Les Miserables: The Flame That Never Dies

Chapter 2

{Gabrielle}

We all walked inside the apartment and sat down in the living room area. Éponine sat down on one side of the couch in the room and Grantaire sat on the other. I sat in a rocking chair that faced the couch and Gavroche came to sit in my lap.

"How are we alive?" I asked them. They just shrugged.

"Grantaire, how did you die?" I asked him. I was curious. I had remembered him being passed out completely intoxicated. I didn't remember the soldiers trying to kill him though. He immediately grimaced. "If it's too hard to talk about I'll understand," I quickly said.

He looked at me and smiled. "Well, Enjolras and I were publicly executed. Firing squad. They truly went all out," he said with a small hint of laughter.

"You died together?" I asked confused.

He nodded slowly. I smiled. "You must've loved that," I said teasingly. Gavroche looked back at me puzzled. Éponine laughed. Grantaire glared at me.

"I don't think I love him anymore," he said matter-of-factly. I looked up at him in complete shock. Éponine did the same. There were a few seconds of awkward silence.

"How did you die Gabrielle?" Gavroche asked me.

"I was shot." That was all I said. I didn't say I was shot after Courfeyrac had said he was going to propose to me. I didn't say that Courfeyrac had wrapped his arm around my waist and he was the only thing that had kept my dead body from falling to the pavement. I was shot. It was simple as that.

Gavroche nodded. He must've thought it was too hard or painful to talk about my death. That it was.

"Éponine what's your major at the academy?" I asked her. She smiled glad for the topic change.

"Of course law study! I've always been so lawful!" she said rolling her eyes sarcastically. Éponine and lawful went as well together as Grantaire and nonalcoholic beverages. The two didn't mix. "No, I'll be focusin' on music," she said shrugging. "Seems easy enough."

Gavroche sighed. "Are all of y'all goin' to that stupid college?" he asked. I looked at him as he turned around to look at me.

"Well, the three of us are. Who all is here?" I asked him. Grantaire hadn't told me. I didn't think he wanted to. Why?

"Oh! Combeferre, Joly, Jehan, and Enjolras and Courfeyrac of course," he said listing off a few Les Amis de l'ABC. He only said a few though.

"The others?" I asked him. He grimaced.

"We haven't seen them. We don't think they came back," he said slowly. He turns back around and looks at the floor.

"Oh," I say. A silence falls over the room. They were dead. Had we been in heaven? Had I imagined it? If they were really in heaven, why were we back? What about Marius? What about Cosette?

"Classes start tomorrow," Grantaire said suddenly from the couch. "You have literature. They'd probably prefer you to be able to read," he said looking at me.

"I can read!" I protested.

Gavroche beamed in my lap, and turned to face me again. "I'll teach you!" he said excitedly.

I smiled at him. "That would be nice, but I can read," I say. He frowns slightly. "You can help me though. If I need it," I say quickly. He smiles again.

"She needs clothes," Éponine said. "They don't wear long dresses and corsets anymore, thank goodness. They do wear some, well we'd call it risqué clothing though. For them it's normal."