Creation began on 06-30-20

Creation ended on 05-18-21

Candyman

Merciful Mercy: Transgression Forgiven

They had chased him out into the open, people angry because of what they viewed as an abomination in their society. A slave's son romantically involved with a lord's daughter, and worse because their relationship was mutual, an unacceptable blight in their eyes. The daughter's father himself wanted to punish him severely for this transgression. He saw the rusty sawblade and smiled cruelly as another man prepared to cut off his right hand.

"No, please!" Daniel Robitaille begged as more men held down. "Please!"

The rusty blade had made contact with his wrist and he knew he was going to suffer.

"Stop!" They heard a man's voice yell to the mob. "Everyone, stop! Stop!"

They turned to see two people running towards them from the opposite direction. One was a black man and the other a white woman.

"Please, you can't kill him!" The man pleaded to them. "He did nothing wrong!"

"Did nothing wrong?!" The man that wanted him dead responded. "He deflowered my daughter! She's carrying his child! This cannot be forgiven!"

"Yes, it can! Your daughter loves him! Shouldn't her happiness be enough for you to forgive him? Is she happiest when with him?!"

"Father! Please!" They all turned the other and saw the woman that had stolen Daniel's heart away. "Let him go!"

It was Caroline Sullivan, the lord's daughter, with the other dark man and the white woman.

"No," he told his daughter. "He has to pay for his transgression!"

"If you make him pay like this, then how are you any better?" The dark man asked him. "How are any of you any better? Do you really think…that cutting off his hand is making him pay for being in love with someone you don't want him to be in love with? Do you truly believe that your daughter will stop loving him, even if you kill him? You can't control people that are in love. Nobody can. It's impossible. If your daughter truly loves him, then that's her choice. If this man truly loves your daughter, then that's his choice. Nobody forced them. Nobody manipulated them. They just developed feelings for one another."

"How could you possibly know any of this?" A white boy asked him.

"Because he has seen it happen more than once," Helen uttered. "He has seen people fall in love, regardless of what other people say or believe. He can't condemn people for feeling the way they do for other people when they're in love. A white man falls in love with a black woman, a woman from another country falling in love with a man from another country, two men falling in love or two women, he can't and won't condemn them. He can't view any of that as being sick or wrong."

"But," said a white woman, "it is sick and wrong."

"Only if you can't accept it," Brother Correction told her. "If you can't accept it, if you feel what they're doing is some kind of abomination…then maybe they're not the ones that are sick and wrong, don't you think?"

Suddenly, the rusted sawblade that had almost been used to cut Daniel's arm off crumbled to bits, as though it had been so old that it couldn't be used for one more task.

"Even if you can't accept their love, you can never destroy it," he continued to inform the people, walking around them with Helen and Caroline. "You can pretend it never happened, you can claim that this man sullied her, or even spread a rumor that he was out to tarnish your name, but you can't destroy love. You can't bury the feelings these two have for each other. Are you really that hateful to your daughter and her lover…just for being in love?"

The man looked at him, then at his daughter.

"Who are you?" He asked him.

"I'm just a man that has seen people in many ways to know that they are ruled by their emotions," Brother Correction expressed, "and are not always the result of living in a place where they weren't exposed to what was going on around them."

"That sounds like nonsense."

"Can anyone say anything without it sounding like that?"

Then, he looked at Daniel, still distrusting him.

"How can you be certain that he won't do to another woman what he did to my Caroline?"

"Look at him, sir. He doesn't even seem to have it in him to take interest in another woman; if he only has eyes for your daughter, then your daughter is the only person that has his heart, his soul, his very devotion. If he ever betrays her for another woman, that'd be no different from a death sentence, except he wouldn't lose his life, just her love for him."

"I would never betray her," went Daniel. "Never."

"Do you believe him?"

"I do."

Caroline's father then sighed and ordered the men to let Daniel go.

"If he betrays her, this is on you," he warned Brother Correction.

"I will live with that, sir," he responded, and Caroline ran over and hugged Daniel.

-x-

"How can you be certain that Daniel won't be killed later on?" Helen asked Brother Correction as they walked down the undeveloped path away from the Sullivan house; once Daniel had to swear to Brother Correction that he would stay true to Caroline, there was no further need to stick around. "How can you know for sure that Caroline's father wasn't lying about tolerating his future son-in-law?"

"I looked into their eyes," he explained to her. "The eyes are the windows to the soul. Some believe that only God can see into people's souls, but the truth is that anyone with enough clarity can see into other people's souls. Daniel's soul, after he became known as the Candyman, was stained with hatred and sorrow. Before, it was full of acceptance and hope. Now that his fate has been changed, his soul still holds hope. The father's soul is still stained with contempt, but he has no choice but to accept that Caroline is in love with Daniel. By accepting their love for one another, he can begin to tolerate and later accept Daniel as a member of his family."

"And this will undo the creation of the Candyman myth?"

"Yes; by preventing Daniel's murder by a mob and humiliating him in front of Caroline, the story behind the origins of Candyman couldn't be made. No inspirational source, no story, no myth, no supernatural killer."

"I hope you're right about this, I really do."

Brother Correction nodded in the positive; he, too, was also hoping that when he took her back to the present, things will have changed. But all any of them could do was think positive.

-x-

He brought Helen back to the present, but a week before any of the insanity started for her; this would give her time to adjust and resettle into her life. With the major and minor exception being that nobody had any recollection of ever hearing about the Candyman, everything else in the new timeline was the same as before the nightmare started for Helen Lyle. The housing projects were still the same, but were on the way to gentrification, the people that lived in them still had the same behaviors, good and bad, and the days were blended well together for urban life in a city that was changing with the times. But the biggest change was the lack of murals associated with the Candyman myth, replaced by murals of buildings and people, flowers and blue skies, the usual positivity that people longed for.

So far, it seems like everything is doing okay, he thought as he sat down on a park bench, observing the people present. But I'll stick around for a while, just to make sure nobody's getting murdered by a ghost story.

Then, across the playground towards a sandbox, he saw a spiritual being that he didn't expect to see after more than a century ago. It was the soul of Daniel Robitaille, dressed in modern clothing comprised of blue jeans, a dark shirt and sneakers. He didn't appear tortured or driven to harm anyone with a weapon; instead, he seemed at peace, like his life had been met with peace and acceptance.

Thank you, he heard his soul express to him, and he disappeared from sight.

"Merciful mercy," he uttered. "One day, may any and all transgressions be forgiven to free the souls from the bondage of hatred and contempt."

"Excuse me, sir," went a woman pushing a stroller with a baby boy, getting his attention. "Are you a poet?"

"No, ma'am, but I do like poetry," he responded.

"There's a poetry get together happening tonight down the street. You should go."

"Thank you. I'll be there."

One day, may any and all transgressions be forgiven

A/N: I hope that people enjoy this chapter now that it's completed. This ends the horror of the Candyman. Recent events have led to new inspiration and several reinvigorations to persist in what brings joy to one's soul. Peace to all that seek escapism to escape reality's difficulties.