The Barricade in Rue De Villet, 5:02am, June 6th, 1832
"You at the barricade listen to this!" An officer called, "The people of Paris sleep in their beds!"
Jacquelyn rubbed at red rimmed eyes, turning to where the voice was coming from, still shaking.
"You have no chance! No chance at all! Why throw your lives away?"
Slowly they moved through the crowd of men, grabbing their carbine and standing at the base of the barricade, "Let us die facing our foes! Make them bleed while we can!"
"Make them pay through the nose!" Enjolras agreed.
Courfeyrac nodded, "Make them pay for each man!"
"Let others rise to take our place! Until the earth is free!" Jacquelyn yelled.
Most of the men climbed the barricade, readying their weapons and aiming for the guard.
Jacquelyn watched as the National guard officer who had called out turned shakily, "Cannons!"
"Far right first!" Enjolras directed as two cannons were rolled into the street.
"Steady- steady- fire!"
Men around the far cannon began to fall in time with the sound of gunshots, and the men of the barricade rushed to reload their weapons.
Chaos was already beginning to reach out and grab the street as shots were fired erratically, three national guardsmen falling for every one of the barricade.
"There's more men!" Combeferre yelled, "There bringing in replacements!"
"I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory," Jacquelyn murmured to themself, "Is this where it gets me? On my feet, several feet ahead of me?"
Jacquelyn turned, passing their carbine down to be reloaded, and started to grab a new one when a strange feeling started in their shoulder, first a pinch, and then a fire that began to spread up and down their arm. Is this how Gavroche had felt?
"I can feel it coming, but I won't run, or fire my gun."
Not even thinking they half stood, only to be met with another pinch and fire spreading through their leg as they fell forward off the barricade.
"Jacquelyn!" Enjolras screamed.
They found themself being pulled to sit back against a wall as both Enjolras and Grantaire abandoned their spots on the barricade, to rush to them, seeming to fall quiet and slow, "There is no beat, no melody."
The two men crowded them, and slowly, weakly they reached up, hand grazing Grantaire's cheek, and then Enjolras', "Enjolras, Grantaire, my first love, my partner. Possibly the last faces I ever see. Maybe I have thrown away my shot and he would be right- how will you remember me?"
"Jacquelyn..." Enjolras sobbed.
They smiled, turning their head enough to lock eyes with Grantaire, "Keep him safe- you've gotta keep him safe 'Aire."
He nodded weakly.
"What if these bullets are my legacy?" They wondered, looking past their lovers to the slow motion battle that still took place, "Legacy- what is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden I'll never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me."
One of the flags, now stained, but still flying caught their eye, "This revolution- this great unfinished symphony- you sent for me. You let me make a difference, a place where even different orphans- sons of immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up!"
The world seemed to come back into speed, though only for a fraction of a second and they tried to sit up, only to remember the fire spreading through their body, "I'm running out of time. I'm running and my times up- wise up- eyes up."
They looked back past the battle, past where Marius of all people was now leading the remnants of the barricade, and they smiled, "I catch a glimpse of the other side- Gavroche leads the fallen men in a soldiers chorus on the other side, William and my father are standing on the other side- they're with my mother on the other side- my sister on the other side!
"Eponine and Adrien, they wait for me on the other side- Lamarque is watching from the other side- teach me how to say goodbye!" They lost all focus on the world around them and for a moment they could only see the other side, "Rise up, rise up, rise up- Enjolras!"
The world came back into focus, and they could see their men again, "Grantaire- my loves you better take your time."
Their faces were full of pain, watching as they smiled faintly, "Raise a glass to freedom!"
"She says these words and then she dies!" Everyone seemed to chorus.
"NO!" Enjolras cried.
YOU ARE READING
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...
