As we stumbled out of the bar, after a pretty heavy night of drinking, four men in leather masks accosted us. One grabbed my girlfriend and put a gun to her head, the another one linked his arm in mine, pressing a gun to my ribs and hissed, "don't do anything stupid, or you'll wear her brains all over your nice leather jacket."
They led us to a car parked in an alley and shoved my girlfriend in the back. The guy holding on to me jerked my arms behind my back, snapped handcuffs on my wrists and opened the boot of the car gesturing for me to get in.
"Can't we discuss this?" I asked, "if it's money you want, take me to an ATM and I'll get you whatever you need."
"Shut up and get in."
"Look, let's be reasonable, I'm sure we can work this out..." I tried again.
He pulled me to him by the front of my shirt almost lifting me off the ground and put the gun to my head, "Get in or I'll shoot you, your choice."
I thought about trying to run, but then I saw my girlfriend's face peering at me through the back window of the car and decided to play along. I got into the boot, he closed the lid and the car started to move.
As I lay in the boot I remembered reading about cars now having safety releases built into them but in the dim light I couldn't really see any, and with my arms pinned underneath me I wouldn't have been able to pull them anyway.
I kicked the boot lid with my feet, trying to force it open. After a few minutes of that the car stopped, the lid opened, the light popped on and one of the masked figures leaned in, "you were warned" was all he said, then he produced a syringe and jabbed it into my neck. A warm sensation burned in my veins, my vision dimmed, and I lost consciousness.
When I came to I was in considerable pain, my arms felt like they were being pulled from their sockets, I looked up to find that my wrists were lashed to a metal rod hanging on a chain from a hook in the ceiling, and I was dangling about 8 centimetres off the ground.
By twisting my body I was able to rotate around and take in my surroundings. It appeared to be a cellar, there were no windows and the room was bare save a table and some wooden chairs. The only light was a single uncovered bulb.
A few minutes later the door opened, the four men came in pulling my girlfriend along with them, she had a ball gag in her mouth, and she looked at me with her eyes wide. They sat her in a chair and tied her hands and feet to it.
The biggest of the four approached me with a large knife in his hand, "Good morning sunshine," he cooed at me, "did you have a nice nap?"
"What's going on here?" I demanded, "Why are you doing this? Who are you?"