Éponine woke up earlier than ever that freezing morning. The street outside her house was revolved with mixed activity from the National Guard and other people, most of them just wanting to see what was going on. General Lamarque's body was going to be paraded through principal streets to the graveyard at Saint Dennis' Church in an official event that would end up in the revolution Enjolras and Les Amis had been planning since always, the revolution that was implanted in Enjolras' heart since before he had been born.
The day was surrounded by a solemnity unknown to everyone. Gavroche woke up and took Éponine's hand while standing by her side and staring through the window.
"Don't you already hear the people sing?" he asked but Éponine didn't answer; she was too worried.
'Crecia appeared with Gavroche's clothing and shoes in her hands and Madame Louise, the old cook, appeared by her side with their breakfasts on a tray.
"My children please take your breakfast and afterwards go and take a bath. 'Roche, I brought you your clothing so you don't leave the room. I'll prepare your baths, Madame Louise will stay here, making sure you eat," 'Crecia said and they looked at her in disbelief.
"So…our father plans that we don't leave this room? Not even to take breakfast? He never prohibited us anything but precisely today we're getting quarantine like we had an epidemic disease! Where's my father? I need to talk to him now!" Éponine demanded.
"Child, he left very early and your mother isn't feeling good enough to leave bed. We have received orders and we aren't going to violate them today!" Madame Louise answered.
"You're impossible! Impossible indeed!" Éponine said, looking at the window just at the exact moment in which General Lamarque's body passed in front of the house.
Madame Louise and 'Crecia, who had returned to the room, did the signal of the cross on their foreheads and started praying for the soul of that mythic man they never knew and now passed in front of them. Éponine, after bowing with her head to the memory of General Lamarque, stood in tiptoes to try and recognize some familiar faces among the crowd that followed the official parade but failed. Gavroche, maturely enough, paid his last respects to the man of his admiration.
The room was summed in the silence of death, which was starting to oppress Éponine's chest just when it was interrupted with the first gunshots coming from a nearby street. This sound frightened Éponine so much her knees started to tremble and soon her legs weren't strong enough to keep her standing. She sought support in Gavroche, who didn't fail in giving it to her.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine where was Enjolras at the moment, where was her father and her friends, what was happening to them. She tried to idealize it as much as possible so she wouldn't find blood in her mind but she couldn't, and as a consequence she imagined them all being brutally killed by the National Guard, not having any respect with their bodies or their souls.
"Madame Louise, 'Crecia…would you let me go to my piano? Please, I'm not even asking to let me leave the house, just this room…just the room," she pleaded without much energy.
"We're very sorry my child," 'Crecia answered.
"This is so wrong! Why wouldn't they let us go at least out of this room? I mean what can I possibly do in my room alone…it's not like I was going to escape all alone!" Gavroche exclaimed totally enraged.
Éponine sat down on her desk and imagined she was playing the piano. In her heart, Enjolras' song replayed and her fingers imitated the position of her fingers. She soon reassumed her inspiration and continued writing one of the last bits of the song.
Come to me
Just in a dream
Come on and rescue me
She sang the song with such a feeling and tears in her eyes. She wondered once again what would be of Enjolras and Les Amis. She then worried about her father, why wasn't he at home?
Suddenly, her father knocked the door and entered to the room, receiving a glare from Gavroche while Éponine didn't even turn around. She was trying to see something from her window without achieving anything.
"You can leave this room…but not the house. Both of you understand me?" Monsieur Lafévre said after a prolonged sigh.
Éponine stood up, walked to him and rested a childish kiss on his cheek while hugging him.
"You won't leave the house either, right?" she asked.
"I won't," he answered.
Then both of them left to the living room, to see if they could see something better from that big window.
A few streets down, Les Amis stood straightly in both sides of the street. They heard as the carriage with General Lamarque came from upper streets and they looked at each other with straight faces and pride in their eyes. Enjolras took his hand to the pocket of his jacket and made sure that Sonnet Number Eighteen in which Éponine had written his name was still there. He smiled to himself one last time remembering that petit brunette. The memories of something existing between them, of the sonnet with his name, of the Luxembourg, of the academy and the alley, they all seemed so old, as though they had happened not days but years ago.
As the carriage approached, his face stiffened again as he presented his respects towards the memory of General Lamarque.
From the bottom of his heart, the words he had longed to speak took an intensity he hadn't felt before. He heard his words breaking the martial and imposed silence in which the whole country had been immersed since the beginning of terror, of monarchy and dictatorship.
"IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM, FRENCH REVOLUTIONARIES, RAISE YOUR VOICES!"
The following events occurred in front of everyone's eyes like a liquid mirror. The moment was full of patriotism, of hope and new views.
"IN THE NAME OF PATRIA, CHILDREN OF THE MOTHERLAND, CITIZENS OF FRANCE, RAISE YOUR BANNERS!"
Enjolras felt victorious without having face the battle. Everyone he ever trusted stood up by his side, they held the banner he had always dreamed, everyone cheered, everyone sang as they advance to the path of democracy. Les Amis and the supporters of the revolution took over the street; they took one of the many carriages of the parade and stood up in it, their banners advanced and their cause was gaining more sudden followers, who all looked at Enjolras very pleased.
All of this air of festivity was interrupted by the gunshots that didn't fail to appear in the scene. They hit an innocent woman, who was cheering and singing in the front row. It killed her immediately. Everyone stood still looking at the body. Courfeyrac ran to her and took her in his arms. It was a sweet adolescent, almost little girl that had still too much to live.
"What were you thinking? SHE WAS AN INNOCENT WOMAN!" Courfeyrac shouted to the member of the National Guard who had shot her.
Enjolras almost felt his heart stop when he confused that woman with Éponine but then a man, that seemed her lover, picked her in his arms and he realized it wasn't her.
That member of the National Guard was threatening Courfeyrac with his gun so Enjolras heard himself shout once again.
"IN THE NAME OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, TO THE BARRICADES!"
Everyone followed him. The French flag along with the red banner of the revolution were raised everywhere. A few doors away from the apartment in which they had saved their armament, the barricade was being built with everything they could find; chairs, tables, cabinets, old clocks, old wagons, loose pieces of wood, everything worked to raise the barricade of freedom.
"Today's the day my friends!" Enjolras said and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to the convinced leader who stood invincible on top of the tallest barricade France had ever seen.
"Get some rest, we'll need energy for tonight," he said slowly walking down from the barricade and helping making it stronger with more wood and loose materials.
At her house, Éponine felt nervous with everything she heard (or thought she heard). She didn't eat even when her parents made her seat with them at the dinner table. She couldn't concentrate and it was very worrying for everyone when she stated that not even the piano brought her peace.
"Maybe after today, it might never bring me peace again," she said while closing her eyes and covering her head with her arms.
"Everything's going to be fine, 'Ponine, everything's going to be alright. Nothing's going to happen to them or us," her father explained.
"And what if they win? I could never feel proud of their victory because I wasn't there!" Gavroche exclaimed really frustrated.
"One day you'll fight for what you want and you're going to be able to measure the risks, but that day it's not today," Madame Lafévre simply answered.
The day was spent that way; in such quietness it made everybody nervous. Éponine and Gavroche were constantly checked upon, which made them really mad. Éponine was getting hopeless and she felt her heart was coming out from her chest every time someone passed near her house.
The worst fear was when the National Guard advanced through the streets displaying their heavy armament and shouting in the name of the King, our Lord. Éponine had to see the killing of a young boy who shouted that the king wasn't sovereign in front of her house and it brought her to tears in such a horrible way that her father prohibited from being near the windows and they were all shut.
At night, when their parents retired to their room and Éponine and Gavroche were taken to her room, she had a crazy idea brewing in her mind and playing around. She had planned to escape to the barricade but never brought herself to propose it seriously until Gavroche did.
"Madame Louise, 'Crecia, papa and mama are asleep right?" he whispered.
"I'm guessing they are 'Roche,"
"Would you go with me to the barricade 'Ponine?"
"How do you want us to escape? Do you imagine the amount of servants that we have in the doors?" she asked, unconvinced for she wanted to escape too.
"What I'm thinking is crazy…but listen to me. We can jump from this window all right?"
"I'm ready to leave…Oh 'Roche but how do you want me to go dressed this way? I would be good for nothing in the barricade," Éponine pointed out.
"That's why I'm going for some of papa's clothing, I'll come back with at least two pairs of clothes. Once outside, we'll go to the gardener's house. We know Monsieur Pavel left today, but I don't think all the servants do. You'll change there and we'll take some of papa's personal armament to the barricade, you know he saves it there," Gavroche proposed.
The plan seemed to logical, so simple that Éponine asked herself how could her little brother think about it so accurately.
"Alright, bring the clothing but be careful," she said.
"I always am," he said toothily before leaving silently.
He arrived minutes later with three pairs of boots, pants, shirts, coats and hats.
"Just in case some of them are too big or too small for you," he explained.
She smiled at him and wrapped some of the sheets of her bed to the window to help them descend. Éponine took off her shoes and wrote a note to her parents in case they found out while Gavroche descended first. Her heart was pounding faster than ever and she evoked the feelings of the day she ran away from the Thénardiers, such a remote day in her past.
Éponine did a signal to her and she threw all the clothing he had brought her before decending herself, which was actually not as hard as she had believed it was.
They ran to the gardener's house and Éponine took her time cutting a bit the shirt and pants to make them somewhat her size. She fixed her hair inside a hat and put on boots and a coat.
"Hurry 'Ponine, you're not going to a social party!" Gavroche said to her.
Éponine folded the other two pairs of clothing as she figured out she could lend them to one of the revolutionaries and put them just above the guns and ammunitions that Gavroche had collected.
They left walking slowly and sighed in relief when they officially stepped outside the Lafévre property. They heard the gunshots from downtown and Gavroche had to calm his sister because the sound made her crazy. They walked for a while until someone from an alley started calling for them.
"Sirs! Sirs! Please help me sirs!" a girl shouted while walking out of the alley and standing, frightened in front of them.
Éponine felt pity for the girl; she looked so sweet and yet so lost, like she didn't belong to that place. Although Éponine didn't mix either with the Parisian streets, she could blend better. But the girl they had in front, she was a blonde porcelain doll with blue eyes that didn't belong anywhere.
"Sirs…do you know where does Mademoiselle Éponine Lafévre lives? I know it's very late and improper but I really need to talk to her," the girl said.
Gavroche and Éponine looked at each other in confusion. Who was the girl and why was she searching for her? Éponine took off her hat and looked at the girl.
"I'm Éponine. Who are you?"
"Cosette Fauchelevent. Marius told me about you. He told me you were his friend. I need to know if you can take me to him. Please. I beg you. He said goodbye to me today but I cannot resign myself to that," she pleaded, her eyes watery.
"Mademoiselle…sincerely don't know what to answer to you," Éponine said.
"Please," she pleaded once more.
"Change yourself to this clothing but please mademoiselle promise me you won't do anything crazy. If something happens to you it will officially be my fault I don't want to carry that weight," Éponine answered and Gavroche handed the clothing to her.
"Thanks," she said with a sweet smile, "Nice to meet you, by the way."
Soon, the three of them where walking in between the alleys of Paris, talking in whispers and being guided by the various sounds of the night.
"So…what are you doing in the barricade?" Cosette asked.
"We're just taking care of the wellbeing of our friends," Éponine answered softly.
"More like the wellbeing of Enjolras," Gavroche said in a loud whisper and Cosette giggled.
"I'm not! I do have friends in that barricade," Éponine said.
"Yes…such a close friend yesterday she cried for him," Gavroche cleared out.
Before anybody could say anything else, they found the barricade. They hid themselves good enough while they checked and it turned out they were on the side of the National Guard, who was firing to kill. Éponine grew tense and clutched Cosette's hand in hers, who tried to calm her with a soft whisper but soon, when someone shouted Marius' name, Cosette was the one who needed to be calmed.
Gavroche found the way to arrive to the other side of the barricade through the alleys and the girls followed him. He ran wildly when finding the light and seeing a bunch of known faces; they were on the revolutionary side.
"Cosette, go and seek for Marius. Please avoid talking as much as you're able to, or they'll find you quickly," Éponine advised, "and remember what you promised me, nothing crazy please."
Cosette walked trying to be unnoticed and being actually very good at it. She was silent and picked up everyone's way of walking just by observing until she finally found Marius, who was being healed by Joly, and took his hand, which everyone saw as very weird.
Éponine, on her side, felt in Dante's inferno. There were so many injured and so much blood around that it made her nauseous. It stank to sweat and the tension was very high although, at the moment, the fire had ceased.
She walked around with the bag full of armament she had brought and before she could do anything, Enjolras asked for her identity. She looked at him, trying to see every detail she had ever missed of his face.
"I'm nobody," she said covering her face and making her voice as deep as she could.
"Need an identity, Mr. Nobody," Enjolras said with irony and an unhidden discomfort.
Éponine handed in the bag with armament, to make him realize she was on their part and he knelt to check what the bag contained. He called for Combeferre who took the bag away and he nodded at her, not even realizing that the disguised man was Éponine.
He turned to leave but she realized something she hadn't seen before; Énjolras was injured. His shirt had been ragged in the bottom part and there he had a bloodied bandage that needed to be changed very soon or it would be infected.
"You're injured," she said without even trying to disguise her voice and with her head up high for him to see her.
"Éponine?" he asked while looking at her in disbelief.
She took off her hat once again and her hair felt like a cascade down her back. She looked at him seriously.
"You're here," he said with a bit of preoccupation and excitement in his voice.
"You're injured," she repeated gently while pulling him to an alley so nobody saw them talk.
Thanks for all of your comments! :) I really loved them! Here's a new chapter for you...I hope you don't get disappointed with it. Thank you once again for reading and commenting!
With love,
-Cami