---

Monday June 2, 2014 – 11:53 PM EST – Dayton Shipp’s Apartment – Bronx, New York

---

DAYTON SHIPP: “What are you doing in my apartment? How did you get in here?”

ENIGMA “To answer your first question, I am here because you and I need to have a chat. To answer your second question, you forgot to lock your bedroom window.”


I can tell by looking at Dayton that he is growing increasingly more uncomfortable with every passing second. And who could blame him? Some weird guy in a mask is standing in the middle of his apartment and he has no idea why.


ENIGMA “How about you have a seat Mr. Shipp?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “How about you get out of my apartment before I call the police.”


Well he pulled that card out a little sooner than I thought he would. Nevertheless I came prepared. Reaching into the black duffle bag that I brought with me I pull out an object wrapped in a black cloth. I place the item down on the small coffee table and unwrap the item for Dayton to see. His eyes immediately widen when he gazes upon the item that was just unwrapped in front of him.


DAYTON SHIPP: “Where did you get that?”

ENIGMA “Right were your mother left it. Attached to a cinderblock in Lake Neuymayer.”

“Now would you like to have a seat so we can talk?”


I imagine that Dayton is starting to sense that his control of this situation is minimal at best in an effort to at to get on my good side Dayton puts his book bag down and takes a seat in the recliner. In an attempt to ease Dayton’s growing discomfort I decided to take a seat opposite him.


ENIGMA “As you can see from the knife that sits before you, I know who you are, and I know what you did.”

“My being here is no accident.”

“Tell me Dayton, is Philip Lex still among the living?”


DAYTON SHIPP: “How do you know about him?”


I can see Dayton continuing to grow uneasy as he shifts around in his seat.


ENIGMA “Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that I know a lot more about you than you can possibly imagine.”

“Now, answer my question.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Yes, he is still alive.”

ENIGMA “Why is that?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Conditions weren’t right.”

ENIGMA "Is that so?"

"Let me guess, too many witnesses and you got gun shy?"

DAYTON SHIPP: "Something like that."

ENIGMA "Well lucky for Philip. But don't worry, I will finish what you started."

"I suppose I owe you a thank you for turning me onto his scent."

DAYTON SHIPP: "You're welcome."


ENIGMA "Now I want to talk about something, rather, someone else."

"I know what you did to Trevor Kidd. The knife sitting between us is evidence of that. You killed an innocent man and I want to know why.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “He was not an innocent man.”

ENIGMA “Is that so? How about you fill me in then on what his crime was because as far as the law is concerned and more importantly as far as I am concerned, making a pass at your mother is not a crime punishable by death.”


Dayton says nothing. Whether it’s the fear settling in or the fact that he knows that his response is not going to be enough to save him he instead opts to remain silent.


ENIGMA “Trevor Kidd was your first is that right?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Yes he was.”

ENIGMA “The first of many?”


I am giving him the chance to be honest with me and come clean. You could even say I am giving him a chance to confess his sins but something tells me he won’t do it. Not yet anyway.


DAYTON SHIPP: “You tell me. You seem to know everything about me.”


He’s not going to make this easy. I’m not entirely shocked.


ENIGMA “Here is what I know Dayton. You killed Trevor Kidd, you stabbed him to death with this knife right here.”

“Now I could have taken that evidence to the police and let them do the rest of the work on their own the end result of which would have you spending the rest of your life behind bars.”

“But I did not do that did I?

DAYTON SHIPP: “No you didn’t.”

ENIGMA “Ask me why.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “What?”

ENIGMA “Ask me why I did not just hand over that knife to the police once I found it. Ask me why I instead brought it here and placed it in front of you.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Why?”

ENIGMA “That knife and what you did with it has put you on this path towards self-destruction. And I want to talk to you about it.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “After we are done talking are you going to turn me in?”

ENIGMA “No I will not. That knife will not leave this apartment you have my word.”


Unfortunately neither will he.


ENIGMA “Tell me Dayton, you killed Dayton because of a perceived slight, why did you kill the others?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “What others?”

ENIGMA “I promise you Dayton, this will go much easier if you are honest with me. Remember, I know a lot more about you than you think.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Is that so? How do you know so much about me when I know nothing about you?”

ENIGMA “Well that’s because my mother was not shooting her mouth off half cocked in a bar full of people about how her son killed her golf instructor and got away with it.”


The words pierced Dayton’s hard exterior like a knife through butter. His face immediately sunk in his hands. While the knife being laid before him was the trigger, the news of his mother being the one to spill the beans was the bullet to the heart.


ENIGMA “That’s right Dayton. You might have gotten away with it, in fact you have for the last two years but your mother’s guilt got the best of her.”

“And now here we sit.”

“So please, do me the courtesy of answering my question. Why did you kill the others?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Because they deserved it.”

ENIGMA “Says who?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Says me.”

ENIGMA “And who are you to pass that judgment?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Who are you?”

ENIGMA “Pardon me?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “You are obviously here to kill me, and that’s not by accident.”

“So you clearly believe yourself to be above everyone else. You see yourself as someone worthy to pass judgment on others for their transgressions, so again I ask you, who are you?”

ENIGMA “Who I am is not important. I am here to talk about you.”

“I want to hear you say it, I want to hear you tell me why you killed the people you did.”

“Was it to quench a thirst, was it because you just like killing or did you believe that you were doing the world a service by ridding it of filth?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “Yes, the last one.”

ENIGMA “So you killed people who were evil, is that what you believed?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “It’s not what I believed, it’s what I was doing. Jamie Kirk killed his girlfriend, he strangled her to death and dumped her body off the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. Desmond Hawkes killed a store front owner in a botched robbery attempt. Anna Joy kidnapped and killed a young girl. Need I go on?”

ENIGMA “Why not let the police handle these people? Why did you feel the need to get involved?”

DAYTON SHIPP: “The police are incompetent.”

ENIGMA “True as that may be that still does not give you the right to take on the role of judge, jury and executioner."

DAYTON SHIPP: “Is that so?”

ENIGMA “It is.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “You have no right to judge me.”

ENIGMA “I have every right.”

“I never killed an innocent. Trevor Kidd, despite what you tell yourself was innocent.”

“He may have been a piece of shit but he was guilty of no crime and you took it upon yourself to kill him.”

“What you have done since then does not absolve you of that crime.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “So now what?”

“You are going to kill me?”

ENIGMA “I already killed you.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “What are talking about?”

ENIGMA “I put a neurotoxin on the door handle to your apartment. The moment you grabbed a hold of it and turned the knob you infected yourself with it.”

“The reason I asked you to sit down was so that you would not notice the toxin taking effect, by now it has already started making it’s way through your blood stream.”

DAYTON SHIPP: “You’re bluffing.”

ENIGMA “Try and stand up, see what happens.”


Dayton places both hands on the arm rests of his chair and attempts to push himself up but nothing happens. His legs remain as they have for the last 10 minutes. They do not move, not even an inch.


ENIGMA “The toxin is starting to do it’s job. In a matter of moments your arms will no longer work, and then your neck and eventually your brain will be shut off.”

“You are going to die sitting in that chair.”

“It is a fate far more merciful than what I am accustomed to, consider yourself fortunate that I did not make it more painful.”


Tears start forming in the corner of Dayton’s eyes as his breathing begins to get heavy.


DAYTON SHIPP: “Will it hurt?”

ENIGMA “You will not feel a thing.”

“I mean that quite literally, very soon you will feel nothing.”

“You will exist this world without so much as whimper.”


Now the tears start trickling down Dayton’s face.


DAYTON SHIPP: “Why? Why couldn’t you just let me live out my life? What makes us so different?”

ENIGMA “You killed an innocent Dayton. Even monsters like us, we need to operate within the confines of a code otherwise we are no better than the people we deem unworthy to carry on.”

“I am sorry Dayton, I truly am. But this had to happen.”


I look over at Dayton and you can tell he’s trying to speak but his mouth won’t open, the toxin is working its way up the body. It will only be a minute or two before he takes his last breath.


ENIGMA “It is ok Dayton. I will wait here with you. You won’t be alone.”


Fade to black.