Another Pointless Day

Aladdin lay awake once again, not being able to sleep very much anymore. Funny how much tragedies affect your sleep.

He lay his head face down, tears falling to the floor. There was no point to any of this. None.
He looked over to see Anastasia and Anya asleep, and he wondered what they dreamed of. Not just when they're sleeping, but when they're awake.

Aladdin had always thought dreams were beautiful, since he never really had the chance to make any, growing up with nothing. But then 'she' came into the picture... and everything changed. The whole world was a dream, and she was his dream come true.

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

[OOC: Sorry, I had to use that Les Mis quote XD Continuing.]

Aladdin stood up, sore all over, his head pounding. He walked into the bathroom and began observing the few items that were in there.

Aladdin filled the bathub, took off his clothes, and stepped in. He stared blankly into the water, seeing nothing but the shimmer of Esmeralda's glowing ghostly body. He forced his head under, refusing to let himself up for air until he couldn't help it anymore. He came up for air, gasping, having been under much longer than he should have been. He just couldn't imagine, drowning to death. Aladdin had said himself that drowning would be a horrible way to die.

Aladdin sat there, staring once again at the water. He whispered outloud to himself without even realizing that he was saying it,
"I promised everything would be fine. I promised we'd be together forever. Now you're gone, and it's all my fault. I don't deserve to live. You didn't deserve to die, not like that, not now."

Aladdin splashed at the water with anger, pulled at his hair, and forced himself under the water again. Even when his lungs gasped for air, he refused to let himself come up. Why? Because no matter how hard Esmeralda could have tried, she couldn't come up for air. If she couldn't, then he wouldn't. He screamed under the water, in frustration and physical and emotional pain. His stomach began convulsing, as his lungs begged for air. At this point, his actions were out of his control. Things became blurry, and he faded slowly into blackness.

Once he became unconscious, his body naturally turned itself ever so slightly, just enough for his face to rotate so that he was taking in air again.

Aladdin was aware of the fact that he didn't die, and it frustrated him. But he was tired, finally resting his distraught mind. He lay there, asleep in the tub.

ooc: Bestie don't die *tears up*

Anastasia woke up to find herself by Anya. She just laid there and quickly grabbed her head, feeling it throbbing. Her vision was blurry.

What happened? When did I fall asleep? Wasn't I talking with Aladdin and Pocahontas? - she thought to herself. She continued to try to remember what happened but her head was throbbing and pounding so hard that she just couldn't.

Anastasia laid there on the cold floor and covered her ears tightened her hands on her head wanting the aches to go away. After a few minutes, it stopped. She could hear the water running in the bathroom and then silence. She sat there against the wall for a second, then heard rapid splashing noises. Trying to get up from the floor, it took all her strength and she could barely keep her balance. Once she reached the door, she heard complete silence. She leaned against the door to keep herself up.

"Aladdin, are you in there? Is everything..." she took a breathe "alright?"

Aladdin slowly woke up as he heard a voice.

Esmeralda? Maybe I'm dead. Maybe I'm with her.

He opened his eyes and realized he was still lying in the tub, and he recognized Anastasia's voice. He was so weak.

"Ana.." He said, not being able to say her full name, his body slowly slid beneath the water until only his head lay above the surface. He wished everything would just go away, that his suffering would end.

She heard the beginning of her name quietly spoken.

"Aladdin?" she said as she grabbed the door handle and started to turn it but it was locked. Anastasia started knocking on the door. She kept trying to turn it.

"Aladdin! Is everything okay?"

Aladdin still heard her talking to him, but it was as if she was far away. It was like she was a figment of his imagination, that everything around him was. Because this wasn't his reality anymore, this wasn't his life. Because she wasn't there.

"Does.. it.. matter?" He said, having long pauses between each word, struggling a bit to talk.

The more worried she got, the more she ignored her throbbing head and it seemed to go away.

Aladdin's comment was helping her worry go away.

"Aladdin! What are you talking about?! Open the door!" She started banging on the door.

Aladdin was still in a dreamy state, as if his body was there but his mind wasn't. Aladdin wasn't thinking clearly at all, and he didn't even realize what he was doing or saying half the time.

"I can't." He said, with no explanation to go with it.

Aladdin stared at the faucet, and pulled on it. Slowly, the tub filled with more water, and Aladdin's eyes filled with tears. Every time he saw water, he thought of that moment when he looked at her body, floating dead in the pool. As he jumped in, pulling her out, to hold her cold, limp body for hours on end.

The water continued to fill, and Aladdin didn't even notice when it overflowed. The water poured ever so slightly off the brim of the tub and onto the floor, letting water seep under the doorway, where Anastasia would be standing.

"Esmeralda..." he kept repeating in a weak voice. "Esmeralda.. I'm sorry.. I couldn't.."

Anastasia could feel something cold of her feet. She looked down and saw water pouring out from underneath the doorway. Her eyes widened and she paniced.

"Aladdin! Come on! Don't do this! Open the door!" she yelled and kept banging on the door " I understand Esmeralda's gone, but think of your life you have ahead of you! Think of Aaron! Don't leave him! He's already lost his mother, who was a wonderful woman! Don't let him lose you too!" She hit her fist against the door. "Come on! Stop this!" She leaned against the door breathing heavily waiting for a response.

He listened to her words, but it was like he wasn't taking them in. At least not at first.
He responded to everything she said, under his breath. He wasn't even talking to her directly, and he wasn't sure if she could hear him.

I understand Esmeralda's gone, she said.
"All the more reason."

Think of your life you have ahead of you, she said next.
"What life? I've never had one. I have nothing."

Think of Aaron! This is what finally snapped Aladdin out of his state and back to reality.
"Aaron." He finally said at normal volume. He sat up, and turned off the water. He looked around, water all over the floor, surprised that he hadn't even noticed that happening.

"AARON!" He said, as he suddenly got out of the tub, running and hitting the wall.
He would never leave his son, that he knew without a doubt. He wouldn't breathe his final breath before his son did.

Suddenly, she heard the water stop and looked down at her feet, it stopped flowing.

AARON!!, she heard Aladdin yell. Then she heard a bang on the wall.

"Aladdin?! Are you okay?! Please come out!" Anastasia yelled.

Aladdin quickly grabbed his pants, throwing them on while attempting to not fall over. He was still dripping wet, his vest still laying on the floor soaking wet. He was hysterical, a complete mess.

He flew the door open and collapsed into Anastasia's arms.
"I'm sorry", he kept repeating over and over again.
"I'm so sorry.. I'm so sorry Anastasia."

"Ooh!" Anastasia squeeled as Aladdin collapsed into her arms. She could feel all the water soaked through his clothes.

I'm so sorry!, he kept repeating to her.

She lower herself and Aladdin down to the floor where there was still a puddle of water.

"What were you doing?" She asked in a faint voice.

When she asked what he was doing, he really wasn't sure how to reply. So much to tell, yet so little.

"... Taking a bath." he said after a short while, with an underlying tone that he knew she'd catch.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"And taking a bath consists of flooding the bathroom?" She questioned him.

"I.. fell asleep." Aladdin said, trying to brush it off as nothing.

She still looked at him with deep suspicion.

"Uh huh..." She said "Whatever you say." She paused for a moment. "If there's something you want to talk about, you know I'm here for you."

((Sorry I sort of want to jump in))

"So," Anya glanced at the two, from the corner she had been resting in, "What's your story?"

Anastasia looked back at Anya and gave her a confused look.

"I don't know if Aladdin's really fit to be telling his story right now." she said as she looked back at Aladdin.

Anya raised her eyebrows, "Ok then. How about you?"

"It's alright Anastasia, I'm fine." Aladdin said, as he gave her a quick glance.

"My story is pretty boring, actually. I grew up with no family, in Agrabah. I have little memories of my childhood. I remember a figure of my mother, but I don't know what happened to my family. The only person I had growing up was Jasmine. You might know her, she's a prisoner here. Anyway, well then she was taken away... I tried to save her, but I couldn't. They were going to kill me. So I ran. Ever since that day, I ran from town to town, even got on ships and traveled the world. One day, I was in France, just in the marketplace. I saw.. Esmeralda. That's the day my life started. A little later on down the road, everything goes black, and I wake up here. That's about it."

Aladdin gave a slight shrug, knowing his story wasn't much. "There isn't much to my background, but I've experienced a lot, seen many things."

Anastasia looked at Aladdin while he was telling his story to make sure he was okay. He said he would be fine telling Anya, but she knew it would bug him.

He noticed out of his peripheral vision as he told his story to Anya that Anastasia was keeping a close eye on him. He was sure she was worried, which didn't surprise him.

He looked at her and gave her the best reassuring smile he could muster, hoping that would calm her nerves.

Anastasia continued to sit there next to Aladdin. She flattened the bottom of her dress out, started playing with part of her hair and looked into her lap. She didn't know what to say or think about for that matter. So much was going on. She just stayed silent like she normally did.

Aladdin continued keeping an eye on her as well, because she seemed off.
Seeing her uneasy made him feel uneasy, and he hoped whatever was on her mind wasn't bothering her too much.

He placed a hand on the middle of her back, and mouthed "What's wrong?" to her.

She turned her head slightly to look at Aladdin and then gave him a small smile. It was fake, but she hoped he wouldn't notice.

"Nothing..." she said in a faint voice "I'm fine."

He gave her the I know better than that look, but let her be. Sometimes people needed to keep their thoughts to themselves.

"I'm here to listen." He offered, if she did want to talk about it.

Anastasia knew Aladdin saw right through her. Was now the time to tell someone? She hadn't told anyone her story and when they asked, she'd lie. The only thing people knew about was part of her relationship with John. And when she was asked what she did wrong to be dragged here she would just say she didn't know, but she did! She thought about it, but she doesn't like making the attention drift to her and people feeling sorry for her.

Anastasia just stayed silent for a moment.

"Thanks." she said in a quiet voice as she softly touched Aladdin's hand that was on her shoulder.

He could tell the wheels in her head were turning, like she couldn't decide what she wanted her next words to be. He just looked at her, not pressuring her to talk.

Aladdin felt her hand on top of his, and all that she said was 'Thanks'.

Although he hoped that she would open up to him, he left it at that.
"You're welcome. That's what friends are for."

That's what friends are for, she heard Aladdin say. And truthfully, Anastasia didn't know that...

Anastasia realized the attention was on her and didn't like it. She tried to quickly come up with something to change the subject.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked while trying to straighten herself up.

Aladdin was surprised at her quick change in attitude, and he went with it.

"Er, well.. How about I Spy? Nah, we have no furniture."
Aladdin shrugged, trying to think of something to do.

"I wonder if the others are at the masquerade right now... I wonder if that's why we haven't heard back from Pocahontas." Aladdin wondered what was going in everyone's rooms in this place, hopefully all good things.

"The what?" she was confused "There's a masquerade?" Anastasia had no knowledge of this event. She quickly turned to Aladdin.

"Have you ever been invited to anything here? I've been here while they had the dinner party and now this, but I haven't been able to attend either." she paused "I wonder what goes on at them?"

Anya frowned, "Normally the vil-I mean John does something horrible at them or he'll just use the event to stir up drama."

"Ooh..." She sat up and looked up to Anya. "Is that what he mainly does? Has he ever done anything... nice... to anyone here?"

Anya bit her lip, "He has only done one nice thing to me that I can think of. After he shot me I almost bled to death, but he gave Eric a medical kit so he could stitch me up. Granted that was after he shot me..."

Anastasia gasped, "He shot you?! I'm so sorry!" she let Anya finished. "Well, atleast he wanted you to live. I guess that was nice of him."

Anya shrugged, "I'm still confused on why he wanted me to live..."

"Maybe he's not all hurtful. Maybe there is a good side to him but he just doesn't want to show it." She shrugged.

Anya shook her head, "He's killed way too many people for me to believe that there is a good side to him. I think he has his kind moments though..."

"How many people do you know of that have died here?" She asked curiously.

Aladdin listened, looking from one to the other as they talked.
Then he joined the conversation, adding in his ideas.

"Yep, I was roomed with a woman named Helga when she received her invitation to the masquerade. There have been other 'events' here as well, some good and some bad. But even the good events, including the dinner you mentioned... He doesn't physically do things to people, but he invites just the right people so that there is tons of drama. He just likes to see everyone get worked up. I've heard a lot of crazy stories from that dinner party..."

"Another time, there was a dinner date, so there were couples at a time. Every guy prisoner invited a girl to dinner; that's where I reconnected with Jasmine. And another time, he allowed some of us to go outside. It was beautiful, and there was nice food. So yeah, sometimes he actually does nice things."

"Although he has horrific events as well... Like when I woke up in the basement and had to play Russian Roulette, or there was a game where people were paired up... Everyone had to do tasks. If they failed to do them, they died. Or their partner did... I'm not sure, I wasn't actually there."

"ANOTHER time I woke up in the basement, all of the men were down there. A prisoner named Phoebus was chained to the wall. He raped and harassed a lot of girls here. It showed on tapes... There were weapons. I nearly killed him. Eric, Sinbad and I tore this guy apart, but Sinbad finished him off with a bat. John doesn't always need to be the one doing bad things; I think he enjoys making us turn on each other much more than himself causing the chaos."

"I don't know if John is a nice person at all... But he's human, he has to have feelings. Something made him this way. There is an *old* John deep inside that I believe is a good person."

"Personally, I've only seen Phoebus die... at least in person. On the tv, I watched a young blonde girl and a brown-haired boy die; it was horrifying. But there have been many other deaths, and I've heard stories of them." Aladdin felt a shiver down his spine, thinking of... Her. "I found Esme dead, but I didn't see her be killed." He ended that topic at that.

[OOC: Sorry, I just realized we switched rooms... Well, I didn't XD I guess I'm not going anywhere.]

Suddenly, Aladdin felt the same sensation he had felt multiple times during his time here: They were all being gassed. Slowly, he faded into unconsciousness.