The scream had come from the west wing. Guest rooms. Room 309, to be exact. That was Rowan Bell’s room. But Rowan never showed up. They were wrong. She did. By the time Lena reached the hall, the others were already gathered. Harper stood with her arms folded, her face pale but unreadable. Mara was crying into her phone that had no signal. Tori was on her knees, whispering prayers under her breath like they’d ever helped before.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqats2mMGom
Elin, the innkeeper, stood beside the open door, wringing her hands like she’d just seen God- dead. Lena stepped past them all and looked inside. The room was ice-cold. The window was open, though the storm hadn’t started yet. The curtains flapped like wings. Rain clouds threatened just beyond the glass.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcte6f6LPIu
And there, lying across the bed like a broken offering, was Rowan. Or what was left of her. She was dressed in her old school uniform. Crisp. Clean. Pressed. Like it had been laid out for her. Her mouth was open in a frozen scream. Her tongue was gone. Lena didn’t move. She didn’t flinch. She just stared. Because across Rowan’s chest, carved deep into her flesh, were three words: “She told them.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFFyXSD2FO
Mara threw up in the hallway. Tori wouldn’t stop sobbing. Harper leaned in the doorway, her face unreadable, her eyes fixed on the body like she was trying to memorize it. “Elin,” Harper said, calmly, “call the police.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YgoZNknYb
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtjUbs773o
“Then drive into town.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzeKH5w0ASc
“The car’s gone.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYCVSWHNsrp
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTeOSHUrjn
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQtd6VSh5i
Someone had taken all the cars. No one said it, but the implication was clear. They weren’t visiting St. Amelia’s. They were trapped in it. Lena backed away from the door. Her heart wasn’t racing. It was slow. Calm. Like it knew this moment was inevitable. Like it had waited years for this. In the dim hallway light, something glinted on the floor just beside the bed. A crucifix. The old kind. From their chapel. The bottom was charred black. She picked it up and turned it over in her hand. On the back was a name etched in blood. 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGKl0tzbvve
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImMEtUh7TI
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgc4bVm7njG
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmvnkyRiNye
“Why your name?” Harper snapped, snatching the crucifix and holding it in Lena’s face. “What did she tell them, Lena? What the hell did you do?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAFgn36Juj
Lena’s silence deepened. She felt the others staring. The air thick with suspicion. This was how it would start. The turning. It wouldn’t take long. Not with what they’d all done. Not with what they’d buried. And someone- someone who had watched them burn- was digging it all up.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXOxzsYbAs
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLq6hJ1vLTL
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxD8pBXPmAI
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP0lTphqmCh
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbwQmNkZ4K
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCunYmiCqoA
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0fRl7bCUu
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdcl8CTIlw
They weren’t real friends. Not really.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMV29uEytz
But at St. Amelia’s, friendship was survival. You linked arms or got devoured. It was that kind of place- where the walls knew your sins before you spoke them and the nuns wore secrets like rosaries. They gathered in the chapel after lights out, slipping past curfews like whispers. The candles were always lit when they arrived, though no one ever admitted lighting them. They sat in a circle around the altar.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fO1JOrjhV
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcHo3WfpA5
That night, Rowan brought something new. She unwrapped it from her sweater like it was stolen treasure: an old, leather-bound book. Dust flared from its spine. The cover bore no title, just a strange embossed cross- slightly crooked, wrong somehow.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYwjQ20syyw
Sister Eliza’s bible.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9s6BzuBerA
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsMXaVPjrjt
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWNmGoFvwe
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBs5EbwJNLs
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleS56aSp79
She opened the book and flipped through brittle pages until she found it. A prayer. But not in Latin. Not even English. Lena recognized it. She didn’t know how- but she did. Her stomach turned cold.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7l2tQEnHEA
“This one,” Rowan said, her voice too calm. “This is the one she mutters when she thinks no one’s listening. When she touches the scorched wall behind the altar.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv7jfYxZ9Rw
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAVj7XJvDu
“It’s a vow. A binding. I looked it up in the library. Old, pre-Vatican cult stuff. It’s supposed to seal a secret in blood and fire. If you say it together… the truth never gets out.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUKBVZXs41
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVgRq5pyX4
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCsNxSYCXm
Rowan grinned. “It’s just a game. But if we’re going to keep our secrets, let’s make it official, yeah?” One by one, they pricked their fingers. Harper first. Then Mara. Then Rowan. Then Tori, crying. Lena didn’t want to. Rowan took her hand anyway.The blood smeared across the page. The candle flames flared blue. Then they spoke the vow. All five.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJZvzK70Ag
“What is said between us dies with us.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOLyvA0Wuz
What is seen between us burns with us.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXp1wMO44jE
What is known between us lives only in silence.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3Mel6v8rO
When it was done, they laughed. Mostly. Except Lena. Because something had shifted in the air. The room felt colder. The shadows longer. Like the chapel had inhaled- and hadn’t exhaled yet. Rowan looked different in the candlelight. Older. Like she’d been waiting for that moment her whole life. Lena watched her and thought: She’ll be the first to break it. And she’d been right. Rowan told someone. And now she was dead.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1br7uSsQoX
Present Day25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvHVleb3ne
They moved Rowan’s body to the chapel room. It wasn’t the authorities who made that call- there were no authorities. It was Elin, the innkeeper, who quietly instructed two male staff members to carry her body away, draped in a linen sheet so pristine it made the blood underneath more obscene. No one objected. No one spoke.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKAras7QqiC
Lena sat in the corner of the library, watching the fire crackle in the hearth. Not a real fire, just an electric one. But the flickering light still danced the same way across the walls- like it was trying to tell her something in a language only she understood. The others were scattered. Harper paced like a caged animal. Mara sat by the window chain-smoking with trembling hands. Tori hadn’t stopped whispering to herself since they left Rowan’s room.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0p7925CpIt
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7YlPKCIzs
She always kept one. It was the only way she could scream anymore. She glanced up. Harper was staring at her again. Not openly. Not directly. But always watching. The way someone might watch a loaded gun on a dinner table. Lena flipped to a new page and began to write, slow and deliberate.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQIPwtcvI9
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvlXTDmmIuM
She tore out the page, folded it, and slipped it into the back of the bookshelf behind her, where she used to hide cigarettes when they were still students. Someone would find it eventually. They always did.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnzUXfvyTQc
That night, Elin gathered them again in the chapel room. It had been redesigned into a sort of common area, but Lena could still see where the pews once stood. Where the fire had started. Where the flames danced like devils between them. A large chalkboard stood at the front. New. Clean. Too clean.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXRpmnTePo
Elin smiled that same red-lipped smile. “Since we’re… delayed, we’ll be hosting a series of memory sessions. A sort of guided reflection. To honor Rowan. To face our pasts. You understand.” No one answered. But no one left. Of course not. Leaving wasn’t an option anymore. Elin handed out white cards and black markers. “Write down one thing you remember from your last year at St. Amelia’s. One true thing.” 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59Wn0Lpk8w
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6iRlQXvU6M
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLCObSidiY
She looked around. Harper was writing furiously. Mara chewed her marker like it might bite back. Tori hadn’t moved at all. Elin collected the cards and pinned them to the board, one by one. 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcR6OIAYAKH
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWqozQuWVR
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiuZviQFZs
“I lied about what I saw.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3R7HysdY20
“I wanted the fire to happen.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD0GQ86WUHF
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRF7qqFiHs
That night, Lena couldn’t sleep. Not because of the storm outside. Or the chapel bell that inexplicably rang once at 3:06 a.m. But because when she woke from a half-dream, gasping- There was writing on her mirror again. This time, it wasn’t lipstick.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5c4rRmZYlq
It was ash. Just four words:25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsrLfL3ant
“You were supposed to burn.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTY31m3dVG
The Next Morning25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpl2a1G85s5
The dining room looked different in daylight. Not brighter. Just more honest. The elegant chandeliers couldn’t disguise the way the shadows pooled in corners, like they were listening. The table was still set too perfectly- folded napkins, polished silverware, white porcelain plates waiting to be filled with things no one could stomach.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ZnloWS3eX
Four place settings. One was missing. Rowan’s. No one said her name. Tori sat with her back to the door, hunched and small, her eyes red-rimmed. Mara picked at her croissant like it might be poisoned. Harper arrived last, her heels echoing like gunshots on hardwood, sunglasses covering whatever war her eyes had waged overnight.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2i2JtOiQa
Lena was already seated. Hands in her lap. Eyes everywhere. “Did anyone sleep?” Mara asked flatly, her voice hoarse. No one answered. Elin entered, carrying a pot of coffee. Her lipstick was still perfect. “I hope you all feel more… centered this morning.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7z2jGiIoM
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cASvzrtqH
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36UngEPtbE
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqYPaMz8be0
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrYO7dq0ru
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3oWn4W5kUd
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXAipJLa9F
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK1sxKKuKSK
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgeDhGldQm
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQfyF6WEOT
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodCE9FMLRF
“You were always watching us,” Harper continued. “Even back then. You knew more than you ever said. What did Rowan tell you before she died?”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAnuU8qOOl
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGx64cp8COv
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDEcUc5u987
Harper slammed her hand on the table. Coffee sloshed. “Then she better start. Because if we’re all going to die in this hellhouse, I’d rather not go blind.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2IVgFqM6St
Mara stood abruptly. “Okay, stop. Just- stop it. This is insane. Rowan probably had a breakdown. Maybe she… she did it to herself. You all saw how she was after the fire- how we were.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mElWsMiDN
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhBJRpLZFz
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7KfpqlHzWS
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYHoezWrwf
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNZ8nDw7ly
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzFs7lt59B
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR5FnXwsJMb
Lena returned to her room alone. The hallway lights flickered as she passed. She didn’t cry. But when she sat down on the bed, she noticed something tucked under her pillow. A page torn from her journal. But she hadn’t torn it out. And it wasn’t her handwriting.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4gE2V8Npvt
“You watched her die.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuks6ni3D7Z
You didn’t stop it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLlh4Iq3AI
Now you get to watch again.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡplkWACo2JM
Later That Afternoon25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp6U9oAYGSK
Tori locked the bathroom door. Twice. She ran the tap, not to wash her hands, but to drown the silence. It was too loud otherwise. The silence had teeth now. She splashed her face, but the water felt wrong. Colder than it should have been. Like it came from somewhere deeper than pipes. She looked up. The mirror didn’t show her face at first. 25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2zPwlWPq3O
It showed Rowan’s. Burned. Mouth open. Eyes hollow. Then it blinked- and the vision was gone. Tori staggered back, heart clawing against her ribs. It’s the guilt. That’s all. You’re sleep-deprived. Dissociating. Classic symptoms. She was a therapist now. Ironically. But training couldn’t save her from memories. Or from the note she’d found slipped under her door that morning:25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNzSJbntlm
“You lied in the confessional.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWIOkQ6j3QD
She heard you anyway.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hQ8rW9Dij
Tori hadn’t meant for any of it to happen. She had just been scared. Seventeen. Desperate. And when Sister Eliza had asked her what she’d seen that night- the night the candles in the chapel sparked like they were alive- she’d done what everyone else did.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGcd0dgDA3
She lied. But it was what she didn’t say that haunted her. What she saw just before the smoke swallowed the chapel- Rowan holding something over the flame. Harper pushing Lena to the floor. Mara standing in the doorway with a lighter in her hand. And Lena… not moving. Not screaming. Just watching.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKalY7ukVx
Silent, even then. Tori had kept the secret like the rest of them. But it had festered. Turned her bones soft. Made her dream of blood under her fingernails, of heat, of Rowan’s voice calling to her through the walls-25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoI2MPYvn7
“You let me burn.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaM0DKOHXEP
A knock at the door. Soft. Three taps. She froze. “Tori?” Elin’s voice, muffled. Tori didn’t answer. Elin tried the handle. “The others are gathering again. You should come.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMa0sTDbaqS
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriPkPKvNvi
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWFnsuOKEr
Of course she would. Tori leaned back against the cold tile and opened her locket. The one she hadn’t taken off in ten years. Inside: a photo of the five of them. And behind that… A folded piece of burnt parchment. She didn’t know why she kept it. Maybe to remind herself of what silence costs. She unfolded it slowly. The vow was still there. Scorched at the edges. Words faded but legible.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQXxDh9g5Bz
“What is said between us dies with us.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfiMkV66bdr
What is seen between us burns with us.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzDkdKubPQE
What is known between us lives only in silence.”25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5nQObHVvgG
Tori stared at it. And realized there were now four fingerprints in blood on the paper. There had only ever been five. Rowan was dead. But someone’s print had vanished.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFIdnD3OMn
Perfect. For Chapter Nine of The Silent Vow, we’ll return to Lena as she unearths more of the group’s dark history- this time not just through her memory, but through a hidden artifact from the school’s past. This chapter will peel back the truth inch by inch, teasing what they really did… and why someone is forcing them to remember.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcaVzv15YOQ
25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6PUDjhyTup
