The Enigma's Anomaly

First Contact

Stop me if you've heard this one before but I know a guy. Who knows a guy. And so on.

Maybe there's a tale to be told about the tragic death of a rising vlogger whose life was cut too short. Maybe part of the contract for her kill involved publicity. Maybe someone gave an exclusive about the whole predicament. Whatever way you look at it, I have connections.

For these circumstances, I need to get close. Close enough that he'll let me be alone with him. Not close enough that anyone will pay any mind to just how close. No one can trace Gerard Way back to me. For any reason. But he does need to go, whatever means necessary.

The best one I can see with my circumstances is someone who will tail Gerard Way on a regular basis, at least for a little while. Someone disposable but someone who he'll trust. Someone he can tell things to.

One-Stop magazine: the one and only stop you'll need for your juicy celebrity gossip.

So now might be the time for me to cash in on that favor I was promised. I make a call. Some strings are pulled. Guess who is now assigned to write an article on New York's hottest rising comic book artist? Technically, the writer is actually Frank Spade, real person, no relation to myself, but I gave him an exclusive so he's throwing me a bone. I've never met nor do I care about Frank Spade, but he's lending me his name so that I can meet "like, my all-time favorite comic book writer ever, oh my god." He might put two and two together once a dead body shows up, but he didn't bat an eyelash when I knew details about the first dead body so I doubt he'll say a thing. A good story is a good story.

Unfortunately, I'm actually going to have to write the damn article, but it'll be exciting because I'm going to get the opportunity to write about his life and death. Obituary style. Hell, Frank Spade might get a promotion out of this. He'll be the first on the scene with this article. Miraculous!

All I have to do is write a story for One-Stop magazine and I'll get that dead body. I've never read the magazine myself, but they have a website which is down with the memes so the kids come flocking. I don't give a fuck one way or another, I just have to commit a murder. Work stuff. I'm a normal guy who puts his shoes on one foot at a time. I don't care what celebrity is having what other celebrity's baby, I just have to put a bullet through some guy's chest. I'm a millennial, shit happen.

My good pal Frank Spade calls whomever it concerns to set things up, which is how I find myself scheduled to meet with Gerard Way, a little over a week after the second assassination attempt. The second one didn't make the papers, but I'm sure everyone of importance knows what happened. Except Frank Spade or it would've been in the papers.

It's Monday when I make my way down to his office, because apparently comic book artists need offices. I'm not one to judge. The building is kind of small and only has two floors, but it's a shared office with a few different companies in it. It's a maze of a building, and it's isn't air conditioned, which I notice immediately. I have to go through one corridor in order to go up a particular elevator because the other elevator doesn't take me to where I need to go. I follow the signs, and thank god they're posted, because it takes me two wrong turns before I come across a private section of the building with only two other offices heading off of it. It's not a large or interesting corner of the universe, just sort of plain and boring room shoved off in what looks like an old warehouse. There's a woman sitting at a small desk, who is the first thing I see as soon as I enter the room. I make out the plaques on the two doors immediately, one says Way, and the other says Schechter.

"May I help you?" The woman at the desk says. She's a mousy girl, somewhere in her early thirties, and she looks fidgety. I read her easily. She's not new to this job, but she's running low on steam. She's a secretary, she expected to sleep with her boss but she hasn't yet and that disappoints her. Either Way or Schechter is handsome enough for her to feel that way.