When Daniel Robitaille, or as he was known now in days, the Candyman, witnessed the final painting from his human life burned to ashes by his descendent Caroline and found himself in flames as well, he wasn't worried in the slightest. With his lover's mirror destroyed, that painting was the last physical connection he had to this world and yet he remained calm. Even without these objects, he still had one thing he could count on to keep him alive.

His legend. The harrowing tale of his life and death at the hands of madmen. The ghost story that filled the hearts of the men and women of Cabrini-Green with fear. The myth that became all too real for those that dared to sway the true believers. That legend would ensure that the Candyman would return to the mortal realm soon enough, ready to shed some more innocent blood in order to strengthened its power.

But as for right now, that would have to wait. The Candyman was currently wandering down the corridors of a strange and desolate place he had never been before. What it was, he did not know, but somehow, someway, he could tell he was not on Earth.

"Perhaps this is purgatory." He theorized. "A limbo for my soul to wander before my congregation beckons me back to the world of the living."

As he walked on, every now and then, he would pass by a hooked chain. The chains seemed to dangle from an impossibly high ceiling that he could not see no matter how hard he looked up. Most of them were clean but there were a few with pieces of bleeding flesh and skin skewered on them. Every so often, Candyman would hear the distant sound of screaming. Having become quite used to the sound of screaming as well as blood and gore, the Candyman didn't feel the least bit afraid of his new dwelling. If anything, he only felt annyonce.

"How long will it take before someone calls my name and frees me?" He asked himself out loud. It was then that another voice answered. from behind, it's sound all so very close to his own.

"It matters not who call upon your name, where they call upon it, or how many times they call upon it." Candyman turned around and saw a figure slowly approaching him from the darkness. "The fact that you are here means they will never be answered.

As the figure came closer to him, Candyman was able to take in his strange appearance. The being, a male by the looks of it, wore a black cassock with openings that left his stomach and several places of his chest exposed. The latter was harder to notice on account of the strips of flesh hooked over the wounds underneath the places on the chest they were supposed to be. The red squares Candyman thought were part of the cassock at first were actually the man's exposed tissue.

What really caught the Candyman's attention, however, were the pins adorning the man's entire head, each one nailed into the intersection of a grid-shaped pattern on his face. They were deep enough to be digging into his skull and yet the man seemed completely unfazed by this. If he felt even the slightest bit of pain, he was hiding it very well.

"Who are you?" Candyman asked. "No, what are you?"

"An explorer in the outer reaches of experience. A demon to some and an angel to others." The man's face darkened. "For you, however, I am simply your jailer."

"Jailer?" Candyman repeated with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Are you saying you intend to keep me here? Wherever here might be?"

"Here has many names." The pinned being answered. "The Labyrinth. The Realm of Leviathan. I believe you humans mostly refer to it as Hell."

Candyman's eyes widened as that last word rang in his head. "Hell." He thought. "Did he say Hell? Is this place...really Hell? No. It can't be. Where are the flames? Where are the devils?"

"Confused?" The being asked as if he could read the Candyman's thoughts. "Most humans are the first time around. It's understandable. They live their entire lives under the delusion of a Christian Hell full of demons and fire." The being chuckled slightly to himself. "Such a limited imagination. "

For the first time in decades, Candy felt a twinge of what once might call fear in his heart. He noticed it and quickly swallowed it. There was no need for a being like him to be afraid. The very idea was laughable. "So tell me," He spoke again. "Is this not a place of torment then?"

To the Candyman's surprise, the pinned being burst into a fit of laughter. "Such impudence. What you call torment is only but a shadow. A single piece of a vast endless puzzle." The being turned his attention toward a hooked chain hanging to his left and softly caressed it. His fingers reddened with the gore covering the chain and once his hand had reached the jagged hook at the end, he slowly but intentionally pushed his palm into it. Blood flowed from his palm as he gently pulled it away, the hook keeping a piece of his skin and flesh to itself as the chain slightly swayed.

The pinned being looked back up at the Candyman and held up his injured hand, an expression of pleasure on his face as opposed to agony. "This will be your new reality." He cooed. "You will be as you humans call tormented, yes, but in time you will learn to love the pain. To cherish it." He put his hand back down. "To worship it."

Candyman felt anger well up inside of him and brandished his hook. "I don't know who you are or what you plan to do but I am the one who is worshipped. Not the other way around. Be my victim!"

The pinned being replied to Candyman's declaration of war with yet another amused chuckle as he spread his arms. "Ah. Good. A fight." The being casually moved his head toward the Candyman and the hooked chain he had just practically degloved himself on not but a moment ago came to life, lunging toward the Candyman at a speed which would have been impossible for a normal human souls to dodge.

But Daniel Robitaille was no longer a normal human soul.

The Candyman teleported out of the chain's path and reappeared behind the pinned being. He wedged the tip of his hook into the being's back, expecting to hear a cry of pain. The most he was able to get out of the being, however, was a low groan. Candyman lifted him off the ground and let him slide a little deeper into the curve of the hook. He brought his lips to the being's ear and whispered. "Now do you see why they fear my legend? Speak my name in hushed whispers in the dead of night? It is because of my power!" With that final shout, Candyman slammed the pinned being against the wall with enough force to break through.

The being fell on the other side, the pins on the right side of his face either bending against the floor or drilling deeper into his skull with no in-between. Candyman watched with amusement as the being picked himself off the floor, a single pin falling out of his face. Whatever pain the being must have been in before was surely doubled several times over now and Candyman smiled as the being looked up at him, expecting to see a face of agony. His smile and amusement vanished when instead, the being laughed even harder than before.

"How divine!" The being said as he traced his fingertips over the gaping hole where his missing pin once rested and licked up the resulting blood with just the smallest hint of arousal in his eyes. "This pain is simply exquisite. It would seem you are adapting quite well to our ways." The being snapped his fingers and more hooked chains flew toward the Candyman. With his powers of teleportation, he was able to dodge most of the chains, but not all. Two chains hooked themselves into his legs and one into his back. He screamed out in pain as the chains held him into place, somehow keeping him from teleporting.

"But there's still so much to learn." The pinned being walked over the portion of wall still standing and stood before the bound Candyman, blood sporting a rather bloody grin. "Do not fear. I will teach you."

"Be my victim!" Candyman shouted again as an entire swarm of bees suddenly burst out of the empty cavity that was once his chest. The swarm engulfed the pinned being at once, stabbing his flesh repeatedly with their tiny stingers.

Caught off guard by the sudden emergence of these insects flying insects, the pinned being stepped back from Candyman as he tried in vain to swat them away. This gave Candyman enough time to use his hook to wrench out the chains binding him. Once he was freed, he called his bees back and the swarm, already having brought their target down, surrounded their master.

Candyman stepped up to the wounded man before him, taking in the sight of the swelling flesh all over his body. His left eye, having been pierced by the bee's stingers, was oozing its innards down the his cheek. The Candyman smiled to see such gore and asked him "How's that for pain?"

Once again, his elation in the suffering of his enemy was dispersed when the being smiled in response. "As I said, you have much to learn of the ways of agony!"

Growing impatient of this display, Candyman dropped his composure and charged at the man, intending to run his hook through his stomach. Just as he was about to fulfill this wish of his, however, the pinned being vanished from the hook's path and reappeared behind the Candyman. The Candyman was quick to notice what had happened and turned to face his enemy, bewildered.

"Surprised?" The pinned being asked. "You are not the only being with the gift of teleportation. No. Not at all." The being suddenly held a hand out to the Candyman, the same bloody hand he had ripped open on his own chain not too long ago. "Now it's time for your first lesson in pain. Lesson 1: Not all pain is physical."

"Wha-" Was all the Candyman was able to utter before the space between him and the pinned being exploded, sending him flying several feet backward through countless walls. His swarm had been blown apart by the blast as well and after what seemed like an eternity of crashing through walls, the Candyman finally landed on solid ground.

He tried to open his eyes, but the Sun's rays forced them to close back up. Wait...the Sun? Candyman held his remaining hand over his eyes and reopened them slowly. From behind his brown fingers, he could see sunlight outlining the shape of his hand. Once his eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness, he got to his feet and surveyed his new bearings.

He was in a field of some kind. He could make out rolling hills at the far end and to his left a tree. The sky, while bright, gave off the impression of either early morning or late evening, which was the case he couldn't be sure nor could he put his finger on why this place seemed so familiar.

"Where am I?" Candyman asked himself. He looked around again and again but could not so much as a trace of the pinned being or the hellish dimension he was trapped not but a minute ago. He smiled as the thought that he had somehow escaped Hell crossed his mind. "It would seem I have escaped my would-by jailer after all." He laughed. "I'm back on Earth and now it's time to begin my legend anew. Now I just need to find out where exactly am I."

It was then that Candyman heard the sound of shouting and screaming from under the hill he was on. He looked down to see a mob of white folk running after a black man with torches and pitchforks. His eyes narrowed at the disgusting display but widened once he realized who that black man was.

It was him. The man running from the mob was none other than Daniel Robitaille himself.

With his heart growing heavier with fear by the second, Candyman realized with horror that what he was looking at was in fact his own day of reckoning. The day he lost everything. His love. His child. His life.

"No...No!" He shouted as he rushed after the mob. By the time he reached them, they had already stripped his counterpart and were preparing to saw off his right hand, the hand that he used to paint Caroline the night they consummated their love.

"No!" With a mighty lunge, Candyman thrust his hook into the man sawing off his counterpart's hand., hoping to fling him in the air like a ragdoll. But instead, the hook which had taken so many lives simply went through the man. The man took no notice and completed his gruesome task, laughing with glee as Daniel's hand fell helplessly to the ground, never to hold a paintbrush again.

"What is happening!?" Candyman tried to impale Caroline's father but the same thing happened. He tried to gut the boy who would give him his nickname and the woman who provided the honey they were about the slather Daniel with. No matter what he did, he could not cut anyone in the mob. No one even seemed to notice his presence as they went about slathering Daniel in honey while chanting "Candyman! Candyman! Candyman! Candyman! Candyman!"

"Nooo!" Candyman wailed. "This cannot be! How could this be happening!?" Candyman's cries were drowned out by the buzzing of a thousand bees flying toward the group. Terrified, if only for a moment, the mob made way for the insects whose souls would eventually be bound to Candyman forever and watched as they swarmed over their future master. He was stung all over his body repeatedly, crying out for help that would never come. As if he realized this, Daniel stopped screaming and allowed the bees to finish. Once they had consumed or gathered all of the honey on his body, the swarm flew back into the sky, the black cloud of death having not shrunk but an inch even as it left all its dead and dying behind.

"What has that bastard done to me?" Candyman thought. "It must be his doing! There's no other explanation!" Candyman's thoughts were interrupted again, this time by the familiar voice of his beloved as she came running down the hill and toward his counterpart. He watched in horror and sadness and she tried to reach out for her lover only to be held back by the mob.

"Caroline." He uttered.

"No! No!" Caroline screamed as her father approached the dying and disgraced Daniel with a mirror.

"You'll all be damned!" Daniel cried in agony.

"You defiled my daughter!" The man replied as he gripped Daniel's chin and forced him to face the mirror. "Could she even look at you now!?"

Daniel examined his stinger-filled face for a moment before turning back to Caroline one last time, uttering "Candyman." and passing on.

"No! Nooo!" Caroline screamed as she broke out of the men's grip, grabbed the mirror from her father's hands, and ran away from the mob, weeping all the while. Candyman, equally horrified and saddened at being forced to witness his own death, followed her.

Caroline stopped once she was several feet away from the mob and looked back down at the mirror. The reflection of her now deceased lover flickered like a light before vanishing forever. Crying, she held the mirror close and called out his name. "Daniel! Daniel!"

"I'm here Caroline!" Candyman cried out, tears streaming down his own cheeks. "I am here!"

Caroline didn't hear him. Instead, she continued to weep into the sky.

"Please hear me Caroline! I'm here!" Candyman tried to embrace her, only to pass right through her. He tried again and again but each result was the same. No matter how badly he wanted to, he could not comfort his beloved and upon realizing this, he joined her in crying out into the sky. "Whhhhhhhyyyyy!"

"Because it is Hell's way." The voice of the pinned being spoke. Candyman veered around to see himself, Daniel Robitiallie, covered in bee stings and bleeding from the stump where his right hand, his painting hand, once rested. Through his swollen bloodied lips, the being's voice spoke. "I told you not all pain is physical. One might even say it is the wounds of our souls that cause the most agony."

"Bastard!" Candyman roared as he lunged at the being speaking through his body. He was not able to come within a single foot of the being before a dozen hooked chains suddenly ensnared themselves to his flesh. He screamed in agony as the chains suspended him in the air. He tried to rip them off with his hook, only to find that his hooked arm was also suspended. He was trapped and helpless.

"It was this very agony of the soul that made you what you are. That forged your legend." The being spoke again, Daniel's already broken flesh melting off of his body to reveal his true form. The Sun overhead fell victim to an eclipse that blanketed the land with shadows and from these shadows emerged the corridors and chains where Candyman's journey into damnation had begun. From the corner of his eye, Candyman was able to see "Caroline" shed her fair skin as well, the being that emerged was still female as far as he could tell but she looked a lot more like the pinned being, bald with a giant wound in her throat. "But now the legend has died and your soul has nowhere else to go but with us."

"What are you talking about?" Candyman grunted. The pinned being approached him, pulled the pin from the very top of his scalp, and presented it to the Candyman. "See for yourself." With this, he slowly pushed the pin into Candyman's forehead, causing him to see visions.

Visions of his decedent Caroline blaming all of his murders, all of his bloodshed, on a man named Samuel Decon Kraft. Visions of the news outlets riding with this lie and letting the whole world in on the facade. He watched the whispers in the classrooms grow silent, the writing on the walls wash away, and his followers move on with their lives. He watched in horror as his legend slowly withered and died.

"Noooooo!" Was all the Candyman could scream as the two mutilated beings watched on with indifference. "Do not mourn your fate." The female cooed. "You have simply traded in your old existence for a new one. One that in time you will come to love as we all have."

"Indeed." The male agreed. "We have such sights to show you. But first, you must look the part." With that the male lifted up his hand with his fingers ready to snap.

"Welcome to the family Daniel." The female whispered as the Candyman continued to scream. "Welcome home."

At the snap of the fingers, the chains flew apart.