THE VOW

THE ESCAPE

"Smart girls ruin the product."

That's what Eleanor said while holding a dress with my name on it.

Kevin didn't look at me. He looked at the floor. At Lena's empty floorboard.

"Kevin, don't," I whispered. "Please. It's me. Zuri."

He finally looked up. His eyes were red. "We were drowning, Zuri. The business loan, your mom's medical bills we put on the cards... We were gonna lose everything before we even started. Eleanor said it was just... a few years. You'd be taken care of. It was a private community for wives. Rich husband. Better life."

"A buyer, Kevin? You sold me to a buyer?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like that!" He shouted, and Eleanor put a hand on his shoulder like she owned him.

"Kevin, darling, go wait in the living room. Let the women talk."

He left. Just like that. Left me in a closet with a woman who sells women.

Eleanor hung the dress on the closet rod. ZURI - 2024 - EARLY RETURN.

"You know why we pick June 14th girls?" She said, smoothing the fabric. "June 14th is Flag Day. No one gets married on Flag Day unless they have no family telling them not to. No mother to call. No father to come looking. Perfect."

She stepped closer. She smelled like lavender and bleach.

"Mae thinks she's saving you. She's not. Mae brings me the size 6s. She gets a cut. That whole story about the desert? Half true. The other half is that Mae needed you to trust her so you'd go to the laundry house. That's where we do the handoff. Cleanest room on the property. Easy to clean blood."

The taser. Kevin left the taser on the dresser.

I lunged.

I didn't get it. Eleanor was faster than a 60-year-old woman should be. She grabbed my hair and slammed my head into the built-in shelf.

Stars. Blood in my mouth.

"You bitches always scratch," she hissed.

I kicked. Hard. Right in her knee. She screamed — a real, old-woman scream - and fell back.

I grabbed the taser and the USB and Lena's notebook and ran.

Not out the front. Not to the road - Lena said the road was electric fence.

I ran out the back, barefoot, blood on my lip, hoodie torn, straight to the lake, straight to House Four, to the laundry house.

The door was locked now.

I kicked it. Once. Twice.

"MAE!" I screamed. "MAE!"

The door opened.

Simone.

Not Mae. Simone. In a white robe, holding a shovel.

"Zuri? What the hell? You're bleeding."

Behind her, on the floor, was Mae. Tied up. Duct tape on her mouth. Unconscious.

Simone saw me looking. "She was going to sell you early and not split the bonus. I told you, Year Two you fight. I'm Year Two. This is me fighting."

She pulled me inside and locked the door.

"Listen to me. Lena's hole is real. Under washer two. I found it last year. But you can't fit with that taser and s**t. You need to go now. They're coming."

Outside, flashlights. Two beams. Kevin and Eleanor crossing the grass.

Simone shoved the washer with her shoulder. Underneath, a hole in the concrete, just big enough, with a dark tunnel, with water dripping.

"I can't go alone," I cried.

"You're not," Simone said. She pushed Lena's notebook back into my hands. "You're taking us all with you. That USB has everything — every girl, every husband's signature, every wire transfer. Take it to the cops in Atlanta.They own the cops here. ATLANTA PD. Ask for Detective Rollins."

She lifted the washer more.

"And Zuri? If you get out, burn this place down on i********: Live. So the next size 6 girl sees it before she signs a lease."

The flashlights were at the door.

Simone grabbed Mae's taser from the floor and stood up.

"GO!"

I dropped into the hole.

The last thing I heard before the dirt covered me was Simone's voice, loud, fake, opening the door:

"Eleanor! Thank God! She went that way! To the road!"

She bought me time.

I crawled.

The tunnel was tight, muddy, built for size 6 girls. It stank like lake water and fear. I crawled for what felt like 20 minutes, USB in my mouth, notebook tucked in my leggings.

Until I saw light.

Not sun. Headlights. A road. Real road. Outside the fence.

A car was idling. Old Toyota.

And leaning against it, was Priya, House Three. In sweats, not white. Holding her phone, filming me.

"You made it," she said, crying. "Holy s**t, House One finally made it."

She helped me out. "Simone said if anyone ever made it through, I should be waiting here. We have four minutes before they realize Simone lied."

We got in the car.

I looked back at The Vow, six houses glowing around that black lake, perfect, beautiful, evil.

Four days before my anniversary.

I still had time.

I opened Lena's notebook to the first page and wrote under it with my own blood from my lip:

_MY NAME IS ZURI WILLIAMS. HOUSE ONE, 2024. I GOT OUT. I'M COMING BACK FOR THE REST._