72 Hours: A Ticking Time Bomb

{-CHAPTER THREE-}

"Damiano what happened???" Victoria asked, as she sighed of relief. Damiano had just arrived back into the hotel room where the others were worried sick for him.

"I-it's..... It's....." Damiano couldn't speak. His vocal chords wouldn't let him.

"Spit it out!" Ethan demanded.

"It's...... It's Duncan.... Duncan... L..."

"Duncan Laurence????" Thomas asked. "What happened to him???"

Thomas looked up to Duncan a lot. He voted for him back in 2019 when he won Eurovision. When they encountered him at the song contest in 2021. Thomas was the first to say something to him.

Damiano cleared his throat.

"Yes! Duncan Laurence! He's..... He's .... He's been kidnapped!!!" Damiano finally said. Thomas looked ready to drop dead.

"WHAT??? BY WHO????" Thomas cried.

"I don't know .... I saw it all happen.... Duncan was locked in an old house, he had pulled down the tapestry to see if anyone could get to him..... The man was masked so I couldn't tell who he was..... Duncan had collapsed to the floor....." Damiano broke out crying.

"Wait ... Is he ...." Victoria tried to say. Before she could say the word 'dead', Damiano cut her off.

"No... Not dead.... But he was unconscious...."

Thomas sighed of relief.

"He needs our help! The man said something about Rotterdam! I'm going there to save him! Who's in?" Damiano asked. Thomas was eager to save him. Victoria obliged reluctantly. Ethan, however, didn't look too fond of the idea.

"Damiano, you're gonna get yourself killed if you try to save him! There's no use! Let the authorities handle it. You can't do anything."

"Doesn't hurt to try! Please... Duncan's a great friend of ours. We can't just let him die!" Damiano cried.

Ethan sighed.

"Fine, we'll discuss this in the morning." Ethan finally said. He was tired. It was around eleven at night. All of the band mates wanted to get some sleep...

All except for Damiano.

"Night guys. See you tomorrow." Thomas sighed. Damiano watched the poor guitarist lie down on his bed. His sighs were getting more and more sad as he thought deeply about what had happened.

Damiano felt horrible. He thought there was something he could've done to try to save Duncan. He knew he tried his very best. It just wasn't good enough.

Damiano eventually put those thoughts to rest as he laid his head down on his pillow and fell asleep.

.....

"You're hiding something from me, Mahmood! I can feel it!" The man said, looking at Mahmood with an evil glare. They had brought Duncan back to their place in Rotterdam.

Mahmood was scared. If he tells the boss that Damiano saw him. Damiano would be dead.... If he didn't, and he lied about it.... He would probably be killed.

Still, Mahmood was silent.

"Someone saw.... Who saw?? Did you kill them?" The boss asked.

"N-no one saw me, sir...." Mahmood lied. The boss pointed a gun to his head.

"Are you sure?" The boss asked rhetorically.

"Yes! I promise you my....." Before he could finish his sentence, the boss pulled the trigger. Mahmood collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"That's what you get for lying to me!" The mysterious man laughed. What he didn't notice was that Duncan had woken up to see it happen.

"Wh-what?... Where am I?.... MAHMOOD!" Duncan cried out. He grunted, pulled, trying to break free of the ropes that had him tied..

"Well, well, well. You're awake!" The man chuckled.

"You... You killed him!!!!" Duncan cried out. He was shocked more than anything. He was being held captive, and the person who kidnapped him just killed Mahmood. His own teammate! Someone who worked for him!

"A-are you going to kill me?" Duncan trembled. The man walked up to him with an evil look in his eye.

"Oh, Duncan. There's no one here to save you now!" The man cackled. Duncan's big, brown eyes stared at the man in terror, as he knew there was nothing he could do, nothing anyone could do.

The man pulled out a syringe filled with a blue liquid inside of it. The liquid was said to put someone out for three days straight, but not enough strength to kill them.

The man walked closer to Duncan as he pulled out the needle for the syringe. Duncan felt a slight poke in his right arm. He had began to feel weak.

"T-there has to be someone.... S-someone will come.... Come to save me!... I just know it......." Duncan took what was left of that energy to speak before he lost his consciousness once again.

The man laughed.

"Oh, Duncan. You'll have to wait and see..." The man laughed. He knew what he was doing....

Just like he knew that Damiano had seen it all happen....