Burning Man

Gregg Hardy always loved bonfire night, the classic British holiday on the fifth of November where Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the houses of parliament and failed miserably, only to be arrested. As part of that tradition, there was an effigy, which was typically a scarecrow or lifesized doll of Guy Fawkes that was lit on a bonfire. It has become a treasured holiday since its Inception in the 1600s that comes only five days after Halloween. In many ways, it is a similar holiday where people even dress up as Guy Fawkes and kids gather around to enjoy the festivities. There are many people who love both holidays equally and Gregg seemed to be one of those people. Unfortunately, there were always a lot of trouble makers knocking around this time of year too. Setting off fireworks in public and pranking people with other dangerous objects, such as sparklers and cheery bombs, etc. On one cold night in 2005, Gregg saw witness to a terrifying prank that went very, very wrong. Deadly wrong. Somebody (likely a teenager) was running around in a mustached Guy Fawkes mask, playing knock and run on hundreds of doors down a busy street in London on the night of Bonfire night. This prankster was leaving all kinds of fiery traps on people's doorsteps. Paper bags set on fire with dog shit in them, lit fireworks that were ready to blow up in the prank victim's face and smashed Molotov cocktails along the hard, concrete ground. The prankster was laughing manically, almost setting these houses on fire. Gregg was watching this scene unfold across the street where the prankster was running down. He didn't dare get involved, as burning alive because of some dumb kid's prank wasn't on his to-do list. However, his neighbour from across the street (who still had his Halloween decorations up, as if asking for trouble) came storming out of his house in a fit of rage that soon turned to panicked screams as the prankster had left five fireworks on his front garden that shot directly at the poor man who was exiting his home. In an instant, Gregg's neighbour was lit up like a Guy Fawkes effigy! The man screamed in agony, as he thrashed around wildly, falling to the floor and rolling around, quickly trying to extinguish the flames that had engulfed him. Gregg could only watch in horror as the horrifying, brutal and tragic death took place. That teenage prankster had already run further down the long street, he was out of sight now, fading into the darkness of night. Soon the fire spread from his neighbour's corpse to his front door, burning it in seconds, as the flames spread further, resulting in a huge house fire. Gregg called for a fire engine on his mobile phone, sirens arrived four minutes later with red flashing lights, glowing brighter than the fireworks that boomed in the black sky around them. Firefighters exited the big red truck and began extinguishing the flames with their hoses. A police car had arrived also, to question Gregg about what he saw. He told the police officer everything he witnessed, then a hunt for the killer in the Guy Fawkes mask was ordered. The police searched all night long, but there were many teenage kids who were running around dressed exactly like that, causing trouble that night. So nobody could charge any of them for a single crime. Perhaps one of those kids was the killer and he had to do community service or something like that, but true justice was not served that night. Gregg wasn't a big fan of bonfire night after that.