Aladdin? - Part 11 (Final)
Title: ‘Aladdin?’
Author: Me! (2theChangmin)
Characters: Super Junior
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Summary: Super Junior has a night off and decides to watch the movie ‘Aladdin’. But something suddenly goes horribly, horribly wrong…
This is the last part excluding the epilogue!! XD And this part is dedicated to thenexmessiah as a very, very, very belated ‘happy birthday!’ And you are very much LOVED! XD *hugs*
I hope you all like the last bit! >.<
Part 11
Henry strained his leg muscles to keep Siwon and himself just below the surface. He needed to get Siwon above the surface quickly. Come to think of it, he needed to get above the surface quickly. Crap. He was running out of air again. Not to mention the fact that Siwon was unconscious. Double crap.
Henry didn’t know how he managed it, he would have sworn that he didn’t have the energy to do it, but suddenly Siwon’s head broke through to fresh air. Henry would have sighed in relief if he still hadn’t been under the water and already losing his precious oxygen.
Okay. He could do this. He just needed to… Damn; Siwon was heavy.
He finally managed to come up long enough to get another large lungful of air and double check that the shore was to their right. Well… his right anyhow, it was more to Siwon’s back. Right; not important. What was important was getting over there.
And… now he couldn’t see again. Arg! He needed to stop sinking!
Henry got Siwon above the water again and readjusted his hold on the man so that he could use one arm to guide them towards the shore. He couldn’t tell if it was actually working or not because he was having trouble seeing… and breathing… and basically doing anything and everything to keep from collapsing. He was not a swimmer. He sucked at swimming. He had almost drowned in his friend’s pool when he was ten and that water had at least been standing still and he hadn’t had the extra quantabajillion pounds that an unconscious Siwon weighed.
Henry managed another quick gasp of air before Siwon’s weight pushed him under again. Okay, maybe ‘quantabajillion’ was being a little over dramatic but the man was heavy.
Fuck!
Henry wanted to scream. Hell, his arms and legs were already screaming in their own silent painful protest. He was pretty sure the next time he went up for fresh air that he was crying; though it was hard to be sure with all the other moisture surrounding him, trying to suffocate him.
He couldn’t even be sure if he was moving in the right-
Ow!
Henry shook his head and stopped moving forward. He blinked and tried to focus his vision underwater. He had just ran into something painfully hard and… He gripped Siwon tighter with his left arm. ‘Please don’t be a shark,’ he chanted silently. When whatever it was didn’t plunge forward and eat him right away, Henry thought it was safe enough to raise up to the surface and use those precious two or three seconds before Siwon’s body weight pushed him under again, to see what it was.
Henry took in a harsh breath, (it was getting harder for him to fill his lungs), and shook his wet bangs aside to see… Oh thank God.
Henry fought against the weight in his side which tried to push him down as he reached forward with his right arm and attempted to find some sort of hold in the rock face in front of him. His fingers finally found purchase and he managed to keep his and Siwon’s heads above the water. He pulled themselves in against the rock, muscles screaming in protest the whole way. He sighed once he managed this much and allowed himself the time to take in a few large breathes and ease the pain in his chest.
Henry squinted up in the darkness. He could see the top of the cliff high above them clearly as the moon bounced off it. There was no way they were going to be able to get there. He tried to search for a spot nearer down, somewhere they could reach. Anywhere. It was hard to see the rest of the rock face though as it was cast in inky shadows.
Henry knew he was crying this time as he struggled to keep his grip on Siwon’s slipping figure.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Where are they?” Someone whispered.
“They shouldn’t be taking this long,” another voice spoke softly.
Nobody wanted to speak loudly.
“Heechul?”
“What?”
“How much longer do you think they’ll be?”
“I don’t know… they should have been here already.”
“You don’t think they could have…”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“Don’t even suggest that,” their leader hissed. “They’re fine. They’re fine… They’re just taking their time is all…”
Kibum hadn’t said anything for a bit. He had been trying to tell the others something earlier but none of them listened. None of them wanted to listen. If it wasn’t about Henry or Siwon at this point in time then their ears were deaf to whatever was being said. He wondered if he should try again. He had already tried to tell them three times to no avail but maybe this time…
“Guys… Listen: How long has it been since-?”
“Kibum, not now.”
“But-”
“Maybe we should pray? Siwon would want us to pray right?”
“Guys, seriously-”
“I can’t pray to someone I don’t believe in… besides, I don’t even know how to pray.”
“Can’t you see that-?”
“Quiet Kibum!”
“I’ll pray enough for both of us, Heechul,” Hangeng offered.
“I really just want us all out of here.”
Kibum thought for a moment… Maybe if he tried a different method…
“Do you think … Do you think they’re in pain?”
…
“I hope not.”
“HEY! EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ME!!!”
…
Hey, it worked!
“Good. Now… I think I might know how to get out of here.”
. . .
And now the silence was deafening. He almost wanted to laugh; almost wanted to go, ‘sure now you’re all listening’.
… Almost.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Siwon,” Henry groaned, as his grip on the rock started slipping. How much longer could he keep this up? He was going to slip back into the water soon, he knew it. And he didn’t think he had the strength to find the hand hold again once he lost it. He bit his bottom lip and struggled to keep his grip on both the rock and Siwon, both of which were becoming progressively slippier.
The moon was shining brighter; Henry assumed that some clouds had moved. Henry saw the silhouette of a rock sticking out of the water maybe six feet away. Could he make that? Maybe if he could reach the rock, he could at least prop Siwon up and… Well, he was slipping anyhow so he had to try; either try or drown. Yeah… he didn’t like that second option.
Crap. His fingers were going.
…
Henry took a deep breath as his hand completely slipped away from the rock and he was dunked back down into the water. He coughed when he came up and pushed away from the rough wall with the little strength remaining in his right arm. He began moving towards the rock.
It was slow work. Too slow. But the more he tried to hurry the slower he went. His body was simply draining of all energy. Every bit of him seemed to shout ‘stop moving’. He didn’t though. He couldn’t. Not until he reached the rock.
“Ugh!” Henry gripped the slippery thing beneath him and swung Siwon against the rock a bit harder than he had intended. “Sorry hyung,” he gasped even though he was pretty sure the man couldn’t hear him. Henry tried to drape as much of his hyung’s body onto the rock as he could. He couldn’t actually get much stabilized onto the thing but he finally managed to get to the point where if he kept his left hand lightly on Siwon’s Shoulder, the man would stay up. He sighed in relief.
He felt around with his feet and managed to get his left leg into a small notch in the rock’s side some distance underwater. Great. He sighed again.
Now he could use his right hand to get the damn handkerchief off of Siwon’s face; the thing had practically fallen off already. Once that was done, Henry took in two more breaths before wrapping his right arm around Siwon’s body and trying to undo the shackles. He fumbled for a bit and had to give up without actually succeeding when Siwon began slipping back into the water.
Why wasn’t the guy waking up? Henry was already sufficiently panicked and drained. He barely had the energy to shake Siwon’s shoulders. “Siwon… come on man… Wake up.” His voice sounded strange to him; rough and dry and barely more than a whisper. He cleared his throat. “Siwon,” he shuddered violently when the cold surrounding him suddenly seemed to break through the numbness of his fear. “Siwon,” he shouted as he shook the man again. “Damn it,” he hit his hyung’s chest weakly. “You are not going to die like this! Do you hear me? Choi Siwon! I refuse to be a part of your death! Now you open your eyes!”
Nothing.
Henry sobbed and hit the still man’s chest again. “Hyung…” He used both his hands to push weakly at Siwon’s shoulders. “Hyung, please don’t die… You can’t leave me out here. Please just… Just wake up, okay? … Please…?”
Henry had trouble keeping Siwon propped up as his hands began to shake. He stubbornly refused to believe that Siwon wasn’t getting up; he just needed to think of something. Henry laid his head against Siwon’s chest in the hopes of hearing something, anything resembling of a heartbeat.
… There! … And there!
Yes! At least he wasn’t dead! That was good… right? Dead people’s hearts didn’t beat… But unless Henry could get him up soon there was no chance he’d survive… There was no chance either of them would.
He needed to get them out of the water before they both froze to death. Who knew that the desert was so cold at night?
He turned his head away from Siwon to look at the surrounding water. There was no way he’d be able to swim them both out of there without Siwon’s help. He could barely stand as it was…
Crap… Henry really wished he knew CPR. Would CPR even work if you weren’t on a flat surface? Aish! Henry put both of his hands together as he had seen people do in movies and placed them over Siwon’s chest. Wait, he needed to tilt the head back, right? Oh wait, Siwon’s head was already back… Okay then, good, one thing down. Was he supposed to breathe first? Or pump his chest first? … And how many times was he supposed to do each?
Arg! He winged it. He didn’t even think as he removed his hands from Siwon’s chest and replaced them on the man’s chin and nose; using his own body to keep the man up. He covered Siwon's mouth completely with his own before filling the other’s mouth with air. At least he knew that he had to keep the whole mouth covered. He did this four times before starting to pump the man’s chest. He had been unable to remember if it was three or five breathes and so compromised with four.
When he had seen the people do this in movies... Well, him and his friends had always thought that if they had to give CPR to someone, especially another dude, that it would be disgusting; they would have still done it to save a life but it would still have felt gross. Actually doing it though… It was almost surreal. He wasn’t grossed out about it at all. He was trying to save his hyung, there was nothing gross or wrong about it. His hyung needed air, so he gave it to him. His heart needed to beat faster, so he pumped it. He pumped it and he prayed; ‘please wake up, please wake up’ on repeat in his head.
He leaned in again to give another four breaths. His mouth didn’t even touch Siwon’s really; he was trying not to let any air escape and his lips were completely surrounding his hyung’s. Four breaths were over quickly and he began pumping. He realized after the tenth pump that he wasn’t shivering as violently anymore; the movement was warming him.
Siwon still wasn’t responding. Henry was just about to stop pumping and give more air, maybe five was the right number, when Siwon convulsed and coughed up a large amount of water on him.
Henry was sure his tears were happy ones this time as a tired smile found its way to his face. Sure, okay, the man had just spit water on his face. But he was alive damn it!!! Henry quickly helped the man sit up as he continued to cough, though thankfully nothing was coming up anymore. “Welcome back.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Kibum finished telling his theory. He was met with silence for a beat before-
“But, but… no, that can’t…”
“How could…?”
“That’s not even possible, is it?”
“I don’t know,” Kibum told them honestly. “But if you had asked me twenty-four hours ago if being sucked into a cartoon was possible I’d have said 'no'. Now I’m not so sure what is and what isn’t possible. I just figured out that this wasn’t right and thought maybe 'this' and 'us being here' were connected.”
“But…”
“But-?”
“But how?!”
“I don’t know!” They expected him to know the answer? Hell, his idea was almost insane; it was just a hunch!
“If you don’t know than how…”
“Look… Heechul, how many characters are left in this movie?”
…
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Henry,” Siwon gasped when he finally stopped dry heaving. “Shackles?”
“Oh right.”
It was a lot easier to get the things off with Siwon holding his own body up. As soon as the chains were off of his arms the larger man was crushing Henry’s smaller frame to his chest. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Me too,” Henry confessed as he hugged the man back.
Siwon stopped crushing his ribs eventually and moved his hands to his friend’s face. “Henry…” He wanted to tell Henry something. Many things actually, but he couldn’t seem to find the words. How thankful he was, the gratitude, the joy at still being alive (even if he was still in this damn cartoon world), how proud he was of the younger for pushing himself so hard, much more that seemed to escape him but that he was sure would come to him eventually. He wanted to say all of this but couldn’t quite think of the best words to describe just what he was feeling.
Henry seemed to get it though. He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Siwon smiled back, the words rolling off his tongue. “Thank you.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“None.”
…
“What do you mean, none?” Lee Teuk asked worriedly.
“I mean, none,” Heechul repeated a bit panicky.
“See? So then it makes sense,” Kibum announced. “This has to have something to do with Donghae.”
“Wait, it doesn’t necessarily…”
“Why else would he be the only member not in here?”
“Maybe it just means that there weren’t enough characters for him?!” Eunhyuk defended. “There are fifteen of us Kibum; that’s a lot of fucking roles!”
“No,” Sungmin denied. “There were roles… Even… oh… even in the last scene we did, there was an extra guard there… Donghae could have been him.”
“And what about the haughty prince?” Lee Teuk suddenly remembered the rude man barreling past him in almost the first scene.
“Or the beggar children,” Kangin breathed.
“Or one of the dancing girls…” Hangeng put in. “It would have been weird but it would have still been possible.
“Or the merchant at the beginning,” Ryeowook thought.
“But, no, not the merchant,” Yesung suddenly had an idea. “Donghae wasn’t fully asleep until after the merchant’s scene so…”
“You think this was because he fell asleep?” Kyuhyun asked in shock.
“Why not? It makes as much sense as anything at this point.”
“Aish, I can’t believe we didn’t see this… it all makes so much sense now,” Heechul screamed.
“Wait,” Shindong spoke up. “Are you suggesting that this is a dream? Because it feels awfully damn real to me!”
“No… it most definitely isn’t a dream…”
“Then what?”
“… I don’t know… But I’m almost certain it’s got something to do with Hae.”
“Guys this is great and all but… How is this going to help Siwon and Henry? They still aren’t back from what was supposed to be one of the shortest scenes in the movie!”
“Crap!”
“Why couldn’t we have figured this out sooner?!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Can you swim?”
“Give me a few more seconds to catch my breath… How far are we going?”
“Um… I don’t actually know…”
“Do we really even have to swim? What happens in the movie?”
“As far as I remember? The genie takes Aladdin to the top of the cliff and Aladdin wakes up and they hug and…” Henry started to think.
“Okay, well aside from being on the top of the cliff we’ve pretty much done all that.”
“True… Oh, I think maybe if we just start heading back towards the palace it’ll be another scene change and we won’t have to do much else… unless we have to be at the top of the cliff for that to work…”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to be at the top then,” Siwon grinned as he slid into the water fully. “Oh wow, this is cold!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Which way is the palace?”
“Er…”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“What happens if they don’t come back?”
“They’re going to come back!”
“But what if they don’t?!”
“Oh thank God!!!”
“You said it; I’ve never been more ecstatic to not feel my body.”
“Henry!!!”
“Siwon!!!”
“We were so worried!”
“Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“What took you so long?!”
“Are you dead?!”
. . .
“Are you dead?” Kyuhyun repeated at a hiss.
“Um… that may have been the wrong word…” Zhou Mi apologized sheepishly.
“You think?!”
“Hey, I haven’t mastered Korean yet, so give me a break!”
“We’re fine,” Henry informed them all. “Tired, and probably dripping wet (not that we can feel it)… but fine.”
“I’m so glad to hear it.”
“Hey, where’s Heechul?”
“And Lee Teuk.”
“Next scene,” Kibum guessed.
“So…” Siwon began. “What did we miss?”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Heechul and Lee Teuk stared at each other.
“So… this means the others are safe right?”
“I think so…”
“Great,” Lee Teuk sighed in relief. “We need to figure out a way to wake up Donghae.”
“Do you think it’s as simple as that?”
“I’m hoping it is. Because if it’s not… I don’t know what to do.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Donghae?!”
“Yep.”
“You mean… that Donghae…?”
“That’s what we think anyhow.”
“But, but, but… it’s Donghae!”
“Yeah…”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
‘Simple’ turned out to be the wrong word for ‘waking up Donghae’.
“Donghae!”
“Hey, listen to up!”
“Get up!!!!!”
Lee Teuk took a deep breath. “This isn’t working.”
“No shit.”
“I don’t think we’re loud enough to wake him…”
“I don’t think so either,” Heechul agreed.
“Then what do we do?”
“Continue the scene… I think there’s a point where we’ll have enough people. We just need to find a way to freeze the movie then and have everyone shout at once… otherwise, we’ll have to wait until he wakes up on his own.”
“That could be hours… what if he sleeps ‘til noon?!”
…
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Kyuhyun, what do you think?”
. . .
“Kyuhyun?”
. . .
“Yesung?”
“So, I think it’s safe to say that they’re gone.”
“Yep.”
“Any guesses as to who is next?”
… “With my luck, it will be me,” Siwon grumbled.
“No, not necessarily.”
"..."
“Siwon?”
. . .
“Siwon?”
“Okay, so he was right then.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Siwon, you’re soaking wet.”
“Yeah well, you take a swim in the lake and see what happens.”
“You’re supposed to be dry for this scene…”
“Well I’m not; deal with it.”
“Hey, don’t get snippy with me.”
“I think I have a right to be snippy! You try have a near death experience and see how snippy you are!”
“You almost died?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s it, we need to get out of here now before something else happens!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“Ryeowook, I’m fine; you don’t need to mother me.”
“Shut up, I have a right to mother you so let me mother you; you almost died!!”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But I know what you meant!”
“All I said was that it was harder than either of us thought it would be, how did you get ‘almost died’ from that?” Really, Henry was in awe of Ryeowook’s mind reading powers. He hadn’t wanted to worry any of the others so he was trying to keep it light when answering their questions. He figured that he and Siwon would tell them what actually happened later; when they weren’t in a cartoon and Henry was at a safe distance so that he wouldn’t be squashed by bone breaking ‘you’re alive’ hugs. “Really, I’m fine.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not!”
“You’re sleeping with Yesung and me when we get out of here.”
Henry sighed. He knew that there wasn’t anything he could say that would get Ryeowook to change his mind so he just accepted the inevitable.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Hey, you broke my staff!”
“I’m supposed to break your staff.”
“Yeah, but… I kind of liked it; it was growing on me.”
“Kyuhyun,” the parrot on his shoulder threw him a look. “You do realize that when we get home, the staff was not coming with us… right?”
“Yeah… so?”
“Just checking.”
“What is that supposed to-”
“GUARDS!”
“Ah!” Everyone apart from Lee Teuk covered their ears. “What the Hell?!”
Lee Teuk shrugged. “I skipped a few parts, so sue me; I want this scene done with!”
Sungmin and Shindong were suddenly there. “Uh… okay…”
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Sungmin waved back at Yesung before blinking. “Yesung?!”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a parrot!”
“Yeah… you saw this before.”
“No, I saw you as a cartoon parrot, but you’re an actual parrot!”
. . .
“Yeah.”
. . .
Sungmin blushed when he realized how stupid that had sounded. “Sorry… Oh, hey, you’re going to have Henry in your room when we get out of here.”
“What?” And Sungmin had just succeeded in confusing the poor bird.
“I just thought I’d let you know. Ryeowook went all motherly on Henry and seems to think that he almost died so… You’re going to have Henry in your room.”
“Oh… Okay then,” the parrot, which was Yesung, nodded.
“Heechul,” Lee Teuk turned to the man still in horrendous drag. “Do you think there are enough of us?”
Heechul pursed his lips… “I don’t know, we can try…”
“Great.”
“Try what?”
“Try to wake Donghae up,” Lee Teuk informed them.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Do you think we’ll get out of here soon? Or do we still have to finish the movie?”
“I hope not,” Henry spoke. “I really hope we don’t have to finish it.” He was so done with almost dying for one day.
“Me too.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Oh three… One… Two… Three!”
“DONGHAE!!!!” The seven of them shouted.
. . .
“Again.”
“DONGHAE!!!!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Donghae shifted in his sleep. He stretched his arms over his head and released a large yawn before even daring to open his eyes. Arg. Why did he wake up? He had been so comfortable… Maybe he should just drift off again…
But, no, wait. He had had the oddest… He smiled and opened his eyes only to press backwards in shock. Oh, he sighed. It was just the other members. Why were they all crowded around the couch, starring at him like that? It was kind of creepy… And what happened to them? Did they play games while he was asleep or something? Why were Kangin’s and Sungmin’s pants so dirty? And why were Siwon and Henry sopping wet?
Seriously, they should stop starring at him… though it did remind him of something.
“Uh… Hey guys,” he grinned. “I just had the craziest dream.”
. . .
“Ow!!” Donghae curled into a ball as this band members began pummeling him with pillows. Where had they all gotten the pillows from?! And why were they all fucking hitting him?!
“Lee Donghae,” Heechul’s voice screamed from somewhere above him as the pillows continued to hit him. “You are never allowed to watch another cartoon again!!!”
“Ow!”
What the fuck had he missed?!
~The End~
__Or is it… (Dun, dun, dun~!)__
Author: Me! (2theChangmin)
Characters: Super Junior
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Summary: Super Junior has a night off and decides to watch the movie ‘Aladdin’. But something suddenly goes horribly, horribly wrong…
This is the last part excluding the epilogue!! XD And this part is dedicated to thenexmessiah as a very, very, very belated ‘happy birthday!’ And you are very much LOVED! XD *hugs*
I hope you all like the last bit! >.<
Part 11
Henry strained his leg muscles to keep Siwon and himself just below the surface. He needed to get Siwon above the surface quickly. Come to think of it, he needed to get above the surface quickly. Crap. He was running out of air again. Not to mention the fact that Siwon was unconscious. Double crap.
Henry didn’t know how he managed it, he would have sworn that he didn’t have the energy to do it, but suddenly Siwon’s head broke through to fresh air. Henry would have sighed in relief if he still hadn’t been under the water and already losing his precious oxygen.
Okay. He could do this. He just needed to… Damn; Siwon was heavy.
He finally managed to come up long enough to get another large lungful of air and double check that the shore was to their right. Well… his right anyhow, it was more to Siwon’s back. Right; not important. What was important was getting over there.
And… now he couldn’t see again. Arg! He needed to stop sinking!
Henry got Siwon above the water again and readjusted his hold on the man so that he could use one arm to guide them towards the shore. He couldn’t tell if it was actually working or not because he was having trouble seeing… and breathing… and basically doing anything and everything to keep from collapsing. He was not a swimmer. He sucked at swimming. He had almost drowned in his friend’s pool when he was ten and that water had at least been standing still and he hadn’t had the extra quantabajillion pounds that an unconscious Siwon weighed.
Henry managed another quick gasp of air before Siwon’s weight pushed him under again. Okay, maybe ‘quantabajillion’ was being a little over dramatic but the man was heavy.
Fuck!
Henry wanted to scream. Hell, his arms and legs were already screaming in their own silent painful protest. He was pretty sure the next time he went up for fresh air that he was crying; though it was hard to be sure with all the other moisture surrounding him, trying to suffocate him.
He couldn’t even be sure if he was moving in the right-
Ow!
Henry shook his head and stopped moving forward. He blinked and tried to focus his vision underwater. He had just ran into something painfully hard and… He gripped Siwon tighter with his left arm. ‘Please don’t be a shark,’ he chanted silently. When whatever it was didn’t plunge forward and eat him right away, Henry thought it was safe enough to raise up to the surface and use those precious two or three seconds before Siwon’s body weight pushed him under again, to see what it was.
Henry took in a harsh breath, (it was getting harder for him to fill his lungs), and shook his wet bangs aside to see… Oh thank God.
Henry fought against the weight in his side which tried to push him down as he reached forward with his right arm and attempted to find some sort of hold in the rock face in front of him. His fingers finally found purchase and he managed to keep his and Siwon’s heads above the water. He pulled themselves in against the rock, muscles screaming in protest the whole way. He sighed once he managed this much and allowed himself the time to take in a few large breathes and ease the pain in his chest.
Henry squinted up in the darkness. He could see the top of the cliff high above them clearly as the moon bounced off it. There was no way they were going to be able to get there. He tried to search for a spot nearer down, somewhere they could reach. Anywhere. It was hard to see the rest of the rock face though as it was cast in inky shadows.
Henry knew he was crying this time as he struggled to keep his grip on Siwon’s slipping figure.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Where are they?” Someone whispered.
“They shouldn’t be taking this long,” another voice spoke softly.
Nobody wanted to speak loudly.
“Heechul?”
“What?”
“How much longer do you think they’ll be?”
“I don’t know… they should have been here already.”
“You don’t think they could have…”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“Don’t even suggest that,” their leader hissed. “They’re fine. They’re fine… They’re just taking their time is all…”
Kibum hadn’t said anything for a bit. He had been trying to tell the others something earlier but none of them listened. None of them wanted to listen. If it wasn’t about Henry or Siwon at this point in time then their ears were deaf to whatever was being said. He wondered if he should try again. He had already tried to tell them three times to no avail but maybe this time…
“Guys… Listen: How long has it been since-?”
“Kibum, not now.”
“But-”
“Maybe we should pray? Siwon would want us to pray right?”
“Guys, seriously-”
“I can’t pray to someone I don’t believe in… besides, I don’t even know how to pray.”
“Can’t you see that-?”
“Quiet Kibum!”
“I’ll pray enough for both of us, Heechul,” Hangeng offered.
“I really just want us all out of here.”
Kibum thought for a moment… Maybe if he tried a different method…
“Do you think … Do you think they’re in pain?”
…
“I hope not.”
“HEY! EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ME!!!”
…
Hey, it worked!
“Good. Now… I think I might know how to get out of here.”
. . .
And now the silence was deafening. He almost wanted to laugh; almost wanted to go, ‘sure now you’re all listening’.
… Almost.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Siwon,” Henry groaned, as his grip on the rock started slipping. How much longer could he keep this up? He was going to slip back into the water soon, he knew it. And he didn’t think he had the strength to find the hand hold again once he lost it. He bit his bottom lip and struggled to keep his grip on both the rock and Siwon, both of which were becoming progressively slippier.
The moon was shining brighter; Henry assumed that some clouds had moved. Henry saw the silhouette of a rock sticking out of the water maybe six feet away. Could he make that? Maybe if he could reach the rock, he could at least prop Siwon up and… Well, he was slipping anyhow so he had to try; either try or drown. Yeah… he didn’t like that second option.
Crap. His fingers were going.
…
Henry took a deep breath as his hand completely slipped away from the rock and he was dunked back down into the water. He coughed when he came up and pushed away from the rough wall with the little strength remaining in his right arm. He began moving towards the rock.
It was slow work. Too slow. But the more he tried to hurry the slower he went. His body was simply draining of all energy. Every bit of him seemed to shout ‘stop moving’. He didn’t though. He couldn’t. Not until he reached the rock.
“Ugh!” Henry gripped the slippery thing beneath him and swung Siwon against the rock a bit harder than he had intended. “Sorry hyung,” he gasped even though he was pretty sure the man couldn’t hear him. Henry tried to drape as much of his hyung’s body onto the rock as he could. He couldn’t actually get much stabilized onto the thing but he finally managed to get to the point where if he kept his left hand lightly on Siwon’s Shoulder, the man would stay up. He sighed in relief.
He felt around with his feet and managed to get his left leg into a small notch in the rock’s side some distance underwater. Great. He sighed again.
Now he could use his right hand to get the damn handkerchief off of Siwon’s face; the thing had practically fallen off already. Once that was done, Henry took in two more breaths before wrapping his right arm around Siwon’s body and trying to undo the shackles. He fumbled for a bit and had to give up without actually succeeding when Siwon began slipping back into the water.
Why wasn’t the guy waking up? Henry was already sufficiently panicked and drained. He barely had the energy to shake Siwon’s shoulders. “Siwon… come on man… Wake up.” His voice sounded strange to him; rough and dry and barely more than a whisper. He cleared his throat. “Siwon,” he shuddered violently when the cold surrounding him suddenly seemed to break through the numbness of his fear. “Siwon,” he shouted as he shook the man again. “Damn it,” he hit his hyung’s chest weakly. “You are not going to die like this! Do you hear me? Choi Siwon! I refuse to be a part of your death! Now you open your eyes!”
Nothing.
Henry sobbed and hit the still man’s chest again. “Hyung…” He used both his hands to push weakly at Siwon’s shoulders. “Hyung, please don’t die… You can’t leave me out here. Please just… Just wake up, okay? … Please…?”
Henry had trouble keeping Siwon propped up as his hands began to shake. He stubbornly refused to believe that Siwon wasn’t getting up; he just needed to think of something. Henry laid his head against Siwon’s chest in the hopes of hearing something, anything resembling of a heartbeat.
… There! … And there!
Yes! At least he wasn’t dead! That was good… right? Dead people’s hearts didn’t beat… But unless Henry could get him up soon there was no chance he’d survive… There was no chance either of them would.
He needed to get them out of the water before they both froze to death. Who knew that the desert was so cold at night?
He turned his head away from Siwon to look at the surrounding water. There was no way he’d be able to swim them both out of there without Siwon’s help. He could barely stand as it was…
Crap… Henry really wished he knew CPR. Would CPR even work if you weren’t on a flat surface? Aish! Henry put both of his hands together as he had seen people do in movies and placed them over Siwon’s chest. Wait, he needed to tilt the head back, right? Oh wait, Siwon’s head was already back… Okay then, good, one thing down. Was he supposed to breathe first? Or pump his chest first? … And how many times was he supposed to do each?
Arg! He winged it. He didn’t even think as he removed his hands from Siwon’s chest and replaced them on the man’s chin and nose; using his own body to keep the man up. He covered Siwon's mouth completely with his own before filling the other’s mouth with air. At least he knew that he had to keep the whole mouth covered. He did this four times before starting to pump the man’s chest. He had been unable to remember if it was three or five breathes and so compromised with four.
When he had seen the people do this in movies... Well, him and his friends had always thought that if they had to give CPR to someone, especially another dude, that it would be disgusting; they would have still done it to save a life but it would still have felt gross. Actually doing it though… It was almost surreal. He wasn’t grossed out about it at all. He was trying to save his hyung, there was nothing gross or wrong about it. His hyung needed air, so he gave it to him. His heart needed to beat faster, so he pumped it. He pumped it and he prayed; ‘please wake up, please wake up’ on repeat in his head.
He leaned in again to give another four breaths. His mouth didn’t even touch Siwon’s really; he was trying not to let any air escape and his lips were completely surrounding his hyung’s. Four breaths were over quickly and he began pumping. He realized after the tenth pump that he wasn’t shivering as violently anymore; the movement was warming him.
Siwon still wasn’t responding. Henry was just about to stop pumping and give more air, maybe five was the right number, when Siwon convulsed and coughed up a large amount of water on him.
Henry was sure his tears were happy ones this time as a tired smile found its way to his face. Sure, okay, the man had just spit water on his face. But he was alive damn it!!! Henry quickly helped the man sit up as he continued to cough, though thankfully nothing was coming up anymore. “Welcome back.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Kibum finished telling his theory. He was met with silence for a beat before-
“But, but… no, that can’t…”
“How could…?”
“That’s not even possible, is it?”
“I don’t know,” Kibum told them honestly. “But if you had asked me twenty-four hours ago if being sucked into a cartoon was possible I’d have said 'no'. Now I’m not so sure what is and what isn’t possible. I just figured out that this wasn’t right and thought maybe 'this' and 'us being here' were connected.”
“But…”
“But-?”
“But how?!”
“I don’t know!” They expected him to know the answer? Hell, his idea was almost insane; it was just a hunch!
“If you don’t know than how…”
“Look… Heechul, how many characters are left in this movie?”
…
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Henry,” Siwon gasped when he finally stopped dry heaving. “Shackles?”
“Oh right.”
It was a lot easier to get the things off with Siwon holding his own body up. As soon as the chains were off of his arms the larger man was crushing Henry’s smaller frame to his chest. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Me too,” Henry confessed as he hugged the man back.
Siwon stopped crushing his ribs eventually and moved his hands to his friend’s face. “Henry…” He wanted to tell Henry something. Many things actually, but he couldn’t seem to find the words. How thankful he was, the gratitude, the joy at still being alive (even if he was still in this damn cartoon world), how proud he was of the younger for pushing himself so hard, much more that seemed to escape him but that he was sure would come to him eventually. He wanted to say all of this but couldn’t quite think of the best words to describe just what he was feeling.
Henry seemed to get it though. He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Siwon smiled back, the words rolling off his tongue. “Thank you.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“None.”
…
“What do you mean, none?” Lee Teuk asked worriedly.
“I mean, none,” Heechul repeated a bit panicky.
“See? So then it makes sense,” Kibum announced. “This has to have something to do with Donghae.”
“Wait, it doesn’t necessarily…”
“Why else would he be the only member not in here?”
“Maybe it just means that there weren’t enough characters for him?!” Eunhyuk defended. “There are fifteen of us Kibum; that’s a lot of fucking roles!”
“No,” Sungmin denied. “There were roles… Even… oh… even in the last scene we did, there was an extra guard there… Donghae could have been him.”
“And what about the haughty prince?” Lee Teuk suddenly remembered the rude man barreling past him in almost the first scene.
“Or the beggar children,” Kangin breathed.
“Or one of the dancing girls…” Hangeng put in. “It would have been weird but it would have still been possible.
“Or the merchant at the beginning,” Ryeowook thought.
“But, no, not the merchant,” Yesung suddenly had an idea. “Donghae wasn’t fully asleep until after the merchant’s scene so…”
“You think this was because he fell asleep?” Kyuhyun asked in shock.
“Why not? It makes as much sense as anything at this point.”
“Aish, I can’t believe we didn’t see this… it all makes so much sense now,” Heechul screamed.
“Wait,” Shindong spoke up. “Are you suggesting that this is a dream? Because it feels awfully damn real to me!”
“No… it most definitely isn’t a dream…”
“Then what?”
“… I don’t know… But I’m almost certain it’s got something to do with Hae.”
“Guys this is great and all but… How is this going to help Siwon and Henry? They still aren’t back from what was supposed to be one of the shortest scenes in the movie!”
“Crap!”
“Why couldn’t we have figured this out sooner?!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Can you swim?”
“Give me a few more seconds to catch my breath… How far are we going?”
“Um… I don’t actually know…”
“Do we really even have to swim? What happens in the movie?”
“As far as I remember? The genie takes Aladdin to the top of the cliff and Aladdin wakes up and they hug and…” Henry started to think.
“Okay, well aside from being on the top of the cliff we’ve pretty much done all that.”
“True… Oh, I think maybe if we just start heading back towards the palace it’ll be another scene change and we won’t have to do much else… unless we have to be at the top of the cliff for that to work…”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to be at the top then,” Siwon grinned as he slid into the water fully. “Oh wow, this is cold!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Which way is the palace?”
“Er…”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“What happens if they don’t come back?”
“They’re going to come back!”
“But what if they don’t?!”
“Oh thank God!!!”
“You said it; I’ve never been more ecstatic to not feel my body.”
“Henry!!!”
“Siwon!!!”
“We were so worried!”
“Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“What took you so long?!”
“Are you dead?!”
. . .
“Are you dead?” Kyuhyun repeated at a hiss.
“Um… that may have been the wrong word…” Zhou Mi apologized sheepishly.
“You think?!”
“Hey, I haven’t mastered Korean yet, so give me a break!”
“We’re fine,” Henry informed them all. “Tired, and probably dripping wet (not that we can feel it)… but fine.”
“I’m so glad to hear it.”
“Hey, where’s Heechul?”
“And Lee Teuk.”
“Next scene,” Kibum guessed.
“So…” Siwon began. “What did we miss?”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Heechul and Lee Teuk stared at each other.
“So… this means the others are safe right?”
“I think so…”
“Great,” Lee Teuk sighed in relief. “We need to figure out a way to wake up Donghae.”
“Do you think it’s as simple as that?”
“I’m hoping it is. Because if it’s not… I don’t know what to do.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Donghae?!”
“Yep.”
“You mean… that Donghae…?”
“That’s what we think anyhow.”
“But, but, but… it’s Donghae!”
“Yeah…”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
‘Simple’ turned out to be the wrong word for ‘waking up Donghae’.
“Donghae!”
“Hey, listen to up!”
“Get up!!!!!”
Lee Teuk took a deep breath. “This isn’t working.”
“No shit.”
“I don’t think we’re loud enough to wake him…”
“I don’t think so either,” Heechul agreed.
“Then what do we do?”
“Continue the scene… I think there’s a point where we’ll have enough people. We just need to find a way to freeze the movie then and have everyone shout at once… otherwise, we’ll have to wait until he wakes up on his own.”
“That could be hours… what if he sleeps ‘til noon?!”
…
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Kyuhyun, what do you think?”
. . .
“Kyuhyun?”
. . .
“Yesung?”
“So, I think it’s safe to say that they’re gone.”
“Yep.”
“Any guesses as to who is next?”
… “With my luck, it will be me,” Siwon grumbled.
“No, not necessarily.”
"..."
“Siwon?”
. . .
“Siwon?”
“Okay, so he was right then.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Siwon, you’re soaking wet.”
“Yeah well, you take a swim in the lake and see what happens.”
“You’re supposed to be dry for this scene…”
“Well I’m not; deal with it.”
“Hey, don’t get snippy with me.”
“I think I have a right to be snippy! You try have a near death experience and see how snippy you are!”
“You almost died?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s it, we need to get out of here now before something else happens!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“Ryeowook, I’m fine; you don’t need to mother me.”
“Shut up, I have a right to mother you so let me mother you; you almost died!!”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But I know what you meant!”
“All I said was that it was harder than either of us thought it would be, how did you get ‘almost died’ from that?” Really, Henry was in awe of Ryeowook’s mind reading powers. He hadn’t wanted to worry any of the others so he was trying to keep it light when answering their questions. He figured that he and Siwon would tell them what actually happened later; when they weren’t in a cartoon and Henry was at a safe distance so that he wouldn’t be squashed by bone breaking ‘you’re alive’ hugs. “Really, I’m fine.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not!”
“You’re sleeping with Yesung and me when we get out of here.”
Henry sighed. He knew that there wasn’t anything he could say that would get Ryeowook to change his mind so he just accepted the inevitable.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Hey, you broke my staff!”
“I’m supposed to break your staff.”
“Yeah, but… I kind of liked it; it was growing on me.”
“Kyuhyun,” the parrot on his shoulder threw him a look. “You do realize that when we get home, the staff was not coming with us… right?”
“Yeah… so?”
“Just checking.”
“What is that supposed to-”
“GUARDS!”
“Ah!” Everyone apart from Lee Teuk covered their ears. “What the Hell?!”
Lee Teuk shrugged. “I skipped a few parts, so sue me; I want this scene done with!”
Sungmin and Shindong were suddenly there. “Uh… okay…”
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Sungmin waved back at Yesung before blinking. “Yesung?!”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a parrot!”
“Yeah… you saw this before.”
“No, I saw you as a cartoon parrot, but you’re an actual parrot!”
. . .
“Yeah.”
. . .
Sungmin blushed when he realized how stupid that had sounded. “Sorry… Oh, hey, you’re going to have Henry in your room when we get out of here.”
“What?” And Sungmin had just succeeded in confusing the poor bird.
“I just thought I’d let you know. Ryeowook went all motherly on Henry and seems to think that he almost died so… You’re going to have Henry in your room.”
“Oh… Okay then,” the parrot, which was Yesung, nodded.
“Heechul,” Lee Teuk turned to the man still in horrendous drag. “Do you think there are enough of us?”
Heechul pursed his lips… “I don’t know, we can try…”
“Great.”
“Try what?”
“Try to wake Donghae up,” Lee Teuk informed them.
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Do you think we’ll get out of here soon? Or do we still have to finish the movie?”
“I hope not,” Henry spoke. “I really hope we don’t have to finish it.” He was so done with almost dying for one day.
“Me too.”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
“Oh three… One… Two… Three!”
“DONGHAE!!!!” The seven of them shouted.
. . .
“Again.”
“DONGHAE!!!!”
**…..**…..**…..**…..**
Donghae shifted in his sleep. He stretched his arms over his head and released a large yawn before even daring to open his eyes. Arg. Why did he wake up? He had been so comfortable… Maybe he should just drift off again…
But, no, wait. He had had the oddest… He smiled and opened his eyes only to press backwards in shock. Oh, he sighed. It was just the other members. Why were they all crowded around the couch, starring at him like that? It was kind of creepy… And what happened to them? Did they play games while he was asleep or something? Why were Kangin’s and Sungmin’s pants so dirty? And why were Siwon and Henry sopping wet?
Seriously, they should stop starring at him… though it did remind him of something.
“Uh… Hey guys,” he grinned. “I just had the craziest dream.”
. . .
“Ow!!” Donghae curled into a ball as this band members began pummeling him with pillows. Where had they all gotten the pillows from?! And why were they all fucking hitting him?!
“Lee Donghae,” Heechul’s voice screamed from somewhere above him as the pillows continued to hit him. “You are never allowed to watch another cartoon again!!!”
“Ow!”
What the fuck had he missed?!
~The End~
__Or is it… (Dun, dun, dun~!)__