.

"Maybe it was supposed to be hidden," Sophie said, and she honestly believed it. She had felt like an intruder the second she'd come in - like walking into a temple or a synagogue in the middle of service, it was almost as if she had stepped into a holy place. The lights, the water, the candles; they spoke to something that was meant to go undisturbed.

The word "condemned" haunted her as the two guides tossed it back and forth, even though she knew there was nothing she could do to persuade them otherwise.

"Must have been some sort of criminal den or something." Marcus's words pulled her back to reality, and Sophie couldn't help but wince a little. It was true - this had once been Cabrini Green, the housing project that had fallen to notoriously high crime rates and general mismanagement. There was no doubt this could have been one of many hovels that gangs and crime rings had chosen for their rendezvous. It still felt wrong, in a way she couldn't explain, to think of this place as just a lair. This had been something important once - otherwise, why the candles? Why the traces of murals, the candy? "It would explain why everything's gone to shit."

"That's a way of putting it," Sophie said, then looked up to the rest of the group ahead of them. "It looks like we're heading out." She was disappointed even as she said the words; they were supposed to inspect the place over the course of twelve hours, but it had been only six and she was fairly certain she knew the decision that was made. This building - this relic - was doomed.

She hadn't even seen everything."

"You're right," Marcus said, and the two started walking, "guess it doesn't take that long to tell this is beyond saving. Hey, you want coffee after this? My treat."

"No thank you," Sophie said gently, trying not to meet his disappointed gaze. "I have work to catch up on tonight."

"If you say so, but the offer's open this Friday, too. In case you're interested." She wasn't interested - Marcus had blue eyes and the same haircut that Malcolm did, and it would be a long time before she could date somebody who looked like Malcolm. But she didn't say that - for all the problems that weren't really his fault, Marcus had been nothing but kind to her since she'd arrived, and it didn't hold that expectant air of romance as reward. He didn't deserve to deal with her problems. So Sophie smiled at him and pushed a strand of hair from her face.

"That's very sweet of you, Marcus," she said with honesty, "but I'm really not in a place to be dating right now. It's nothing personal, I promise." He nodded, apparently accepting this answer, and gestured to the door ahead of them.

"After you," he said, and when they were both through he smiled. "And alright, I don't want to push anything on you. Maybe we can have pizza with the rest of the group sometime - if you're alright with friends. Real friends, not that friendzoning bullshit. " That got a real smile out of her.

"I'm alright with pizza. You're going to have to introduce me to some folks, though." That was the hard part of moving, of starting over; the whole world was new to her, and she was new to the world of Chicago.

"Not a problem. Does Saturday work?"

"Sounds good to me." They filed into the bus to head back uptown, and Sophie took one last glance at the strange building as they left it behind. The sun was setting, and the pink light left what metal pipes weren't rusted twinkling.

Have you noticed I favor characters whose names end with -y/-ie? Kirsty, Joey, Tiffany, Terri, now Sophie. Huh.

Chapter 10 of The Pin and the Casket is coming soon!