Look Down [South; LES MIS!]

The wind bit at Eponine's coat and she held it tighter around herself, shuffling her feet in the snow trying to keep the blood flowing in her limbs. The yearly chill had settled on the District with a vengeance and the girl was fighting her chattering. She should be huddled in her small family's pitiful hunt but she could not sit still in there. Where was Gavroche? He should be home by now- rather he should be with her. They did not really have a home anymore. Home was a word that felt weird in her mouth and foreign to her brain. Eponine had not known a real house in years- and even then it was a mere structure to eat and sleep in not a place of nurturing like most kids her age could boast.

Shivering, her common sense told her to curl up in their tent made from sticks and rags leaning against the brick wall of an abandoned warehouse but she couldn't. Eponine's heart was determined to stand in the middle of the alleyway they had made their temporary residence and wait for her young brother. An inkling of doubt entered her mind- what if Gavroche got picked up by the Peacekeepers? What if Gavroche ran away, leaving her by herself? What if Gavroche is lying in some gutter out in the District, dying without her to protect him?

Her feet were already in motion towards the main street the little alleyway was connected to. Managing to stop herself, Eponine had to stretch out her fingers and repeatedly tell herself to calm down. Everything was alright. You are just overreacting. Fixing her greasy hair back up in its cap, she popped the collar of her jacket up to protect her neck from the wind.

"Calm down, Eponine," she told herself, moving slowly back to their small camp. "Gavroche has lived on the streets all his life. There is no need to worry."

Then the "what if?" hit her again and Eponine could not resist it. Grabbing her bag from inside the tent, she swung their few belongings over her shoulder and started trudging through the snow towards main street. Poking her head around the corner to examine the quiet street, Eponine ran her eyes around all her vantage point had to give. No sign of her brother.

Taking a timid step out of the safety of the alleyway, Eponine started out into the open. Each step was easier than the one before and not very long after she had started Eponine was already well down the street. Looking down every road and back alley for her daredevil of a brother, Eponine began to feel more comfortable with her surroundings. Everyone was asleep at this time of night. Her determined walk became more of a lazy stroll and her mind trailed to other matters. Thing like how enchanting the streetlights looked reflecting off the light, untouched snow. The stuff was also lying on the tree branches, taking winter naps against the rough wood. Her boots kicked up the snow drifts and let the wind catch the powder and spread it all throughout the district.

Without really thinking about it, Eponine raised her arms out as if they were wings that could catch the winter breeze and take her from the cruelty of District Eight. Looking up, she could see the starlight filtering through the tree branches. Maybe she could fly to the stars. Yes! The stars! She'd take Gavroche with her, of course, and they'd live in the stars where they could make a home and no one could kick them out. No reaping, no Peacekeepers- just the family she had always wanted. She was humming now- her mind was too far in the clouds to tell but the tune was escaping her thoughts and freeing into the night air. It did not have words but it was a tune Eponine sang in her head every night. It started out small but grew louder until her feet were standing stationary in the snow and her lips were letting out the song she had held back for so long. Her arms outstretched and her face to the sky- such an act of public emotion was not very common for Eponine Deschiens. However, alone in the silence of a brisk winter night, she was the most outgoing girl in all of Panem.