The Enigma’s Anomaly

I honestly don’t know what I’m doing, but I hope to god that this isn’t just Gerard using me or something. He doesn’t come across as the type of guy who would do that, but I don’t want to be anybody’s boy toy.

“Um, Gerard?” I ask when I find the opportunity to breathe. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been kissing him. Five minutes could just as easily be five hours.

“What is it?” he asks immediately looking nervous. He went from sexy to sincere in two seconds flat, though to be honest the sexy is still very much there.

“It’s just...” I don’t want to be one of those guys who makes this awkward by talking about it, but I also don’t want to be lead on with the wrong idea, “what does this make us?”

He looks even more nervous after I say that, and this is a truly odd position to be having this conversation in. Standing in the middle of his apartment with slightly swollen lips and some guy out there trying to murder Gerard. It could be better.

“I was hoping exclusive?” He says in a form of a question.

Exclusive is something I can get on board with. Exclusive is closer, intimate even.

I don’t have to ask my next question before he continues, “exclusively dating I mean.”

Oh fuck I must look like an idiot the second after he says that because I get a wide smile and bite my lip like I keep doing.

“I’ve never kissed someone with a lip ring before,” he notes aloud.

“I’m glad to take away your lip ring kissing virginity,” I say and then I realize how stupid that sounds out loud which causes me to turn red.

He smiles at me but not in a mean way, and it’s fucking perfect so I grab him. I’ve never been so hungry to kiss anyone, but I like Gerard so much. If I’m going to be truthful I probably love him, but I’m already dealing with a lot of shit right now so I’m not even going to try to consider what that means.

“You’re a fucking dork,” he says pressing his forehead to mine. That’s the exact term I use to describe him, which is ironic. We’re both just fucking dorks in the strenuous game of life. Unfortunately Gerard’s got a pretty avatar while I’m stuck with this face. Could be worse. I could look like an Ood.

A knock at the door is the only thing in the world that could pull me away from Gerard right now, aside from a crowbar, but unfortunately a knock is what follows his words.

“I’m going to kill ‘em,” Gerard says narrowing his eyes at the door like it’s the doors fault that someone is outside. I’m on his level though because I have a strong desire to beat the shit out of whoever made me stop kissing Gerard. If it’s Mikey than I should probably thank him for giving me the guts to actually do this, but I’ll still flick him in the temple.

“Who is it?” Gerard shouts at the door.

“NYPD,” a female voice answers. Now a person of my profession usually panics and hides when they hear something like that, but given the circumstances it probably would be more incriminating. It’s not that I don’t respect the police, because I do, but they have no place in my life. I guess I’m going to have to get used to that if I’m with Gerard. Preferably I won’t have to get used to it because they’re about to tell us that they caught whomever is trying to kill Gerard. I really hope it’s the latter, but knowing my luck they’re here to tell Gerard that his journalist friend is an assassin.

Gerard opens the door for the woman who is thankfully alone which means she’s probably not here to arrest me. You never know though. There’s something really weird about being near cops though. That would be like a dentist hanging out with a cake decorator or a geometry teacher hanging out with a therapist.

“Is there anything new?” Gerard asks her. It’s not the same lady that I talked with at that party, but this one looks far more official. There really is an odd stigma that comes with talking to a cop when you’re an assassin, and I don’t like it.

“A few things actually,” she says.

“Like what?” Gerard asks allowing her to enter the room. I’m leaning against the kitchen counter awkwardly and trying not to look like a serial killer.

She answers, “Well we received an anonymous copy of what looks like the kill order.”

Wow it took a long time to get there. I sent that almost two weeks ago. I guess they probably didn’t consider it important and disregarded it altogether. I’m glad they have it though, but they do have to be wary of the possibility that it’s plagiarized. It’s not but they can’t be positive of that.

“What do you mean?” Gerard asks looking confused.

“Someone sent the handwritten copy of the hit instructions and we’re trying to authenticate it.”

“Who would send something like that?” he asks.

Meeeeeeeeee! I don’t say that out loud though.

“Well that’s the other thing I wanted to tell you. It seems that there’s two separate assassins,” the cop tells him. I don’t know how to feel about the fact that they worked that out. On one hand it’s great that my reputation is slightly more intact, but on the other they now know to look for three people rather than the original two.

“How... what?” Gerard asks.

“Shell casings. The first two attempts didn’t turn up any shell casings, but the second and third were sloppier. It has the mark of a different person so that’s why we think there are two different people involved.”

“Oh great so now more people want to kill me,” Gerard says looking sick. I want to reassure him so much but I can’t. Especially not in front of a police officer.

“We think that the kill order was sent to us by the first assassin,” she continues, “but we do believe that he or she is not trying to kill you.”

“Why?” Gerard asks.

I feel like I should say something or my presence is only going to become more awkward, but I can’t find the right place to talk.

“Well as you’ve heard, we believed that the assassin was The Enigma, and he/she missed twice so our best guess is that they were fired for being unsuccessful. We believe that it was sent to us out of spite for being fired.”

That’s actually a pretty good theory. Not true, but smart. Then again who on earth would buy an assassin falling in love with his target? Their version make more sense than the real one.

“So I don’t need to worry about two killers?” He asks.

“No you still do, but only one of them is an assassin,” she replies. Way to be reassuring, that’s not helpful at all. There are still two people who want to kill you, but it’s better than three!

“So are you any closer to finding out who hired them?” I ask. I hadn’t meant to, but I really need that answer.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” she asks, actually looking at me for the first time.

“I’m... I mean- my, um, I’m Frank,” I could be a poet. That was hella graceful.

“What’s you’re relation to Mr. Way?” she questions.

I don’t know how to answer that one.

“...boyfriend?” I tell her. I see Gerard smile behind her, and I react in kind. Wow, is that true. Am I actually Gerard’s boyfriend? That’s awesome.

She looks surprised, but recovers quickly and answers my question as if Gerard had asked it, “I wanted to see if you recognized the handwriting on the letter.”

She grabs a piece of paper from her pocket and Gerard watches her hand it to him nervously. For him it’s probably terrifying because he doesn’t know whose print that is. For all he knows it could be Mikey’s and that would be pretty fucked up.

He looks down at the paper and as much as I want him to recognize it, I’m terrified as to whose he would identify it as.

“Umm, I don’t recognize this,” he says shaking his head slowly. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve never seen it before, I could just not remember.”

That’s not exactly what I was hoping for. I wish he knew who wrote it so that he’d be in the clear and I wouldn’t have to worry about him dying as much.

“Very well,” the lady sighs, “we’ll take samples of friends and families’ writing then to be sure.”

“Okay,” he nods, “is that all?”

“For now, yes,” she answers and I’m not afraid to say that I’m glad to see her go. She walks out a minute later after exchanging a few more words. As soon as the door closes I’m on Gerard again, and I’m not too keen about ever being away from him again.