Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast (17 page)

The police force was closer now, probably in the elevators. She glanced at the news on her phone and saw everyone in The Second was broadcasting.

"You always pick one of us," she shouted at the sky full of stars. Those beautiful stars. "You never explain why. Don't you think we deserve to know why?" She took a deep breath. It was too late to back off now. "We're always afraid of you. We never get to see you, and yet you rule us, saying that taking one of us is for our own good. Now it's time one of us asks to be taken," she shouted from the top of her cold lungs. "I challenge you to take me as a Bride!"

The world gasped at Iris's request. In her mind, all she could think about was the Pentimento. Beyond this beautiful sky lay the truth about the Beasts. And if she couldn't figure it out here on Earth, then she'd better go to them, even if it were the end of her.

"Talk to me!" Iris shouted as the elevator doors opened, the police circling her with their laser guns pointed at her.

No one talked back to Iris. The sky was just as dark and dead as it always had been. But Iris wasn't going to give up. She made sure the reporters had arrived. Everyone was getting this on camera.

In a flash, Iris pulled out her last red rose and raised it in the sky. "Uprising!" she screamed, knowing the rose was the ultimate offense to the Beasts. It was the only thread to whatever happened in the past. It was the one thing that refused to die or grow ill in the Ruins. The perfect symbol against the Beasts.

"Please put down the rose," a police officer, pointing his red laser at her, asked her. "Possession of a red rose is against the law, miss."

Iris didn't care. She tiptoed, still holding the red rose.

"If you don't comply, miss, I will have to shoot you," the police officer warned her.

Iris knew she was out of options. She thought she'd try this last phrase to provoke the Beasts, “Humans only see what they...!” she shouted.

Even the police officer squinted at the strangeness of her sentence. "Don't shoot," another police officer said. "She could be insane. Maybe she needs medical treatment. Shoot her with a sedative."

Iris saw another officer aim at her. It was over. She must have been wrong. It was all in her head. There were no Beasts up there. All she could do was hold onto the rose, look up, and grit her teeth. “Take me as a Bride!”

Her last words echoed, as the police officer didn't pull the trigger to sedate her. Not because he'd changed his mind, but because of the massive light that shone suddenly down from the sky. It was blinding, as if an enormous pearl was looking down upon them on top of the Sinai tower.

Even Iris couldn't stand the light with its heat, melting the snow around her. All she knew was that this was the same light the Brides walked through. Iris took a brave deep breath, knowing it might be her last, at least on Earth, and stepped into the light. She was the first girl in history to walk into it willingly.

Whatever happened after Iris entered the light was beyond her perception. She felt like she was entering a dream while awake. Nothing made sense, and nothing quite lingered in her memory. This was a new world, so unlike The Second. How different? She had no idea.

All she could see was that glaring white light. It conjured blackness to her soul, blindness to her senses, and irony to her eyes.

She wondered if this was how it felt right before being exposed to the final Pentimento of things. Maybe in order to truly see anything, we had to experience a temporary blindness.

There was an enamoring scent of flowers in the distance. It compelled her to walk farther. Underneath her, the ground was getting colder. Marble floors, she thought. She lowered her head, but couldn't confirm her assumption. The floor must have been white. The greatest trick the Beasts ever pulled was imprisoning humans in the illusion of clarity. She wasn't even sure if anything she saw was real.

In the end, the flower smell turned out to be another devious trick of the Beasts. Its scent was definitely mesmerizing, but its effect was deception in a white dress. Iris's head felt heavy. The dizziness crawled up her veins and saturated her head. She ended up falling to her knees and then tumbled to one side, sleeping on the cold floor wherever she was. Before she totally lost consciousness, she thought she saw an endless number of stars underneath her.

Iris woke up in the middle of ugly monsters surrounding her. Her body trembled at their sight. She had never seen ugliness like this. Their features were so grotesque, her mind refused to even comprehend it. Ignorant to her surroundings, she was about to close her eyes and wish they'd just disappear. But she couldn't. The Beasts were closing in.

Weakened, she looked for a weapon around her, to protect herself. She found none. Was this how things would end, just like that, without explanations?

Dying seemed so miniature all of a sudden, compared with not knowing the truth.

She found that something had been tucked in her hand while she was asleep. A brush. A painter's brush, like the ones her dad used on the portraits when she was young.

Iris looked puzzled and wondered if the Beasts were still mocking her, controlling her dreams, and giving her a useless tool, instead of a knife or a gun to defend herself. What use was a brush or a pen in facing the evil in the world?

The Beasts trotted closer. They were slow and bent their backs like gorillas. It was as if walking on two legs was something new to them, something too evolutionary. They growled as if they didn't know the words, drummed their chest and drooled from between their sharpened teeth. Iris doubted the girls were really Brides. She leaned to the idea that they were food for the cannibalistic Beasts.

In her defense, Iris did the illogic, and waved the useless brush at them. Her last resort. Maybe the brush possessed magical powers. She certainly hoped so. But she was wrong. It wasn't an enchanted brush as she had hoped.

Something else happened though. Whenever she waved the brush in the air, a part of the world around her disappeared, as if she were holding a magical eraser, wiping away reality, and changing it into some white void.

She could not believe her eyes. This was insanity itself. As the Beasts closed in, insanity didn't seem like a bad option anymore. She bet she could use the brush on her predators. Brush them away, like a bad dream. Erase them the way historians demolished the truth about the past. Maybe the Beasts will disappear.

She took a deep breath and slashed the brush in the air as if it were a sword, and then...

Iris woke up panting from the dream. There were no Beasts nearby. In fact, she was in a place she'd never expected.

She found herself in a luxurious room that looked as if it were cut right out of fairy tale books, where she'd play princess and wait for her Prince Charming. A safe and enchanting place.

The room's ceiling was an enormous vault, engraved with writings and scriptures foreign to her world in The Second. They were beautiful. Otherworldly. Ancient, she guessed. The designs were like what she could have found in the Ruins before they'd been
ruined
. Everything exuded the feeling of time and significance. Things that had been created years and years ago, built by men and women who insinuated feelings and meanings into their creation. Nothing here was designed without reason.

Iris felt happy in her heart for a moment. The drawings looked as old as the core of the Earth, or the flames of the sun. The vault itself was about three stories high and showed the stars behind the inlaid glass on top.

This wasn't just a room. It was some kind of mansion in space.

Lowering her head, she saw all kinds of ornaments on the walls. Gold and blue were the dominant colors. The colors looked natural, unlike the metallic feel of The Second. Real organic paint. Everything looked as if crafted with keen hands. It almost looked as if it was made of some elegant clay, but it wasn't. The furniture and everything surrounding it was simply made by hand. No machinery was involved. Each piece of art showed slight flaws that men imprinted on things. That beautiful flaw that differentiates human from machine. It felt absurd to be experiencing humanity in the chamber of the Beasts.

Iris assumed the Beasts made the girls do the decorating and designs. Was this why most of them were talented?

Iris saw a window right in front of her. It looked upon a great wide blue sky, filled with stars as well. She craned her head forward to make sure. There were stars, real stars, right outside her window, twinkling like silver fireflies. Swinging slightly, as if hung with fine threads from a higher sky. They were beautiful.

There was a pool, the shape of a huge heart, separating her from the window. Its water was a mesh of beautiful light-green and blue. Golden feathers twinkled right above its surface. And a golden fish sprung out momentarily, then sank back again. She thought the fish were rather curious, peeking to see who she was.

Finally, Iris had to look at the bed she was now sitting upon. It was humongous, with four Corinthian columns on each corner. She knew they were Corinthian because she'd seen similar in the Ruins. A sign of how the world looked in The First.

All kinds of fine dresses were laid carefully around her. There was a basket of the finest fruits. She sat in the middle of the bed. If she wanted to get off of it, she had to crawl on all fours to reach the edge.

The sheets were as smooth as a baby’s skin. Warm as a lover's embrace. They smelled of too many kinds of flowers. She doubted someone could stain them. How do you stain such beauty?

The dress she wore was beyond imaginable. Its texture reminded her of doves. It flowed, following the curves of her body religiously. It seemed designed for her specifically, made for her to wear at this very moment, respecting her exact weight and curves. It was a wedding dress.

But it was unlike any dress she had seen the Brides wear before. This one was designed by the Beasts.

Although this wasn't the place she'd imagined, Iris resisted the temptation. She wasn't impressed by it. All of this was to cover the Beasts’ ugliness, maybe their weaknesses.

Iris crawled out of bed and continued inspecting the room. The drawers were filled with all kinds of perfumes with unearthly scents--just like the one that sedated her, she thought.

The wardrobes were filled with dresses, shoes, and jewelry. They weren't really wardrobes. They were long rooms. She couldn't help but check the cloth, touch it, and feel it on her cheeks. Everything was perfectly her size. All White. Things that she might have enjoyed on Earth. She snapped out of her stupor, and abandoned the wardrobes back to the chamber. The temptations were high, but was the price even higher?

Focusing, she saw there was no way out of the chamber. There were no doors. Only that window behind the pool. It looked locked. She wasn't going to open a window overlooking the stars. Would she be able to even breathe if she did? Where do you escape to when you're locked in space?

She looked around one last time and understood what this beautiful chamber was. Her prison. She wondered if she was part of the Beasts' harem, called whenever they desired her.

"Hello?" she called to the nothingness. She made sure her voice wasn't smeared with the slightest intimidation. Although afraid, she had to pose as an opponent. She was unlike other Brides, and was going to demand not to be treated like one. She asked to be here. That should count.

Still, when a secret door opened from the walls, she winced and took a step back.

Someone, covered in a white veil from head to toe, entered the room. The veil was made from an unearthly cloth, but wasn't transparent. It made the intruder look like a ghost, except that Iris could see the bare feet and hands of a girl, probably her age.

"Did you sleep well?" the ghost girl asked. She sounded friendly and surprisingly caring.

Iris nodded, wishing the girl wouldn't come any closer. She watched her do so though, handing her a warm towel she'd been holding.

"Rub this on your face," the girl offered. "It will refresh you, and remove any trace of the poison you drank."

"Poison?"

"Don't worry. It's not as scary as it sounds. We call all sedatives poison here. Most girls need them in the beginning, until they stop resisting."

"Resisting what?"

"That this is your fate and that it isn't a bad thing," the girl stretched her arms further, offering the steaming towel.

Iris took the towel and rubbed her face. It smelled of lilies and it made her actually feel good.

"Rub it on your eyes too." The girl suggested. "It will help you see better."

Reluctantly, Iris did. She actually felt her irises relax. Something strange was happening to her eyes. Things were blurry at first, but then she saw again. This time she noticed everything around her looked a bit sharper, and even more beautiful.

"What kind of fate are we talking about?" Iris had to ask, forgetting about all these temptations. "If only one's fate was that predictable, it wouldn't have been called 'fate,'" the girl said.

Iris thought she sounded as if she were smiling. If only she'd remove the veil, so Iris could see her face.

"I'm not sure I understand what this means." Iris said.

"Fate isn't an open book. It's a mystery, and I'd hate to spoil it for you," the girl said politely.

"I don't mind if you spoil mine, believe me."

"No. You do mind. You just don't know it," the girl insisted.

Iris didn't know how to argue with such nonsense. "Are you a Bride?" she wondered.

"I'm your servant," the girl said. "I am here to take care of you, until you meet your Master."

"My Master?"

"Each girl is chosen by one of the honorable Masters here," the girl explained.

"You mean the Beasts." Iris wasn't asking. Of course, the Beasts thought of themselves as Masters. She wouldn't be surprised if they thought of themselves as beautiful too.

"An Earthly description that's unwelcome here," the girl said. "My Masters are no Beasts. Humans made that name up. My Masters would appreciate it if you don't call them such names," the girl said.