What happens after Les Miserables?

Chapter 2

Cosette's POV

About ten minutes later, Marius started to speak with the revolutionaries. Marius stood upon a wooden box, talking to the revolutionaries.

"The revolution is drawing near my friends. When it does come, we must fight with our greatest ability to win; not just for the people of France, but for all who had died in the previous revolution."

I sigh deeply. I have heard this speech five more times than the other people here because Marius has a habit of practicing his speeches before he talks to a crowd. Unfortunatly, I have to listen to them five times in a row and when ever Marius thinks I have missed some information or that I'm blanking out, he starts all over again.

I wander a little ways out of the room Marius is giving his speech and go into a dark room with only one small window, a rotten, wood table with some wine bottles on it, and one chair.

"I see you are bored of your husband's tedious ranting about this revolution." I turn towards the deep voice and surprisingly see Étienne standing next to me. "Don't you ever grow tired of your husband; doesn't he ever get....ever so boring."

Étienne stressed the last word to emphasize his point.

"Of course not!" I quickly reply, even though I was not speaking with entire truth. "Marius is one of the most interesting men I have met; he has never been "ever so boring"!" Étienne laughs at my statement.

"When will you ever learn that you must face the truth no matter how hard it may be?"

"What are you infering?" I already knew the answer because I was saying the same thing to myself.

"You and I both know that you don't speak with truth behind your words, Cosette." There was coldness and something else behind his voice as he said my name.

"Marius is a great man, Étienne and you have know idea how hard he works for this revolution." I snap back. Étienne just simply laughs again and takes a step towards me. I intstictively take a step back.

"Cosette, I think you know Marius is just doing this because he feels too guilty about his friends dying. Also, you and I both know that he is just throwing more lives away with this new revolution and he'll never stop until he is satisfied."

I open my mouth to argue, but something stops me. In some ways I know Étienne is right. Marius is never going to rest or think about anything else until this revolution is settled. I still care about the revolution; however, I care about Marius more and this stress and pressure is not doing him any good.

"Well, how am I supposed to fix that?" I say exasperated, "I'm never going to be able to change his mind!" Étienne takes another step towards me and I quickly step back, but soon my back is against a wall.

"You just need to know what fuels him and what will make him fall into a pit of despair." He takes another step towards me so that he is less than an arms length away. I was quite worried now because I had no idea what Étienne was up to. I had a feeling he had no intention of helping Marius.

"I have a plan to change his mind, Cosette and it starts with you." Étienne takes another step closer and I look over at the door and don't see Marius. He is probably too absorbed in his speech that he never noticed what was happening. Sometimes Marius irked me, but only when he was in full focus on the revolution and never even stopped planning it to say hi to me.

"What do you want me to do? Get his mind off the revolution by talking to him about other things?" I say with a little bit of hope in my voice; wanting it to be what Étienne was thinking because I was afraid to find out what else he could have dreamed up.

"That could work, but I have a better idea." Étienne takes the last step closer to me before he starts leaning towards me.

"Ummm...Marius?" I say with a little urgency in my voice, "Marius!" I shrank away from Étienne because I saw no escape. I tried to lean back, but the wall was there. "MARIUS!" I was growing frustrated with my husband who has always been there for me until now.

I look at Étienne who was very close to me now. I shift my position uncomfortably and hold my arms infront of my face. I look away and squint my eyes shut. For a few seconds, I don't hear or feel anything, but after thirty seconds I hear wails of pain and the sound of broken glass.

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Marius's POV

"...and so we'll meet here again tomorrow to go over our tactics for this revolution. If everything goes as planned, we WILL have a successful revolution!"

I look through the crowd as people cheer. A rush of relief runs through me as I see that people are pleased with my speech. I have been worried for weeks that people wouldn't think I'm good enough and Étienne hasn't been helping with my confidence. I just want to make my friends who died proud and make sure that when I die, their dream has succeeded.

Sadness fills me when I think of my friends who died. Even though most of the people are nice here, none of them compare to how my friends were. They were like a second family to me. At least I have Cosette now. I realize I haven't been spending enough time with her because I have been too busy with the revolution buisness.

I think of all the times I have blown off Cosette or ignored her this week and I didn't like the number. I decide that I am going to dedicate a few days to just spending time with her; after all, she is my wife.

I look around the room, but don't spot Cosette any where. 'That's odd, she was just here,' I think to myself, 'Maybe she got some fresh air." I head outside, but stop when I hear something.

"Marius?" I hear a female voice call. 'Cosette!' I freeze; not knowing where to go. I look in all directions wondering where the voice came from. "Marius!" I hear it again and start running towards the sound of her voice.

I come across a room in which I suppose Cosette is in. I gaze into it and spot Cosette backing away from Étienne who is leaning in towards her. It took me a few seconds to regather myself from the shock and to realize what is going on. Étienne was trying to kiss my wife.

Before I could control myself I leapt into action. I dashed in their direction and pulled Étienne away from Cosette who had her eyes closed. I pushed past Étienne to see if Cosette was fine, but I shouldn't have turned my back on him. I soon felt pain spread through my head and as I turn around, I duck just in time below a wine bottle Étienne had swung at me.

The bottle smashed against the wall and shattered all over the floor. Glass shards flew and landed everywhere including my leg. I let out a short wail of pain before I instinctively leant down to pull out the glass. Once again, I was blinded by stupidity and pain and turned my back on Étienne.

I feel a large object hit my head and I crash to the floor again. My head is throbbing horribly and I brace myself for another hit because I feel too weak to move myself. I wait and wait for the pain that would never come.

I look up to see Cosette and Étienne holding opposite ends of a bar stool, Cosette obviously wanting to take it away from Étienne who is being stubborn.

I get to my feet unsteadily and rush over to Cosette's side. I throw a punch at Étienne's stomache and feel the impact. He doubles over, dropping his side of the stool which unfortunatly landed on my head again. Once I made my vision stop spinning I get ready to battle with Étienne, but I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Marius, don't." I look behind me and see Cosette with a sincere look on her face and I knew she meant it. I could see that she wasn't mad at me for starting another fight, but she was disappointed.

I sigh, take Cosette's hand, and lead her out of the room wondering what will happen next.