the boy behind the red door

gabrielle ghatt

...He was right, but I didn’t want to hear it. It was too terrible a fact to accept. The first four years of my life were spent above ground. We’d only moved when my mother died. It was because Father no longer had anyone to humor. He had no reason to maintain a life on the surface and threw himself into his research.

Sadie reached for my hand and snapped me out of my thoughts. He asked me a question I pretended not to hear. I only answered it ten minutes after the question had been asked.

“The moon.” I said, “I miss the moon more than anything in the world. I can hardly remember what she looks like, but I love her.”

“Okay then,” he said, holding my hands in his, “let’s escape and see the moon together.”

Everything was thrown into a whirl after that. All the time Sadie and I spent together was spent plotting a way of escape. It was clear that I didn’t have a heart or mind like his. His ignorance didn’t negate his intelligence. It fueled his bravery instead. He wanted to know more. He wanted to be free, and I was weak to what he wanted...

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