Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast

by Jace, Cameron

  PENTIMENTO

  (a dystopian fairy tale)

  by Cameron Jace

  Copyright ©2013 Akmal Eldin Farouk Ali Shebl

  Edited by Jami Hampson

  Formatted by Author's HQ

  CameronJace.com

  Kindle Edition

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of all people involved with the creation of this e-book.

  All facts concerning publication dates of fairy tales, scripts, and historical events mentioned in this book are true. The interpretations and fantasy elements are not. They are products of the author’s imagination.

  Other Books by Cameron Jace

  The Grim Diaries Prquels Series

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 1-6

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 7-10

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 11-14

  The Grimm Diaries Prequels 15-18

  The Grimm Diaries Main Series

  Snow White Sorrow (book 1)

  Cinderella Dressed in Ashes (book2)

  I Am Alive Series

  I Am Alive

  Table Of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  "The only real alien planet is earth."

  J.G.Ballard

  Merriam-webster’s definition of pen-ti-men-to:

  An underlying image in a painting, as an earlier painting, part of a painting, or original draft, that shows through, usually when the top layer of paint has become transparent with age. From pentire, which means to repent in Italian.

  Dedicated to those who dare believing without seeing.

  1

  Iris Beaumont wondered if the boy she had a crush on was one of the Beasts. Although he was seventeen, he didn't look his age. He was a hunk, more tall and slender than most boys, with a body of a twenty-four-year-old athlete. His eyes were a sparkling blue, like late night ocean waves under a full moon. Naturally, he owned a demanding voice, and he was the school's best steelball player. All nine yards of clichés in one boy. Colton Ray was just too good to be true. He had to be one of the Beasts.

  Iris, his total opposite, was dangling her bare feet from the edge of the principal's rooftop. Munching on a chocolate bar, she watched him walking gracefully in the schoolyard, as if he were king of the world. It was a fabulous scene. Real, yet dreamy. She let a sigh escape her lips and took another bite. The worst thing about this was watching the queen bee, Eva Washington, holding her king's hand then kiss him briefly as they strolled on.

  "We really shouldn't be up here," puffed Zoe, sitting next to her best friend. She was trying not to look down or she'd get dizzy.

  Iris didn't reply, chewing slower on the chocolate, imagining it was Eva screaming between her teeth.

  "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're into already?" Zoe began her parental speech. "You always skip class and risk being expelled while you know it's our last year before college," she counted on her fingers. "Last week you left school, manipulating the security robots somehow. And now you drag me up here, right above the principal's office, to watch Colton. He doesn't even know you exist, by the way."

  "Don't you think he deserves better?" Iris discarded Zoe's advice. The best way to make their friendship work was not taking Zoe seriously.

  "Better? Are you kidding me?" Zoe said. Iris saw her fight the temptation to look down and double check on the most beautiful couple in school. "She is one of the most gorgeous girls in the school."

  "Is that all boys look for in a girl, beauty?" Iris let the chocolate melt on her tongue. She suddenly wished she was a fire-breathing dragon that could devour Eva in one jealously-filled bite. It wasn't a wicked thought. Iris would never hurt anyone. She just liked Colton immensely--even when she suspected he was one of the Beasts. If he'd only notice her, she'd show him she was a special girl.

  "Not all boys," Zoe said. "But most of them.”

  "I don't think boys are shallow or narrow-minded," Iris said. "It's just that they're made to think a beautiful girl is what they need. Look at Colton down there. Is it only me who thinks he is pretending he likes Eva? I mean, she does all the talk and he is smiling like a statue. It's as if he is some kind of politician. He isn't really happy with her. He is just pretending to be."

  "I hate to burst your bubble, Iris," Zoe said. "But you're saying this because you're jealous of Eva. You secretly wish she'd disappear. Poof in the wind."

  "Or she'd be taken by the Beasts," Iris said spontaneously.

  Zoe shrieked immediately. "How could you say that?" her eyes darted sideways, making sure no one heard her friend.

  Iris turned to face Zoe with the bar of chocolate between her teeth. Her eyes were a little moistened. She'd suddenly realized the predicament of her words. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I didn't really mean that I hoped Eva would be taken as a Bride for the Beasts." The chocolate bar fell in her lap. "You know I don't like to keep my thoughts trapped inside my head. I just say what I feel."

  "But that was mean," Zoe, always playing Iris's seventeen-year-old mother, folded her arms, even though she didn't even like Eva. But such a wish was beyond ethics. "The last thing any of us wants is to be taken by the Beasts. Isn't it enough that one of us has to be taken every once in a while, and we can't do anything about it?"

  "I'm sorry, mommy," Iris rolled her eyes. Apologizing once was politeness. Expected to keep apologizing was stupidity. "It was just a slip of the tongue." She gazed up at the metallic skyscrapers in the distance, watching them thrusting through the sky like daggers. The sun was unusually high, splaying its rays upon the silvery city. Iris didn't know why she didn't like her city. Still, whenever her eyes darted upwards, she could
n't stop looking. She suspected the Beasts lived somewhere up there in the clouds.

  "Don't you dare distract me by looking so dazed and confused at the city like you always do," Zoe pulled her head gently down.

  "I didn't mean that either, Zoe." Iris said. "You know I just get distracted when I look up there." Although Iris was a citizen of The Second United States of America, she couldn't help but feel like a stranger in a strange land.

  "Then don't look up when I am talking to you." Zoe commented. "You know that..." she stopped suddenly to Eva's pitched laugh from far below. Eva had a lingering voice that boys, and some girls, liked a lot. Zoe pretended not to be a fan, but she was. Most girls wished they could act as elegantly as she did.

  Iris gazed back down at Colton and Eva, the happiest faces in school. They were like movie stars, always surrounded by their fans. This time, Iris tried to be honest with herself. Eva was beautiful. The kind of beauty that Iris never wished to possess, because if she did, she'd be self-conscious and scared to look in a mirror in case one simple feature changed a tiny bit. Iris had noticed that about most beautiful girls when she met them in the bathroom. Although they usually ignored her, she noticed how the slightest misshape in their faces was like the end of the world, leading her to wonder if beauty was some kind of a curse.

  "So do you think Colton is one of the Beasts?" Iris snickered.

  "He is definitely a sexy beast," Zoe giggled, adjusting her glasses.

  "And you think I'm horrible," Iris giggled back. "But I don't mean it like that. You know what I mean."

  Zoe shrugged and leaned away from Iris. Although best friends, it was ironic that Zoe preferred to stay out of trouble. "He can't be a Beast," she whispered, her eyes darting around again. "No one has ever seen the Beasts. No one, but the Council."

  "Do you really believe that?" Iris wondered why they were whispering. Did the Beasts have eyes and ears in the sky? "I mean, maybe the Beasts want us to think they're invisible. Maybe they live among us, disguised in beautiful boys, like Colton."

  "Can't be," Zoe shook her head. Although she liked to follow the rules, she couldn't resist talking about the mysterious Beasts who ruled The Second United States. Actually, most teenagers were curious. But only a few like Iris brought up the subject without fear. "If the Beasts could manipulate their image in any way, they wouldn't need to take a girl from us every now and then. It's very obvious they are hideous looking. They might have the technology that saved the planet and provides us with all our needs, but we don't call them Beasts for nothing." replied Zoe.

  "That's my girl," Iris smiled. "Although I'm not sure I agree with you, once you let go and say what you want, I like you more. You have to practice being pissed off and expressive like that often."

  Zoe adjusted her glasses. "Do you think so?" she said.

  Iris nodded.

  "I'm afraid boys like Colton won't like me if I express myself," Zoe said. "My mom told me so."

  "Boys like Colton," Iris sighed. "Won't like us either way."

  Iris and Zoe stared down at Colton and Eva kissing in the middle of the schoolyard. Watching them, the two best friends began sighing in unison. Iris envied Eva for tasting Colton lips, and imagined hers on his instead. Her only distraction was watching Zoe on the verge of clapping and applauding Colton's performance. It was a long kiss, and almost everyone around was witnessing it. Such an entrancing scene.

  Suddenly, in the middle of this, something terrifying happened.

  A horn blared in the distance.

  2

  The horn was extremely loud. It was heard all over the city, as if a giant burped in the sky. But its loudness wasn't the only scary thing about it. What the blasting of the horn meant raised goosebumps on every seventeen-year-old girl's skin in The Second.

  Iris watched Eva and Colton's lips part, as a dreadful look dimmed Eva's face. Iris's too. She stared back at Zoe with wide eyes. Zoe looked like she was going to faint, and Iris's heartbeat sprang to the roof. It was the horn they all feared. They called it the Call of the Beast. One miserable and unlucky girl was going to be Called right now, and never seen again.

  The horn was always followed by the beeping of everyone's phones. Iris watched Zoe's hand shake while holding her vibrating phone. The beep was a message with one of the girls’ IDs. The one girl the Beasts were going to take tonight. It was said that the Beasts liked to call her the Bride.

  Zoe shivered, pulling the phone up to eye level. Iris heard the other girls' phones beep down in the schoolyard. The beeps never came at once. There was always this slight delay between beeps, as if to make sure the tension never died. Finally, Iris's phone beeped.

  Iris wasn't going to push the button. She'd always let Zoe push hers and then tell her. Iris couldn't bring herself to do it. What if the girl's ID turned out to be hers?

  Down on school grounds, a number of girls were congratulating each other. Although it was one girl’s ill-fated day, all uncalled girls couldn't help but celebrate--at least until the next Call.

  Looking at the girls, Iris caught Colton look up in her direction. She thought it must have been her beeping phone that made him notice her. From this far, she could see his blue eyes still sparkling. He seemed amused by the girl dangling her bare feet from the principal's rooftop. For a brief and awkward moment, their eyes locked.

  Everything was happening fast, Iris thought this was too much for her. Both the terrifying horn and Colton's lovely blue eyes catching hers, as if she were a fallen star. Gosh, she'd been waiting for him to notice her since forever. Why did he have to choose such an awkward moment?

  Iris broke Colton's gaze to Zoe's shriek. Something she only did when she was happy or sad.

  "It's not me!" Zoe yelled. "It's not me!"

  Iris was happy for her, but she was about to kill her nonetheless. Shouldn't Zoe tell her if it wasn't her ID too? "But..." Zoe slowly lifted her head to meet her best friend's eyes. A sympathizing look filled Zoe's eyes, as if she'd just lost her speech.

  "What is it?" Iris shook Zoe by the shoulder. Zoe was tongue-tied, staring at Iris as if she were a ghost.

  This wasn't happening, Iris thought. It couldn't be me. I'm not ready for this. I am not ready to be taken by the Beasts.

  Iris pulled her hands off of Zoe and pushed the button on her phone to check the message for herself, but the phone fell in her lap. Her hands were shivering. It couldn't be her. She stretched her hand to pick up the phone again. It didn't make sense. She didn't deserve this. She had plans in her life. Big plans, with Colton hopefully part of them. Iris was planning to be become a painter, a special kind of painter, and a great one. She hadn't been given the name Iris for nothing. Her dad claimed he knew she was going to have a peculiar eye that could see through things, eyes that would capture the moment and the feeling, then paint them on canvas. And even if she failed at this, she'd always known she was special, only she didn't know how. If the Beasts took her today, how was she going to know what she could have accomplished? And why was this happening right after Colton noticed her for the first time? This was so unfair.

  The thoughts were heavy on her, like a big weight on her shoulders. As she tried to pick up the phone again, it slipped from her hand. Again. This time it spiraled downward, way below, to the school grounds. Her heart almost fell to her toes with it. Her back arched, and she was about to jump after her phone. If Zoe was afraid to tell her, how would she know now?

  Her eyes met Colton's again, staring upward at the falling phone. He raised his eyes again at the barefoot girl dangling her feet from the principal's rooftop. Colton's eyes were locked with hers in that brief and awkward moment again. Suddenly, everything stopped in the world around Iris. She couldn't hear the celebrating girls anymore. And if Zoe had gained her speech, she couldn't hear her either. She could only see one face. The face of the boy who never knew she existed before. Now he knew about her, and she thought he looked interested. He looked amused, and a wide smile was about to curve itself onto hi
s lips. If jumping after the phone wasn't a good idea, she didn't mind jumping down into Colton's arms instead. In the same moment her life was ending, she felt like a thirteen-year-old again. She felt like a fool. A lunatic. Like a girl so in need of love, she had put the world around her on silent mode.

  Finally, Colton broke his gaze, and her hearing returned. It was as if someone had cut the invisible light that was connecting their gaze. Why in the world did he look away?

  Iris's gaze broke to a girl screaming and wailing. Eventually, she understood, clapping her hands over her mouth. It was clear to her why Zoe looked so horrified and lost speech. The screaming belonged to the girl who'd just been chosen by the Beasts. Iris watched the girl throw herself in Colton's arms. The poor boy was in shock, clueless as she pounded her hands against his chest, cursing everyone in The Second.

  Iris didn't know what to feel as Eva Washington was the one chosen as the Bride for the Beasts.

  3

  The girls watched Eva Washington plod to her death. She shuffled barefoot on the red carpet, hardly breathing against the fear inhabiting her lungs. The tensed muscles in her face wrinkled the features of her adolescent beauty. Iris watched the sticky tears in Eva's eyes thicken, and probably blur her destination to the Beasts' glowing spaceship.