Note:

I uploaded the second chapter once again because I found some spelling mistakes! For those who already read it: There is NO plot change only a correction of my spelling!

-Chapter 2-

Èponine tried to hold back the tears. Tears of anger, despair and sorrow. She wiped the tears away in rage. How could this bourgeois boy incite her to lose her countenance that way?! The last time she had been so out of control was when her parents didn't even show the slightest interest in Gavroche's death. That had been the moment where she knew that it was time to break the tie. She had let behind her vicious parents that night one and for all and started being independent.

But this time it had been her pride, who was hurt. With only a few words Enjolras had been able to unmask and even expose her. It didn't need a life filled with pity and sadness and strife to break her mental shield, her mental barricade! It only needed Enjolras the master of words and speech and that made Èponine feel helpless. She had been so shocked at how easily this man had unmasked her that she didn't know what else to do. She had slapped him and with it admitted defeat. She had confirmed what he most likely thought about her: Just a gamine who wasn't able to articulate and argue without turning violent…

And there was something else… Enjolras had once again made it clear, that a girl like her didn't have a future. She couldn't judge Enjolras for something he was right about. He was correct! No one would ever see anything else in her than a gamine with rich friends!

Èponine was so full of rage that she hadn't even noticed the rain that was drenching her dress and hair but now the freezing cold made her shiver. Great, if she had luck she would be coming down with a bad cold to remember her of this frustrating evening, she thought sarcastically.

Suddenly she heard voices from the other end of the road and looked up. Two men were standing about 20 metres away and one of them was shouting something. Èponine couldn't understand his words due to the pouring rain. The men were approaching her and on close inspection she was able to identify them as officers from the National Guard. Èponine slowly turned around: officers calling out for her never were a good sign. If she ran away now they would think she had committed a crime, a confession wouldn't be clearer. While Èponine was trying to walk away as if she didn't hear them, she combed through her mind searching for something she might have done in the past days that would be worse enough for the National Guard following her and ambushing her at night. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the men's steps getting faster and louder behind her. They were coming nearer.

Although Èponine would never admit it, she felt fear arising and started running! This was serious, those weren't some pettifogging officers who tried to punish any poor, homeless soul. They were searching especially for her! That was the moment she started running, she knew the streets better than her followers. Her chance to escape them was actually pretty high, for Èponine knew every inch of the small alleys and slums of Paris. Still hearing the man calling after her she made her way into a side alley which led to one of Paris' high streets where there was always much noise and many people, even at night when the theatres and operas closed their doors after entertaining Paris' arrogant upper class with all its fine, naive Mademioselles and lordly Monsieurs.

Suddenly she saw something moving inches away from her and for the second time this evening Èponine ran into someone. This time she stumbled to the ground harder and felt her hands hurting and starting to bleed where they had met the ground when Èponine tried to cushion her fall. She picked herself up as fast as possible but wasn't able to escape a pair of arms wrapping around her from behind making it impossible for her to free her arms. She struggled against the man's grip as violent as she could but she couldn't free herself.

"Damn it! Let me go, the National Guard is behind me, so let me go unless you want to be accused of attacking me!" Èponine spat but she heard a sardonic laugh. She could feel the man who was holding her putting his mouth near her ear and felt is breath on her skin. Èponine tried to break free once more and she kicked the man's shin as hard as possible. A loud scream rose behind her and she freed her arms only to be pushed against the brick wall, meeting the hard and cold stones with her head. For a moment she saw black spots concealing her view and suddenly she felt the weight of a body leaning against her so she couldn't escape the wall and the man's cold and dirty fingers wrapped around her neck and pressed her against the wall.

"Is that the right way to great your father after such a long time of separation? I don't remember your mother raising you that brazen way, my dear Èponine" Èponine's father whispered coldly. His breath reeked putrid and rotten with an alcoholic aftertaste. Her father didn't seem to care that his daughter's hands were scratched open from the fall or that she was breathing heavily and rattling due to the lack of air.

"As I said father, the National Guard is after me, so you better go! You know that they are still searching for Montparnasse and you!" Èponine's voice was still strong but choppy. The hate she put in her voice couldn't be overheard. Thénardier laughed out loud just when the two officers were turning into the alley.

"My dear daughter" he said tightening his grip on her neck "I am even with these men, in contrary to you…" Èponine didn't know what he meant. Her father had committed too many crimes to be released from jail if they had caught him. Her father had always been hunted by the National Guard, so why was he suddenly no more afraid of these men?

"Thénardier! Let her go, we still need her! Think of our pact!" A deep voice came to Èponine's ears and in the same moment she felt her father's grip loosening and was thrown on the wet ground. Her brain was clicking like a clockwork: What had her father to give that would be of any interest for the National Guard?

"I think it's your turn to leave now, Monsieur Thénardier. From now on this is no more your business. You fulfilled your obligations!" the same deep voice continued and Èponine stood up as fast as she could. Scanning the area she found that each of the two officers blocked one of the alley's ends and with them her escape way. She knew that she had no chance escaping, she could not pass them without getting caught again.

Thénardier looked at his daughter a last time. "I hope you can help the Monsieurs, Èponine!" He said and turned around with a grin and left. At the end of the alley he looked back once more "I just hope that your precious, revolutionary friends won't be too mad at you!" he sneered.

Although Èponine was pretty confused about his last comment she didn't react. She was focused on the two inspectors now. Her father had left, so her chances to escape grew with only two men left to fight. Each officer had an epee and a dagger. They seemed to think that they didn't need their pistols and bats to deal with a woman of the streets.

"So Mademoiselle" the one officer said as if he amused himself by calling her a Mademoiselle. "When we caught your father some days ago, he told us some very interesting things"

Èponine's voice was sneering "What could a scum like my father probably tell you that could raise your interest?" she dismissed him.

"There are some things the government wants to know and who could tell us better what is going on here in the streets of Paris than someone who lives there?" the second officer raised his voice for the first time.

"So what do you need me for?" Èponine slowly started to approach one of the officers. Maybe she could slip through his fingers, she had always been small so maybe he wouldn't be able catch her if she hurried.

"Your father's information isn't of value for us! He just led us to you Mademoiselle. You are the source of information we need. And for helping us catching you, we agreed to…"

Èponine suddenly understood. "You mean he exchanged me for his liberty!" she spat out and anger caught her. Suddenly it was all so clear. Her father's comment on her friends and the inspector mentioning a pact between her father and him.

The National Guard wanted inside information about the revolution and her father had used her to escape from prison. Typical…

"If you want to call it this way… But, Mademoiselle, I think you already know what kind of information we want from you. You truly seem to be a clever girl, just as your father said". Great, Èponine thought, the only good thing her father ever said about her would be her grave! She was mad at her father, how could a father sell his daughter's freedom?!

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Monsieurs. But I have no idea what you're talking about and I expect you to let me go now" Èponine said through clenched teeth and abruptly started running past one of the officers. She tried to sidestep him but directly felt an arm around her waist and a hand grasping for her hair pulling her head back to her neck. Pain flashed through her scalp and she breathed heavily.

"Oh, I think you know just exactly what kind of information we mean, mon chéri". The second officer stepped in front of her and she could feel his breath in her face. He had brown hair and dark, nearly black eyes. His voice was quiet and teasing fitting the smirk that appeared on his face when he let his hand slide over her cheek caressing her skin. Èponine turned her face away from him in order to avoid his touch. "Why do you act so coyly, chéri? Just some information about your little friends. Where do they meet when they plan their rebellions? It's just some words of you and we will surely leave you alone. Unless…" The officer's mud-green eyes wandered from her face to her décolleté and paused there.

That was enough! Èponine spit the man in the face and started struggling against the other man's grip around her waist. "Just because I live on the streets it doesn't mean that I have no pride! So get your hands off of me you bastard!" her voice was full of hatred and rage. What did those men think who they were? They played the loyal and trustworthy National Guard but by night they started beating information out of people and playing with the thought of raping women! Èponine directly felt the consequences for her actions and screamed out when she felt a hand hitting her face hard. She felt her lip crack open, but she didn't look down. She would not bow her head to those bastards! Even the second strike into her stomach didn't break her.

"You shouldn't have done that you little slut!" The officer yelled and hit her hard once again. Èponine spit out blood and started another attempt to break free. She spun her head back with all her force so it hit the other man's nose and a disgusting crack confirmed her that the first part of her plan had succeeded. She was able to break free and kicked the green eyed officer directly into his sensitive spot making him bow down and falling on his knees. Èponine started running but stumbled to the ground when something caught her foot. The officer was in pain indeed but he seemed to be too enraged to just let her slip away. Èponine tried to break free, but he was already crawling over her pinning her to the ground by clasping her throat.

"You'll pay for this! Tell me what you know about the revolution!" he yelled ad her while he was trying to keep her from fighting him.

"You won't get a word out of me! It is people like you we revolutionists fight against! I would rather die than betray them and reveal their secrets!" Èponine screamed panting for air, her finger nails were digging into to officer's hands flesh. She felt his grip loosening around her throat and hit him in the face scratching her nails into the man's face causing blood to flow from the scratches. The man screamed again and suddenly Èponine knew why he had loosened his grip around her throat: He had reached for his dagger.

Èponine struggled even more against his grip when she felt the cold blade against her throat. "I give you one more chance little slut, tell me what you know about the revolutionists!" Èponine only laughed at him. "Isn't it funny, that you as a grown man can't break a poor gamine! Believe me officer, the revolution is on the run and when I die today I at least know that I died for a better future! A better France! "

Èponine felt the dagger's blade piercing through her right shoulder and cried out loud. She felt hot liquid flowing from her shoulder and heard the inspector scream at her, but her vision blurred. Everything she heard was dulled. In her mind she thought how ironically it was that she died for a revolution, which she had degraded to impossibility just a few moments ago when she had argued with Enjolras.

Enjolras… For whose ideals, dreams and intentions she now died. Or were those her own ideals just hiding behind the curtain of a reality based life which had led her to her bane? She didn't know, she just knew that the officer's weight was put away from her body, his grip around her throat loosened and someone was calling for her from far, far away. Someone lifted her up gently.

Then she let the black take her in…

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed or favoured my last chapter! I hope for some more reviews, so please take the time and tell me what you think about the story so far! I would be deeply grateful!