Rayne was sitting on her couch in the livingroom waiting for her mother to come home like she did every Saturday when there was a loud knock on the door. Sh got up slowly wondering who would be at her house. The last time anyone had stopped by their place was when she was still in school. Rayne opened the door to see a huge wild looking man standing on her front porch. "Uh, hello," she asked in Italian, "can I help you?"

The man grunted and said, "Here, I was sent to give you this." He held out a large bulky manilla envelope with her name in black ink across the front.

Rayne took the envelope and said to his retreating back, "Thank you." Turning to go back inside she shut and locked the door behind her before sitting back down to see what was in the envelope. Frowning she pulled out a tape recorder that had a piece of tape on the front that read 'Press Play' and a slimmer slightly smaller envelope. She dumped out the contents of the smaller envelope and screamed. "No," she shouted looking down at the pictures of her beautiful mother tied to a chair and gagged. In some she had bruises and was bloody. In one particularly gruesome picture her mother had both eyes swollen shut a busted lip and blood coming from every opening on her body with her tan skin covered with purple, black, and blue bruises.

Shaking badly she pushed play on the tape recorder and heard a dark oily voice say, "Miss Verdalos, as you probably know by now we have custody of your mother. We have recently come to conclusion that either she doesn't have the information we need or is trying to protect you. Probably the latter. My name is Vittorio and I want the key. Your mother created a cure for a deadly disease a year ago, but now it has come to my attention that she was also working on something that will destroy my kind. I want the key that will start the sequence. You will bring it to me in seven days time or your mother will die. I will send another package with the meeting place and time at in a few days. Be there with the key or your mother dies no questions asked."

Rayne lay face down on the couch sobbing when the message ended wondering what she was going to do. Now she knew why her mother never said much these last few months. She was trying to protect me from these people that she had become involved with. I wonder if she's got anything in her room that might tell me what's going on. She walked slowly to her mom's room holding onto the walls for support. Maybe this is some kind of dream. My mom would never get herself involved with such cruel people. When she entered the large airy room of her mother she looked around expecting it to be different, but it was still the same beautiful room painted in all shades of green. Rayne headed straight for her mother's private office behind the closet. She had only been in her mother's office once before when she was little. Her mother had shown her where she hid a spare key to her drawers and said to her, "Rayne, this place is my private place, but you can come in if something really bad has happened. In that case I want you to take everything from my drawers and top file drawer and get as far from here as you can. You will need to find your uncle or your fathe if he's still alive. You know who he is don't you? You still remember what I showed you he looks like?"

Rayne nodded now just as she did then and muttered to herself, "Sì se lo ricordo del mama e conosco esattamente dove ora trovarlo. Nonlo preoccupi li avrà sede in nessun tempo e senza aiutare quei fiends che li hanno danneggiati. Renderò a questi monsters la paga."


Translation

Rayne:

"Yes I remember Mama, and I know exactly where to find him now. Don't worry I'll have you home in no time and without helping those fiends that have hurt you. I'll make these monsters pay."