Chapter 1

It was a warm summers night and I was walking through some dark, deserted streets near my home. I heaved of sigh of contentment, finally being away from my pestering friends, closed my eyes and continued walking. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked. I found myself on cobble stoned streets, facing a river and no-one was around. I spun around trying to figure out where I was.

Well one thing is certain, I thought, I'm definitely not in Toronto anymore.

Feeling quite lost, I walked over to the bridge that joined one bank of the river to the other, propped my elbows on the railing and rested my chin on the palm of my hands with my fingers clenched. As I stared down at the water, I felt anxiety rising within me. I put my face in my hands.

"Oh dear! What's going on? What am I going to do now?" I muttered as I shivered in the wind. I was dressed in a sleeveless shirt and caprees and I found that now, being in the dark and in an alien environment, I was cold. I picked up a stone and threw it into the river and watched the ripples. I then started to hum the Chain Gang Work Song to try and ease my nerves, a technique that usually worked, though it was not working this time. After around a minute of humming, just when I was about to stop, a large, strong hand grabbed my shoulder as the person demanded,

"Who are you? How do you know the song of the convicts from Toulon?"

I was forced by this man to turn around so that we stood facing each other. My eyes grew wide as I surveyed my captor. The man was tall, wore a flat hat and an iron grey coat and held in his right arm a stout cane. He had bushy side burns and his hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Needless to say that I felt intimidated by looking at this man.

"Well? I asked you a question mademoiselle and I want an answer," he stated.

I was unable to move. I could only stare back into the hard cold blue-grey eyes that were staring at me. My mind was racing. It couldn't be who I was thinking of…could it? I remained silent. I knew that telling him the truth could have disastrous reprocutions and yet, I did not want to lie either.

The man was starting to get annoyed with my silence. "You at least have a name do you not?" he snapped, his patience running thin.

I nodded.

"Well what is it?" he cried in exasperation.

I opened my mouth and stuttered, "J-J-Janet monsieur." I took a deep breath and continued on. "P-pardon my asking b-but what is your n-name monsieur?"

The man was taken back by the question yet he answered, continuing to glare at me. "My name is Inspector Javert."

At his answer I turned deathly pale and my eyes, which remained locked in his cold stare, went wide. Oh my God! I'm in a book! This can't be happening! I started to shake. The next thing I knew, my legs gave way, I was falling forward and everything was going black. I felt a pair of hands catch me, then I knew no more.

Javert watched with mild shock at the effects that his words had on the girl in front of him. As she fell forward he reached out and caught her before she hit the pavement. As he stared at the uncontious form in his arms, he debated on what his next course of action should be. Should he take her to the police station? No, the girl had not committed a crime that he knew of. The hospital? No, the condition she was in did not seem life-threatening and he did not think he had enough strength at the end of the day to carry her to the other end of Paris. Then what to do with her? Should he leave her in the streets? No, she seemed disoriented and if he left her out in the streets, he would probably be contributing to an innocent person's death, he rationalised. As he stared around the empty streets, a conclusion formed in his head. He sighed, hoisted the uncontious girl onto his shoulders and set off down the street towards his flat. As he walked he pondered a few questions. Who was this young women? What was her name again… Janet? He had never seen her before. And why was she purposely wearing clothing that resembled undergarments? He reached his house and went in. I must know where she comes from, he thought. I can start tomorrow morning…

He want to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Within minutes I was asleep.

I turned over in my bed which was comfortably warm. Wait…something was amiss. I was sleeping on one pillow… where was the other? I opened my eyes and found myself in an unfamiliar bedroom and in a stranger's bed. As the sight of unfamiliarity met my eyes, I gave a loud, high pitched yelp and leaped out of the bed. There was a crash from the next room and then the sound of loud, quick footsteps as Javert hurled himself through the open door into the room. It was evident that the crashing sound had been him falling of his chair because his right eye was starting to swell and he was cut above his eyebrow from landing on the edge of the table. We stared at each other for a few seconds before I dropped my eyes and said "I'm sorry" I a humble tone. Javert reached up and wiped away the blood that was starting to fall into his swollen eye. I looked up at him,

"You know it will get infected if you don't clean it."

I then proceeded to rip of some material from the bottom of my shirt. I wet it in a water pitture that was on the bedside table and walked over to Javert. Javert was looking uneasy. What is she doing? He thought to himself. I arrived at the spot where he stood and reached up towards his cut with the wet cloth in my hand. I gently wipe away the blood around the cut. He recoiled slightly because of the sting but more because of the kindness that he was not used to.

He was unaccustomed to kindness. There he stood, facing a girl he didn't know and she was showing him compassion and cleaning out his cut. He felt his rigidity slowly melting away as a new, alien feeling started to grow within him. He felt like he was glowing, like he was lighter than air. This strange yet wonderful feeling just from the touch of a girl whom he had just met. He closed his eyes as the feeling slowly started to spread. After he had had his eyes closed for a minute, something happened. He realised with shock that he was starting to show emotions towards her. He could not let that continue! His eyes snapped open and he pushed the girl away.

I was not suspecting the push that came my way. As a result, I ended up falling down hard on my backside. His face which moments before was relaxed had, in the blink of an eye turned hard and cold once more. My eyes began to water as a sharp pain came from my tailbone, which I knew I had just fractured again. Javert just stood there staring down at me.

"F-fine don't offer to help me up" I snapped through the pain.

Javert was taken aback. This girl had just chastised him. People who had known him for years wouldn't dare to do what she just did.

"How dare you speak to me in that manner!"

I jumped to my feet, winced in pain, stared up at Javert and yelled, " Firstly, I wouldn't have been on the floor if you hadn't pushed me and secondly 'gentlemen' are supposed to help you up AND THIRDLY, because of you, my tailbone has yet again been fractured! Remind me not to help you next time!"

At first Javert was speechless but he soon found his tongue. "How dare you call me a brute you ungrateful, disrespectful girl!"

I was beside myself with rage. "I'm disrespectful! I'M DISRESPECTFUL! Who's the one going around scaring people half to death in the middle of the night when they are lost? Who's the one who pushes a person who is just being kind to the floor? Well? Answer me dammit!"

Javert was shocked. This young girl who was about a foot shorter than him had had another mood swing over the course of the night. Her Being first expressed fear, when he had first met her. The she had expressed kindness. Now however every part of her body conveyed anger. Yet as her last words sunk in, a feeling of shame rippled through his body. She did have a point. It had been rude of him to push her without warning. As he thought this, his shock grew. Through the course of his life, his goal was to be irreproachable and not to second guess himself. Through the course of the evening, this girl had made him second guess himself and have feelings. She threatened his way of living, everything he believed in. She had to leave, she could not stay any longer. He took a deep breath and said in a voice of forced calm "Since you seem to be well again, you can leave."

My mood swing again in the blink of an eye. He was kicking me out? Where was I supposed to go? How was I supposed to survive?

"W-what?" I croaked my eyes filled with fear.

"You are no longer in danger and you are not needed here"

I fell to my knees. "Please don't send me away," I pleaded. "Please! I-I can cook and clean for you…" My eyes were brimming with tears.

"I can do all those things myself," he went into his closet ad pulled out an old shirt and an old pair of pants and place them on the bed. "Get changed into those clothes and leave." He turned his back on me and left the room closing the door with a snap. I slowly got up off the floor and started to get changed, crying the entire time.

Meanwhile, Javert leaned against the wall outside his room and heaved a sigh. He repressed his feelings of sadness and soon became his old heartless self again. The girl would soon be out of his life for what he hoped was forever. He stood up, straightened his shirt and went into the kitchen.

After I finished changing, I looked around the room and saw a writing desk in the far right corner. I walked over to the desk and saw that there was a bottle of ink and a piece of paper lying on the desk. I opened up the bottle of ink, sat down and began to write Javert a letter. After finishing the letter, I stood up folded my ripped clothes that I had worn and waited for the ink to dry. Once the ink was dry, I folded the letter and placed it by Javert's box of snuff. With a sad smile, I looked around the room for the last time, opened the bedroom door and walked towards the door. Javert stood in the doorway to the kitchen and watched me. I turned around and faced him.

"Thank-you so much for your hospitality monsieur l'Inspecteur and for the clothes. I hope your life is a fulfilling one." I bowed, which shocked him, and left into the cold night.