"Took the letter like you said, I met her father at the door. He said he would give it to her." Eponine whispered quietly. Marius looked down and gasped at her appearance.
"What's wrong? Eponine, you're hurt! You need some help!" Marius cried sadly. He almost knew that she wouldn't make it through the night. And he had forced her to do the task that had earned her death. If she died, he would never have forgiven herself. Eponine smiled, like she could read his miserable thoughts.
"Don't you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don't feel any pain. You're here, that's all I need to know. And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close." Eponine gasped in pain from the bullet wound. The blood was still flowing out at a steady speed. Marius felt so scared. His best friend could be gone in minutes.
"But you will live, 'Ponine, dear god above! If I could heal your wounds with words of love!" Marius sobbed. She was like a sister to him in every way, he couldn't lose her right now!
"Just hold me now and let it be. Shelter me, comfort me!"
"You would live a hundred years, if I could show you how. I won't desert you now…"
"The rain can't hurt me now. This rain will wash away what's past!" Eponine whispered. Her past was something she dreaded to live in, and dying would finally get rid of the horrid memories. A tear fell on her cheek. But this was death, so different from just forgetting, she would never be able to see happiness ever again. Unless she went to heaven. "And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. I'll sleep in your embrace at last!"
Marius couldn't believe what he had heard. Was Eponine admitting her love for him? This made him cry even harder, for breaking his best friend's heart by making her deliver letters to his beloved.
"The rain that brings you here, is heaven blessed! The skies begin clear, and I'm at rest. A breath away from where you are, I've come home, from so far." Marius knew Eponine was now talking about god. She could see him, reaching out for her, greeting her towards heaven and death.
"Hush a bye, dear Eponine, you won't feel any pain. A little fall of rain, can hardly hurt you now. I'm here."
"That's all I need to know! And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close." Eponine's breathing became ragged and short. "And rain. Will make the flowers…" With those words, the light died from her warm, brown eyes. Marius gasped and sobbed.
"Grow." He finished the sentence that she had meant to say. Marius held the cold body closer to his, as if his body heat would bring her back to life. He picked up his hand and shut her eyes, so it looked like she was just in a peaceful sleep. Bringing her inside the Café Musain, he placed her on the table. She was the first to fall.
"Firers!" cried Courfeyrac's voice from the top of the barricade. Through the café window, Marius saw Courfeyrac jump down and grab his gun, as well as some ammunition and gunpowder which was laying underneath a box. Marius scrambled out the door and grabbed his gun as well. After running towards the pile of furniture, he let all his anger out.
"That was for Eponine!" Marius shouted over the sounds of the firing guns, as he killed three guards. Suddenly, his breath hitched in his throat. He once again felt melancholy, and slumped over back to a corner. He had killed three people without mercy. One of those guards had killed Eponine. He had experienced four deaths in one day! All this misery was too much for him, Eponine was gone, and now Cosette. Cosette, his beloved had been whisked away by her father all the way to England, where Marius could almost never see her again.
It was all these things that weighed down on him. All those crimes, escapes, thieveries, stolen possessions, and deaths that pushed down on Marius' life.
Like crimes. Eponine's father, Thenardier, had once tried to steal from him, but Eponine had stepped in her father's way. That night, Marius had heard the screams coming from the room next door. He had pulled his blanket over his ears to block the sound out, but knew that girl had done him a huge favor.
Like escapes. Eponine had run away from her terrible excuse for a family, first stopping at Marius' house. She had spent the night there, crying her eyes out about leaving her sister, Azelma, and how she was worried that Azelma might get beaten.
Like thieveries. Marius knew that Eponine had thieved many times before for her father, so she could live.
Like stolen possessions. Eponine pickpocketed, he knew that, he wasn't stupid.
And like deaths. Just moments ago, Eponine's light and warmth had faded in his very arms, the large, brown orbs looking up at him in adoration as she admitted her love for him.
Marius realized something. All of his thoughts led him to think of the street gamine, the dirty, underfed girl who wandered the streets looking for money to feed not only herself, but Azelma and possibly Gavroche if he accepted the hard earned money. Eponine had led Marius to his Cosette, and he never thought that it would break her fragile heart.
Eponine had been a strong girl on the outside, but as strong as a mouse on the inside. It wasn't fair to her that Cosette had had everything she had ever wanted, while Eponine had to live in poverty. Beatings. Heartbreak.
Suddenly, Cosette didn't matter anymore. It was all Eponine, the little puppy who followed him around. He loved her as sister, nothing more. Or was it? He fought himself, a war between two different types of love. Then he decided.
He loved her more than just a sister, but alas, it was too late.