The Enigma's Anomaly

Where Did the Gerard Go?

"I know that you think you own the place but really, Frank, you think booby trapping Banks' house with Legos is really the way to go?"

"Have you ever stepped on a Lego, Gerard?"

"I have. It hurts like a bitch, but do you really think that he's going to just sit down and let you do that? Let you torture him? I know your friend likes picking on him or whatever, that's why he agreed to put the Legos in the house, but there is such a thing as too far," he says.

"I'll stop when Banks has heard my whole message. I want him to suffer, and when you think about it, I'm not really doing that much to him. So far I've made him go on a road trip for a faulty lead, I've put his feet through some agony, and I also may have put some laxatives in everything in his kitchen," I tell him.

"Jeez Frank, you are kind of an asshole," Gerard says, but he doesn't say it in a mean way. "What else?"

"There's some more, but it's not as interesting. Those were my favorites. By now Banks has realized he doesn't have the upper hand. He knows I have away into his life and he is going to really hate that. This is the beginning of the end, Gerard. I can feel it," I say.

Gerard looks at me skeptically, "How can you be positive? This has gone on for six months, Frank. Six months! How can you tell it's ending?"

"I just can, I don't know. I think that Banks is getting restless and we're getting more confrontational. He knows he's not dealing with lifeless objects anymore, Gerard. We're fighting back, which is something he was not expecting."

"How can you guarantee the safety of your friend if he's been sneaking around Banks' place?"

"You're not one for the life, but it's something that you grow good at. He's the best I know. I don't even know who he really is Gerard, but I can tell you that he's good. So many different identities. I call him the Conte, because he's Italian and he's respected. Respected in my community anyway. I won't tell you why he owes me a favor though."

Gerard nods and he sighs, sticking his head in the crook of my neck. I smile at the contact and kiss the red hair at the top of his head instinctively.

After a while all these hotel rooms start to look the same and I'm honestly being driven crazy by the blandness. Same wallpaper that's been peeled apart at the seams and also starting to curl up in a yellowing spiral. All of the carpets have little spots and blotches of mysterious little stains in the carpet that are both unsettling and unavoidable. All of the rooms have those curtains that are hanging right above the air conditioner that blows air directly up into the curtains, and decreases their effectiveness by about seventy percent. All of them have that weird hotel smell, and those creepy hallways with the loud ice machines.

I'm getting a little disgusted by the number of grotesque foreign beds with the same starchy sheets. I want stability really. I want to be somewhere that is going to give me some sort of regularity? I don't know. I don't want repetition, I guess what I want is normalcy. I want it with Gerard of course, but this isn't normal. Running away from unknown threats and trying to hide is not normal. I want stupid mundane domestic stuff. Or more than that, I don't know. This is New York after all.

"Frank?" Gerard asks, poking at my side, "you were drifting off again?"

"Sorry, I just really hope that it'll be over soon. I want to have an actual relationship with someone who I can just be with and not have to worry about being killed."

"Don't we all," he says, and I like the way his arm feels around my waist.

"I just... Gerard I want to someday wake u and go to brunch with you. Do something that is so tiny and meaningless, but it would mean so much. I guess I never knew how much I really took for granted, but just walking out on the street, holding my boyfriend's hand is out of the question."