Prologue
Shivering, wet, alone, hungry, and exhausted I sit huddled in a ball outside the Musain Café. The heat and light seems to be radiating out into the streets. Laughter fills the air all around the café, coming from the students inside. After the revolution was won everyone's lives got better. Marius and Cosette are to be married in month, Gavroche still roams the streets but because he fought for the revolution the students all pay for his food and clothing, Azelma lives with my parents and is mastering their ways I don't approve but she's happy, the other students, especially Enjolras, are just happy to have won. I, on the other hand, have seemed to enter an even lower state of living. The name Eponine is no longer mentioned. No one cares about me anymore, no one's heard from me either. Gavroche came looking for me once, but I didn't want to be found.
During a battle at the barricades I took a huge slice across my left arm for Marius. Joly tried to help me but it couldn't be fixed with so little supplies, so still dressed as a man I escaped to one of the apartments by the café. A women living there found me, dying in an empty room and nursed me back to health with the help of her daughter. They learned that I was a girl and I was forced to tell them why I risked fighting a man's battle. After a few weeks I left them, determined to finally make a life of my own without having to steal or mooch off of other people. You can see how well that's going for me, as I sit outside the café an inch away from death. I never let anyone know who I was after that though, I was too afraid that my parents might find me. If they did I would turn into a slave and I would rather die than work for them.
So, I sit and wait for death. I haven't eaten in at least a week and sleep is almost a laughable thought, I must keep on the move if I am to be undiscovered. Closing my eyes, I imagine what my life might have been like if Marius had recognized me at the barricade and had fallen in love with me. I could be the one marrying him, not Cosette. I would be able to live in a permanent home, have multiple dresses, and even better, Gavroche could live with us and have a home too. We would have lots of little children who would all grow up loving their Uncle Gavroche, there would be no more starving in my family at all. I would even offer a home to Azelma if she would take it and abandon her horrible ways. My life would have been like one a princess would have. But that will never happen. Cosette is marrying Marius, nothing will change that. How ironic that this should happen, Cosette, the girl who Azelma and I used to make fun of and torment, becoming rich and marrying the man of my dreams. Luckily I won't have to live in this cruel world anymore; soon I will depart from my life and be with God, I can already feel the life leaving my veins.
A smile crosses my lips as I feel a hand caress my face, only an angel from heaven could have that soothing feel. I lift my gaze from the wet pavement and find not an angel, but a man.
