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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1JrvwaPKs
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Ofeed4kCs
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvaAfJd4QIl
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKEH2TDL7aj
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pCjWz9btL
“Then drive into town.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicpTPyzqsU
“The car’s gone.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkrZCwWPgR6
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rbJTzu6Xb
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJYnrtGh1a
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. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJObko3M1f
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqanK8yMOh
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwX1hvEvqpo
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMDX5OJpJx
“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?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzM4ySA9Oi9
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTuNUkDpfS
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZrLyyekE3
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEBFsxQMR7w
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMziCbKTFy
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47pGptwTeZ
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhbaIeW0tI
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡitzSywim0a
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZAHiFCbuY
They weren’t real friends. Not really.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwWdx7KTLLw
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS1cEjKF4I8
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjdXuOijcP
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVQoDXYfITs
Sister Eliza’s bible.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡddK8pnbD3Y
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJqcFoCHmZ
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL8z9lSkBb9
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudG3oIMhIE
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdDEr71WK1x
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsWWL4YzlA
“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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP08gp680tE
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQQOD5kESS
“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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ps72ceI11
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqf678LBk2
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSu2nlMdSfj
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVQpqNBBhJD
“What is said between us dies with us.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwuy23q3Qa
What is seen between us burns with us.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTRfphxxU0C
What is known between us lives only in silence.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc2cgwpHLw5
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJa0Gjve4E
Present Day190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoP2nSpU7P
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU8xzbZ016F
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKcRKiO4CpT
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OPLp1dmcW
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrVBb5eZ77e
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSX8HFsx7k
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaKklWRQUaV
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXZ7TqR3Z8
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.” 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxY3GrIJo2c
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbpa1czdTIo
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkISDXkaatv
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. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWjzdnlMTfT
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmODvWoqt0P
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0KEMBHHRj
“I lied about what I saw.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9o9OHccBA7
“I wanted the fire to happen.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGg0wJoHhpm
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhZaqmbtip
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKZ60Z9dAa
It was ash. Just four words:190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5o3xi8Mmuo
“You were supposed to burn.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1qjeDqqAx
The Next Morning190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlC3ZHJbWC
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2WNMaqeun
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwuJvIaDvo7
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwh30oGAXk
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eWQoxTpKO
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5W9kNiRo60
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuPYTVeY8pA
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzI6qBWxjEN
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9jiTXqL2qb
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTy8ylxYQWI
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOXTqnOAxUn
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYnlJsxIUFU
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYAv2PaFYv
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRsboyokkr
“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?”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiWB1MWgW8
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9VyatDwKNs
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKHuy8EH9jA
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESr0WzFAgE
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdl0OpQYRHN
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCD74xxmgy
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfpd72EYXQl
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnfUyUyb8Lb
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrZOfixHXuF
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyaCLny6E2
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCFI1w9ktBo
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ1gH9FjKk6
“You watched her die.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsytQDiSej
You didn’t stop it.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡathEhG4oE9
Now you get to watch again.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIlucaM0ZRn
Later That Afternoon190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwtVfd8cbH
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. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuirEVMSGUH
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:190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXciiATKLbL
“You lied in the confessional.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHwHBlTddA
She heard you anyway.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2YUmxb70m6
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtpP264Jl3I
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7fbNeyCeNK
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-190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbrDuhUfRX
“You let me burn.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNirXkHSSOS
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.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GqmwBBEsB
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhMjBxvHwOi
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiKYH2yum33
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZTLBAKe0W
“What is said between us dies with us.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qZ0Azg39C
What is seen between us burns with us.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4wZpKaJmNn
What is known between us lives only in silence.”190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp531a2zJ2S
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIfAfnxo1J
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.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7N2DDn0S2
190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfy0aVEolXf
