A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't written in ages! Long story shortened, I've been staying in a different house for the past couple of weeks and I haven't had and Internet Connection there so I haven't been able to post, unfortunately. Really close to the end of this fanfiction now, so I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :) Anyway, the next chapter-I hope you haven't given up on waiting for this in the long time it's taken.
Chapter Seventeen: No More
Café Musain was barren. The curtains were torn, billowing wraiths in the icy wind which came through the gaping window. All of the posters were torn to shreds. The whole room was grey without red flags or candles lit. A single wine bottle was smashed on the floor, the glass shards still there above the red stain that could so easily have been blood.
No students gathered around the tables, planning their revolution. No students drank to success or freedom. Only one student lived to see the ruins of their Cafe Musain.
Marius was sat on the chair sideways, leaning against the wall instead of against the back of the chair, left alone to bear the loss of most of the people who'd meant a lot to him.
There's a grief that can't be spoken. His handsome face was red and tear stained. There's a pain goes on and on. A tear slid from his hazel eye. Empty chairs at empty tables. Now my friends are dead...and gone.
Here they talked of revolution. Here it was they lit the flame. Here they sang about tomorrow. Tomorrow was what they sang about, every time. Many different tomorrows, but they always became yesterdays where nothing had changed. Especially now. And tomorrow never came.
From the table in the corner, they could see a world reborn. A free world. And they rose with voices ringing. A sob escaped Marius' lips. And I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung, became their last communion. On this lonely barricade at dawn. They had been the last ones left. Gavroche had been the one to keep them going. The small and daring boy. Death made no exceptions for the young.
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me. He rose and gripped the seat for support. His friends...the students. His dearest friend, Eponine, who had died in his arms. That I live and you are gone. Every single friend he'd ever had, all in the space of one night and morning. Gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken. There's a pain goes on and on.
He was so accustomed to seeing the students here. Without them, the room was huge and the walls dark and intimidating, casting sorrowful shadows on the rough floor. Phantom faces at the windows! Phantom shadows on the floor!
His body shook with another sob as he gripped the chair tighter. Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends will meet no more!
He fell back into the seat again, before his knees gave way.
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me! What your sacrifice was for... They'd died in vain. Nothing had changed in the rest of the world, but Marius' world had been altered forever.
Empty chairs at empty tables. Everything was empty to Marius. His life was empty. He had no purpose now. Not without the ambitions of the students. Not without Eponine.
Where my friends will sing no more.
A knock sounded on the door of Rue Plumet. Cosette rose from her seat beside Eponine's sleeping form, reluctantly leaving her side.
Marius was back at the door. He nodded at Cosette. "Hello." His tone was dreary and shadowed with misery.
"Did you have a nice walk?" Cosette asked. "I went to Cafe Musain." Cosette could hear the hurt in his voice. She took his arm in a way that was more sisterly than loving, shut the door and led him to the sitting room.
"Every day, you walk with stronger step. You walk with longer step-the worst is over." She consoled him.
"Every day, I wonder every day. Who was it who brought me here from the barricade? Every day, I wonder why it was me who survived when others didn't." He replied as they arrived in the sitting room. He could see the pale blue couches.
Cosette let go and headed towards the couch. Marius noticed a sleeping girl there. She wore a black dress and her dark curls were splayed out around her head and shoulders. She looked like... No...how could it be?
"Don't think about it, Marius! With all the years ahead of you, 'Ponine will never go away, and you will be together." Marius stared at Eponine in disbelief, then looked at Cosette, who smiled warmly back at him. "Every day." She promised encouragingly.