A/N Well, I figured, why not make this story really miserable? No one dies happy. These are first-person views on the different deaths in order that they happen, and some might be different than you expect. In fact, most might be different than you expect. Oh, and I PROMISE to get "You Know the Story" updated soon, I just had to get this out! I've been writing other parts to it like the counter-part to the Attack on Rue Plumet, so there will be fast updates soon.
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Fantine
Where am I? Where is Cosette? She was just there, playing in the field with all those other boys and girls. But the field is gone. I am inside. It's very cold all of the sudden. Ice almost. I feel that I will freeze up and turn into a block of ice or snow any moment now.
There is that man. The kind mayor who saved me. Why is that other man here? Oh dear, it's the cop. He must be here to take me away. I cry out to Cosette to sit by my side, but she does not come. Where has she gone? They have taken her! They took my darling! I must see her, I yell again. The men are arguing. I want to leave. Someone help me, I whimper. Suddenly it's no longer cold, but warm. So warm.
Someone please find me Cosette before I fall asleep...
~*~
Eponine
They say love is the most amazing thing in the world that it will take you places you've never been before. Love took me to the streets of Paris, lying in my own blood. I've been there before, but never was the blood so great. Never was the blood coming from a place I couldn't even feel. Lying there with blood pouring out of my chest was the strangest feeling I've ever known. Strange feelings of completely nothing.
But when I move just an inch or less, there is a shot of pain. Oh, Marius! Come save me! I try to shout but no words come. The only thing that does is a whimper, a cry. Someone nearby did hear me though.
There is a whisper. I closed my eyes when hearing that nickname. Could it be? Was it my love? It was he, I convinced myself to think so. He was not dead, and my death had not been in vain. He had abandoned revolution and spoiled rich girls just to be with me when I die.
I whisper his name, but the voice that returns does not belong to him. It's someone far too familiar. He calls me a fool for thinking "that boy" would save me. No! I shouted, but once again it came to be only a murmur. I knew that voice too well, and I didn't want to hear it again for the rest of my life, which may only be the next two minutes.
I begged him, but my ex-lover laughed. He tells me the truth, the reason I am here. He shows me that love killed me.
Why was it he? I used to wonder, but now I know. Because love is a lie. Marius could never love me. And I was a fool to love him. The face of my former lover grew dark, and blended with my visions of Marius. The bullet in my body took over. And than he was dark as well...
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Gavroche
What fools are these big people! It's good fun for me, this game of war! They think they can send out an old grandpa to do a job only a boy like me can do! Can an old man climb this high up the barricade? Can an old man jump like I can? Not at all! Look at me go, I shout at my troops. They tell me it's dangerous, they call me a foolish child, but I have no fear!
I've gotten far up this barricade without any help from one of those bigger people. Little boys like me know a lot too! And, ah! I've reached the top! I'm at the top of this world, without a mother or father to help! Nothing can stop me!
A gun is shot. My troops yell. Suddenly there is a pain in my chest, a sharp piercing pain unlike anything I've ever felt in my life. Worse than being hungry or stepped on. My entire body felt as solid as bricks, as the only liquid spilled from my heart. It was red.
So this is where the battle ends...
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Enjolras
Keep the battle going! Fight until the end! That's how it turned out to be. It started with us fighting until freedom, but now we fight until we die. It was my idea, yet it was me who must die last. It was me who realizes what our deaths meant to the people of this city. Absolutely nothing at all.
So at the top of the barricade, with no bullets left, yelling for freedom. Do the guards care? Are they inspired by my words? By the shot fired at Grantaire, I can tell the answer is again no. So why am I still fighting? Why don't I give it all up? I stand here and I know it's hopeless. Yet I am still fighting. You ask me why.
I don't have an answer. I guess it's too late. As the leader, I have a duty to go down with the rest of my fellow men. I will not be the one too live. So I cry out one final time, wave the flag of freedom, and than hear the shot.
I won't look back...
~*~
Marius
I must be dreaming. No one has picked me up in a long time. I was shot, I know that. I heard the cry and felt the pain. I was near the top of the barricade, and I had fallen. That was the last thing I remember. Who is carrying me? Why is he running so fast?
Where is Cosette? What happened to Enjolras, Grantiare, Joly, and all the others? Are they alive? Please, God, let them be alive! I can die, but I want them to live! I wasn't in this battle for the republic, why should I die? Oh, now I know. Because I wished for it to be.
I deserve what to have what I asked for, is that it? And I asked for death. Cosette, please weep for me. This man carrying me is wasting his time and energy. I can feel it, this feeling of death. It wasn't what I imagined. The pain is over. I'm... warm. Yes, it's very warm. It's like that feeling I get when I'm Cosette, or anyone of my friends. Enjolras, Eponine, anyone. It's quite peaceful now.
I asked for death. I didn't want to live without Cosette. And I won't. She fed me life, but without her I died. Yet if my last vision is with her, than it is a happy one.
Good bye my darling... I am at peace with you in my thoughts...
~*~
Valjean
He is speaking. Or he was, but suddenly his body grows limp over my back. I guess it's no use to try to bring him home. He was not allowed to live; his death was not something I should have tried to prevent. Even as I lay him on the ground in front of me, I still hope he is alive, yet there is nothing living about him anymore. I weep, even though I do not know who he is, only that he loves Cosette. So he must be a good man.
Yet I sense that I'm not alone here in the sewers. There is someone behind, and ah! I see a shadow in the distance. Of course, but it is the fox that hunts the rabbit. I am no one's prey. He tells me to step away from the body, for he now holds me on charges for murder. But I won't. I still believe that the boy is alive! He has to be! There is no reason why he shouldn't be.
The fox attacks his prey, and I am too weak from my own battle scars to fight back. But I try my hardest, pushing and fighting. Yet my struggles are of course met with equal blows, and he has a weapon. I try as hard as he does; yet in the end one most lose.
My life flashed before me. Cosette, she was my reason for living. If it wasn't for her, my life would be meaningless. I tried to save Fantine, yet no. I tried to save this boy, yet than again no. I tried to save Cosette, and I succeeded. I am complete.
I'm not sure what finally got me. I felt suddenly so weak and powerless. He handcuffed me, yet there was no point. I was feeble, limp and helpless. It seemed that I was not even myself anymore; as if I was watching this all from a distance such like you would in a play.
But the curtain always closes in the end...
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Javert
What have I done? This criminal saved my life, yet all I did was kill him back! And for what? The law? The law is lost. The world is lost. My life is lost. How could I kill him? I can't be a murderer, for I am a police officer and he is a wanted man. Yet at the same time I am a murderer. I killed my own morals.
I had faith in the law, before he saved my life. Damn him! I should have died facing my foe, just like the boys at the barricades! Yet... now I compare myself to those scum rebels? We are not alike! They are a menace, I uphold the law. Yet laws have been broken all this night, but were they stopped? No...
How can they be stopped? When one man takes over another man's life, than saves him from death, yet soon dies at his hands, who are we? We are only human. But I do not want to be human. I do not want to live in this world. I will escape somehow.
I see the way. It's below that bridge. That's how I may escape this world. It is all so simple... so meaningless...
And so I jumped...
~*~
Thenardier
I guess it's time for me to feel the noose tightened around my neck. All of Paris wants to see the Patron-Minette hung at last. I stand up straight. I don't regret what I've done. I did what I had to do to live. Well, I did what I had to do to get money. The people here are all fools. They don't know what I did. They don't know why.
To my right stands the handsome Montparnasse. But to me he is nothing but a rat. My daughter is dead, and he killed her. He says he didn't, says she was shot long before he found her, but the rat is lying, as usual. Some inspector found him holding 'Ponine's dead body, and arrested him on the spot. He named names hoping to get out of the situation we are all headed for now. Didn't work, did it though? He deserves what he gets for all I care.
I hate him for killing my girl. Sure, I knocked her around a bit when she asked for it and didn't give her the respect she deserves. And the kid was all right, and awful smart too. She was starting to remind me of her old man as she grew older. So clever and so pretty under those dirt and rags. Maybe she could have been a lady one day. But thanks to that rat, we will never know.
The crowd is cheering. They're about to let me die. But for the first time in my life, I'm not thinking about all the money I could be making. The only thing that is on my mind is Eponine.
Maybe I won't see her in hell...
~*~
Cosette
I don't remember how long it's been since they found my father dead. I don't remember how long it's been since they told me my father was a convict on the run. I don't remember how it's been since they took away our home, our money, our everything. I don't remember how long I've been on the streets.
You don't know what it's like to lose everything you've ever had until you actually have experienced it. I'm so hungry... so tired... so cold...
I will not die now. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe two months from now. Maybe a few more years. I hope for it to be soon.