Chapter Fifteen
A/N: Thank you to MissFiyerabaMeponineSherlock, CrimsoCrescendo, Alex-samsprout and Guest for reviewing the last chapter.
Marius rose at dawn to visit the university where he was studying, knowing that Cosette would not have woken before the sunrise. The student had no clue what had happened to his beloved in recent times, but there was something about her now that repulsed him, and he did not wish to wait around to find out what. The argument from the previous night still weighed heavy on his mind as he walked, as well as wondering how she could have known about 'Ponine's arrest, but all those thoughts faded away as he saw the crowd gathering near the square beside the library.
His first thought was of his dear friends who had perished at the Barricades, for he had not seen such a crowd gathered since Enjolras' speech. It was rare for so many in a community so divided to come together in this way and there were only a few things that could bring them close. Celebrations, rebellions... entertainments.
Marius shivered violently. 'Entertainments', as the masses referred to them, were the most horrific spectacle in all of creation. People gathered together to laugh and jeer as a poor misguided soul had their life cut short by a length of rope. 'How can they feel so little as they watch an execution?' he wondered, and began to push his way towards the front.
The National Guardsmen formed a thick line around the base of the gallows, an abnormality for a simple peasant's execution. That was what it had to be; a rich man would never be condemned to such a slow and painful death. 'If the Guardsmen are here, then that poor fellow is in for a rough time of it. They've finally caught the last of the rebels.'
However, as Marius moved closer, he saw that this 'poor fellow' was not a man at all, but a young woman, small and slight, scarcely covered by scraps of a rough brown dress. Her hair was matted together with a substance that looked sickeningly like congealed blood. The student felt his heart tear a little, as he was reminded of his dear 'Ponine.
No sooner had it torn than Marius' heart stopped in his chest. There was a clear reason why the girl had reminded him of his closest friend, a very clear reason indeed.
Desperately, the young man began to force his way through the floods of people, their eager eyes and bloodthirsty jeers all blended into a blur of noise at the back of his mind. All he could see was the poor girl being roughly dragged towards the gallows and the noose that would choke her life away. Her head was down, as if it was weighted down by the realisation of the horror that awaited her. 'She cannot see me.' Marius realised, as he moved even closer. 'She thinks that she's all alone.'
Once he reached the impenetrable barrier of Guardsmen, the man began to shout, desperate to catch his friend's attention and let her know that he was there for her. "Éponine!" he cried above the ruckus. "Éponine!"
At first, the girl looked from side to side in a daze, as if she had heard a voice from a dream and knew that it could not be true. But then she turned her head to just the right angle- her eyes caught Marius' and her mouth dropped open with shock.
Marius. Her lips formed the words but no sound came out. Perhaps it was because Éponine knew that making a scene only resulted in making things worse for herself. Marius, please. Please. Help me.
Though there had been no sound to her words, still they pierced Marius' heart. Even after all this time, after all the mistakes he had made, Éponine still believed that he could make everything right again. But it was too late for that now, too late to save her. 'Surely she must know that.' he reasoned, trying not to see her lips desperately forming his name, her whispers like a prayer that he could not answer.
Marius had read of a quote that very morning, by a man named William Gladstone. True, Gladstone had lived in England and had stood for the very values that Marius himself and so many others stood against. But even a hundred years after they were spoken, the politician's words still moved the young student, as he watched his dearest friend hauled up onto the gallows. It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer.
Marius' thoughts drifted to the awful man that Éponine was forced to name her father. He had been drunk, abusive and cruel; through Marius' eyes, a more vile man had never set foot on this Earth. 'And yet he and all his gang have escaped their justice, and left poor 'Ponine to take the blame for them.' He glanced around him, left and right. 'Yet no one seems to care that they are not her crimes to atone for, as long as they have the chance to see the blood splattering the cobbles.'
As he returned his gaze to the gallows, Marius cursed to see that the rope was already wrapped around Éponine's neck and knotted tight enough that her head would not slip back through the gap. She was being forced to stand up on a stool, which soon enough they would kick away, leaving her to die before a jeering crowd. He only had moments, but perhaps those moments would be enough.
Before he knew what he was doing, Marius had begun to fight the Guardsmen, forcing his way through their lines and up onto the gallows themselves. He would have been apprehended immediately, but the crowd had become unruly and, upon seeing the scrawny student successfully weasel past the guards, decided to try their luck at doing the same.
There were only gaolers to contend with once he reached the platform and they scarcely put up a fight at all. Marius wondered for an instant why they would not care if he climbed up onto the platform itself. But then he saw what had happened while he had been fighting to reach his dear friend.
It seemed that those moments had not been enough, for the stool lay now crushed beneath the swarm, and Éponine hung limply on the rope.
A/N: Do not panic! I will update soon and all will be revealed! Please review!