Free Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast by Cameron Jace Page A

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.

14
    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.