A Cynic's Revolution

Hit by Lightning

I didn't intend to be at that spot on that day at that exact moment. It wasn't my intention to have my whole world turned upside down and inside out.

Yet it did happen.

I had walked there a hundred different times, and sure I had heard the rumours. People whispered about revolution all the time. Just like they whispered about the mistresses of the king, their neighbour or of anybody else. You heard things when you walked through the streets of Paris, and it was best not to take them too seriously.

Imagine my surprise when this time the rumours turned out to be true. There was an angel preaching of overthrowing the king and he was standing right in front of me. Not literally, he was actually standing on a small stage that was obviously self made and I was a face in the crowd. He wasn't alone either, there were two other men with him. But afterwards I couldn't remember anything about them, apart from the fact that they had been there.

The angel just made you look at him, leaving no room for thoughts of anyone or anything else. As I watched the people around me it was clear I wasn't the only one feeling like this. I know I sound crazy saying this, but he radiated like the sun.

I stayed throughout his whole speech and even after the other people had left I couldn't bring myself to walk away. So I sat down on a bench where I could look at him. I now saw there were more than three men, there were eight in total. From the way they looked and acted, I assumed most of them were students. From the fact that they were planning a revolution, I assumed most studied either politics or law.

It didn't take too long for one of them to notice me after all the other spectators had left.

A man, or should I say boy, he couldn't be twenty yet, saw me and tapped on the shoulder of a black haired man. He pointed at me and when the man with black hair started walking towards me I contemplated quickly going away. But again I found I could not bring myself to do so. And really, I wasn't doing anything wrong.

"Bonjour," he greeted me in such friendly and open way I immediately doubted he was genuine. Surely he just thought I was annoying.

"Bonjour," I said in return. In my head in knew what I must look like to this handsome, polished student. A homeless drunkard who probably wanted money from him.

Only one of those things was true though. I did have a home, that it was on the verge of collapsing didn't matter and I didn't want their money. About the drunkard, yeah, that would be true.

"Are you looking to join our revolution?" That question caught me off guard. He couldn't be serious. I studied his face, there was no sign that he was joking.

"Sure, I am very motivated to separate the king's head from his body." I had decided the man must be joking, so I returned him the favour.

He laughed and sat down next to me. “I’m Courfeyrac, and I think we should be friends since we have similar goals in life."

"You aren't serious about this revolution, are you?" I couldn't help but ask. "You know that it's not going to work, right? Lots of people have tried to change the system before, and we're still at the same place. The world will never change. And if it changes, it will only get worse." I was right, I knew I was. Years ago they killed the king and attempted to change the way France was ruled. Now we had a king again.

"A cynic," Courfeyrac laughed again. "How nice. You should meet our fearless leader, I'm sure you two would get along." Now he was joking.

"Who?"

He pointed at the man who had given a speech, the angel. "You should come to a meeting once. I'm sure you'll find yourself swayed eventually." He gave me an address, smiled at me one more time and joined his friends.

Even after they all had left I kept sitting on that bench, wondering how it could have happened that I, out of all people, had gotten myself caught up in a revolution.

 A/N: I finally decided how I'm going to make this story. There are going to be several parts, each part is beginning with a piece of story (like this chapter). Then there will be poems about that event and the cynic's feelings and ideas about it. The poems that are posted are going to stay, but they're under construction.

Anyway, I hope you liked it. If you did, don't forget to vote/comment/fan :)