u/Klaudiusz_Zysk

I'm 27, living in a small city in Europe. A few months ago a former classmate of mine, someone I stay in touch with now and then, knocked on my door late at night. He was panicking, covered in dirt, his hands were shaking, looked kind of roughed up. He said he'd gotten into a bad situation and needed somewhere to lie low for a couple of days, since he'd lost his keys and needed to figure out how to get into his place. I didn't ask too many questions, just let him in, since my wife and kid are away traveling with her parents right now, and I happened to be watching the World Cup at the time and browsing around looking into book makers on the side. He barely slept, kept sitting on his phone, deleting (though I'm not sure) some messages, going through different websites and so on. I tried to get him talking, but he kept answering vaguely: "It's nothing, don't worry about it." In the morning he asked to borrow a jacket and a bit of money. Said he'd head out to look for his keys and try to get home.

A couple of days later the news reported an assault in the neighboring district. A man was badly beaten, he's in intensive care. They're looking for the attacker. The descriptions were really vague, but the age and height matched. And that's when my stomach dropped. I started thinking back to what he looked like and the whole situation, and it just started adding up. I'm not 100% sure it was him. But I also can't shake the thought that I helped someone hide after something horrible. The police haven't arrested anyone yet.

Part of me feels like, if it was him, I basically became an accomplice, even if I didn't realize it at the time. But then again, if I go to the police with nothing but my hunches, I could destroy the life of a man who might be completely innocent.

I haven't slept properly in a week now. I keep replaying it all in my head.