Fedoras and Forbidden Love

Chapter 5: Empty Streets and New Feats

   Something was wrong. Claudius sat in front of the door to Jessica's apartment, knocking exactly five times. But there was no answer. Claudius punched the door down and walked in, scanning the room. Empty. "Jessica?" screamed Claudius. No answer. He went from room to room, but found nothing. He ran to her phone and called the Starbucks. Greg the barista answered. "Little early for a phone call, eh Claud?"

"This isn't time for small talk," said Claudius,"I need to know if Jessica is with you."

"Yes she's right here, at the table in front of me." Claudius sighed with a relief. "No, wait that's just a plant. Oops. Honest mistake, sorry Claud. Hey, while I have you there's something I've been meaning to tell you. I might be dying,  and it's pretty serious. The hospital bills alone are-" Claudius hung up, frustrated. He needed to find Jessica.

Then, a piece of paper caught his eye. Literally, someone threw it at his eye. The figure ran away out the window before Claudius could see who it was. "Darn teenagers," muttered Claudius. He picked up the note and read it. His eyes widened when he read the words, written in sparkly pink ink. 

"Dear Claudius,

Looking for you GF? Good luck finding her. We have her captured, and hidden away. The only way to get her back is to burn your hideous hat and turn yourself in. Wondering who we are? We have left a puzzle at the bottom of this letter. Crack it, and you'll know who we are. We're waiting Claudius."

Claudius looked towards the bottom of the letter, at the aforementioned puzzle. It was a single image of a bowler hat. "Hmm," thought Claudius,"what could this mean?" After about an hour of studying the image he had finally cracked it. "It was the bowler hats! OH, they've really done it this time!" Claudius decided that it was time to rescue the girl, and save the day. But could he and his abs handle such a daunting task? There was only one way to find out. He headed towards the bowler hats base.