The Man In The Hat

My heart raced at the sight of the man in white hat in the photo of Jacob Adams. A ten years-old kid mauled by a creature in his own bedroom. The photo seemed to show a man in his late years with white eyes and a white hat. Jacob like all other kids seemed to be afraid of the dark and especially of his cupboard. Every night he would tell his parents about the boogeyman in his cupboard who always stated he would wait for him to let him in. The idea of a unknown monster hiding in a room is something feared by children all around the world. The fear of it kept them sleeping. Many people still close their cupboards due to the fear of the unknown monster lurking in the shadows. The idea of a monster of such proportions was preposterous in the scientific world of the new millennium. A age of chaos and reversal of society itself has led to people shunning supernatural and religion as if it was a plague.

The small town of St Antonio had a population of over a thousand people. The land was fairly old with it once being populated by the natives which were slaughtered in 1700s. The land was dug up for its coal supply and then soon became a fairly populated town. However since the fateful Halloween of 2012,everything in this normal town changed. The Mayan were intelligent people leaving messages in plain sight causing fear amongst the bravest of men. The Mayan calendar markings came to me one night when I was sleeping. In a void I was floating, I could see a being in front of me. It was nothing I could comprehend its face seemed to be bleeding into another world and its eyes had literal fire in them. It opened its mouth with razor sharp fangs and it started singing in a tone that made my ears almost bleed from its pitch.

Time has come for the death of man
The primordial fear shapes into being
An era of darkness comes enveloping what they held dear
Nothing is real and the enlightened men shall burn down order
For chaos itself has found its body
Rejoice for death
Hail the destruction of life

That song that I wrote down ended up being important for since that day children seemed more scared and always whispered about the boogeyman looking at them in their window and waiting for them to answer and let them in. The boogeyman always sang in the night and was said to be waiting for the children to either tell them to come in or someone else to do so. Every child that ended up dead seemed to be mauled by a beast in their home and in every picture of the crime scene the man in the hat was present.

Jacob was the last victim of the man and for a week he was clinging to his mother about the boogeyman coming to him at night. One day he tripped over himself and broke his mother’s vase. Although she was angry what his mother said to him would haunt her for the rest of her life.
“If you do not stop fearing the boogeyman will get you.”
The next day the body of the boy was found mauled to death and his head was severed with gore around it. The head was on the floor looking at the cupboard in his room with dread permanently etched on his face.
I was curious how nobody noticed the man in the photos. Everyone would claim him to be the killer in the room attempting to show off his kill which in itself is absurd.
I took a look at my notes it seemed the man killed the children when their parents or they give him permission to come. Each idea seemed getting stupider until I got a message from my sergeant. “Riles meet me in the interrogation chamber in 10 minutes we have a man claiming to be connected to the killer” I looked at the message and started walking to the chamber. Whatever it is, it isn’t normal as the sergeant despises my theories because of them being absurd. Reaching the chamber I stepped inside and saw the sergeant sitting across from a man in cuffs. The man had long unkempt hair with ragged up clothes and a maniacal smile. Despite that his eyes feared me the most as the eyes had something I couldn’t see. It looked as if his eyes were cracked.

The man looked at me and grinned “Come here we were waiting for you” he stated with a chilling whisper. The sergeant looks at me “This man is crazy so its right up your alley" I snorted as his assumption of everything supernatural to being craziness. The man continued grinning and as if he had read my mind said “They don’t understand the beauty do they? They are faulty flesh bags in this illusion" “ I don’t know what you mean" I replied coldly and sat down opposite to him. “who are you?” I asked. The man only grinned “Sebastian Thomas in your service”. I couldn’t stop gasping as I realized he looked the same as the missing man however there was only one problem. “Sebastian Thomas ran away 25 years ago at the age of 40 after painting images he supposedly saw in his dreams for 10 years. You barely look 50 how can you be him then.” I asked the man. “I was given the opportunity of prophethood by the lord of mine. He was slumbering beneath this town for years and now he’s awake and hungry. He chose me to bring him food. For years I gave him animals in the forest but he is hungry and then he found the children. He loves eating them, too fleshy but perfect fat.” The man still grinned at the terrible description. “Is the man you follow the one who kills the children.” “ofcourse no we prophets do it unfortunately we only can hunt when they allow us to enter their place but when they do we kill them and give them to the lord” “how many followers does your lord have?” I asked but I could feel dread creeping on me. “Thousands. Nobody knows who is one. It can be someone you know. It can be your neighbour and it can be your daughter as well.” He ended with a smirk. I got a steely expression on my face “don’t bring my daughter into this I will kill to save her.” I exclaimed. Getting myself under control and looking at the sergeant I could see his disgust as well. “how do you call your master" I asked. “Ask him and he will come. He eats children when they or their parents call him.” “That is not possible” the sergeant exclaimed finally. The man bless his heart was too scientific for this world. The man now faced him with his unnerving smile and stated “The lord is too much out of your worldview. You are too materialistic to understand him" “its impossible and unscientific" “Religion is just science not yet understood.” The man retorted. “Riles I’m putting this man in a cell while you wait on your desk" Sergeant suddenly said to me. “Yes sir" I walked away to my place thinking about what the man said.