Chapter 1
Duncan's POV:
Tonight was the night.
I had been waiting months for this night. It was the night I would propose to my girlfriend, Courtney. Sure, we've had our ups and downs, but that's a given for a relationship. I had finally gotten the ring from my cousin; Clark; a ring designer. Clark knew Courtney well, so I let him help think of the design. "Don't sweat it, man!" he had told me. "She's gonna say 'yes'." He added, but that made me even more nervous. Clark tends to be wrong about everything… My hands were clammy as I got out of my car to pick her up. As I knocked on the door, I saw some of the crap from her 19th birthday party was still on the floor. Strange, I thought. Especially with it being her. All of my nervousness nearly disappeared when I saw her walk down the stairs in her jade green mini dress. I had hoped she'd wear that, I bought it for her for her birthday. We were going to the fanciest restaurant in the city of Toronto, which, you can probably tell from the sentence, is where we live. I had made reservations months in advance to make sure it was perfect. She opened the door and smiled. "Hello Duncan." She greeted me. "Hey Princess." I responded, as always, and then we left, all of my nervousness returning.
As we were pulling in I saw a few people, dressed pretty crappy, if I do say so myself, all standing in a circle, smoking what smelled like pot. Courtney gave me a worried look. "Hey," I said. "Don't worry. I'll protect you." I said, sounding corny as I put my arm around her, she giggled nervously, but she looked less worried, that made me happy. One of the guys seemed to whisper to the other, pointing at us. The other guy laughed, they fist bumped and that's when I got weirded out. Now I'm not saying that I was scared or anything, I just knew something wasn't right. I wouldn't have stuck around to find out if I knew about what had been in store. And I wish I had known so I could have stopped it. But we walked into the restaurant without any problem. Good, I thought to myself, because if they gave us a problem, it would result in health problems for them.
After we finished our meal -which I may add was perfect for the occasion- the waiter took our dessert plates, so this was it. "Court-" my voice cracked nervously, so I cleared my throat and tried again, reaching for her hand this time. "Courtney Elizabeth Garcia. I've been madly in love with you since the first moment I saw you. We've had our ups and we've had our downs, but that's normal in a relationship. I regret everything I ever did to hurt you. But the downs aren't what I wanted to ask you."
As I started the first part, about 20 guys from the parking lot had walked through the door. Once I finished the last part I realized they were walking towards our table and that they were extremely close now. One pulled me out of my chair and had successfully pinned both of my arms behind my back. Before I finished my sarcastic comment of "Can we help you?" while I was trying to kick his legs and whipping around wildly, trying to escape, a second one shoved a cloth in my mouth that was too big for me to even try to spit out. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him preparing a needle, drugging me; I guessed was what he was going to do. But I couldn't focus on the dude with the needle; about four guys were trying to grab Courtney! Another nine were pointing their guns around the room. A few others took their guns out and walked, completely on guard, into the kitchen to make sure the chefs couldn't call the cops or anything I guess.
With everyone else on the ground, Courtney and I had almost no chances. Yes! I thought to myself, starting to break free. But the guy behind me re-gripped my arms and the guy getting the needle ready called to one of the other guys, who had been guarding the door came over and pointed a gun right between my eyes. The four guys had already drugged Courtney and knocked her out. They were pulling her out the door as my vision started to blur. Oh. I was right. I thought as they injected me with what I'm guessing was some kind of relaxant, making me also pass out.
