Author's Note: So, I was watching the new music video for "Changed" by Rascal Flatts the other day, and it completely blew me away. The opening lines are about a baptism, but in the video they changed it to be about a guy who found God the hard way through a failed suicide attempt by drowning. That combined with the quote below from the anime version of Les Mis (if you haven't seen it, go check it out NOW!) inspired me to write this. I know it's short, but I just HAD to write it! Enjoy!
~CaptainHooksGirl~
Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis.
"I died once, but now I have been given a new life."
~Javert from Shoujo Cosette~
Baptism
The hands that pulled him from the river were rough, calloused from years of hard labor and yet surprisingly gentle, the grip firm but not aggressive, pulling him upwards toward the light and away from the blackness that was dragging him down.
The heart within that noble breast had ceased to function long ago—a mere machine that kept him going. It was only in those final beats, the last seconds of life, that it began to feel before it stopped altogether, the moment that his head broke the surface punctuated with silence when there should have been a gasp of sweet air.
He was a child again, helpless—for he held no authority in Death's domain.
But the stranger reached out, compressed his chest, shocked his heart and touched his soul, squeezed the stone until it bled, burned the wood 'til it was naught but ash. A breath of life, and the man of dust again became a man of flesh, a phoenix rising from the flames, sputtering, choking, retching up the Seine. He had yet to see his savior's face, and when at last his eyes were opened, the man had vanished, a brief glimpse of a scarred wrist reaching for his hand the only memory he had to go on. His first thought was that it must have been Valjean—for who else would be strong enough to brave the current and foolish enough to dive in?—but it was later confirmed that Valjean had been at home at the hour of his rescue, and despite his best efforts at questioning, it seemed that no one ever saw the man nor found any trace of his existence. Javert was perplexed, but not obsessively so; for the man who came up out of the river was not the same man who had jumped in.
It was only afterwards that he remembered that the scars were not from shackles. They were nails.