Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast

by Jace, Cameron

  "I didn't know that," Colton said.

  "Everyone knows that," Iris said. "Maybe you don't know it because you're a boy, or maybe because you never really cared, before Eva." She tried not to meet his eyes saying the last part, but she had to be honest about it.

  "You're right. I never cared about anything, but me," Colton said, looking disappointed with himself. The boy had been scoring point after point with her. She wondered if he knew that, or if he even liked her in the slightest.

  "So that's all? I think I should go," she said. Sitting with him in the same car already made her dreamy.

  "I know you think that I am a bad person, but believe me, I'm trying to be a better man," he said. Iris was going to kiss him violently and tell him he wasn't that bad, but then she discovered it was all in her head. The boy was grieving. "I've discovered something else. Something important about the Pentimento idea."

  "Yeah?"

  "I'll have to show it to you myself," he started the engine and clicked the doors closed automatically, without even asking her. "Buckle up, Iris."

  17

  Colton drove toward the Great Wall near the bakery house. He parked his car in a VIP garage that was tangent to where the robots stopped anyone from going further, a mile before the wall. Iris didn't comment as she saw him use his father's ID to enter the garage as a VIP. Inside, he parked the car, and then ushered her to walk the long mile beside him, directly toward the wall.

  "I am going to assume you stole your father's ID, and that what we're doing is totally illegal." Iris said.

  "Totally," Colton said, walking. "I'm sorry to put you through this, but you have to see."

  "Don't be sorry," Iris smiled. "I told you, I like illegal. I am starting to really wonder why I haven't been expelled from school so far."

  Colton laughed admiringly at her. Iris's heart sank to her feet. Did this guy admire her somehow? Of course not, Iris. He is just a rich brat, and you're a poor amusing doll. Do you think he really doesn't know you like him?

  "Don't you care about breaking anyone's rules?" Colton wondered.

  "You're breaking them too."

  "Going with you to the Ruins was my first law-breaking endeavor, actually."

  "I'm starting not to like you now," Iris said. One point down, she thought.

  "Does that mean you like me at least a little bit?" Colton didn't look at her. He kept walking straight ahead. She couldn't see his face clearly. Did he really mean it?

  "That's beside the point," Iris said.

  "Of course," he swallowed. "I have to admit, it felt so good breaking the rules though."

  "And stealing your father's ID?"

  "Much better," Colton laughed. "I asked my grandmother, a lovely lady who likes to tell jokes about my father when he was a kid, about the Great Wall. She was kind enough to tell me that the Council members had access to the Great Wall and beyond it. She is in a wheelchair, and she winked at me, as if wanting me to go see for myself."

  "I'm not surprised how the Council members have access to the Great Wall," Iris said. "But how do they get to the Ruins? Do they just walk through?"

  Iris followed Colton through the empty mile leading to the Great Wall, which looked as if it were unreachable. No matter how close they walked to it, all Iris saw was the horizon of land underneath a never-ending sky.

  "Yes." Colton stretched an arm toward the sky. It disappeared behind it. "The Sky is a hologram. An illusion. Some brilliant technology where you'd think it's a far away sky, when you can just walk through it and reach the Ruins."

  "I knew that, but I never thought you could just walk through it."

  "Crazy technology, right?" Colton said, and strode forward, half of his body now buried behind the hologram of the sky. "The birds are an illusion too. The Beasts don't want anyone to know that. That's why there are guards a mile before the Great Wall. Now, let's walk in. We don't need the tunnel under the bakery."

  Reluctantly, Iris followed Colton, and walked through the Great Wall. It felt like walking into a huge sponge, or a car wash. She could feel the texture of the hologram wet on her skin, but only for three or four feet. Then the world darkened again, and they were in the Ruins.

  "Is that what you wanted to show me?" she asked.

  "Of course not."

  18

  Iris took some time treading through the Ruins, as if for the first time. She stole a brief look behind her at the back of the Great Wall, then continued walking. It was interesting how entering the same place from a different door changed how she saw things. It was like discussing the same subject from a newer point of view.

  "Do you have any explanation why the Council created the Wall that way?" Iris asked Colton.

  "All I can think of is that they needed to get in and out of the Ruins repeatedly. Why, I have no clue," Colton said. "What I'm really concerned about is their use of such an illusion, and by that I mean the Great Wall. Can you imagine that the sky and horizon we see from afar while driving each day is an illusion?"

  "I am still trying to digest it, Colton," Iris said. "But what did we expect them to do? Build a giant steel fortress of a wall and inform everyone that The Second is nothing but a close-minded society, surrounded by the aftermath of the mistakes of our past? The wall completes the lie we live in here under the Beasts' order."

  "Which brings me to the thing I had to show you," Colton said.

  "Colton. I feel like I've opened a hole in your mind when I showed you the Ruins."

  "You did," he said, pointing at a row of two-story buildings he wanted to go to. "I won't back off now. I owe it to Eva."

  Although it wasn't reasonable, Iris could have felt jealous now. But she admired Colton instead. Even though she'd doubted his relationship with Eva had been truly from the heart, he wasn't going to let her misery go unnoticed. It was clear that if she was still alive, and he could find a way to save her, Colton was going to do so.

  "So what do you want to show me? And what does it have to do with what I just said?"

  "In a minute," Colton said. "We're getting closer. I've been trying to get to the bottom of this thing, and discovered that the key to unlocking this mystery is to know what really happened before the Beasts."

  "Some kind of war," Iris suggested as they stopped in front of the two-story house. "I imagine it was a terrible war that destroyed the sky above and turned it gray." Iris glanced up for a second, then looked around her at the mess of the Ruins. "The kind of war that killed people. And damaged plants, turning them into horrible black seeds bending awkwardly out of the earth's soil? A war that disfigured every animal species and turned them into some new-born monsters?" Iris was speculating from the top of her head. She'd never really thought much about it. Someone had destroyed the world, and the Beasts had restored it for some unknown reason.

  "Here is a big part of the answer to what happened," Colton waved the black light instrument at the house's wall to show her a new Pentimento he'd found.

  "You've been seriously working this out," Iris was impressed. "And you've already searched the Ruins for other Pentimentos?"

  "Just look," Colton insisted.

  The part of the peeled paint from under the new paint showed another old graffiti. It was written on a whim, with an awkward angle upward and to the right, and not all of it was visible. Only the words "rising."

  "Rising?" Iris grimaced.

  "Come here," Colton ran eagerly to the next building, splaying the light on another wall where it said, in the same handwriting and reddish spray, “upris.”

  "And here," Colton's enthusiasm was contagious. He continued showing her the red paint on most of the buildings on this street. It was clear that the word written underneath was “uprising.”

  "I get it, Colton. Stop." Iris calmed him down. His eagerness to know what happened to Eva was exhausting her mind. "So there was an uprising before the Beasts came. It's not that surprising. If nations managed to mess up the world so bad, then there definitely were people who
wanted to make things right."

  "The question is, an uprising against who?" Colton said.

  "The government, I guess," Iris speculated. "Whatever was equivalent to the Council of their time."

  "You said it yourself, the Council," Colton said.

  "You lost me now. What are you saying?"

  "Remember the saying 'humans only see what they…?’ I don't think it was written by humans. I think it was written by the Beasts."

  "That doesn't make sense, Colton." Iris said. "Why would they?"

  "What if the Beasts never really arrived, Iris?" Colton held her by the shoulder. It was a firm grip, but it didn't hurt.

  "Are you saying there are no Beasts?" Iris found herself staring up at the gray sky, then back to Colton with his intense blue eyes. "Are you saying the Beasts are an illusion like the Great Wall? That they are simply made up by humans? The Council?"

  19

  Although everyone else neglected them at the party, Zoe was having a great time with Cody. He was as clumsy and awkward as they come, but he was making a great effort to impress her. She'd imagined he'd tried to make an impression on Iris as well, but it didn't bother Zoe. She figured he was just lonely. Something told her that boys like him stick around if they fall in love. They'd be lonely enough to cherish being with someone they appreciate, and sharing a life together.

  Except for a few glasses spilled, a little tripping while entering the birthday, and talking non-stop, Cody was okay.

  "You know what we are in this party?" Cody whispered to her, trying his best to hold onto his glass among the crowd. He told her he never drank out of such fancy glasses, and that he preferred paper cups. Even better, drinking straight from bottles.

  "What are we?" Zoe snickered, lowering her head. She was a bit taller than him. Talking to Cody felt as if they both shared a secret conspiracy which no one else knew about. Zoe didn't like conspiracies when talking to Iris. But with Cody, it was great fun.

  "To Vera and her friends, we are the Beasts." Cody said.

  Zoe furrowed her eyebrows.

  "Think of it. The Beasts are probably the aliens. And what are aliens? Those strangers whom we fear, but are probably more intelligent than us."

  "Ah," Zoe laughed. "So that's why. You think the Beasts are cool?" Zoe wondered.

  "I know we hate them, and we should. In fact, I think we haven't even seen the bad, menacing things they want to do to our kind yet. But if it comes down to cool and intelligent, I'd say they must be. Or why do we permit them to rule us?"

  "Iris’s dad always says that the foolish men usually rule because the smart ones don't really need the attention." Zoe snuck a look at the birthday girl, Vera, who'd invited her, but never really spent any time speaking with her. She'd just said hi when Cody and Zoe arrived, bestowed an infuriating look upon Cody's uncool shoes, then walked away. Zoe thought she'd just wait until the clock struck midnight, then leave. Iris was right, coming here was a mistake. Thankfully, there was Cody.

  "I like Iris's dad, but I beg to differ on this one," Cody said. "If there are anyone who are fools it would be us, the citizens, for accepting to be ruled by the fool."

  "But don't you think the Beasts are ugly creatures, or they would have shown themselves to us?" Zoe said.

  "Ugly to us, maybe."

  "What is that supposed to mean?"

  "In our perspective as a human, the Beasts could be ugly to us. They could be considered beautiful to their kind."

  "This means in their perspective, they might consider us ugly." Zoe thought Cody's mind was off the rocker. She liked off the rocker.

  "Wow. Don't get me started in this kind of philosophy." Cody said. "You can't handle me."

  "Try me," Zoe winked, then suddenly realized she was flirting with Cody. She remembered how Iris always encouraged her to do whatever she wanted.

  Actually, Cody shrugged when she said that. He gulped on his drink as if it was some magic potion, then said, "Okay. Here is something that would boggle your mind. Imagine this: the Beasts think of us as ugly creatures. I mean surely. Look at us. We have two eyes. Two legs and two arms. This might strike them as ugly, since they probably have one eye, one toe, and six arms. And they are green."

  Zoe laughed. "So?"

  "So imagine if our looks aren't what bothers them," Cody's face knotted and a warning finger appeared from nowhere. "Imagine if what bothers them… what makes us ugly to them, isn't our looks."

  "What?" Zoe pondered. "Since when isn't ugliness related to looks?"

  "Imagine if the Beasts don’t like our actions; the way we do things. Our hate and envy, and everyday stupidity."

  "That's a unique thought." Zoe began thinking if she should kiss Cody tonight. He had such a dangerous mind. She liked boys with dangerous minds.

  "What if the Beasts really see through us?" Cody said. "What if they know how shallow we are," he pointed at Vera, who seemed offended by it. Cody acted fast and pretended he was waving at her. Vera felt unsettled and looked away. "What if the Beasts know how illogical we are? What if they see all those silly rules we follow like sheep everyday. What if they noticed that we mostly do nothing but hurt each other all day long? What if this makes us really ugly to them?"

  "I never thought about it that way. I understand why you and Iris clicked right away," Zoe considered. "But you sound like you're defending them."

  "Not at all," Cody said. "I know by heart that they are evil, and that taking the Bride is only the start of the bad things they will do to us later. All I'm saying is that, from a cosmic point of view, it's really hard to tell who is beauty, and who is beast."

  "From a cosmic point of view?" Zoe laughed again and held her glass up. "Let's make a toast."

  "I love toasts." Cody said. "Let's toast to Vera the obnoxious." He lowered his voice. "It's only fifteen minutes until the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella, I mean Vera, turns eighteen and escapes the Beasts' wrath."

  "You sound like you doubt it," Zoe said.

  "Who knows?" Cody grinned. "The Beasts work in mysterious ways."

  20

  Iris and Colton sat on one of the building’s rooftops in the Ruins, mostly waiting for the clock to strike twelve, so they'd know if Colton's theory was plausible. Bully or not, no one deserved to be taken as a Bride for the Beasts, Iris had told Colton. She thought that the more time they spent together, she began to have a stronger influence on him. Who'd have thought Colton Ray would be dangling his barefoot feet from a building in the Ruins like her? He looked too attractive doing it.

  "You know I haven't seen any of the slugs who are supposedly inhabiting the Ruins?" Iris said, looking through her binoculars, scanning the area for any dangers.

  "I'm not sure we want to meet one of them," Colton said. "I did have the strange feeling though that someone was watching me while I was here before."

  Iris lowered the binoculars. "Me too," she said. "I always have the feeling of someone watching me here in the Ruins, but I have never actually encountered anyone."

  "You think the Council's watching us now?" Colton said.

  "I think the Council would have caught us already if they were. They never hesitate putting someone in jail, and I don't see the point in risking us telling everyone else about our findings."

  "We don't really know much if you think about it," Colton said. "We know almost nothing. We're just rummaging in a pile of secrets, unable to pull one we're certain of."

  "You're right," Iris shrugged her shoulders. "You think if the Beasts take Vera, it could lead us to something?"

  "If they do, then all we have to do is search thoroughly, and find out what these girls have in common."

  "Well, the three of them are beauties." Iris said, rather mumbling.

  "What that's supposed to mean? You have this incredibly beautiful vibe about you. If I were a Beast, I’d have taken you already. "

  Iris was about to swallow her tongue, shying her eyes away from Colton. It was as if she wanted to disappear into a pr
ivate room of her own and do a happy dance, somersault a couple of times, and then come back to him. Colton thought she was beautiful. In what world was this possible? Ironically, in a world ruled by Beasts.

  "Are you okay?" he said. He looked a little uneasy. Was it possible he was a bit shy? No way. He'd just told her, standing by her window, that he wasn't used to having girls as buddies. Of course, all girls wanted to play Barbie with him, Iris bit her lower lip.

  "Never been better," she leaned back on her elbows, pretending that confidence was her middle name.

  "It's only two minutes til twelve," Colton said.

  "Are you planning to take me to the ball and find my glass shoe then?" Iris flirted.

  Colton didn't reply. He raised his head from his watch and smirked slightly. It was the best eye-locking moment so far. Short, but meaningful. The boy wasn't really annoyed by her presence, like how she'd thought things would turn out before.

  "Are you ready to dance with me?" Colton said.

  Wow. Was he flirting back?

  "As we're waiting for the clock, I wanted to tell you something," Colton said.

  Iris glanced at her position and thought it was a very kissable one. All Colton had to do was lean over and kiss her.

  What kind of girl are you? The voice inside her head annoyed her. He just lost his girlfriend a short while ago. Besides, he said nothing about liking you. He could tell any girl she is beautiful.

  Iris thought her annoying inner-self was right, but she was excited and maybe a bit dreamy. But she had to be, she was seventeen. She could be taken by the Beasts any day of the year, and her life would be over. In a flash. Would she care then if she'd flirted with Colton or not? Iris was tripping on her thoughts. She'd never thought she'd be taken as a Bride herself, and she wondered why the thought had never occurred to her. Maybe because she hadn't had anything going on with Colton before. He hadn't even known she existed. But now, the mere possibility of having him in her life made it a precious life. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, but with Colton, life seemed meaningful. Where would she find a hot boy who’s actually interested in all the weird things she liked?