Return of the Candymaker

Synopsis:   It’s true demons can be exorcised or banished but the Candymaker leaves a trinket.   Though it may seem insignificant, he leaves behind a piece of candy.   Once ingested, a host becomes the Candymaker.   Dependent on how evil and twisted a host is, Candymaker can be hard to exorcise, but he always finds ways of responding. 

Chapter 1—Ooh, Bubblegum !  

It was Halloween 2021.   Trunk or treats were popular, but kids would double their score of candy by going from house to house, masks or not.   The Candymaker hadn’t been seen in a good, long while and any ramblings, ravings or iterations of his story had all but been forgotten, save for a few that were wise to his sinister traps.    

There was a terrible punk named Tory who loved pushing other kids around.  He would make the more limber, agile, flexible kids in his ‘crew’ take whatever candy they could get.   Also, if Tory didn’t like a certain kind of candy, he’d give it to the least popular kid in his group.  

Tory was an outright bully who never took heed of authority and often found himself in trouble.   He was only looking for scores of delicious candies to fill his prepubescent body and he didn’t care who he knocked out of the way to get what he wanted.   

While walking to the supposed ‘haunted house’ in the neighborhood, there was a singular piece of bubblegum in a metallic hot pink wrapper simply waiting to be plucked from the streets.    Everyone knew it would be tainted, but the 5 second rule still applied.   It hadn’t been trampled into the asphalt, so, according to logic, it must still be potable.   

‘Ooh, bubblegum !  My favorite !’, Tory thought to himself.    None of the other kids seemed remotely interested or even drawn to the shiny gumball, but Tory thought one candy shouldn’t hurt his appetite for more candies later.    

Chapter 2—Tory, You Don’t Look So Good 

Tory always ate gumballs even if one wasn’t supposed to.    He had been patient enough with the loads of candy he had just piling atop one another in his pillowcase.    

The gum went down easy enough into his stomach but once digested, Tory began to feel cramps, pain and twinges of agony rippling through him.    One of his cohorts, Clarence, noticed that Tory looked horribly pale.    His normally rotund appearance had become gaunt, wan, jaundiced, and terribly emaciated.   

‘Tory, you look like shit.’, he said, too concerned to be afraid of the consequences his empathy would arouse in his fearless leader.   

‘Feel like it too, Clarence…My stomach feels like it’s going to explode…’, Tory said.   Right in front of all the boys, the most terrifying transformation had occurred.    The once corpulent preteen had become a horrifying neon-pink haired smiling entity.   

‘Tory ?’, another boy, named Marcus squeaked. 

‘Torrence isn’t here.  Leave your message after the beep.’, the Candymaker guffawed manically.     

‘What did you do with him ?’, the youngest among them shakily queried.    

‘Screw that, run !’, Marcus yelled, gathering his friend’s hand and beginning to leave the abysmal, twisted horror that was Tory behind.     Clarence followed blindly, hoping he hadn’t been followed, but they didn’t understand that once given a new vessel, the Candymaker was a powerful demonic force to be reckoned with.   

Chapter 3—Where Ya’ll Goin’ ?

‘Where ya’ll goin’ ?   The party’s just gettin’ started !’, the Candymaker howled as he appeared in front of them.   All of them swore in fright, and the youngest among them, Rico, sadly, wet himself in fear.    None of them jeered him, because if they were honest about their feelings at this moment, they were all petrified.   

‘I just adopted this new frame.  Ah, youth.  I can handle this.   Looks like your friend was one twisted mother.   Oh, ho, ho, too delicious and devilish for my cruel intentions !’, Candymaker chortled.    The Candymaker himself was very snazzily dressed in fuchsia pinstripes and a neon pink bow.   His shoes were wingtip, Italian leather, and royal purple suede.   

‘Give Torrence back !’, Rico demanded.  

‘I have no intentions of doing that, Rico.’, the demon jeered.   

‘How do you know him, or us ?’, Marcus protested, angrily balling his fists.   They all wanted to fight to get this insane monster to return their leader to them, even if it meant being beaten down the rest of their lives to be a part of his ‘gang’ and subject to his insults.   

‘Oh, I see a lot of things, even in larval form.   I can never die.    When I do get slain, I simply respawn as something yummy.   Tory was just a moron who couldn’t resist the allure of bubblegum…’, Candymaker explained.    

‘Fuck you !  Give him BACK !’, Clarence yelled at the top of his lungs.    The youngster had a pistol with him.    Among the gang, he was the eldest and could operate guns with no trouble.   He always carried a piece on him and never had to use it, until today. 

Chapter 4—A Quick Meal 

Candymaker simply laughed derisively at this young rebel’s attempt to ‘gain back his friend’.   Loyal and trusting to a fault, Clarence was one that could always be counted upon to stand behind his buddies, even if they were narcissistic fiends.     

‘Look, it’s all been real.   It’s been fun, but I’m starvin’.   Normally I don’t go about eating in this way because, frankly, it’s grotesque.    You give me no choice.’, the demon said, revealing jagged teeth behind an ominous, gnarled grin.     It was worse than the maw of a tiger.  It was as if a Great White blended with a Tiger, a buzz saw and a thousand jigsaws whirring all in harmony.

The symphony of grinding metal cogs was heard as the entity rushed them, devouring them where they stood, not so much as spilling one drop of blood.   

Clarence was all that was left, and he boldly stood his ground.   He showed no hint of fear but sweat bedecked his brow. 

‘You’re lucky I’m sated.   There’s no more room.   Lower that miniature canon, son.   It won’t work on me.’, Candymaker said, turning on his heel and vanishing.    Clarence looked around him and let out a primal scream.     All  his friends had been taken from him.   Tears ran down his face.    He had no family to turn to that he knew of.   To this end, he repented of being a follower and became a leader.   He chose the path of righteousness and decided to learn about how demons could be defeated.   

Chapter 5—Hunting Down the Candymaker 

Clarence had never thought that the Candymaker had an origin, but he began doing his research not long after he began his new route along the pathway of light.    He became a doctor of divinity, helped street kids like himself make good end roads so they didn’t end up in the wrong place or worse and even grew up and had a family of his own (with a few foster kids, besides).    

Clarence was decidedly a good man, but he always felt guilt over Torrence.    He decided he would learn where the Candymaker would be next and knew that Halloween was the time of year the demon was most active.    He had corralled a team of exorcists but known that Torrence’s soul would be the only part of him saved once the demon had been compelled from its host.     

It took a few years to find where the Candymaker had been feasting upon innocent children’s energy, but once Clarence found it, he took a bus full of priests, pastors, counselors, spiritual advisors, and anyone even remotely familiar with exorcism ritual to come along with him for the ride.    It would be one event that he wanted filmed to prove that demonic activity was real.   Not just faked TikToks done for clout or set up for clicks and views, but proof positive that the paranormal could no longer be ignored, particularly not in quiet small towns.   

It was in an alleyway that the group, humorously enough called The Righteous Brothers and Sisters, convened.    Candymaker had recently consumed a group of trick or treaters and a toddler was toddling away as fast as her baby legs would carry her.   Fortunately, she ran past the Righteous Brothers and Sisters and straight home, which wasn’t far away from where she had gotten her stash of goodies.   

‘You again.   I never thought I’d see your face, Clarence.’, the Candymaker wryly replied.   He was unamused, particularly that the former antagonist had taken the route of holiness versus one of pain, disappointment, and sorrow.  

‘I know I can’t retrieve Tory’s body, but it’s his soul I’m saving.’, Clarence said.   He had a silver cross tightly gripped in his right hand.   A piece of iron horseshoe, tourmaline, malachite, black obsidian, black onyx, smoky quartz, hematite, tiger’s eye, kyanite, labradorite, shugenite, quartz, selenite and amythest were all in his necklace to ward off the evil eye as well as keep negativity from touching him.    

‘Crystal wizardry.   Oooh, I’m shakin’ in my spats.’, mocked Candymaker.   

‘We’re all armed, and we have the Word.’, a nun said, wisely.    The Candymaker showed a twinge of uncertainty.   With the Latin, Aramaic, and Greek chants, he could feel his form being torn piece by piece separately from Torrence’s soul.    

Chapter 6—Vacuumed Containment 

Once Candymaker was ripped in twine from Tory’s soul, Tory’s soul was redeemed and flew straight to heaven.   Clarence couldn’t help but weep knowing his friend had earned an eternal rest.   He wondered what kind of life Tory could’ve led but knew such spiraling thoughts would make him feel depressed.     Best to leave Tory to sort things out in the afterlife.   

One of the pastors had a vacuumed mason’s jar and immediately took the respawned Candymaker in the form of a Milky Way into the containment.   Another cardinal took fresh holy water and poured it inside.   A horrible yowl could be heard as the candy bar burst into flame as well as the jar itself.    It melted from sheer heat and then turned to ash.   Whatever hope of respawning the Candymaker had was now moot.   He was truly gone forever.   

Epilogue 

Though the victory itself felt somewhat empty, each member of the Righteous Brothers and Sisters went back to their ‘typical’ lives.    Clarence could breathe a sigh of relief.   He returned to doing what he was more comfortable with; helping troubled kids and teens.   As for his family, they were proud of what he had done, even if inwardly, Clarence felt he could’ve done more.    Yet, Clarence accepted everything had happened as it was intended to and owed another day on the Earth to God, who had saved him from a life of criminal intentions.  

The End