Chapter One

Adeline Montpercy, known as "Addie" to everyone except for her grandfather, anxiously tumbled through the sea of peasants swarming the slums of Paris. Her rather nice pale blue frock jerked around her as the fabric was smudged and nearly torn in the stampede of people. She really shouldn't have been out of the house, seeing that neither her grandfather, nor her older brother Marius wanted her out in the street. "An enclosed area filled with thieves, convicts, beggars, and pimps is no place for an eighteen year old woman," they said. Addie disagreed. She could take care of herself and she was sick of living a proper, boring, bourgeois life. Marius was only four years older than her, and he had been able to go out whenever he wished! Their grandfather had given him no trouble until he started rallying the people and protesting on the streets.

Though their grandfather had disowned Marius when he started acting on his thoughts about this revolution "nonsense", Addie had been allowed to stay. She had played no part in her brother's actions and what he had done hadn't changed the fact that she was a well-behaved young woman. Still, not having Marius around the house to constantly be annoying and over-protective was a bit lonely. She barely even saw her brother anymore, since she barely ever got out. Adeline wanted her freedom. There was another life waiting for her out there, and she just wanted to see it! She wanted to feel the rain on her skin and have the wind rustle through her long brown hair. She wanted to see the birds, their colorful feathers and magnificent wings as they took flight, not only hear them from inside her bedroom window. Addie wanted to meet new people and do something great

Something great had started with sneaking out of the house. Since then, it hadn't been all that fantastic. The town was filthy, and it turned out people weren't too nice either. The push and shove of the crowd was constant, forcing everyone in the same direction and pushing Addie farther and farther away from the imprisonment she called her home. A woman glared at Addie as the two collided, getting up and leaving with quite a rude remark. Okay, maybe this had been a worse idea than she had thought. Although Addie was eighteen years old, she was only five feet tall, meaning she couldn't see and therefore didn't have the faintest idea of where she was. This also meant that she was hard to see, causing her to crash into people and things, fallingquite often. Where was she? The shops were run down, and the air smelled revolting. She recognized no one even remotely, which was somewhat expected since she really knew no one except for the street vendors near her home and her grandfather's friends and acquaintances.

Addie wanted to go home. She wanted to have listened to her brother and grandfather. Surely this wasn't all the outside world had to offer though; surely there was something more, something better! Her question was answered with a harsh push, sending her backward and through the crowd into an open space. Thank god for that! She had been beginning to get claustrophobic!

Her smile faltered when she saw what she had been pushed by. Slowly approaching her was a group of three men, each disgusting in his own unique way. The one whom Addie assumed was the leader due to dominant posture and position had the most unsettling qualities. His yellow teeth glinted and he broke into a smirk, as if he could smell the fear coming off of the girl. She tripped backward further, roughly falling against a chair that she swiftly pushed in between herself and her assailants. They wore an expression that the woman wasn't at all familiar with. It was unsettling, a mix of victory, hunger, and malicious intent. Realizing the danger that she was in, Addie picked up another chair from behind her, threw it at the men, and took off in a sprint in the other direction.

Loud cursing was heard from behind her as the chair collided with the leader, knocking him to his knees. He jumped up with remarkable speed and only grinned at his two friends. They had been in this exact situation, if not an extremely similar one, enough times before to know what to do next. Two of them followed the girl's trail while the other made his way around the maze of small buildings to block their victim's path, givingthe girl no where to run to.

Addie was running as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, her chocolate eyes deep with fear and regret. The heels of her shoes clicked loudly against the pavement while she ran. She could hear the men behind her, but didn't dare to turn around and check how close they were. Her assumption of all three of them following behind her was proved wrong when the third turned the corner in front of her, blocking her escape and confining her to this narrow alley. Addie let out a gasp and turned around to see the other two right on her tail. She was trapped. Oh, how she should have stayed home!

One of the men roughly shoved her to the ground, causing her to skin her hands as she tried to break her fall. She whimpered loudly as a boot collided with her stomach. She curled into a ball, desperately trying to protect herself from the blows that were constantly tormenting her back. All she could feel was pain and despair, her skin visibly bruising and her mind too traumatized to notice. Just as the last ounce of hope was fleeing her mind, she heard a kinder voice from somewhere in the shadows.

"Leave the girl alone," it spoke threateningly.

Addie didn't know whether to be scared or thankful, but she decided on relieved. The men above her had paused their abuse to examine the possible threat, giving Addie a moment to break into a fit of sobs and coughs while she tried to catch her breath. A man who looked to be in his early-to-mid twenties stepped into the light of day. His white-blonde hair and bright green eyes stood out from the overused brown suit that he wore, and he looked generally gentle. The tone that his voice held at the time said otherwise.

The leader of the men rolled his eyes, sloppily pushing up the rags that you might have called sleeves at some point in the past. He approached the younger boy with fists raised, ready to give him a beating far worse than Addie's until the boy pulled a gun out of his jacket. The woman's eyes widened at the sight and she attempted to drag her wounded body farther from the commotion, only to be stopped by a shoe digging into her back as one of the men nearly stood on her. A sharp pain coursed through her back and arm, causing her to cry out weakly. She couldn't move her left arm, it hurt too much. It was by far the most pain she had experienced throughout her life, and she wondered if she had broken something. Her pain came in pulses, a concoction of knives and mallets assaulting her joint.

The telltale click of a gun being cocked caused the pressure on her shoulder to be removed. A tear fell down the side of her dirt covered cheek, unnoticed as her face was still protectively huddled between her hands and knees.

"Get lost!" the young man with the gun shouted.

Footsteps echoed as the men escaped down the other side of the alley, not bothering to turn back and only cursing loudly in reply.

Addie didn't look up, a mix of pain, fear, and shock preventing her from uncurling her limbs. The kinder man put his gun back inside his jacket chuckling lightly before kneeling next to the crumpled figure of the girl.

"They're gone, are you alright?" he asked, concern evident in his speech.

Addie slowly and hesitantly removed her head from her position of safety, finding comfort in the eyes of the man who had possibly saved her life. She painfully shook her head no to his question before answering.

"I can't thank you enough, monsieur. Truthfully, I am in your debt, however I'm still afraid I may be seriously injured. I can't move one of my arms and the pain isn't like anything I've experienced before now. "

The blonde man frowned and carefully scooped Addie up into his arms, trying to ignore how she winced. She buried her head in his shoulder as he took off further throughout the maze of the city. Maybe everyone in the outside world wasn't that bad after all..