2

Morning came much slower than night did. The sky was not the blank white it had been the day before, when Eponine had opened her eyes, but there were some smudges of pink amongst ivory. She watched the world get lighter with weary eyes, as she hadn't been able to sleep last night. No one had.

She was tired, but there was some kind of energy running through her bones. Anticipation, she suspected; the knowledge that something big was about to happen.

A few hours after morning had dawned in this strange place, there was an odd rumbling that shook the ground on which Eponine was sat. Her vision blurred, and she began to blink repeatedly. Her vision cleared and then she could see a small shape lying a few feet away. A little boy with a mop of hair, very familiar hair.

He sat up, and Eponine scrambled to her feet. "Gavroche!" She ran over to her younger brother, feeling more than a little frantic. There was blood on his scruffy, dirty clothes, on his stomach, his shoulder, his neck.

"Gavroche, you're hurt," she said, wanting to put her hands on him but not wanting to touch his injuries.

"'Ponine?" Confusion was written all over Gavroche's face. "But…You're dead."

She shook her head. "Don't be silly," she said. "What happened to you? I told you to get away from the barricades –"

"They were shooting at me," Gavroche said, gazing around. "I wasn't scared, though, 'Ponine."

Eponine felt a rush of anger at the idea of the soldiers taking shots at her little brother. He had been the only family she had that she actually loved, even if they didn't see each other very often, and as a result couldn't help but feel protective over him. "If I get my hands on them…" she muttered under her breath.

"Where are we?" Gavroche pushed her away from him.

"I don't know," Eponine said. "No one does. We all woke up here yesterday…There are other people here, but…"

"It's an odd place," Gavroche observed, clambering to his feet. "Do you reckon we're in Paris still?"

Eponine shrugged. "I don't know. Like I said, none of us do…It's…It's a complete mystery. Tell me, Gavroche, do your wounds hurt?"

He glanced down at his front and plucked at his clothes with one hand. "No," he said. "Do yours?" She shook her head.

"It gets even more odd by the minute," she said. "Come on, everyone's sitting over here…"

She tried to take Gavroche by the hand, but he pulled away before she could get a proper grip. He began to walk away from her.

"Where are you going?" she said, following.

"To have a look around," he said.

"Everyone's already looked," she said, feeling a little exasperated. "Come and sit down –"

"Has anyone climbed the barricade?" Gavroche demanded, staring up at the colossal structure.

"Only some people last night," she said. "Not any of us."

"So there could be something past it," Gavroche said. He gave her a broad grin and before she could stop him, he began to clamber up the barricade, over the broken furniture and doors and carriages.

"Gavroche!" she shouted. "Get down!"

"No," he said, over his shoulder.

She put her hand on the nearest item to her, a chair, and used it to pull herself up. The structure felt solid beneath her feet, but her brain screamed at her it was unstable. She'd felt like this when she climbed the barricade that one time to save Marius…

And just like that, the memory swept into her head again and she went very still. Gavroche was scaling the wall like a little cat climbing a tree, but she just clung there, holding on to a table leg. Panic was rising as she could feel the gun pressing against her palm.

Her legs began to work again, but this time, they were going backwards and she was stumbling off the barricade and onto the ground. Gavroche was still climbing, unaware of his sister's plight.

"Gavroche!" she shouted again. "Please, just come back down!"

For she did not want him to reach the top of the barricade; who knew what was waiting on the other side?

XXX

But then he was gone, over the top and out of sight, and Eponine felt like she'd lost him.

She knew that this was a dramatic conclusion to come to, but given how she'd been feeling over the last hours – in this completely alien place, with only one person she knew by name – she thought it was a fair excuse. On one hand, she'd been horrified to see her little brother appear, especially in that gory state, but deep down she'd just been happy to see someone she actually knew. Someone that cared about her.

Before she could worry over her little brother anymore, however, the earth began to rumble again. This time, when her vision blurred, she did not blink half as much. Part of her had known to expect the limp forms lying nearby.

This time was different, however. They began to appear in rapid succession, not all at once. The other difference was she knew a lot more of them by name, and had actually spoken to them on a fair few occasions. They were more students, students from the barricade.

She stood there and watched them come to, watched them stare around themselves in confusion. It didn't take long for the students she had spent the night with to mingle and the conversation of what on earth was going on to begin.

Cautiously, she stepped forward to speak to the one she recognised the most. "Monsieur Prouvaire?" she said.

The poet turned at the sound of his name. "Eponine?" he said. "What's going on?"

It did not faze her as much to see the blood and wounds on Prouvaire's body, and she was glad for that.

"Your guess is as good as mine," she said, shrugging one shoulder.

The rumbling came again. Three more people – and again, she knew them all – Courfeyrac, Combeferre and Joly.

Prouvaire rushed away from her to his friends. She ran her eyes over all the faces present. She knew them all well enough to know that some people were missing. Marius wasn't here, and that was bothering her the most. She wanted to be with him, and his presence would comfort her a lot…

When the rolling, thunderous noise happened once more she barely noticed it. Two more bodies. She felt selfish in hoping that one of them was Marius, but was dismayed when that was not the case. Still, she knew both of them – Grantaire, the drunk, and Enjolras, the leader of Les Amis de l'ABC.

The people crowded the pair of them, but Eponine didn't want to. Instead, she backed up so that her back was pressed against the huge barricade.

She waited, as the hubbub died down and the students let each other gain their breathing space. She could hear the conversations from where she stood, about what was happening, where they were…She was sick of hearing those questions.

So instead of listening, she waited, waited to see if anyone else would appear. They did; a few more students she knew by face but not by name.

Then she continued to wait. Night fell. Morning came. And Eponine's hope of Marius joining them in this bizarre place disappeared with the sunrise.