The River Seine, Paris, 7:42pm, June 5th, 1832
Montparnasse stood at the edge of the river, a choice weighing on his mind.
A few streets away, a barricade had been built only hours before.
A few streets away, there were good people fighting for a good cause.
A few streets away, they would need all the men they could get.
They had begged him to go, Eponine and Jacquelyn both. They said that they would need him. That he could be the one extra man enough needed to succeed.
And yet here he stood, unable to decide if he should throw away his life, or let others die just to prove a point.
In a bag at his feet there were two pistols, and rounds that the fools at the barricade would soon sorely need.
The barricade- the only one in his mind that seemed to matter, was only a few streets away, and not everything had been blocked off by the national guard yet. He could still get there.
If that was what he wanted.
There was a choice to be made, throw away his life and die like a mayter? Or stay alive in a place where living is harder?
A few streets away was a barricade.
A few streets away was the girl he was quite certain now he loved.
And a few streets away there was a girl who certainly loved him back.
As he stood, watching the river, and ignoring the gunshots, Montparnasse did not know that the very barricade he'd deemed important was under attack.
He did not know that the national guard was advancing onto the barricade, and the men who fought to protect the barricade were doing everything they could to keep them away.
He did not know that a fool hearty boy was threatening to blow the barricade to the sky, and he did not know that a girl was taking a bullet for said boy.
What he did know was that the choice he made would certainly prove fatal, either way.
Die like a martyr? Or stay alive when living is harder?
A few streets away there was a barricade, and was filled with fools who had dreams of revolution.
A few streets away there was a barricade filled with men who needed his help.
A few streets away there was a barricade with the girl he loved on it.
Montparnasse picked up the bag, and slowly turned back to the buildings behind him.
The national guard hadn't blocked off all the streets yet, surely he could still make it.
Montparnasse headed down the streets, the only thing filling his thoughts was Eponine, and keeping her safe.
He turned a corner, skittered through an alleyway, and then the sounds of gunshots reached his ears.
Before he knew it he was running, because the streets had suddenly grown very silent, and somehow that was worse than when they were filled with noise.
He turned another corner, and then the barricade was in sight, and as he came up from behind he could see a man climbing down, a barrel in one hand and a torch in the other.
Montparnasse watched as the people of the barricade argued and congratulated Marius, but still he looked around, missed in all the chaos, looking for Eponine.
He hardly noticed as a light rain began to fall, finding himself face to face with a very pale looking Jacquelyn, "Where is Ponine?"
Slowly, Jacquelyn raised a hand, to point to the base of the barricade, where Marius hunched over someone, worriedly.
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The Darkest Night Will End
Fanfiction"There is a life, and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy in between." -Albert Camus In which three people, a marble man, a drunken cynic, and a tired soul, dragged through miserable lives tied together on some invisible string, f...
