Now I Remember: A Les Miserables Story
by Eponine-Love
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May 16, 1832
The skies were the deep blue of night-time in its true glory, the stars mere gleaming specks. And in the middle, the queen of it all, was the moon, round and plump, singing with its beauty.
A bat circled overhead. To many, this bat ruined the beautiful view that was tonight's sky, but not to one girl.
In the garden in front of a great yellow mansion, this girl sat on a stone bench. She was on that thin line between adolescence and womanhood at sixteen, and she was beautiful. Wide blue-green eyes and dark golden hair falling around slim, but not bony, shoulders. She wore a long white nightgown, and a pair of satin slippers. A nightcap sat on her head. The girl's head was raised toward the sy, and the ghost of a smile haunted her pretty face.
Her name was Cosette.
Up the street, walked another girl. She seemed to be everything Cosette wasn't. She was a skeletal girl, wan and pale, with soot and mud streaking her hollow face. Dark brown hair hung around bony shoulders, and her brown eyes, once so full of life, were now dull and unhappy. This girl bore a worn chemise, which would have been white had it not been so dirty, and a rag of a green skirt. One foot was protected by a beaten-up leather boot, the other went bare. This girl looked down at her feet, but every so often, she'd peer up at the great mansion.
This girl was called Eponine.
Eponine reached the grand iron-wrought gates and stopped. She pressed herself against a lamp-post and peered out. From her hiding place, she spied the beautiful girl called Cosette. Such a happy, pretty creature.
The bat screeched in the night, catching her attention. She smiled up at it. She, too, didn't mind the bat's being there.
"Hello," she told it, even if it couldn't hear her. "What are you doing tonight?"
When, naturally, the bat didn't answer, she stepped out from behind the lamp-post and approached the iron gate. She kicked off her remaining boot and paused, but Cosette didn't notice her. Curling her toes, Eponine reached up and began to climb.
In the garden, Cosette noticed a flicker of a shadow, turned to face it, and saw what? - a figure climbing the fence! She opened her mouth to call to her father, but when the figure landed in her garden, she recognized it to be a girl her age, a beggar girl, not a threat.
She took a step forwards, "Hello."
The beggar girl spun. She started at the sight of Cosette and pressed herself warily against the fence. "hello," she said slowly.
As the girl showed her face, Cosette found herself wondering: Where have I seen that face before?
The girl was looking at her in the eye, but with unexpected malice. It startled the blonde into taking a step back.
"May I help you?" Cosette asked. "Do you need help?"
The girl glared at her with even more fury. "I've come to speak to you...Cosette."
Cosette shook her head. "Pardon? How do you know my name?" She studied the girl's face for clues of a distant memory she must not recall. Something in those cheekbones, those eyes. Something in that button nose...
"Eponine," she breathed.
Eponine smirked. "Very good, Cosette. You lark."
Cosette's hands twisted the sleeve of her dress. "Eponine! What are you doing here? How did you find me?"
Eponine pressed herself against the gate, raising her arms to rest on the bars. "I've not been in Montfermeil for a while now."
Cosette took in the sight of her. What had happened here? Eponine, the pampered girl she's known as a child, was now reduced to this. The tables had turned.
Because, as a child, it was Cosette who'd gone about in rags and bare feet, who was thin as skeleton. and it was Eponine who'd had the pretty dresses and toys.
"Why are you here, Eponine?" she asked meekly.
Eponine shook her head. "Why do you think? Marius."
Cosette opened her mouth slightly in confusion. "I...you...Eponine, you know my Marius?"
Eponine glared even harder. If looks could kill..."I've known him for six years, lark. Six years. And you've known him for how long?"
Cosette frowned. "Two days, but..."
"Precisely!" Eponine spat. "Two days."
And without a word, she turned and climbed the fence. She hopped down and took off down the street, leaving only her boot behind.