The Enigma’s Anomaly

“Just think rationally here, okay? I mean he’s alright. He’s Gerard, it’s not like he went wondering off into the distance in search of Cibola. He’s just... I don’t know taking a walk.”

“You and I both know that Gerard isn’t sadistic enough to do that without telling us beforehand. If he’s not here by now, there’s a reason why, and I need to know what it is!” I say, walking across the room back to the table.

“What are you going to do? Go driving around for him?” Mikey asks.

“I don’t know. Yes. Maybe? I might. Where is he, Mikey?”

“If I knew then I would tell you to get you to calm down, but I don’t know so I can’t give you an answer,” he answers.

“But what do you think? Honestly, and don’t you dare sugarcoat it.”

“I think he should be back by now,” Mikey admits, “but that doesn’t mean he’s in trouble! The fact is that I don’t know.”

“Fuck, Mikey. I can’t even... if he’s not okay, I don’t know what-”

“Frank! He’s fine, I’m sure he’s fine. There is no reason to freak out. Okay, Frank, we can go look for him. We’ll go look for him, okay?”

I nod quickly when he options off looking for Gerard, because I do want nothing more than to go out and find him. I don’t like the fact that he’s not here. It’s making my breathing quicken, and it’s coming out wheezy.

“Frank? You good? You’re pacing.”

“What? Sorry, let’s go look for him. I need to know he’s okay,” I say, and Mikey nods nervously. I must look like a complete idiot walking all over the room, randomly. I’m trying to get my mind to focus on one thing rather than the multiple different things that might be happening to Gerard right now. He could have a knife in his stomach right now. He could be having sex.

I shake that thought away. He loves me, he wouldn’t do that. It is a distinct possibility though. I don’t know if I’d rather find him bleeding somewhere or cheating on me though. They both sound pretty awful. I know I’m selfish, I know I am, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love Gerard with all my heart. It would kill me just as much to know I can’t have him as it would to know he’s not even alive. It’s an awful thought, but the despicableness makes it no less true.

“Alright, Frank, I’ll take the car and drive around looking for him, okay? You can go walk around then.”

I look at Mikey who’s eyeing me like I’m about to break something, but I just nod, and head over to the door, not bothering to look back to see if he’s following.

The door opens into the generic hallway that I walk down quickly, and I hear Mikey following behind me, just not as loudly.

“What are you doing?” he asks, when I get to the car and pull open the trunk.

“I’m getting a gun,” I tell him, when I find the revolver.

“Why?” he asks, “how do you know you’re going to need that? What if you get in trouble with someone? You don’t have a permit or anything to carry that.”

“That’s why I’m not going to shout out to everyone that walks by me that I’m carrying a gun,” I tell Mikey and step away from the car, shoving the trunk closed with a slam that makes me fidget.

“I think you’re being paranoid, Frank. There’s probably a perfectly natural explanation for Gerard’s absence, okay?”

“Then why do you look so scared, Mikes?”

“Because you just grabbed a gun and you’re psyching me into getting all nervous like you!”

“That’s good, you should be scared! It’ll keep your wits up,” I say, and Mikey gives me an unreadable expression.

“Whatever. You go left, and out down that way,” Mikey points to the road, and then to the other when he says, “and I’ll take that way, towards town.”

“You’ve got your phone on you?” I ask. Mikey nods and I check that I too have a phone with me in my front pocket.

“I’ll call you in half an hour with any updates that I might have, or immediately if I find Gerard. If you see him first call me,” Mikey says, and after I agree I watch him pull the car out of the space slowly with his extra key, and I start off the other way.

There’s a patch of grass on the side of the parking lot, which I walk over quickly and then I venture off down a predominately deserted road. It’s the more residential area because there’s some houses, but they’re not very close together so I guess that the town can’t be very big, though I haven’t actually seen it yet.

The road has a lot more turns then I’d have thought though, and it splits several times making it hard to try and remember which way I’m coming from. There’s a road that lead one way and then there’s another, nearly identical road, leading the opposite way. I don’t know which ones I should take though because I don’t know which ones Gerard would’ve taken if he came down this way.

A few cars drive past me and I can’t help but peer into them, just to be sure that I don’t see Gerard tied up in the backseat or something.

The sun is definitely starting to set, and it forces me to squint into the air around me, because the beams are now directly in my line of vision. It’s almost blinding how little I can actually see because of it, and it’s making me wonder if I’ll be able to find my way back to the hotel when it gets dark.

Mikey calls me thirty minutes later as he’d promised with nothing to report, and says that he’ll call me again in half an hour. He’s driving around town apparently, and he checked the Walmart, but the employees haven’t seen any vibrantly redheaded people.

“They suggested I look at a Toys R Us but that was before I told them that I wasn’t looking for Clifford the Big Red Dog, but an actual specific human person.”

“How can no one have seen him? His head is a siren! That’s like not seeing Bigfoot walk down your street or something.”

“Well I’m glad to hear you think of my brother as Bigfoot,” Mikey says, “though if we’re going to be totally honest with each other, Bigfoot is far more attractive than Gerard.”

“Shut up, I’ll talk to you in half an hour, or hopefully sooner.”

“I’m going to be heading out the way you are then because I’ve exhausted this part of town. Bye,” Mikey says, hanging up.

“Where the hell could he have gone?” I ask myself looking at the road in front of me. I’ve only got a few minutes, twenty minutes tops, before the sun is gone, and then what do I do?

I groan and look at my feet dejectedly. There’s a hole at the bottom of my stomach, making me feel like all the hope is lost. I’m scared that we’re never going to find Gerard. It’s not a massive area, and there’s only so far he could’ve gone, but it still feels pointless.

I turn around to look at the road and I realize that I have no idea which way I came from. Great so now I’m lost. I look down at my phone to see that Mikey called me ten minutes ago and I’ve just been wondering along until my phone reached a dead zone. There’s no signal here, and I’m going to have to find somewhere that has a signal.

I might as well try to make my way backward because I’m sure Gerard wouldn’t have come out this far. I’ve walked nearly five miles out of town, and he wouldn’t have done that. I practically ran here though, and I’m starting to feel it in my legs. My feet feel tired and swollen, so I’m going to have to head back otherwise I won’t be able to make it there at all.

Maybe I’ll wonder across Gerard somewhere on my way back, though my hopes aren’t high. Mikey will be having better luck then I probably. He’s got a car and he went towards the town which is where I’d have gone if I were Gerard. He’s heading back here though so maybe he thinks I’m having better luck.

I’m not Gerard though and I have no idea what it must be like in his head. He doesn’t think the way normal people do. He’s not even close to what someone would call ‘normal’ and that’s what makes him special. Not exactly ideal given our current circumstances.

A few yards down and my phone only has one bar, and a flashing light at the top says ‘emergency calls only’. I need to get back to a place with bars in case Mikey finds him.

My feet scoff on the black tarmac, and the bottoms of my jeans make ragged sounds at the contact between my heels and the road. The thing about being short is that pants are always too long for you, and the bottoms are always getting caught on things, like the bottom of your shoes.

I look down at my phone to see that there’s three bars now so I’m getting closer, and then I look to see that I’ve missed a call. I knew that someone would call while I was out of reach. Life is ironic like that.

I press the callback button without even bothering to check the caller ID, because I assume it’s Mikey, hopefully with good news, but the person to pick up is not Mikey at all. It’s Gerard.

“Frank? Where are you?”

“Gerard! What, how... where are you?”

“I’m at our hotel, but you’re not here, and neither is Mikey. The lady at the front desk told me there was a store just down the road, and I didn’t need to drive, but I got lost,” he explains, and I let out a sigh of relief. He’s okay, and I’m an idiot. I’m a paranoid idiot. Mikey was right, and I was wrong. I guess I should feel embarrassed or something, but I’m not because I’m too relieved to feel anything else.

“So you’re in the hotel room?” I ask him.

“Yes, I found my way back, but I did royally mess up, sorry. I should’ve taken my phone with me. Now where are you?”

“I’m out looking for you. I guess I got lost too though,” I say.

“It’s really twisty and confusing out there, I’m sorry I worried you. You’re not mad are you?”

“No I’m just glad you’re alright. Stay there and I’ll be back as soon as I can find my way out of this labyrinth,” I tell him.

“Sure, and where’s Mikey?”

“He took the car to look for you, and headed out to town. Why, didn’t you call him?”

“I did, but he didn’t pick up,” Gerard says.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of dead zones around here. I didn’t have a signal, that’s why I didn’t answer when you called me.”

“Okay, just get back here as soon as you can, and I’ll try Mikey again,” Gerard says, as I walk quicker down the street. I’m more excited to get back now, because I’ve missed seeing Gerard, even though it’s only been a few hours.

“I will, I hate it out here, it’ll be dark really soon.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I wish I’d just taken the car, or my phone, but I was an idiot. You’re sure you’re not angry?”

“Yeah, positive,” I say, rolling my eyes. It’s cute how much he cares about what I think. I‘ve never felt like anyone actually cared about my opinion before, or valued what I thought.

It’s then that I notice something rather odd though.

I see a car parked ahead of me on the street, but it’s too far away for me to see if there’s anyone in it, or what type of car it even is. The driver’s side door is open though and that’s why it draws my attention.

As I step closer I recognize it. It’s our car. The Trans Am. Why is it there? Maybe I won’t have to walk back after all, but why is the door open?

“Hold on, Gerard,” I say, “there’s something weird.”

“What? What’s weird?”

“The car. I see it.”

“Well that’s good isn’t it? Mikey and you can drive back here. It’ll be quicker to get back with a car, even if you do get lost.”

“No, Gerard that’s not it. I don’t think Mikey’s even in there,” I say. I pull the revolver out from my pants and hold it in front of me cautiously. I don’t like the way that the car is just sitting there, not moving, and looking completely deserted.

“Frank? What do you mean? Where’s Mikey?”

“He’s not here,” I say when I’m only five steps away from the car. He’s not here.”

“Why not? Is he taking a leak or something?”

“No, Gerard. He’s not here. Like at all.”

I’m only a few steps away now and I peer around me to make sure that I am completely alone. There’s no one out here, not even any houses for a little ways up ahead of me. Why has the car been deserted in a place like this? There are no places to hide around here though, so I don’t see why it’d be here.

I check the interior of the car, but there’s no one inside, and I peer underneath, all the while Gerard is questioning me on the other end of the phone.

I walk over to the back and there’s nothing in the trunk either. When I get all the way around to the open door I’m more than a little confused, and anxious.

Why isn’t Mikey here? The keys are still in the ignition, but the car isn’t on. It looks like he left in a hurry. Why though? Why did he leave the keys there?

“Gerard, is there a hotel phone you can use to call Mikey?” I ask him.

“What? Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“Because I need to stay on the line with you in case something is about to happen to me,” I answer.

“What would happen to you? Frank you’re really scaring me right now. Where is Mikey?”

“I don’t know, okay? Just call Mikey for me, and stay there, because I’m a little scared of what’s going on.”

“Shit,” Gerard says, and I hear him walking around, “if you’re scared then something fucking wrong is happening. Hang on, I’m dialing Mikey’s number now.”

I hear the click of old buttons and then he tells me that he’s entered the number and it’s calling.

I hear a faint noise coming from in front of me, near the side of the road and the grass. I walk over to it, and that’s when I see the silver phone lying down in the grass with a blue light telling me that someone’s calling. Other then the generic ringtone I hear nothing else though, and I pick the phone off of the ground.

“Something happened here, Gerard,” I say with a gulp, “Mikey’s phone is right here, but Mikey isn’t.”

Gerard’s breathing stops for a moment and he mutters a string of obscenities, before saying, “get out of there, Frank. Get away from whatever it is right this instant.”

“But what about Mikey?”

“What good will it do if you go missing as well? Get out of there, I’m begging you.”

“I don’t know if I should, Gerard. There could be a tracking device on the car or something waiting for me to lead someone to you.”

“Is that likely?”

“No, but it’s possible.”

“Well then get over here, so that we can sort this out together. Just please, for the love of god, get out of the open!” Gerard pleads.

“There might be a car bomb,” I say, checking the bottom of the car once again. I head over to the hood of the car, but nothing looks out of place.

“Well is there?”

“I don’t think so. I think it’s safe,” I tell him.

“Good, then get out of the area, and get over here this instant. Frank, I’m scared.”

“Okay, okay. Gerard, I’ll be there when I can get there. Something’s happened to Mikey though, and I don’t know what.”

Mikey’s phone starts ringing again, and I sigh.

“Gerard you don’t need to call Mikey again, I’ve got his phone.”

“I’m not calling Mikey, Frank,” Gerard states and I feel my eyes widen as I look down at the second phone in my other hand.

“Hold on a moment, Gerard,” I put the phone between my ear and shoulder, then answer the incoming call on Mikey’s phone.

In a voice that’s shaky and scared I find the nerve to get out the word, “hello?”

“Mr. Iero, I’m glad I could get ahold of you,” a voice says. To be more specific: Banks’ voice says.