Rain drizzled down from the unforgiving cloudy sky, pelting the lost revolutionaries strewn about the barricade of broken furniture. Marius wandered through the puddles, not daring to think too hard about what had happened. About his friends…..his lost friends. All gone, now. To think that he, Marius was the survivor! He could have laughed out loud, but had not the strength to do so. Marius felt a phantom arm take his, not realizing it was truly Cossette comforting him. He turned, and instead of seeing his wife, he saw Courfeyrac standing there. Courfeyrac, with his almost too gentle face, desperate, haunted eyes with a mess of curly hair. Marius reached out to him as Courfeyrac turned away, walking towards the barricade.
"I—I'm sorry," Marius tried to say, but the words stuck in his throat. He would simply have to follow his dear, dead friend. Courfeyrac glanced back at him, matching Marius' desolate expression. Courfeyrac led him up the stairs and past the dead bodies of his other friends until they reached the dust-filled floor of the Cafe. Marius stood in the doorway, surveying the room that had once burned bright with the fire of candlelight and his friend's hearts.
"Empty chairs at empty tables," he murmured, before turning to his left. For the tables were not all empty. Courfeyrac sat at one as if he hadn't a care in the world.
"If it had not been for you, Marius," Courfeyrac said with the slightest smile, "I would have been dead."
Marius was about to say that he was dead, that all his friends were dead, but no words came. Courfeyrac stood and walked over to Marius, who glanced down. "Marius, do not blame yourself," Courfeyrac whispered. His eyes became softer, gentler, almost exactly like they had been before. "Marius, look at me," he commanded, and Marius did so. "Do not go blaming yourself," Courfeyrac insisted, gripped Marius' shoulder and giving him a little shake. Marius didn't react, and Courfeyrac smiled somewhat. "You'll always have the memories, Marius. Listen to them. To us."
His hand slowly dropped away from Marius' shoulder, and gently faded away. Marius stretched his hand out to the fading presence of his friend, begging him in his mind to not go.
"Don't leave me," he whispered to the empty air. And suddenly there was a brush of wind at his ear, coupled with a simple voice, "I will never leave you."