Separate and Unequal

*Blanca*

“I need to get out of here.”

It’s the only thought I can allow to enter my mind. It’s the same thought that has kept me going ever since I was old enough to understand that I am not like the others. I need to get the hell out of here and never look back.

I’m sitting on my bed with my legs pulled up to my chest, thinking about where I would go. The door is locked from the outside again, but I have the key the mice stole for me hidden away in one of the mouse holes. I can get out.

But once I do… where do I go?

I hear my door knob rattle, and it startles me. “Blanca, open this fucking door!” My brother’s voice booms, and my breath catches in my that.

“I… can’t,” I stammer, leaping off the bed and approaching the barrier. “It’s locked from the outside.”

“What?” Kieran swears under his breath and rattles the door knob again–harder this time. “Who the hell locked you in your room?”

“Mother,” I tell him. I don’t say more. He will either talk to me through the door or find someone to