The Anomaly's Enigma

The Conte has been here for about twenty minutes and I have decided that I do not like him. I don’t know if he’s necessarily a bad dude or anything, but he’s certainly not nice.

If you get really close to him you can tell that that isn’t his original face. He’s had a little work done. Frank mentioned that at one point or another. He told me that Conte was very good at changing his whole identity and that he’s done it dozens of times. Honestly, I’d feel like that would get a little laborious after, like, the second time let alone more than twelve. It’s not my life though.

The way Frank talked about this guy, I never thought he’d be very nice, but I thought he would at least be on our side. Now, I don’t know. I don’t know whether to trust him or not. I don’t want to, but I might have to. He did save my life...

No, Frank saved my life. It’s all been Frank. This guy couldn’t give a shit about me. He doesn’t care about me or Frank or Mikey, he’s just afraid for himself. Pathetic. Frank is a way better person than he is. Frank doesn’t live only for himself. He tried to risk himself for me and Mikey, I feel like that’s proof enough. This man is just disgusting to me.

Besides, who the hell calls themselves The Conte? He ain’t no Conte. Conte is Italian for something, but I’m not sure what. I think, like, just a noble person. What that guy does is not noble. He’s a thief. He’s a criminal, and he doesn’t care. At least when Frank was a criminal he felt bad about it.

I look over at him. He’s been standing in the kitchen for the past twenty minutes while Frank literally just decided to start ignoring him and watching Clue. I mean, I get that it’s a funny movie and, yes, Tim Curry does have a really neat voice, but there is a guy who may or may not want to murder us in the kitchen! I can solve this one all by myself. It will be The Conte in the kitchen with the dagger. Well, I mean it might be Frank in the kitchen with the whatever the hell kind of gun that is, but then we’ll have the same dilemma as the people in the movie with having too many dead bodies on our hands. One dead body is really enough if you ask me.

The Conte just standing there though. I’ve been trying to pluck up the courage to go over there and get water for like ten minutes but he’s so creepy. I don’t think he blinks.

Eventually I just decide to screw whatever fear I have of him and I stand up to get water, because it’s either this or dehydration. Frank doesn’t even move when I sit up from the couch. Mikey is in his room, which I would do to, but I don’t trust either Frank or Conte alone in a room together.

Before I can even do anything though, Conte is trying to talk to me, and I can’t think of a way to say ‘please stop talking to me because you freak me the fuck out’ without using those exact words.

“So you’re the reason that The Enigma died then?”

“I, um, I guess,” I reply. I really don’t like this guy, he makes me extremely uncomfortable.

“You’d better be one fantastic human to force one of the greatest people in that field into retirement.”

“Well, but, he killed people. He killed people! I don’t feel bad about him bowing out.”

“The people Frank killed would have died anyway,” Conte says. “They were going to die. That’s just a fact. When someone wants a person dead, they usually die. That’s just the way it goes. Had it been a different assassin who’d killed them, they’d have still died. Frank just carried things out. He never sentenced people to murder.”

“You say that they usually die,” I say, “but here I am.”

“That was the point of the ‘usually.’ To be honest, I don’t know what could possibly make you so special that you’re still alive, but whatever it is that made Frank give everything up for you, I don’t see it.”

“You’re kind of an asshole,” I say, although I really wish I could take back the ‘kind of’ part.

“I saved your life.”

“No, Frank saved my life,” I answer.

“Frank tried to kill you.”

“But I’m alive, aren’t I?” I spit at him.

I make my way back to the living room, which is barely even a separate room. I huff when I sit down next to Frank, and he puts his head on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry. There’s a reason I never let you two meet,” Frank says.

“Because he’s a dick?”

“Well, I mean, when you’re trying to break into a dude’s apartment so that you can pay your rent for the next few months, but he has a really expensive security system so you have to find someone who knows how to break in, you forget to audition people based on their personalities. What I’m saying is, he’s not an acquaintance because you want him on your team, he’s a guy you have around because you can both benefit each other.”

“He’s a dick.”

“Who’s not deaf,” Conte shouts.

“Does it look like I give a shit?” I holler at him.

“Conte, be nice to Gerard or I will kill you,” Frank says.

“You said you’d only kill me if I cross you,” Conte says.

“Insulting Gerard is the ultimate form of crossing me. He means more to me than anything, and I absolutely will kill you if you demean him in anyway, got it?” Frank says in a tone that is threatening as fuck. I know that tone. It’s also sexy as fuck.

“You exaggerate,” Conte says.

“You want to test me and find out?” Frank says, lifting his head up from my shoulder to look at Conte with a glare that is outmatched only by Medusa herself.

Conte doesn’t respond, he just scoffs and opens the fridge.

“Don’t think that I’m letting you off the hook, Conte,” Frank says, “I will not allow you near my family if I can help it. That includes Gerard and Mikey. You’re going to stay here for a few hours until I decide that no one is going to show up out of the blue to murder us. Once I have become confident of that, you’re going to get out of here, and we’re going to find somewhere else.”

“We are?” I ask.

“Yeah, I don’t like it here all that much. This place is too small. We’ll go somewhere else, and this time I’ll take more measures to assure we’re not followed.”

“You think you can just hide until this all stops?” Conte says.

“I think we can try,” Frank answers him, and looks at me, “I would do anything and everything to protect the people I love. If that means hiding away from sick psycho who sends messages through fan mail, then so be it.”

“So that’s how he warned you,” Conte says, nodding like it’s interesting.

“Aha!” Frank shouts like he just won something, “So it is a he.”

Conte looks shocked for a second before the side of his mouth twitches upwards, “I didn’t even know you were searching for that information. Well played.”

“Will you tell me more about him? I might be more willing to trust you if you tell me what you know.”

“What makes you think I care for your trust?”

“Because you lost a finger and you blame me, but at the same time you blame the man who took that from you. Betrayal or not, you don’t want to work with him. You are either here to save yourself or to save your pride, but in either case, the man who took your finger is no friend of yours. I’m not saying you want my trust, but you do want to dish out to me. You want to see what I’ll do. Want to see if I’ll be able to stop him.”

Conte shakes his head and looks at Frank for a minute, “I don’t think this is a game you’re ready to play. This isn’t like that other man, what was his name?”

“Banks,” I say.

“Precisely. This man is not like Banks. He is not rich. He doesn’t hire people to do the dirty work for him, this is about revenge. The ultimate motive. I don’t know who you killed Frank, but this man, he is out for blood because of you,” Conte says.

“It had to happen someday,” Frank says, “I just never thought they’d know who I am. I never thought I’d be putting more than just myself in danger if someone ever did find out either. Gerard was a mistake, but the best one I could’ve made.”

“I don’t think meeting you was a mistake,” I say.

“You’d be dead if you hadn’t met me,” Frank points out. “Or when I first saw you if you’d just walked a little slower, I’d have spread your brains on the sidewalk. What a horrendous thought.”

“I don’t see the tragedy in that,” Conte says.

“You have three strikes, Conte, You’re now down to two. I will take your other finger off, so that you have a matching set.”

“Your threats are empty,” Conte says, and right when he says that is the minute I know he’s gone too far with testing Frank.

I’ve seen Frank do some pretty scary shit when he gets mad. Never to me, but he is not afraid of carrying out a threat to some high caliber. He broke a man’s fingers right in front of me, and that was just the one time I’ve been there to witness it. I don’t want to think of all the other times.

Frank stands up when Conte speaks, and then he walks over to him. The man is standing in the kitchen, still looking arrogant like he thinks Frank is fooling around.

“Don’t test me,” Frank says, “now, we both know you’ve been through hell recently. I’ve been tortured, I know what it’s like. If you think you had it bad with that other man than you’ll be forced to invent a new word when I’m done with you. I will make you bleed, got that?”

“All bark, no bite,” Conte says.

Frank takes a fistful of the guy’s hair and then slams him backward against the fridge.

I can honestly say that I do not like seeing Frank like this, but at the same time I am oddly turned on by seeing him like this. The world works in mysterious ways. I know that a lot of people like bad boys, but I feel like I might’ve crossed a line when I married a guy who shot at me repeatedly.

“You helped me, I thank you for that, but allegiance is a fickle thing. When you sold me out, you lost the right to get away with this apathy. You may still be bitter about me leaving the business, but you will never change me. Remember who owes who the most favors, Conte,” Frank says.

“You think I didn’t pay you back those favors four years ago when your life was in jeopardy?”

“You think you’ll ever be able to compensate what I did for you five years ago?” Frank asks, “I never kill without a contract. I made an exception for you back then, and I’m not afraid to make an exception for you now too.”

I don’t know what that means, but it sounds like Conte had Frank kill someone for him. Frank’s also telling the guy that he’ll kill him too. It’s very nice having a guy who can protect you, but also utterly terrifying to see how it is that he protects you.

Conte snickers and says to Frank, “The Enigma isn’t dead at all. I’m looking right at him.”

Frank slams Conte’s head against the refrigerator again, and honestly I don’t blame him on that one. That was pretty low. There’s nothing Frank wishes he could take back more than being The Enigma.

Frank has venom in his eyes when he says, “One more remark like that and trust me, you will see The Enigma again.”