The Man with The Candle

Mark enters his house after work. As he enters he greets his three friends, Kevin, Roger, and Steve, who are watching TV in the living on the lower level. Steve is also sewing a pair of pants. Mark notices they’re watching Evil Dead. “Hey, you started without me.”

Roger yells back, “Well, you were late. You haven’t missed much. Get changed and join us. Steve was about to sew us all scarves."

"Will you stop with that crap, sewing is a very useful skill." Steve says.

Roger and Steve go back and forth about sewing being unmanly as Mark goes downstairs to his bedroom and begins to get undressed. He opens his closet door and starts to unbutton his pants when he hears something moving behind a little door in the back of his closet. He’s startled by the noise and looks into his closet nervously. Suddenly something pushes against the door. Mark jumps back as the door starts to shake violently and then stops. Mark stares down the door before approaching it slowly. He reaches forward undoes the hatch and opens the door. As soon as he does a girl jumps out tackling Mark. As she does she screams “Surprise!” They hit the floor hard and it takes him a moment to realize that his girlfriend, Megan, was on top of him. “Megan! I thought you weren’t coming back till next week.”

Megan smiles, “I came back a little early to surprise you. Are you surprised?”

"Very. What the hell is wrong with you? You know I’m already nervous about having a crawlspace in the back of my closet. I almost had a heart attack.”

"That’s why it’s funny."

"Well as long as it’s funny. So are you watching the movies with us?

"Yep. The boys are letting me stay.”

"Well then we better get out there they’ve started without us.”

Mark and Megan join the other three. Roger notices them walk in. “Did you get him good?”

Steve pipes up without taking his eyes off the TV screen. “Must’ve we could hear him yelling from here.”

Mark and Megan sit down and start watching the movie with the rest of the guys.  The five of them watch the movie together. They’ve reached the part in the Evil Dead where the characters start reading from the book when Megan speaks up. "Never read a dead language aloud. Chances are you're letting something evil into the house."

Mark agrees "Very true."

Roger says quietly. "Sometimes it takes less than that to get evil in the house."

Steve gets curious. "What do you mean?"

Roger replies hesitantly "Well there's the man with the candle."

"Who?" asks Kevin.

Roger gets a serious expression on his face. "You guys haven't heard of The Man with The Candle?" The rest of them shake their heads, No. "He takes people. Snatches ‘em up, drags ‘em away. No one knows where or what he does to them. And all he carries is a rope and a single burning candle. But he can only get you if you call out to him. If you happen to know his name."

Steve asks "What's his name?"

"You sure you wanna know? They say once his name is spoken in a home he won't leave till he's taken everyone in it."

"How? He’d have to force us to say his name." Megan asks.

"He has his ways."

"We'll take our chances. What's his name?" Kevin demands.

"Alright you guys asked for it. His name is... Candle Jack."

Everyone stays silent for a moment waiting for something to happen when suddenly the doorbell rings and startles the whole group.

"That must be Candle Jack with the pizza." Kevin says sarcastically.

Kevin gets up retrieves and pays for the pizza. He brings it out and sets it on the kitchen counter and everyone else heads up to the kitchen. Roger is the last up the stairs. He's about to join the others when suddenly his neck is snagged by a noose thrown from the lower level. The noose tightens and pulls Roger down to the ground. He's then dragged halfway down the stairs yelling when the others notice what has happened. They run for Roger as he's dragged down to the lower living room and towards the fireplace. The group catches up to him and grabs him to pull him back but they can't. The fireplace erupts in flame and Roger is tugged hard towards the fire. The group tries to hold on to him. Mark looks at the fireplace to try and see what's pulling him. He sees a hand covered in a dark canvas glove reach out of the fire and grab the rope tighter. The rope is tugged even harder towards the fire. The force of the tug knocks back the group and Roger is dragged slowly into the fireplace causing his body to catch fire. The guys reach for him again but his whole body is covered in flame. He screams as he's dragged deeper and deeper disappearing in the flames. The rest of the group stands staring at the fireplace in disbelief and shock.

"What the hell was that? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Kevin yells.

"It must've been him.  The man with the candle." Steve says quietly.

"That's ridiculous!" Kevin responds.

"Is it? He said his name out loud and then look what happened. Now he's in the house." Steve says.

"Did anyone else say it?" Mark asks.

Kevin speaks up. "I did."

That moment a noose is tightened around Kevin's neck and it lifts him off the ground then jerks him down quick snapping his neck. Kevin's body goes limp and he's carried by the rope into the dark ceiling. The rest of them scream and run into the next room. Steve paces a little and then finally speaks. "I'm not staying here."

"No one else has said his name maybe we're safe" Mark says.

"No. Didn't you hear Roger? He's not gonna leave us alone until he has us. Well I'm not letting that happen." Steve proclaims and then rushes out of the room.

Mark and Megan follow Steve carefully as he heads to the front door and tries to leave. The door won't open. Neither will the door to the garage. They go to the back glass door and it won't slide open. "I'm sick of this! I'm leaving this house!" Steve yells. And then grabs something heavy and busts the sliding door glass. "You guys coming?"

Megan and Mark are both hesitant to leave the house. Steve won't wait and goes outside into the dark backyard. He walks over to the back gate and tries to open it and of course it won't open. Steve gets fed up and jumps the gate. He looks around on the other side and revels in escaping. "Ha! I'm out! You can't get me now Candle Jack!"

Mark and Megan are still inside when they see Steve run up to the broken glass door panicked. "Help!" he yells. Mark notices that Steve is being pulled backwards by a rope around his neck. He runs up to him and tries to undo the rope and pull him back. He looks outside and deep in some bushes he sees a canvas face with big white eyes and a sewn shut mouth flickering in the light of a single candle. Mark continues to help Steve when the rope starts digging deeper into his neck cutting into his skin. Blood begins gushing out of Steve's neck till eventually Steve goes limp and drops on the ground. Mark backs away from him as he's dragged into the night. Mark goes to Megan who's shaking and panicking. "He's gonna get us. He's gonna get us. We're gonna say his name and he'll come."

Mark tries getting her under control. "No we're not saying his name. You hear me? No matter what we won't say his name." Just as he finishes talking they hear a scratching nearby. They look towards the noise and see something being carved on the wall. The carving spells out Candle Jack. Just as the carving finishes another starts in a different area, then another. Carving begins appearing on multiple walls. Mark and Megan watch it happen in bewilderment. Megan reaches out to a wall where a carving is in progress. She touches the etched letters and then they continue on her hand. The name Candle Jack is getting cut into her skin. She begins to scream in pain as more cuts start on her other arm. Mark watches in horror not sure what he can do to help. Megan grabs her stomach in pain and lifts her shirt up revealing more cuts on her stomach. She drops to the ground screaming and bleeding. She looks up to Mark in immense pain. "I can't take it anymore." she says.

Mark's eyes go wide, "No Megan. Don't!"

"I'm sorry" she replies with a tear running down her face. "Candle Jack."

The cuts on her body stop and the room goes silent. All the lights start fading out. Mark sees a shadowy figure approach Megan, holding a candle. The candle lights up Megan's face as the figure bends down to look at her. The candle reveals the man with the candle’s canvas face. Megan sees the man and her heavy breathing blows out the candle then the whole room gets dark and they're both gone, leaving Mark alone in the house. He drops to the ground hopelessly. He remains on the floor his eyes fixed on the spot where Megan was just sitting. He’s stuck in a daze when he starts to hear laughing coming from the lower living room. Mark reluctantly stands up and looks downstairs. He sees what looks like Roger sitting in the arm chair laughing. Slowly Mark approaches him. "Roger?" there's no answer just continued laughing. As Mark gets closer he notices Rogers skin is dark grey. "Don't say his name." Roger says and then keeps laughing.

Mark moves to one side of Roger and sees his face is horribly burnt. "Don't you say his name." Roger says again without acknowledging Mark. Mark looks at Roger in horror then he's suddenly grabbed from behind. He spins and sees a grey and sunken eyed Kevin staring at him. "Don't say it!" Kevin says.

Mark yells and runs upstairs. On a nearby side table he sees a single candle sitting by itself with a small note next to it. The note reads "Join us, Mark." Mark looks at the note in disgust. "Never. You won't get me!" Mark looks around and sees Steve's sewing kit sitting on the coffee table. "You're not getting me." Mark grabs the kit, runs to his room, sits on the ground and opens it up. He gets a needle and thread ready and holds it up to his mouth. He sticks his lips out a little and gets himself ready then finally pierces his bottom lip with the needle. As the needle pokes out of his bottom lip he pierces it through his upper lip and slowly and painfully pulls the string through. Trying to deal with the blood and pain, Mark stabs into his lips again and continues trying to sew his mouth shut. He gets himself through a couple of rows. Suddenly he hears something move from inside his closet. He looks intensely back at it. Whatever is inside starts moving closer. His closet door slowly slides open and he can see the small door in the back of the closet open as well. The grey body of a woman comes crawling out towards Mark. She has the words Candle Jack scarred all over her body. Mark is frozen in terror as a grey Megan continues moving towards him. Eventually she crawls onto Mark and stares at him with her dark sunken eyes. She takes the strings that Mark was using, in her fingers. Mark's eyes go wide as she begins tugging on the strings trying to undo Mark's work. Mark yells muffled yells of pain. Finally he slaps her away and knocks her back. As soon as he does she springs back and holds him down. She grabs the string and violently pulls it back, ripping the stitches out of Mark's mouth. Mark howls in pain and looks up and Megan is gone. The whole room is dark. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a candle flame flicker. He sees The Man with the Candle standing in his room's doorway waiting. Mark stares him down and then gets himself up approaching The Man. He looks him right in the eyes and grabs his candle. He looks at it and says “Candle…” he then looks back up in the Man’s canvas eyes and drops the candle on a pile of clothes next to his closet that quickly catches on fire. It spreads through the room. Mark stares The Man with the Candle down as the whole house begins to burn around them.

Months later a realtor is showing a couple with a small child the empty house. She explains that there was a fire on the lower level but that it has been rebuilt. The realtor mentions that there was some deaths in the house and that she could supply more details if they requested it. But the couple doesn't go in for all that suspicious nonsense so they don't care. Meanwhile the kid explores the house and sees something scribbled on a wall inside the closet of a bedroom downstairs. He calls to his mom "Mom, there's something written on the wall down here." The Mother shouts back “Come back over with us, please.”

The boy ignores her and tries to look closer at the scribbles trying to decipher it. He whispers the words to himself then the crawl space door suddenly swings open and the closet slides shut with the boy inside. The couple and the realtor come rushing in after the noise. At first the Father struggles to get the closet door open. When he finally does there is no one inside just a single lit candle illuminating two words scratched on the wall.

End.