Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast (8 page)

Iris nodded and wiped her mouth, then stood up. "Let's do it. Elia deserves to be remembered." Iris went back to her room and pulled a card box from under the bed. Inside the box, there was something special in a puddle of mud. It was something that none had seen in The Second before. Iris had found it in the Ruins, and taken good care of it ever since. Her father was calling her. It was time to do it.

Iris sat next to her father in their car parked in front of a metallic two-story house. It was snowing, and the house was almost dark, all but the dinning room on the first floor.

"Do you want me to do it like last time?" Charles asked.

"Last time it was Eva's house," Iris said. "I was afraid they wouldn't understand if they saw me. But I didn't know Elia Wilson. I hope they accept it. I won't let them see me anyways."

"Fine, then," Charles said, and turned his gaze back to the house. "You have it with you?"

"I do," Iris felt her coat's right pocket. Something fluffy was in there, wrapped in some sort of plastic. It was the precious thing she'd kept in the box under the bed. Iris didn't need to pull it out now. She opened the door and stepped into the thick snow, and walked towards the Wilson’s front door.

Iris took one last glance back at her father in the car. Charles nodded with a weak smile. Iris turned back, holding her precious gift in her hands. A red rose. A real and rare one she'd found in the Ruins. Amidst all the grayness, a blood-red rose found alive. It was the only plant that grew healthy and undamaged in the Ruins. Iris never knew why.

The rose was carefully wrapped in a transparent foil. Iris knelt down and laid it on the snow before the door. She treated it with care, like a newborn baby.

Then she started carving some words with her gloved hands in the thick snow. She carved it while facing the car, her back to the door. She raised her thumbs in Charles's direction when she finished. She turned around and took a deep breath. Charles had already started the engine of his car by then.

Iris took another deep breath and rang the bell, then ran back to her car, almost stumbling in the snow. She opened the door as Charles pushed the gas pedal ahead, as if they both had just robbed a bank.

"Wait, dad," she pleaded, watching a woman open the door. It was probably Elia's mother. "I want to see."

Charles slowed the car down behind a fence so the mother wouldn't see them. And Iris
saw
.

The mother took a moment to register what she was holding in her hands, then slowly smiled at the beauty of the red rose. It didn't matter that she hadn't seen anything like it before. A rose was as beautiful as morning sunshine. You'd love it, even if you were dead.

Elia's mother unwrapped it and smelled it, staring at the stars in the sky above. She looked around for whoever sent this beautiful rose for the Wilsons, but couldn't see them.

"Look down at the snow," Iris whispered. "Please."

The woman finally caught the words engraved in the snow. Her hands shivered reading the words, the rose sliding through her hands, its petals scattering on the snow. The woman fell on her knees and started crying to the words Iris carved in the snow:

Elia Robert Wilson. You will always be remembered
.

It wasn't easy for Colton to ask Eva's parents’ permission to enter her room. They had only been together three months, and it wasn't like Eva had been his soul mate or anything. Both of them were lost souls in a high school that secretly demanded you acted like society expected you to. As son and daughter of elders who were part of the elite Council, Eva and Colton played their parts right, wishing it was only until they went to college. Then they'd get to be whoever they wanted to be, without all that pressure--at least Colton thought so. He wasn't sure about Eva, and it was one of the things that always threatened their relationship.

Eva's father permitted Colton the entry, although he demanded it to be quick. Colton said he only wanted to gather a present he had given her, so he could honor her memory. Remembering a Bride, although against the Law of the Beast, was a very intimate and special matter, practiced secretly among some citizens. It wasn't like the Beasts didn't know about it. They probably did. But the Beasts never showed their true evil nature, Colton was beginning to think. They were hiding somewhere up there in the sky, guarded by the lighting of their protective ships, playing The Second like marionettes. All under the name of democracy and the Law of the Beast. A few families secretly remembering the lost ones wasn't a big deal.

Colton entered Eva's room and locked the door behind him, leaving her mother crying somewhere in the kitchen. She didn't look like she could pretend her daughter didn't exist yet. After all, it had been more than a week and no one had emptied the room.

Eva's room was classy. Everything in it was too expensive and glaringly girly. Colton didn't know what to look for. After he had parted with Iris, he'd been wandering the streets like a lost beggar trying to find a place he could call home. Everything around him felt so fake after he'd been exposed to the Ruins and the idea of Pentimento. He'd started to question everything around him. And all of this was because of this unusual girl named Iris. Her name brought a smile to his face. He wasn't supposed to feel this way about anyone but Eva at the time. But he couldn't help it. He'd never missed a girl so fast. Hell, he'd only gotten to know her a little bit today, and they weren't even friends.

But Iris was irresistible. And the best part was she didn't know it. Colton thought he'd never really met a girl like her before. He thought Iris was average in the looks department. A face like so many other girls. A body that was okay. Nothing special about her in the shallow way men were expected to seek in girls in The Second. But her spirit was so sexy in the most unexplainable way.

Colton shook his head and sat on Eva's bed. This wasn't right. He'd never been interested in Eva the way he was in Iris, but Eva was still his ex, and no new girl was going to take her place unless he felt he did all he could to honor her somehow. Only, he didn't know how.

Why was he really in this room? Was he expecting to discover something? Eva was an open book. She wasn't interested in the unknown. She'd even said she approved of the Beasts' laws. Somehow, she was confident she'd never be chosen as a Bride because she was a Council member’s daughter.

"You were so wrong, Eva," Colton buried his head in his hands. "If even the Council's daughters aren't immune, then who is? Do the Beasts have some criteria in choosing the girls? If so, why did they choose you, Eva?"

Colton inhaled all the air he could before his confusion suffocated him. The only thing that brought a smile to his face was Iris again.

Gosh, who is this girl? I haven't even kissed her.

Colton stood up and began rummaging through Eva's stuff. It seemed like a dull task now. He almost knew everything about Eva. She loved to take photos of herself, and always had to be positioned in the front of any photo taken of her with anyone else. Colton remembered that she didn't like to be photographed next to girls who matched her beauty. There was a substantial number of photos of them together as well. Always hugging him, clinging to him, and making sure she was up front in those pictures as well. Colton thought he looked stiff in the pictures. "What a jerk," he called himself. He thought his poses were snotty and unnatural. "Oh. Come on. You couldn't have changed so fast," he talked to his reflection in Eva's wall mirror. "This one in the pictures is you. Always has been. You weren't the kindest of students, and if Cody hadn't told you about this curious girl who had a clue about the Beasts, you'd never have even looked at Iris. Don't try to play as if you had a change of heart."

Colton began to worry. Talking to himself wasn't something he usually did. Besides, he remembered now when he first saw Iris dangling her feet from above the principal's office. He thought she had big toes at first. Something he hated in girls. But then when he stared at that clumsy girl with chocolate smearing her lower lip, something happened to him. Something he could not explain. He doubted she had any idea he was looking up to yell at her, since her chocolate wrapper fell right on his face. It wasn't the phone that caught his attention the first time.

What's wrong with me? I couldn't even open my mouth and shout at her when I saw her staring at me as if I was the Easter Bunny.

Colton ruffled his hair and shook Iris away from his brain, although she had already booked a place somewhere inside his skull.

He was about to put Eva's album back in the drawer, when he saw a photo standing next to Vera. They were close and almost had the same taste. That's why they rarely took pictures together. Each one was intimidated by the other's beauty. Colton knew tomorrow was Vera's birthday--he'd been invited before Eva was taken. He contemplated going or not. An eighteenth birthday for a girl in The Second was a big deal, and he respected that.

Colton flipped through one more pictures before a vision struck him. A vision that urged him to flip back to Eva's picture with Vera. A third girl was standing next to them. Someone he knew.

Colton looked more closely at the picture. The three girls were embracing in the school's stadium, probably before one of his Steelball games, which he was a master at. He was right. He knew the third girl. Next to Vera and Eva, stood Elia Wilson. She was a fascinating beauty like the other two.

While waiting for Zoe the next day, Iris didn't finish her homework--she thought she was too old for calling it homework anyway. She spent her time surfing the internet instead, looking for answers about the Brides. Why were these girls really taken? What did the Beasts do to them, and on what basis were they chosen?

As usual, no one discussed the subject freely. Not on the social networks, not in private forums, and not even in private messages between friends. The Call of the Beast had been happening for decades. It was unquestionable, and no one longed for explanation anymore. No one was ever blamed for these kind of catastrophes. And it always boggled her mind.

Still, she wasn't going to give up. Someone, somewhere, knew something about the Beasts. If they were communicating with the Council, teaching them what to tell us, then there must be someone who had seen or talked to a Beast face to face somehow.

Iris estimated thousands of girls had been taken throughout the years. The Beasts took about fifty-two Brides a year. More or less. They'd never been specific about dates. The big problem for Iris was that the Brides' names were erased from existence, even their family pretended they had never been born--at least they were forced to. This left no traces for Iris to find enough connections between the girls. She could only track the ones who'd been taken since she was fifteen, the first time she'd asked her father to place a rose in front of the girls' houses and let their parents know they'd be remembered. She'd found the roses in the Ruins and thought they would leave a precious impression if given to the parents.

Suddenly, her room's door sprang open and Zoe dashed in.

"Zoe!" Iris said. "You look fantastic."

"Really?" Zoe said. She was dressed very girly in a blue dress with an extra embroidered shawl. She even had a blue ribbon in her hair. "It's going to be a big birthday, you know. I thought I'd do my best to look as good as them."

"Come here, sweetie," Iris pulled her closer, and fluffed Zoe's hair a bit. "You look like you're going to meet Prince Charming today."

"Yeah," Zoe rolled her eyes. "As if there is one for me."

"Don't say that," Iris said, Colton's image flashing in her head. "He is waiting for you. It's just that you're too busy with all the boys chasing you, so he's gotta wait." They both snickered.

"So no homework, I guess," Iris said.

"Don't let my appearance fool you," Zoe flashed two notebooks from under her dress. "I finished mine and yours, so you could rest your case."

"Oh, Zoe. You're amazing." Iris hugged her. "But you didn't really have to do mine."

"I had free time, and know you hardly pay attention in class. I want you to have good grades to go to college."

Iris hugged her again. It wasn't for the homework. She didn't really like someone doing hers. It was because of Zoe's unconditional love for her.

"Easy with the dress," Zoe pretended to be snotty. "You're going to mess it up."

"Ah," Iris placed a hand on her mouth. "I'm really sorry, my princess."

"I have about half an hour with you, before Cody picks me up." Zoe said.

"What? Cody?" Iris's eyes shimmered. How didn't she think of matching them up before? She thought they'd make a good couple.

"He called me and told me he got my phone number by hacking yours," Zoe explained. "I think he didn't realize that was a creepy thing to do. He thought it'd make me like him, so he could ask me to go with him to Vera's birthday."

"That's something that Cody would do," Iris pouted. "Sorry for that. I guess he liked you and didn't know how to tell you." Iris wasn't going to tell her that Cody liked her too. She thought Zoe should have a chance with him, and then decide if she liked him or not.

"Actually, I thought I'd go with someone you know, instead of feeling so alienated at Vera's birthday."

"You're the one who wants to go," Iris pursed her lips.

"It's just a birthday. And I'd like to see how girls celebrate when they're eighteen."

"If you say so."

"So tell me, how many rules have you broken since you left school this morning?"

"A lot," Iris said.

"Oh, so skipping school while sticking your tongue out to a robot wasn't enough?" Zoe sat on the bed, imitating how princesses lifted their dresses before sitting.

"Thanks for switching the glue by the way," Iris laughed.

"I am still waiting for a thank you from Mrs. Wormwood, but I guess that will never happen, since she would have to know what was going to happen to her first, in order to thank me," Zoe said. "I'm a saint. Ain't I?"

"You are. Aren't you going to ask me again what other rules I broke today?"