23

Mere seconds after the door had shut behind Combeferre, it opened once more. This time, however, it was Gavroche that burst in.

"Stop being mean to everyone!" he said in a loud voice.

She glared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"I heard what you and Combeferre were talking about," he said. "Just like I heard the things you were saying to Enjolras last night. It's mean and it's unfair because they're our friends."

Feeling like she would be better off smacking her head on a brick wall, Éponine sighed heavily. "I'm not being mean."

"Combeferre was trying to be nice," Gavroche insisted. "And you asked him to leave."

"I didn't want to talk to him, and that's not me being mean, that's just me not wanting to talk to someone," Éponine said, stubbornly. She couldn't believe that her little brother was talking to her like she was no more than a child herself.

"The way you're talking to them is mean, just like blaming Enjolras for everything is mean," Gavroche said, planting his hands on his hips.

Éponine flung her own hands up into the air and stomped past him. "I am not being spoken to like this by you," she said. "I am not a child! I'm an adult!"

Without waiting for Gavroche to respond, she stormed out of the flat, taking the stairs at the fastest run she could manage without falling.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked, not really sure where she was heading. She decided she wanted to get thoroughly and completely lost and managed that feat within six minutes exactly. She had no idea where she was and for the first time in her life she didn't mind. She didn't want to see anything familiar: the opposite, in fact. She didn't want to risk running into any of the students, those students who probably knew about what had happened with Enjolras and would look at her with disappointed eyes. She didn't want…

After a long, long time, Éponine found herself walking down the side of the river where they'd found Enjolras and Gavroche what felt like a year ago. It looked different and yet the same in the daylight. The river was still opaque and reflected the grassy hill on one of its banks, making the water a bright green colour.

Éponine's walking stopped as she came to the edge of the river. She stared down into the greenish water, thinking back to a time when she'd contemplated plunging into the depths of a river and drowning herself once before.

She felt her knees begin to bend into a crouch as the overwhelming urge to dip her fingers into the water overtook her body. Would it be cold, she wondered, or warm?

Just then, the sound of sobbing reached her ears. No, it was more than sobbing – it was the sound of one who was completely and utterly distraught. The crying was painful and choking, a loud wailing that hit Éponine's eardrums and went straight to her spine. Her knees stopped bending as her body turned to find the source of the howling.

There was a figure sat up the riverbank that she hadn't seen when she'd descended the steps. She inched closer. It was a woman – no, a girl, she realised as she got closer. The girl had the skinny, boyish and awkward figure of a child growing into an adult. She had dark blonde hair that was curled around her face. Her face itself was bright red, and twisted beyond recognition with the force of her crying. Her mouth gaped open in a way that was completely unattractive to Éponine, and her face was damp with a mixture of tears and mucus.

Éponine drew level with the girl. She saw a flickering out of the corner of her eyes. A Portal had been opened in the water. The portal showed an elderly gentleman writing at a desk; he was completely alone, and was not speaking, and Éponine couldn't imagine why anyone would want to watch this scene.

Whatever the reasons, however, it seemed to be distressing the young girl so Éponine reached out and dipped her hand into the middle of the Portal. The water was cool around her hand, and the Portal rippled and disappeared with her touch.

The girl shrieked. "What are you doing!" she said shrilly at the top of her voice. "You can't just close my Portal!"

"You were bordering on hysterical," Éponine said, giving the girl her most unimpressed look.

"So?" The girl swiped at her face angrily. Éponine grimaced when the mess on the girl's face clung to her hand.

"That is disgusting," Éponine murmured under her breath, and then said, "I was just trying to be nice. I don't think I'll be bothering again."

"You closed my Portal," the girl muttered, eyes narrowed on Éponine.

How that it wasn't scrunched up from her wailing, Éponine could see familiar features upon the girl's face. She recognised the yellow curls, too, and the sniping tone of voice. It was Inès, the girl who had shown Éponine and Gavroche to their home so long ago.

"As I said, I was just trying to be nice," Éponine shot back at her. "Whatever you were watching – and it looked very boring, by the way – was making you scream and it was very annoying and distracting, so I thought I'd be a kind person and stop the thing that was tormenting you."

Inès shoved to her feet, her scowl deepening. "It was not boring and it was not tormenting me," she said hotly. "I was just keeping an eye on someone, you stupid girl, and –"

Anger coiled low in Éponine's stomach and she couldn't fight the overwhelming urge to lash out at the girl in front of her. "Don't call me stupid," she interrupted. "I am not stupid. I was trying to help you because you were upset and I thought getting rid of that Portal was the kindest thing to do –"

"Kind? Kind! I don't need your kindness!" Inès screamed, a wild glint in her eyes. "I don't need anyone's kindness! After all I've been through, alone, I don't need anyone else's help! You should have left me to it!"

"I will do in future," Éponine snapped. "Next time, don't do it in public if you don't want someone to check on you. And by the way, you're an incredibly ugly crier."

Inès lunged at Éponine, her hand swinging in an arc in an attempt to strike Éponine across the face. Éponine stepped to one side but shoved at the smaller girl with one of her hands, sending Inès stumbling backwards. "Don't you dare try and hit me," Éponine said, in a low, fierce voice. "I have done nothing to deserve physical aggression, Inès, so don't you dare raise your hand to me again."

Éponine had felt angry before but it was nothing compared to the rage she felt now. She'd had to put up with threats of physical violence too often when she was alive, and she had no intentions of suffering the same now she was dead.

Inès' chin wobbled as she stared at Éponine. The other girl's eyes filled with tears and she began to blink rapidly, the moisture leaking down her face. Then, with a choked sob at the back of her throat, Inès spun on her heel and ran away.

Éponine watched her run, wondering how on earth a girl as unstable as Inès had managed to get a job as a Guardian of all things.