The Man In The Hat

A Story by Ang

The Man In The Hat walks into a bar, meets The Bartender and The Boy.

A man with a dark hat walked into a bar. A bar with broken windows, stained floors and faded walls.

He quickly made his way across the creaking floorboards.

He could have picked any chair he wanted.

But he picked the chair next to the only other customer in the bar.

The Bartender hardly noticed when The Man In The Hat sat himself down next to The Boy. Not until he heard him speak, and felt the hair on his arms rise as chills spread down his back. He glanced at The Man in The hat, unable see his face. He was an old man, that was for sure.

“So. Have you been here before?”

The Boy was sitting with his head turned down against the table. As The Man In The Hat started speaking, The Boy turned his drunken eyes towards him.

“Not interested in conversation ,old man.” The boy tiredly answered.

The Man In The Hat started smiling.

“No, my dear boy, I only wish to know if you’ve been here before?”

“That’s none of your business.” The Boy replied.

The Man In The Hat stopped smiling and stared at The Boy.

“I think you have. Been here before I mean. I would even go so far as to say you’ve been here, in this bar, a lot more than you’ve been home lately. You sit at the same chair every night, just looking for a way out.”

The Boy wasn’t too cocky anymore, The Man In The Hat had surprised him.

“Oh really, looking for a way out of what?” The Boy asked.

“From your life. Those two twin girls and The Girl you married. Many men would sacrifice a lot to have your family, your life, and yet you see them as a curse, something that took away your future.”

The Bartender was standing with his back against them behind the bar, pretending that he didn't hear every single word.

The Boy stared at the Man In The Hat. He remained silence for a minute, then replied

“ Of course I do. Blame them. They did get in my way. I was going places. I could have been someone!”

The old man tapped his fingers against the bar.

“But you are too good of a person to walk away from them. To leave The Girl and The Twins. Your the kind of man who still believes in the good of the world. “

“Yes, yes I do. Even I, who thinks about running sometimes, would never do it. I do believe in people being good. Myself included.” The Boy fiercely replied.

The Man In The Hat kept on tapping his long nails against the bar. The sound was almost hypnotizing.

“So, my dear boy, are you willing to put your faith in good to the test?” he asked.

The boy didn’t answer. The Bartender pretended he didn’t hear.

The Man In The Hat continued.

“You are in need of money. I will give it to you. Money enough to get a happy life with your family forever. If the good of man triumphs tonight.”

“And if I loose?” The Boy asked.

The Man In The Hat quickly replied

“ If you're asking me that, you obviously doesn’t have that much faith in good..”

“YES, yes I do. Okay, let’s do it. How will we do this?”

The Man In The Hat smiled again.

“I will try to kill someone, If I succeed without someone stopping me, I win. If I get stopped, I loose. I might kill the person trying to stop me instead. Easy enough?”

The Bartender’s hands were shaking. The Man In The Hat must have been joking.

“Are you serious? You can’t just shoot people!” The Boy whispered

The Man In The Hat rapidly replied

“Oh well, you don’t want the money then do you?”

The Boy was silence.

The Man In The Hat picked up his gun.

“This is a real gun. With real bullets. Real bullets coming out of real guns can cause quite the mess. I now intend to shoot you with it. Right here, right now. “ he whispered loudly.

The Bartender stood silently, still with his back against them. “ Might kill the person who tries to stop me” was echoing through his mind. The Bartender too had a family.

A loud gunshot suddenly echoed through the room. As the bartender turned around, only The Man In The Hat was there. And as The Bartender leaned over the bar, he saw The Boy lying in his own blood.

“What did you..why..did..what did you do old man?” the Bartender shouted.

“You heard me. You heard all of it. He was betting his life on the everyday man. That would be you my dear Bartender. “

The Man In The Hat started tapping his gun against the table. The Bartender glanced against the gun under the bar. As the Man In The Hat stopped his tapping, The Bartender quickly leaned down and grabbed his gun, picked it up and held it against the old man.

The Man in the hat wasn’t smiling anymore. He looked scared and shocked, and took a step back from his chair, raising his hand. Another shot echoed through the bar. The Man In The Hat fell down. The Bartender stared at him, shocked as well.

“What the…what did you..what are you doing?”

The loud yells of the supposed to be dead Boy scared The Bartender, who turned around and shot The Boy twice in the chest. The Boy fell down again.

The boy whispered, in a wheezing voice

“ It was all for show” and then closed his eyes.

Weeks later, outside the closed bar, there was a poster on a lamppost. The Man In The Hat and The Boy was smiling next to each other. According to the text they were missing and had last been going to different bars in the city for a psychological experiments. Trying to test how people really reacts in psychologically frighting situations.