The normally bustling streets are quiet, not a peaceful quiet but a dead quiet, very much like inside the café. But the streets are not empty; they are anything but that, littered with broken glass, and bullets remainders of the fallen barricade. Bodies are everywhere, what's worse is that I can recognize a few, some of Marius's friends. I've seen Bossuet the unlucky fellow who said I never smiled enough. That alone would make me smile for the time being. That skirt chaser what was his name? Courfeyrac? I've found many of that group of students even the kind hearted poet Jehan…
A rustling in the streets removed Éponine from her daze; she glanced around and saw a few National Guardsmen. They would shoot her on sight if they saw her! She still looked like a revolutionary from a distance. "Mon dieu! I almost forgot about them!" As fast as she could she made her way to a small alley that would possibly take her outside the barricade all the things that had prevented entry to the area before were gone. While usually quite nimble Eponine was having troubles maneuvering through all the rubbish in the alley. She stopped by an empty crate for a quick breath, her wounds still hurt making her task even more difficult. While leaning against the wall she quickly thought everything through and then remembered what she had been doing before she got frightened off by the National Guard.
"Marius!" She gasped, her brief search had proved fruitless and if he was dead there was no way she could go back to the barricade now. Worried she paced in the alley, "maybe he made it out? Made it to safety? Oh Marius where are you!" She fretted. She would even be fine if he was with Cosette if it meant that he was safe. Éponine walked down the alley and found herself just out in front of the barricade, a memory flooded back to what had occurred not that long ago.
"Halt!" The guard called, Éponine was so intent on her task of climbing the barricade that she didn't hear the man. She was so close to the top, so close to being with Marius. Then it happened, a pain ripping through her chest, searing through every part of her body, but she didn't let go. She didn't fall from the barricade, ignoring the pain she climbed a little farther but she couldn't anymore, she looked up to the sky and saw the face of a young man with spectacles. It was the kindly medical student, Joly. She couldn't understand what he was saying but remembered him taking her hand and pulling her over the barricade…
She blinked away the rest of the memory that was ever so vivid in her mind and took in what was going on outside the barricade. There were more National Guardsmen dealing with the bodies of both their men and revolutionaries. Éponine couldn't help but think that one looked out of place in a way, it was much smaller like that of a child. Éponine knew it couldn't be anyone else, it was most definitely Gavroche. It took all of her heart not to cry out in agony but she couldn't stop the tears from running down her face onto her coat and her blood stained shirt. A few national guardsmen approached her knowing she was not a man, but she didn't appear to be a girl either. Her hair had been tucked into her jacket so that no one else saw. "This isn't a place for you boy!" One of the guardsmen called. Éponine looked at them coldly before leaving the barricade and walking towards Rue Plumet. She wasn't sure why... Cosette was gone and Marius probably was dead and yet she continued walking.
There was a lone figure in the garden at number 55 Rue Plumet it was Cosette sitting alone after Toussaint had hurried her out of Marius's room declaring the young man needed rest. The sun was slowly setting leaving the garden in a warm red glow; just then a figure appeared outside the gate. Cosette looked and noticed that they were wearing a long, tattered, workingman's coat. She never saw their face as they slumped down just outside of the gate. Curiosity took over her, who were they? A revolutionary? Had one of Marius's friends survived?
"Excuse me? Monsieur?" she asked. The person stiffened and got up about to run away from the garden gate. But they were struggling, and Cosette saw long brown hair like a girl's. Cosette shook her head thinking about what Marius had told her about...
"Éponine!" Cosette called as she reached the gate looking out onto the street, the unknown person froze as if by a spell and slowly turned around. Cosette could scarcely pick out things that made this person, well girl resemble the child from long ago, it was almost frightening the change...
Éponine stood rooted to the spot and looked at... Cosette? she was here? It couldn't be! Her thoughts raced and she thought back to Marius. Wherever he was… Maybe he was here? Taking her chances she approached the gate once more and faced Cosette. "Is Marius here?" she asked pleadingly. Cosette nodded and Eponine smiled just a little bit just then her chest started to hurt. For a brief moment she had once again forgotten her injury, she put her hand inside her coat which shifted leaving her torn and bloodied shirt exposed.
Cosette took a sharp breath as she had recalled that Marius thought she had died; this girl needed help. "Come inside please! You could catch an infection; we'll call a doctor. You can be safe here!" She struggled with the gate for a bit till she realized that it had been locked. She looked at Éponine, unsure of what to do.
"Alright then here goes nothing…" Éponine rubbed her hands together and grabbed the gate, she managed to climb to the top of the gate and over to the other side. As she started her descent her foot slipped. Losing her balance she fell onto the ground, although she was able to somewhat break her fall with her hands which were now scratched up but not severely. Cosette anxiously looked at the gamine who using her now scraped hands was trying to stand back up.
Neither girl had noticed that someone else had entered the garden, "Cosette are you alright?" It was her father. Cosette turned to see him now eying Éponine whom he had not noticed before; she was on her knees unable to lift herself much more. "Who's this?" he asked.
Cosette knew there was no reason to lie so she told her father "Her name is Éponine, she is a friend of Marius and she's wounded…" Without Cosette saying anything else her father calmly strode over to the gamine and picked her up. Eponine immediately started protesting as he carried her inside "I can walk perfectly fine you know! I just had a slight fall! Put me down!"
Marius had awoken late at night from another nightmare about the barricade; it was when Éponine had died. He had lost many good friends; but Éponine, she was always there if you knew where to look… He grinned and was about to drift back to sleep when he saw moonlight shining on to the doorway, it looked like an apparition... A girl wearing a plain dressing gown just looking at him. She looked so familiar, like Éponine... Briefly the moon illuminated her features clearly and Marius was now almost certain it was her. "I must be dreaming..." he muttered to himself, although deep inside he still wished that the apparition was real.