Be warned, this chapter could be very upsetting to some as it features graphic child abuse.
Touch
By the time she was seven years old Cosette had seen a lot of travellers come through the Thenardiers inn. Most of them were just passing through on their way to bigger cities and towns and Cosette never gave them a lot of thought, they never seemed to give her any thought either. Most of them would ignore her as she tried to make herself as unassuming as possible, some however called her names and said she was the most appalling creature they'd ever seen, some would even tell her how awful she smelled and would kick her away from them if she passed by. But by the morning those people would be gone and a different set of travellers would take their place the next night and little Cosette would do her best to not to be noticed by them as well. It was certainly a pitiful existence for the little girl.
One night though a man arrived looking for drink and a bed for the night, he was a skinny wiry man with greasy hair who seemed to have a permanent smirk on his face. He sat down near the fire and ordered wine and a meal, he looked like an unassuming man to Cosette, no different from anyone else who had been through the inn, but when she noticed that he was staring at her with a sly grin on his face she knew he wasn't a nice man. Not that anyone who ever looked at her had anything nice to say to her anyway, but at least they didn't stare at her like this man was doing.
As Cosette quickly placed his glass on the table and turned to walk away again she didn't look at him, but then suddenly the man grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her close to him which made her gasp in fear.
"Hello little girl" he sneered at her horribly.
Cosette was alarmed to say the least at being grabbed by this man and she tried to get away from him but he pulled her closer towards his face, "I like little girls" he whispered to her, and he stroked her hollow cheek roughly.
Cosette knew immediately she should fear this man so she managed to squirm out of his grasp and get away from him. As she was heading back to the table she would hide under out of everyones way she noticed that Mdm Thenardier was looking at her hatefully.
"Slut" she hissed at the poor child.
Throughout the rest of the evening that horrible man who had grabbed her didn't take his eyes off her all night. Every now and then Cosette would dare to look out of her hiding place but every time she noticed the man staring at her she would quickly dart her eyes away again. She didn't like that man watching her, she tried not to think about him, but she didn't like the way he had grabbed her and touched her face, she just hoped that he would pass out from drinking soon like most of the men who came into this place did, then she would be safe from his horrible eyes.
Eventually, when Mdm Thenardier had gotten sick of the sight of her for one evening she was sent to her sleeping place underneath the stairs, she was actually glad that Mdm Thenardier had sent her away, because that man couldn't watch her there and she felt somewhat assured for the night when she pulled the blanket over herself and closed her eyes.
Cosette was sleeping a dreamless sleep that night just like every night when she was suddenly awoken by the sound of someone breathing heavily near her, she turned over on the pathetic mattress she slept on and gasped in fear to see that man leering over her in the dark. He quickly placed a finger over her mouth and whispered "Sssh" whilst he knelt down next to her.
Cosette was terrified, her eyes were wide with fear at the sight of the horrible man at her bedside, she thought she would be safe here, but clearly she wasn't. She let out a whimper of fear as he touched her mouth and he just whispered again horribly at her "Sssh".
The man moved his hand away from her mouth and stroked her cheek again, he slowly moved his hand downwards and yanked her flimsy blanket away from her tiny body, the man smirked again as he noticed she was shaking with fear. He touched one of her legs and slipped his hand underneath her dress and started stroking the inside of one of her thighs roughly. Cosette, forgetting herself and still terrified, suddenly yelped out "No!" as she tried to slap his hand away from her body.
The man reacted angrily at that, he violently covered her mouth with his hand and leaned in even closer to her and growled "Shut up" so close to her face that Cosette could smell the wine on his breath, "If you make another fucking sound I'll kill you, you little whore".
Cosette thought her heart was going to burst out of her chest when the man said those horrible words to her, it was beating so fast and she felt like she was going to throw up on him at that moment, but as he leaned back away from her face to check that no one had heard her she managed to keep control of herself, she didn't want to do anything to make this man hurt her even more than he already was.
When the man was satisfied that no one was coming to the girls aid he smirked again and undid some of the buttons on his trousers, Cosette saw what he was doing and her eyes grew even wider with fear, she tried to turn her head away from him but he grabbed her face violently again and forced her to look at him.
"Look at me you little slut" he snarled at her angrily. "Don't fucking move again"
Cosette was breathing so hard now and shaking with fear that she couldn't help but let out another frightened whimper at the sound of the man's angry words, forgetting about the threat he had uttered moments earlier.
The man just smiled smugly at her when a tear escaped from her eyes as he held onto her face tightly. He was hurting her with his grip, but he soon let go of her face and put his hand back under her dress and continued handling her roughly down there.
His other hand was still down the front of his trousers, and he was moving it back and forth inside of them, he didn't take anything out though, he just kept his hand down there and played with himself whilst touching Cosette with his other hand and ogling her.
Cosette had no idea what the man was doing to her, or to himself, she just knew she didn't like being touched by him and she wanted him to stop. She was terrified at being felt by him and she had no idea what he was doing with his other hand, she had never heard anyone make the kind of noises he was making either, he was grunting and panting and it made her feel sick again to listen to him. She wanted to run away, but she couldn't, she also wanted to look away but she was too scared that the man would hurt her even more if she did, so she just hoped inside that the man would soon leave her alone or that someone, anyone, would come and help her. She would even be glad to see one of the Thenardiers at that very moment if they could get this horrible man away from her.
The man was moving his hand more vigorously inside his trousers now and he was breathing harder, gasping and grunting horribly as he touched himself. His other hand had moved her skirts up to her waist and he smiled hideously as he kept looking at her and feeling her, and feeling himself.
The man appeared to be reaching the point of no return as he screwed up his eyes and held tightly onto Cosettes thigh, he leaned in even closer to her and grunted disgustingly as he shuddered and gasped and finished himself off into his palm. Cosette didn't look at him as he moved his face disturbingly close to hers, she shut her eyes tight and made sure not to look at any more of what he was doing, forgetting that he might hurt her again if she closed her eyes, but the man was too distracted with himself at that moment to notice.
When the mans breathing seemed to slow down again Cosette dared to open her eyes, the man had removed his hand from his trousers and his other hand off Cosette, he looked around again cautiously to make sure he hadn't been seen doing what he was doing to the child, but there was nobody around anywhere and everything was silent. He seemed satisfied with that and he seemed to have satisfied himself sufficiently for the night and was just looking at her now with that same smirk on his face again. The man looked down at the hand had been using to touch himself with and grinned horribly, then he wiped it hurriedly on the blanket he had removed from Cosette.
The man then looked at Cosette again who now had full tears falling down her face; she was too terrified to make any more noise though so she cried silently. She felt disgusted at the man, and worse she felt disgusted at herself. What he did next disturbed her even more, he tugged her skirts back down and smoothed them out again, then he leaned in close to her and laid a horrible kiss on the side of her face whilst he whispered "good girl" sinisterly to her.
The man then stood up to leave and he left Cosette alone with her shame, without feeling any remorse at all for what he had just done to that poor little girl.
When he was gone Cosette curled herself up into a ball and continued crying, she was feeling so confused about what had just happened, and horrified. She didn't know what he had been doing to himself, or why he wanted to touch her while he did it, but she knew she felt ashamed of herself for letting him do it, and she knew she wasn't a good girl at all; she must have been a very bad girl.
Cosette lay there clutching her knees close to her chest for the rest of the night, she was too terrified to fall back to sleep in case that man came back. She was cold as well, but she didn't want to touch the blanket that man had wiped his hand on so she just lay there, cold and frightened and alone all night.
The next morning the man paid his bill, gathered his belongings and left the inn like every other traveller who had passed through that place. He didn't look at Cosette once, but she made sure to watch him go. She wanted to tell someone what he had done, but she couldn't, because she had no idea what the words were to describe what that man had done to her, and to himself.
Besides, there was no one in that entire building who would have listened to her anyway, and there was definitely no one who would have cared either.