Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast Read Online Free

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