The Enigma's Anomaly

You Will Find Out Who The Bad Guy is The Chapter After The Next One

"Fucking codenames!" I yell for the umpteenth time today.

"I'm with you there," Gerard repeats.

Apparently Officer Roland is stupid enough to leave a key in a potted plant, but smart enough to use codenames when plotting to murder people. There aren't any real names which makes the whole trip seem pretty pointless. Obviously it wasn't because there's a lot of other stuff in the notes, but I really wish there were a bright yellow laminated card that says who the culprit is. Maybe if I rob the body there's

There's plans in here on kidnapping 'the boyfriend' because they were apparently too stupid to figure out my name. I'm a little offended by that to be perfectly honest. There's the instructions on accusing Mikey as well, so that was carried out specifically by Officer Roland. I know I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but really, this guy was a douche.

Apart from the cop, there seems to be several other people involved in this thing. Its like a conspiracy. There's more people involved than I could have imagined. There's a record of two hired assassins, one of them having been myself, and another who I suspect was the Slav I've been calling señor balaclava. From what I've been able to tell all the codenames are famous twentieth century authors. Señor balaclava goes by the name of Yeats, Officer Roland was Hemingway, and the shot-caller is Kipling. That's all I have to go on though. Kipling is the one who wants Gerard dead.

There's someone by the name of Hughes, who is apparently close to Gerard, but it doesn't say anything other than that. I have to wonder who Hughes is though. These people are well connected, so whoever he is, it's someone Gerard knows. Someone I may have met even. That's pretty scary.

It looks like there's a total of twelve people in on this thing, excluding myself and Roland, but we're still nowhere closer to finding out who it is that's trying to kill Gerard. Something tells me that Steinbeck and Faulkner didn't rise from their graves specifically to conspire over Gerard's death and neither did any of the other authors.

"Frankie, can we just go to bed?" Gerard says, "Nothing's going to change, people will still want me dead tomorrow, we can worry about it then."

"It's not really like we have any other choice but to deal with it tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. I think you're going to have some complications with your comic soon, according to this schedule. Do you want to warn your editor or publisher that they're about to be blackmailed?"

"That's an odd thing to say to someone over the phone, don't you think?"

I shrug, "it's an odd thing to say under any circumstances."

"Well, it's midnight, I think I'll wait until tomorrow," Gerard says.

"Suit yourself," I say to him, "I think I'm going to stay up a little while longer looking through these papers."

"Fraaaank," Gerard whines and he puts his head on the top of the couch next to me. I look at him amused at the gaze in his eyes. He scrunches his nose at me and sticks his tongue out, but I just smile at him.

"Aren't you going to bed?" I ask him a minute later when he hasn't moved. He has taken to looking over my shoulder at the papers. They're all scrunched up and look well-read. My guess is that whoever señor balaclava is, he's the guy who ended up killing Roland. He seems to be their new resident assassin. My replacement. He's not as good as me, having left evidence at the crime scenes, but at least he had the sense to wear a mask. It makes me wonder if he thought I might get away, and that's why he wore it.

My theory is that when Officer Roland realized I wasn't dead, he fled the police station and met up with señor balaclava to ask what he was to do, and it ended up backfiring. People don't like it when you screw up like that, and because of the fact that they know I'm alive, he died. The knowledge that I'm alive and well is almost a definite now, which means that they're going to come back for Gerard. The plot to ruin his life has failed so they'll likely just do the original job. I'm not happy about that, but at least Mikey's life isn't a ticking time bomb. Gerard's very well might be, but he does have me. As annoying as it sounds, I do know how to protect him fairly well.

"I'm waiting for you," Gerard tells me, and he juts his lip out hoping to convince me.

"It's not going to work, Gerard. I'm just going to look through these a few more times," I say. There aren't very many papers, only seven, but I'm trying to memorize every single word. The only thing I know is that whoever has it out for Gerard has a lot of power. He's someone with connections to a lot of people who are all willing to listen to what he says, even if that includes murder. My guess is that this guy is a very bad man. Someone you'd never want to meet. It kills me to think that Gerard's caught the attention of someone like that, but I can't help what's true and what's not.

If I could rewrite this story then I already know the plot. At least I'm not an assassin though. It's still a part of my identity, but in a completely different way. It actually feels so freeing for Gerard to know. It's not as awful as I'd imagined. Gerard is way more amazing then I ever gave him credit for, and I'm starting to realize that I actually underestimated him. He's way more perfect than I ever gave him credit for.

"Why are you still waiting?" I ask him five minutes later. Every minute of which I was just waiting for him to straighten himself up and walk away, but he hasn't. He's a stubborn guy, I'll give him that. He's also pretty persuasive, but he's not laying it down too much right now. Like I said though, this guy would make a boss magician, because he'd ask you to see something and you'd see it.

Maybe he could be a hypnotist, because his eyes alone are good at convincing me to do just about anything. To be perfectly honest I've never really been the kind of guy who goes or brown or hazel eyes. I prefer green myself, but there's something about Gerard's that make my heart stutter. I might be crazy, but he makes me melt. His eyes are the sun and I'm an ice cube on the pavement. Every time he lights up a room with his presence, I feel myself coming undone.

"Come on, Frankie," he complains, "come to bed."

I roll my eyes and look at the papers. Anywhere but at him, because if I look at him I'll probably give in. I haven't lost my pride, despite that little incident at the dock when my feet were tied together. That was a low point for me.

Gerard doesn't say anything for a minute and I hear him groan when I don't reply, then feel his breath on my neck. I'm not going to let him win that easily though, and besides I'm trying to save his life here.

"Come to bed, Frankie," he repeats, and then in a sultry voice he whispers in my ear, "I'll make it worth your while."

With that he stands up and walks away. That fucking devil. It becomes a million times harder to decide what to do now because on the one hand I want to get this done so I can save Gerard, but on the other...

Yeah okay, no question about it.

I get up a minute later and follow behind him quickly.

~*~*~*~

It's sometime in the late morning when I wake up. I'm not sure what pulled me out of sleep, but I feel really content to just by wrapped in Gerard's arms. He's facing me and I look at him still sleeping calmly. His hair isn't in too bad a shape this morning, and his mouth is open to let the air in.

I'm starting to get used to seeing him asleep and I never want to have to stop. He's just so damn adorable at pretty much all hours of the day, but especially like this. When all his worries are completely lost from his face and his entire body has just relaxed. I hope to see him so comfortable when he's conscious soon, but that's only going to happen if he's safe from being killed.

It's getting ridiculous how much shit he's been put through. He deserves none of it, and I can't help but loathe every person who wants to hurt him. I hate myself quite a bit for almost doing that very thing, but I'm glad I missed.

Obviously I wouldn't have known what I was missing out on if he'd died, but I think fate had a hand in at least part of this situation. Maybe the universe ships us, and that's why it's all working out.

I get lost for just a few seconds looking at him, having gone through a whirlwind of thoughts in record time.

I only snap out of my thoughts when I hear something in the kitchen. Judging by the noise though it's not something, it's someone.