The Changed Girl

The Changed Girl: A Les Miserables Fanfiction

Prologue


When you are born you are you are born into a life that you'll never be able to escape. If you are born poor then you'll die poor and the king seems to think that this is the way things should be. I was born to a poor woman who's husband had died, leaving her nothing. She tried her best when I was five years old she died of starvation and I was left with no one and had to live on the streets. I didn't have it in me to steal, my mother had taught me to never become a thief she told me that my soul and pride was more important than anything I could steal.

It was when I was nine years old that I saw the stranger walking down the snowy streets with a familiar young girl, Cosette. I'd seen her many times before at the local inn, the people there treated her as a slave after her mother left her in their care. I'd spoken to her once or twice and she was a nice girl.

Seeing the man swinging her on his arm and making her smile warmed my heart. Cosette was the same age as me yet I rarely saw her with the smile she held now. She deserved so much better than the thieving innkeepers that treated her as garbage. I couldn't help but follow them into the inn where the Thenardiers were talking with the man. I caught Cosette's eye and her smile grew at the sight of me. The man must have noticed this because he glanced around until his eyes landed on me and he smiled.

"What is your name my dear?" The man asked me as I peeked out of my hiding spot behind the stairs.

"Aloe," I whispered my name as I walked over to Cosette's side and she gave me a hug.

"Where are your parents my dear?" he knelt down in front of us.

"My Papa died before I was born and my mother died when I was five." I informed him as I felt a pang of sadness at the mention of my mother's death. I didn't feel the same for my father since I'd never known him but my mother had been my best friend until the day she died.

"Who cares for you then?" I could hear the astonishment in his voice at my story.

"No one Mousier," I kept my eyes on the floor as I spoke. I didn't want to see his pity for me, I didn't want or need anyone's pity. I had been able to survive on my own for so long already and I was proud of myself for it. I didn't listen as the man spoke to the Thenardiers until Cosette pulled on my arm and I saw that she and the man were walking outside with her rag doll in hand.

"What is happening?" I furrowed my brows at her as I followed them down the snowy streets in the darkness.

"He's my Papa now!" She smiled more brightly than I'd ever seen her do before.

"We are going to Paris," the man informed me. "I will have a place for us to live there. You are welcomed to come with us my dear. I can take care of you both."

"Yes," I couldn't help but smile as we hurried away from the inn. My new family of three and it seemed as if everything was looking up now. I had no idea at the time just how wrong things would end up.