Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast (3 page)

Iris focused her eyes on her teacher, pretending to be most attentive while her mind wandered away. It was a mind trick she’d learned lately to use with boring people everywhere. Instead of excusing herself or making faces, she’d stare at them while thinking about something else entirely. People, in general, never seemed to get it. All she had to do was nod at the end of the conversation, and wave goodbye. Surely it sometimes got her in trouble when someone was asking her to do something for them, but trouble should have been her middle name anyway.

At the moment, still pretending to be listening in class, her mind wandered to a place about the Beasts. She could not help wondering why the Beasts took the girls. And why only girls? Were the Beasts a male-only species? And what was their criteria in choosing the girls?

“Are you paying attention, Miss Beaumont?” her teacher snapped.

“I’m looking at you, aren’t I, Mrs. Wormwood?” Iris flipped her mind’s eye open, and came back to the real world.

“But you haven’t answered my question,” Mrs. Wormwood demanded, flipping back a strand of her hair.

“Oh,” Iris shrugged. That was the trickiest part of her mind trick, when someone demanded an answer. What was she going to do now?

“So?” Mrs. Wormwood rose an eyebrow. Zoe was already mouthing the answer next to her, but Iris couldn’t read her lips from her peripheral vision.

“Yes,” Iris stood up and sighed, staring down at her fidgeting feet. It was the only word that popped up in her head. In a school that demanded students to strictly follow the rules, “yes” seemed like the easiest word to spit out. Iris thought it'd buy her time, until she could sneak a glance at Zoe's answer-mouthing lips.

Mrs. Wormwood's face had already reddened with anger. A bit over-reacting, Iris thought. What would she do when she discovered the wig problem? Last month, Mrs. Wormwood had sent Iris for four hours of psychiatry analysis due to her misbehavior. The month before, Iris had to write other students’ essays as punishment for drawing what she thought the Beasts looked like on the margin of her exam paper. Two months prior to that, she had her phone confiscated for using it for unauthorized searches on the internet—she’d been searching the history of the civilization inhabiting the Earth before the Arrival of the Beasts. Stuff they weren't supposed to ask about in school.

Iris wondered what kind of punishment would be bestowed upon her once Mrs. Wormwood discovered the glued wig. But before that, she had to deal with not knowing the answer to some stupid question in her class.

“That’s right,” Mrs. Wormwood said, looking a bit confused. “You can sit down, Miss Beaumont,” she said, giving her permission.

Iris tilted her head slightly, not getting it. She stared back at Zoe with inquisitive eyes. Zoe seemed happy her friend had finally paid attention in class.

“Sit down,” Zoe whispered. “You got the right answer. Do you have a grounding wish, or what?”

Iris sat down with a crooked smile on her face. So the answer was simply a “yes?” Never mind what the question was, it was moments like these that proved her theory: that human beings were dumb and weak, and maybe, just maybe, they really deserved to be ruled by the Beasts.

“Are you attending Vera's birthday party on Saturday?” Zoe strode next to Iris in the hallway after class. She was clutching her books to her chest, trying to keep up with her pace. Iris always wondered why other girls plodded so lazily in school when there were like a million new things to explore in this world. Especially in a world as vague as theirs.

“No, I'm not," Iris hurried toward her locker. "I don’t feel like it. It’s the
same old, same old
, and I am fed up.”

“How could you say that?” Zoe frowned. “Vera is going to be eighteen. That's every girl's best day of her life. It's rude not to share in the celebration.”

“First of all, I think Vera is an airhead. Beautiful, but an airhead,” Iris snapped her locker open. She did it with coolness and style, only to entertain herself. Boredom in The Second was just about the norm. She rummaged through and picked up some drawing tools, canvases, papers, and pencils. She was one of the rare people who still used a pencil, as they were only sold in auctions. “Second thing is, I don’t understand all this celebrating being eighteen thing. It’s a birthday, like any other.”

“No, it isn’t,” Zoe's eyes followed the pencil in Iris's hand, as if she were embarrassed her friend still owned one. “Eighteen means you skipped the Call of the Beast. They only call seventeen-year-olds like you and me. You should be happy for Vera, and all eighteen-year-olds, for that matter.”

Iris pulled out two small bottles filled with green liquid, and a strange device that looked like a metallic flashlight. She tucked both in her backpack. "Happy for her?" she slammed the locker shut. “Vera is arrogant and a bully, and everyone around her is a hypocrite because her father is a member of the Council. And what is the Council, Zoe? The elite humans who claim they communicate with the Beasts. The Beasts, Zoe. The ones who take one of us. Do you think I am supposed to celebrate my own eighteenth birthday and just be happy I escaped the Beasts’ wrath? What about all those girls taken, Zoe?"

Zoe took a reluctant step away from Iris, whose voice had peaked enough for everyone around them to hear. She scanned the hallways with her eyes, worried that some teacher had heard Iris's rant. No one was supposed to insult the Beasts, or the Council.

“The Beasts must have a great wisdom for choosing the girls,” Zoe said, straightening her back, and making sure others heard her clearly. Zoe always did her best to fit in. Iris didn't hate her for that. Zoe seemed like she couldn't deal with punishment and humiliation, like her. “My mother says the Beasts work in mysterious ways, and we shall not oppose them, for what they do, although seemingly harmful, is for the best of mankind.”

“Crap.” Iris grimaced, strapping her bag on her back. She was by no means affected by the students’ piercing eyes. She'd been labeled an outcast long ago. “Do you even listen to yourself when you say this gibberish? Don’t you really want to know the truth? Don’t you wonder why the Beasts only take girls, never boys? Why seventeen? On what basis? And more curiously, don’t you ever wonder what is done to those girls? Are they dead, humiliated, or what the heck is going on?”

“Enough! Miss Beaumont,” Mrs. Wormwood appeared out of nowhere.

“But of course,” Zoe lowered her head, answering on behalf of her friend. “She's very sorry.”

Mrs. Wormwood took a moment, staring at Iris, who did her best not to laugh again. Seriously, she didn't want to miss the moment Mrs. Wormwood tried to pull off her wig.

"If you hadn’t been grounded enough already, I would make you do more psychiatry hours," Mrs. Wormwood said. "But I am generous today. So, no more of that bad talking here. Understood?"

Iris nodded, partially to hide her smiling mouth. Mrs. Wormwood pulled her chin up and walked away.

“Look, I think it’s better if we don’t talk about this,” Iris whispered to Zoe. “I just have all these questions in my head that no one wants to answer. And I can’t help it. It’s just me. I need to get answers.”

“You should know that your questions are dangerous,” Zoe lowered head. “Even the government doesn’t ask such questions.”

“Which is mind boggling, isn't it?” Iris let out a surrendering laugh. She’d decided her relationship with her best friend had come to a point where it was better to keep things shallow. It wasn’t a bad thing. Her relationship with almost everyone else had come to this point. Either she talked about cute boys, birthdays and liked the same music everyone else liked, or she was considered weird.

All of this didn't matter, really. As long as Iris was capable of practicing her secret hobby, she was still happy. Now she had to go practice her secret. She patted Zoe on her shoulder and waved goodbye.

"Are you going where I think you're going?" Zoe asked helplessly.

Iris nodded, her thumbs tucked between her bag's straps and her shoulders.

"I assume I can't stop you," Zoe said.

Iris shook her head. She didn't like to talk about her secret hobby. It was a dangerous one, so she thought silence would help her skip the fear of doing it. "I have to go now," Iris turned around and walked away. It occurred to her that she hadn't practiced her secret hobby for three weeks. So why now?

Because of what Eva mouthed to me, she thought. That's why now!

A few steps farther, Zoe summoned Iris again.

"What now?" Iris puffed, and turned her head.

"Mrs. Wormwood's wig isn't going to be glued to her head by the way," Zoe said, waving the tube with the glue in the air. "I switched it so you only pasted some gel on her wig."

Iris narrowed her eyebrows. So her planned prank didn't work? Damn. But she couldn't be mad. Her friend had done this to save her from punishment. She did that a lot, and Iris loved her for that. Iris shook her head, flashing half a smile, and then turned around again and walked away.

"You're welcome." Zoe shouted in the back.

To practice her secret hobby, Iris had to sneak her way out of school, jumping over the electrocuting security fence guarded by two robot guards. Iris needed help so she had to call Cody Ray, Colton's nerdy younger brother, and total opposite. She'd met him sneaking out of school a day after Eva's Call. Cody was a year younger than Colton, a wannabe hacker, and the curious type. Like Iris, he wasn't content with The Second. The two outcasts clicked and became friends instantly. Zoe had accused Iris of only becoming friends with Cody as a stepping stone to his brother. Iris thought the idea was ridiculous, even though she still dreamt about that look she shared with Colton. In fact, Colton's eyes were Iris's only savior from Eva's mouthed words in her nightmares. The Beasts might have ruled her world, but never her dreams.

Cody was a 1st rate introvert. He was occasionally bullied--behind Colton's back of course. Colton, coming from a rich family, had never been the fighting type. He was good-looking, well-dressed, and too well-mannered to use his fists. No one was going to come near him anyways.

“Cody,” Iris said firmly on the phone. She didn't want him to think she liked him. Nerdy boys fell in love like moths to a flame. Besides, she liked Colton. A lot.

“What’s up, Beauty,” he yawned.

“I told you not to call me Beauty,” she snapped. She wore her hood of her jacket up over her head and stood behind the tree near the fence. She had about two minutes before the robot guards could locate her. The robots were changing shifts, and she only had a two-minute gap until the newer ones showed up. Cody had told her about this incredible loophole in the system--it had boggled her mind the first time she heard about it; why would robots change shifts? It wasn't like they got tired like humans. “Why aren’t you in school, Cody?” she said.

“Because I'm in bed,” he almost snored. “Sleeping my day away.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Iris whispered, her eyes darting around. “I am all about skipping school. But if you sleep your day away, what will you do all night by yourself?”

“I love it when everyone else is asleep and I'm the only one awake. You know I'm not quite fond of people,” Cody said. “Could you leave me be now. I was dreaming there was no one left in the world but me and the Beasts, and I was fighting them.”

Iris smiled. The dude was definitely different, and interesting.

“I need your help, Cody. I have so little time,” she said. “Get me out of school. Can you hack the fence’s program, so I can climb it without frying like a stupid mosquito?”

“I know the hack, but I could go to jail for this,” Cody’s voice pitched. He wasn’t going to sleep his day away anymore. “Why do you keep doing stuff like that?”

“Stuff like what?” Iris said nonchalantly. “I'm just ditching school. Now hurry, you lazy
beast
. The robots should appear any second.”

“Alright, alright,” Cody puffed. “You know why I'm helping you this time?”

Iris could hear him working his magic on his computer already. “Because I’m irresistible,” she mocked him--and herself. “Now hurry. What’s taking you so long?”

“No, dummy,” he joked. “Because you don’t care about being caught by the robot guards. If they catch you, you'll be punished, but it doesn’t concern you a bit. All you worry about is not being able to do what you want to do. I like that.”

“I like that too, actually,” she considered, although she’d never analyzed it. She just did what she felt like doing, without worrying about what others thought of her.

“Here you go, Beauty,” Cody said.

Iris heard him press the enter button on his computer. The fence’s buzzing sound died. It was safe for her to climb up.

“But that’s the last time I'll help you with this. If the Council finds out, me, and my family, will be toast.”

“If you’re so keen about your family, why are you hacking the system in the first place?” Iris growled, climbing the fence.

“I don’t know why I do it, Iris. I just do.”

“But I know why you do it,” she thudded on the grass on the other side of the fence. “Because like me, you have questions. Only you don’t care about the Beasts. You care about our history before the Beasts. You want to know how humanity ended up ruled by some aliens we call the Beasts, which can’t even see. You want to know about what really happened to the The First United States."

“I’m going to buzz it back now,” Cody said, neglecting her assumptions. She hated when he did that. Cody was the only one who shared her passion, but he was still conservative about it. It was like he had limits he wouldn't cross. And it was understandable, considering his family tree.

Iris heard the buzz return as the guards appeared behind the fence. Although they couldn't harm her, they were going to report her to the police who'd be looking for her soon.

“Thanks, Cody,” she said. “I'll hang up now. I’ve got some running to do.”

“Wait,” Cody pleaded. “Where are you going?”

“I thought you wanted to sleep your day away."

“That was because it was going to be a boring day. You seem to have an adventure ahead,” he said. “I’m curious about the reason you’re escaping school. Where are you heading?”