"The Virtuoso"

Unanswered questions

A while later, Raymond walked back into the room where Mona lay recovering. Some color had returned to her skin, and the monitors had been removed for the time being. The doctor had spoken to Raymond earlier and said she was showing some improvement. As he walked in, she turned her head to him and smiled slightly. " How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting down beside her. " I'm better thank you. I can't apologize enough for what I put you through." she said, her eyes filling up with tears. "It's alright, don't cry." Raymond said, gently wiping a tear off her cheek. Her breath shuddered as she tried to calm herself down. "He will be coming for me. My mission is not complete." "Is there anything you can tell me about the man who ordered you to do this?" Raymond asked. "I have been with him for what seems like a lifetime. I was kidnapped by him as a young girl. Taken from my parents, brainwashed. He made me believe he saved me." She started to sit up and Raymond placed his hand on her lower back to support her. She jumped at his touch. "I'm sorry, did that hurt you?" he asked. "No" she said, shaking her head and moving her body towards the side of the bed, facing him. " I just have to get used to a man's gentle touch I guess." Raymond winced at her words. "The fact that those words just came out of your mouth, causes me a great deal of pain," he said. " Can I get up and walk around?" she asked. Raymond nodded. He held out his hand to help, but she slowly got off the bed and walked towards the window, staring out into the daylight. " After I was taken by him, I was trained to kill. I was given the name Mona Lisa, because I can easily blend into the background. People see me, but they never really stop and stare." "That's an interesting take on the famous painting" Raymond murmured. " I certainly noticed you." She turned towards him. He was standing close to her. She cast her eyes towards the floor. "There are others like me. I'm not the only girl. We were all given a name, a new identity, a new purpose." "Do you know his name?" Raymond asked. Her eyes looked up at him "He calls himself the Virtuoso."

"It is another word for someone who is a master in artistic skills." Raymond said. "Mona has told me he has other girls, all named after a famous painting, each with a set of skills trained into them. He has brainwashed them, ordered them to take down competition so to speak. I being, well, me, is the biggest catch of them all." "Mona, do you have any idea where he lives? Anything familiar about where he kept you?" "Mona shook her head. ''I was taken by him. We were forced to tell our family that we had a job opportunity with him. Whenever we made contact, we had a gun to our head and we had a script of what we were allowed to say. If anything didn't go according to his plan, we were threatened with our lives or with harm done to our family." Dembe shook his head. "That is horrendous." Mona took a deep breath and continued. ''I was kept in darkness, in a building that had everything we needed. It was almost like a cult. We weren't allowed outside. I came to realize that this was more than a kidnapping. This was a human trafficking operation. I was abused in every way possible by many men. I as well as the rest of the girls that were taken were auctioned off to the highest buyer." She stopped talking and cast her eyes towards the floor. Dembe put a hand on her arm in an attempt to comfort her. "Well we are going to have to have him come to us." Raymond said suddenly. Mona's eyes went wide. " And how do you propose we do that?" she said, her voice raised " I don't even know who you are. I was just following orders because I was scared for my life. I just wanted to be free. I am not about to become your bait to reel that monster back in." She promptly got up out of her chair and stormed out of the room. Raymond flinched at the sound of a door slamming. He walked over to the room where Mona was staying and knocked softly. When she didn't answer, he cracked open the door and saw her in the chair, head in her hands. "I'm sorry for reacting that way." Mona said, "this is all so new to me. I am free of my captor's grasp, but now I am put into a world where I'm not sure I want to be a part of." Raymond got down to her level and she looked up at him. "We are going to set you free," he said. "We will find the other girls that are trapped. We will find your family. I promise you. I understand that with the horrors you've been through, you aren't going to trust everyone right away, but please know that you can trust me. I am not going anywhere."

"He won't come alone," Mona said, walking down the hallway with Raymond. "Once he knows I'm there, he or one of his henchmen will take me." Raymond turned and faced her " Mona, I understand your concerns. I made a promise to you. I am not going anywhere. Everything will be alright. You're in good hands."

Finally they arrived. Raymond walked Mona to her room. "Get some rest. If you need anything, my room is across the hall." "Thank you, I think I can manage." she replied. She shut the door and leaned her back against it, taking in a deep breath. She walked over to the bed where she once laid in recovery from a gunshot wound. How did her life come to this? Would she ever return to a sense of normalcy?