The Man with a Hat

Jack was walking down a neighborhood, smoking a cigarette on his own. Minding his business. When a man with a hat came running towards him out of nowhere, he was screaming and he looked terrified.

Jack: What is going on? Are you okay?

Man with a hat: Please help me. I just escaped from that house. 

The man with a hat had no breath, he was tired from running but he still was able to point towards a beautiful two floor home.

Jack: Calm down, and explain to me what just happened?

The man with a hat takes a deep breath. He tries to calm down but he looks really scared and in shock.

Man with a hat: There are ten men inside that house and they have a child, a little girl. They have kidnapped her, I don’t know what they are going to do with her, but we have to help her right now.

Jack: Holy fuck.

Jack gets scared immediately and his first thought is to help the little girl.

Jack: We need to help her, now. I would suggest we call the cops but they won’t arrive in time, we need to do something ourselves.

Man with a hat: I agree with you, the cops won’t help us. But what do you have in mind? We need to get those men away from that girl.

Jack: I say we go along the house, we see the perimeter and see what we can find.

Both men start walking towards the house, they look around but they don’t find anything, nor do they see anyone.

Jack: I’m going to grab a brick, I’m going to break the window of the door and I’m going to open the door from the inside, once inside I will rescue the little girl.

Man with a hat: There are ten men inside they will just kill you and rape the girl, we need to find another way.

Jack: Well, we need to do something fast before they hurt that little girl.

The man with a hat: What you need to do is call the cops. I don’t have a phone, do you?

Jack: We need to save the girl first.

Man with a hat: Call the cops, and all be right back.

The man with hat left running through the streets, Jack had no idea where he left, and so Jack was left with only one option, to call the cops. He dialed the number, and they picked it up almost immediately.

Jack: Hello?

Police: Yes, 911. What is your emergency?

Jack: 10 men have entered a house and they are holding a little girl captage, you need to come as soon as possible.

Police 1: Where are you?

Jack explained his position to the police, and they told him they were coming immediately. 

While he waited for the police he started thinking of all the things the 10 men could be doing to the little girl, he started getting worried and so he took actions into his own hands. He went into the trash and he found a bottle of alcohol that wasn’t completely empty, he broke his shirt and placed it in the top of the bottle and with the lighter from his pocket he lit up the shirt on fire and he had created a bomb, he threw it inside the house, and in a couple of seconds the house was burning down. Jack was hoping the 10 men and the little girl would all come running out, because of the fire he had started.

He waited on the lawn of the house hoping the men and the little girl would come out, but no one did, he started to suspect that he might have killed them all, he started getting more worried.

The police arrived in numerous cars to see the house burned up. The firefighters arrived a few minutes later to help stop the fire.

Police 1: What happened here?

Jack: You guys were taking too long, so I decided that I needed to help the girl. I burned down the house hoping the men and the little girl would run out, but no one did.

Police 1: First things first, Did you see a little girl or 10 men?

Jack: A man with a hat, said that he had just escaped the house and that he had seen 10 men inside holding captive a little girl.

Police 2: Where is this man with a hat?

Jack: He left just before I called you.

The cops interchanged looks but didn’t say anything. The police and the firefighters looked all over the house or at least what was left of it but they didn’t find any bodies.

The police officers arrested Jack on crimes of arson for burning down the house. 

A few days later they went to talk to him, while he was under custody.

Police 2: We went over the security footage of the neighbors house, we saw everything that happened. Would you like to have a look?

Jack nodded. They pulled in a tv screen, and the recording started playing. Jack was walking alone on the streets smoking his cigarette, when he turned around to speak to no one, there had not been a man with a hat, he talked alone. All the video he was by himself, he was always alone, no one was there, no man with a hat, no one.

Police 1: Jack, do you suffer from schizophrenia?

Jack: Yes, I was diagnosed a few years ago. But I have never had or seen anything like this, nor have I done something like this in my life, I feel so ashamed.

Police 2: It’s the thought that counts. But a crime is a crime. Nonetheless since this wasn’t done in any harmful way, no one was in the house, no one was hurt, thankfully. So the good news is you won’t be going to prison but rather to a psychiatric hospital where they will take good care of you.

Jack started to cry, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Jack: Thank you very much, and I’m very sorry.

Jack walked from the police station where they were holding him and into a van. He was still in handcuffs, they had promised him to take them off once they had arrived in the psychiatric hospital. He sat alone in the van, until he turned left, where he saw the man with the hat.

Man with a hat: I said that I would be back, didn’t I?