Chapter Twenty Seven

Welcome To The Forty Thieves

Cassim laughed as he turned towards Aladdin, who was perfectly fine and in no real danger and spoke "I guess you were right Aladdin. The bird will believe anything" Aladdin nodded in agreement, "What'd I tell you Dad, Iago's an idiot"

A small growl came from the back of the room, Aladdin turned around and met the source of the sound, Dodger, who was tied to the wall. "Shut up dog" he yelled as he picked up a knife. As soon as Aladdin reached for the knife, Dodger immediately stopped, but he didn't flinch, "What are you going to do that hasn't already been done to me?" Dodger asked, Aladdin only laughed and walked forward, "I'm going to kill you" he answered.

Dodger looked to his left, Oliver and Esmeralda were tied up, next to them were Lefou and Beast, the latter was chained to the wall. He could see the fear in their eyes as they watched Aladdin raise the knife. Dodger could feel the pain as the knife entered his body, for a moment he thought he was dead. Aladdin, though was terrible at aiming, and only managed to wound Dodger's shoulder, but it still had enough of a shock effect to cause the dog to be motionless and unresponsive on the ground.

Cassim began clapping as he witnessed Aladdin seemingly commit his first murder, "Welcome to the Forty Thieves" he exclaimed happily, "Oh, just think of it! We can take the Hand of Midas together, and then nothing can stop us!" Aladdin immediately thought about Jasmine, for she was trapped here. Well, trapped is an understatement, saying that Jasmine was a sexual slave being passed around by the Forty Thieves is an extreme accurate statement. To make matters worse, Aladdin made it happen, he no longer cared about Jasmine romantically or otherwise, so he considered this his divorce, then he remembered that he was never married in the first place.

Jasmine got off the small mat and picked up the money she received. Cassim told her that if she complied with the wishes of his men, that she would be set free in three months. It had been six months since they had been captured.

Jasmine knew that she was already dead, she knew the minute that she came to the den that she wouldn't make it out alive. But she made an obligation to herself to see that the others got out. She can still remember their faces the first time they came here, not broken and defeated, but strong and resilient. She wondered where such strength came from and if she could muster some of her own.

Jasmine had free reign of the den. It would've been easy for her to sneak out of the place unnoticed, but she didn't. She couldn't, not knowing that there were still people inside that she could possibly save. Even if one of those persons is Aladdin, Jasmine knew that she had to be the one to make things right.

I don't know exactly how she did it, but somehow she got Genie involved in this. In an instant, Genie appeared. Looking around, he was extremely confused, upon finding a familiar face, Genie sighed a sigh of relief and spoke, "Uh Jasmine...what's going on?" Jasmine gave Genie one of stares that means "You should've been here sooner. Where the hell where you?" kind of stares, "Really Genie? We've been prisoners here for six months and you've only noticed until now!"

Genie was surprised, in truth, like me, he had been searching for The Forty Thieves and came up with nothing. So it's not that he didn't notice, it's that he couldn't find them. "Where's Al?" he asked, his face showing concern, Jasmine's face immediately turned to stone at Aladdin's name, "He's one of them now" she answered, "but it doesn't matter. We're going to free everyone"

Jasmine then disappeared into a hallway, leaving Genie standing in the brothel, witnessing the horrors that Jasmine had to go through. Genie stared at the wall, and using his magic he could see the interrogation room. He could see The Outcasts tied and chained to posts, the floor, anything that you could tie a person to really. They all looked thin, for they hadn't eaten in close to what would've been two weeks and all of them were knocking on death's door. But it wasn't their bodies that Genie kept staring at, it was their faces. Despite the pain, the torture, all of them had the face of strength. Of those that were standing, Dodger, Oliver and Lefou, Genie could see it in their stances, they weren't going down without a fight.

Cassim left the room, leaving Aladdin alone with the captives. Oliver couldn't find enough words to describe Aladdin right now, so he just started ranting, "You're a no good Street Rat...you dirty, backstabbing motherfucker! I hope Iago kills you quickly" Aladdin laughed at the last part, "As if that bird could do anything to me!" Aladdin walked over to Lefou, who hadn't said a word in his captivity, just giving subtle responses as communication. "What's the matter, Lefou?" Aladdin sneered, "Cat got your tongue?" Aladdin laughed as he pulled out a large, bloody, pink piece of distorted muscle tissue, Lefou's tongue, "Is this it?" Aladdin asked sarcastically as he waved it in front of Lefou, who continued his gaze and filled it with hate, anger and the desire, as all of them had at this point, to bash Aladdin's head in with the nearest weapon possible.

Aladdin turned towards Esmeralda, "I never did thank you for last night" he whispered in her ear, "very exotic, very sensual..." Aladdin was cut off by Quasimodo, "Leave her alone you sick bastard!" Aladdin laughed as he pulled out his knife, edging it ever so closely to Esmeralda's neck. This caused Quasimodo to go in a fit of rage, he wanted to break his chains, but Aladdin and Cassim had made sure that such a thing was not possible with any of them.

Oswald was suspended in a cage above a large pit of alligators in the corner of the interrogation room. He was treated significantly better than the others, fed regularly, slept as well as anyone could when they're trapped in a cage. But Oswald, like Lefou, was manipulated, his ears were cut off.

But being suspended over a pit of alligators meant that Oswald wasn't watched by any of the guards, so instead of sitting there and awaiting his certain death, Oswald took action. Taking a small piece of wire from the cage, Oswald worked on the lock, having picked up lock picking from a conversation between two of the thieves, before they found out about it and cut off his ears that is.

Fortunately, the Thieves took no effort after that to ensure that Oswald wouldn't escape, which is exactly what happened. Jumping down into the alligator pit, quiet as a mouse, Oswald climbed out, grabbed a whip and made his way towards the exit.

Jasmine started running as soon as she was clear of the brothel. She had to get the master keys, and that meant getting to Cassim. As soon as she got to Cassim's room, she saw that everything was neat, carefully organized in a precise manner. Having no idea where the key could be, she began rifling through everything.

Cassim was at the door in seconds, having followed Jasmine for the better part of the past twenty minutes of her running around the den. "What are you doing?" he asked, his eyebrows rose to a very suspicious level. Jasmine turned around slowly, fearing that Cassim would be holding a sword and kill her on the spot, luckily this was not the case, "Nothing my King" she said, addressing him by his title, "Just-" Cassim stepped forward, cutting her off, "You were doing something" he drew a small knife, "tell me what it was, or I cut off your ear!"

Jasmine looked around nervously, she instinctively picked up a small cannonball on the desk and placed it behind her back, "I was lost, my King. I thought I might find a map, to help with future incidents" Cassim smiled, seeing through Jasmine's lie, "I'm not as dumb as you think I am" he laughed moving ever so slowly towards her. Jasmine braced herself, she thought about all the times that she had ever been in danger, she thought about the time she was in the hourglass and the time that the Thieves first came to the palace, swords flashing and teeth baring.

It confused Jasmine as to why she was thinking this, for she certainly didn't want to think about any of those things as her last thoughts. She thought about it harder, it was then that she saw something that she never saw before. She saw me. The flash of red, yellow and hints of blue in my feathers flooded her mind. She remembered that every time she was ever in danger, I had come to save her. I was like a guardian angel, sending a message that only she could see.

But Jasmine knew that I wouldn't be there to save her this time, but I'd like to think that I told her what to do inside her head, because she was thinking of me as she threw the cannonball at Cassim and ran out of the room, heading towards the interrogation room.

Aladdin watched as Esmeralda's body hit the floor, he reveled as Quasimodo screamed in anguish and despair, pleading to take his life next if only to end the pain that the world brought him. Aladdin complied.

Dodger woke up in extreme pain and tried to the best of his ability to shake off the effects of shock. He saw Esmeralda, limp and lifeless, and began to cry silently. Aladdin was now working on The Beast, the screams that pierced Dodger's ears almost made him permanently deaf. But Dodger could only watch as Aladdin began skinning Beast, suddenly the screams stopped...Aladdin left the Beast half skinned and began making his way around the room.

Aladdin cleaned his knife, and turned towards Oliver, Dodger was not about to let that happen. "You're a sick motherfucker you know that?" Dodger screamed, causing Aladdin to turn his direction. Aladdin laughed at Dodger's remark, not caring that he was still alive "I'm only following orders. You guys have to die" Dodger only growled and began barking repeatedly, anything to get Aladdin to stop terrorizing Oliver, who so far had remained relatively healthy in comparison to the others.

If it wasn't for Jasmine coming in the room, Oliver and the remaining Outcasts, would be dead, no question. Jasmine was holding a scimitar, "Aladdin" she said, "I'm giving you three seconds to drop the knife and stop this" Aladdin ignored her, but Jasmine continued, "Fine" she ran towards him, "consider this my divorce!" she swung the weapon, but Aladdin countered her in mid swing, laughing as he did so, "Big mistake" he said as he pulled the weapons out of her hand, picked her up by the neck and slammed her hard down on the ground.

Genie appeared next to Dodger, Oliver and Lefou and began undoing the chains. As soon as they were free, they all had the same idea, kill Aladdin. Dodger and Oliver tackled him to the ground, while Lefou grabbed a knife and pointed it at Aladdin's neck. "Go ahead" Aladdin sneered, "do it. You'd be doing me a favor" Lefou sighed, tossing the weapon across the room, and began signing to Oliver and Dodger to chain Aladdin to the wheel.

While Dodger and Oliver removed Beast's body from the wheel, replacing it with Aladdin's, Lefou walked over to Jasmine. Lefou grabbed Jasmine's hand and pulled her to her feet, "Thank you" she said, Lefou smiled and motioned towards the exit, "What about the others?" she continued, but Lefou only pointed towards the exit once more.

Dodger and Oliver walked over, "Oswald's gone" Oliver stated, "we have to find him" Dodger shook his head in agreement, "No. we can't take that chance" he said, "we have to find Iago." Lefou nodded in agreement, Dodger continued, "Oswald's on his own". Oliver looked at Dodger in disbelief, "What about Outcasts stick together to the end?" Dodger laughed, "Kid, The Outcasts are dead. It's just us...we're all that's left" With that there was nothing left to say, and they headed towards the exit completely silent and like they were in society, invisible to the world.