Read Pentimento: a dystopian Beauty and the Beast for Free Online

sense.”
    “Maybe there is a great danger in the Ruins that could hurt us, or hurt the Beasts,” Colton stopped and glared at her. He could feel the presence of unseen things here, although he couldn’t hear or see them. “Maybe the Ruins is home to the Beasts’ enemy.”
    “We don’t have proof of any of that, and it will take us forever to keep guessing,” Iris said. “All these theories come down to one last mind-boggling question: why do they take a girl every now and then?"
    Colton's face knotted, remembering Eva again. Iris thought he was just confused; happy with his life in The Second, a popular and loved teen. His mind was pre-programmed by society’s standards, and it wasn't really his fault. Thus, he was repeatedly trying to find excuses for the Beasts, so his life would make sense.
    "If we want to know the truth about the Beasts, I have a better way. Come with me." Iris ushered him through the old buildings. Most of them were missing walls, and the buildings with brick walls were missing windows and doors. Blocks of cement and logs of wood scattered all around the streets, and the asphalt was mostly cracked and spilt into huge holes in places. Iris thought Colton should have appreciated her knowing her way around here, or he'd get lost or fall into some ditch.
    "I admire you for coming here on your own," he said as they walked, a little calmer now, probably trying to reason things. "I'm still wondering though what this Pentimento thing is, and how it could help me learn about the Beasts."
    Iris finally stopped in front of a six-story building, mostly in a much better condition than the rest. Although damaged, the building looked like a construction site with ladders, ropes, and all kinds of machinery—mostly made of wood—gathered around it. Someone had built some kind of wooden steps that grew tangent to the building's surface, like ladders spread diagonally to the left and to the right. It looked like a zigzag of wood on the walls from afar.
    “Who did this?" Colton raised his head.
    "Who else? I did it."
    "You?” Colton grinned, that curve of admiration loping on his lips again.
    Iris nodded proudly. “My father taught me.”
    “Your father knows about carpentry in a city made of steel and holograms?"
    “A rare hobby, I know. He had been taught by his ancestors," Iris said. "I prefer you don't tell anyone. The Council get suspicious about anything unordinary."
    "Being with you is illegal already," Colton smirked. He meant it with a good heart. "I've got blood on my hands already, and I'm not telling anyone anything. But Cody told me your father's hobby was painting."
    "Cody told you a lot in such a short time," Iris said. "True, my father was some kind of painter in his youth.”
    Colton still looked dazzled by the construction. "So why did you go through all the hassle to build this stuff? Why in here, and why is this building so important?"
    “Well,” Iris sighed a little longer than usual. “My father never painted with a brush and then sold his glamour portraits for money. He practiced a forgotten art that had to do a lot with painting, though."
    "And it has to do something with this building?" Colton inspected the building again, noticing the fading paint on its wall.
    "Yes." Iris said, clasping her hands. As much as she liked Colton, telling him about her deepest passion was a tricky moment for her. What if he didn't like her hobby? That would have spoiled any future plans between them--although she believed she'd never see him again after today anyway. But Iris, being who she was, couldn't stop thinking about it. Her passion for her art seemed to have overruled any relationships in her life. If she'd break up with a boyfriend, she'd survive. But if her passion was taken away from her, she would have died. "This building has a lot to do with my father's painting hobby."
    “Wow. I am curious," Colton said. "What is this art and what is it called?”
    Iris noticed that some of the