Ballet Shoes, Angel's Hair and Revolution (A Les Misérables fanfiction)

Chapter 72

"Kill him!" The queen ordered one of the two executioners who held the release rope of the guillotine blade in his hands.

I breathed uneasily, holding Enjolras' gaze, attempting not to waver. I wouldn't let him die thinking I didn't have the stomach to support him, to see him meet his end. After everything I had done to land us in this situation, I owed him at least this much. His eyes, though not void of fear, shone brightly. They filled my heart with peace. I wouldn't look away from this magnetic blue; I couldn't even if I tried. He didn't dare to break our eye contact either as if with every glance into my eyes, he held on to life for a little bit longer.

I could scarcely breathe, knowing that, in his last earthly moments, Alexandre Enjolras chose to look at me, only me. Nobody deserved that angel of a man, nobody was worthy of his love, not even the country and the people he fought for, yet he was all we had. Without him, the world had no point in existing because he was the only one that could fix it. Without him the people of France were doomed to fail. That morning might as well have been Armageddon.

Yet, the end didn't seem to come. Enjolras' chin turned red from resting against the executioner's block, and his golden curls fluttered on the wind, but nothing was happening. I may have thought the time froze still were it not for the bird song that grew noisier and the burnt orange sunlight reflecting from the ever-still guillotine blade. The executioners with faces hidden by dark hoods waited motionlessly. The man controlling the rope didn't release it.

An uneasy feeling stirred in my gut; was my torture prolonged on purpose? Or was there something else afoot? I dared not utter a word, praying for Enjolras' life. Yet it seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed the odd situation; the silence around me filling with whispers. A new fire lit up the boy's eyes.

"Did you not hear me?" Queen Catherine broke the silence, stepping towards the podium with the guillotine, appearing in my peripheral vision enough for me to notice her frustration, "Execute the prisoner!"

Her only answer was silence.

The gathered crowd collectively held their breath. My heart fluttered. Who were those executioners? Why wouldn't they follow orders? I still couldn't see their faces drenched in deep shadows of their hoods. I was too scared to move closer and try to find out. I didn't want to alert the guards, so I stood there almost holding my breath. Queen's shaking hands proved she was furious now; she clenched her fists to hide the tremor and quickened her pace, coming as close to the macabre scene as she dared.

"How dare you defy me?" She shouted to the man grasping the rope that decided my friend's fate, "You will follow my order!"

Once more deadly silence. People around me were beginning to stir. Queen Catherine looked around nervously, and after attempting to compose herself, she climbed the wooden steps up the platform, which creaked with her every step. I shifted nervously on my legs, squeezing the champagne glass a little tighter in my hand. I sent a silent question to Enjolras; he seemed as puzzled and terrified as me. I knew he wished for this to be over because every second was only prolonging his agony. The horrid woman was now dangerously close to him and the executioners. I feared she might push away the man and pull the rope of death herself. Such action was far beneath the dignity of a queen after all that's what executioners were for, so the person who passed their sentence didn't have to get their hands dirty; and God forbid she would get blood on her skirts! But knowing Catherine, remembering her crimes, and seeing that deadly glare in her eyes, convinced me she wouldn't hesitate to kill Enjolras herself. She approached one of the hooded figures, stopping only inches from his face and spoke much calmer and quieter as if trying to reassert her authority.

"Who do you think you are to defy your queen's orders?"

The man's chest and shoulders wavered as he inhaled deeply and spoke straight into that woman's face.