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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡadd8dxFMqG
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdGnIMGZcA
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkSMzJd3lp
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX6lVAC9kBT
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXVoCKOvd9
“Then drive into town.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Ny6SEw80F
“The car’s gone.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSdOIta9CRx
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTwXlytiOm
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2t6TrYph5e
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. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPQjpF29Qs
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0dtg40ekC5
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbx5pBrNM3k
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPWbTW7dsSG
“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?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqEvA9p9tM
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzdR0C1dxP
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSodaEx6wu4
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNyopEDxdS
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7VkCDemAW
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr6f78m1B1G
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYy04SjsQQ
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEOfoVp7oE9
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YmvfzVp1O
They weren’t real friends. Not really.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDr9GaIRt7X
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYYLdFx8s9P
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5cHStw0S0n
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrisrEpNtG
Sister Eliza’s bible.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQoG6aJRfx
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbhS3wckkdY
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpJ0JGqHIa
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfISDtCZfa
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0FxFZaRHLd
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjPqJSM1k9e
“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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJ4VNoUQwC
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzGr6mkxvwN
“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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsI1wEBf91
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4HUsCwVTNo
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYRqxdManSa
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NAFtvb8Ro
“What is said between us dies with us.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbiau8wsPQ
What is seen between us burns with us.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFNeRZftpP
What is known between us lives only in silence.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGEW8a06Nlv
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRe0aNs5wgu
Present Day184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeEOsguWhWL
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAUFUsYoKXF
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtCPTGiqaGm
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzKpLBrCIg
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8GSt2uDgPe
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdUSLwIp6ny
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqd2X6Y3xbP
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmj9apPtTb2
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.” 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKALEyKxFAd
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs4NGsz3UuM
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuymkI1wpCi
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. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmiVDMriXoJ
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBXhNu7HLo
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0QVs2LTwBA
“I lied about what I saw.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnxEzN5vxT
“I wanted the fire to happen.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ257it3b06N
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4THSzQYtDo
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTb2h5V18St
It was ash. Just four words:184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡihRSp74som
“You were supposed to burn.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUa0sA6jSBn
The Next Morning184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl19Ebevkfe
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ499fgO8sJZ
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEtLdl8Yxl
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7NhCYg0feJ
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4KAOjeC2k
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsVlRuQJml
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NuIrb4W9f
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvef2Edj7P
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwp34x64fgm
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Drbpzvc98
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKyNL6qRpY
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XzJbP2wgZ
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcLYOwzEwQ
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xT629tOeE
“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?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspSedlSCz7
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrn1TLBNPdd
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSBpIWaDNt
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfrUe5Z6M1d
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNOaBpvjlAJ
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tyg3v8OJX
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXGfQljZF1
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZaVd0zARG
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nfglokGTn
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfyXxAjHdxT
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TSNLxxlzF
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbyDMq53MZ5
“You watched her die.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwCFim0OY3J
You didn’t stop it.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOEmN5N1cr
Now you get to watch again.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH825msfRQ4
Later That Afternoon184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeeAp5CzTp
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. 184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlteawnFGLO
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:184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZodqlb2qig
“You lied in the confessional.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHRF40fdop
She heard you anyway.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9Ytn4voqq
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6AvyGElZE8
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNzfwqMs8a
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-184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnAocfB3ap7
“You let me burn.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlUHTYFQamJ
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.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG5TKHlosPg
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoGlSxZ7iQ
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIMAzL6p3e
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHdM4ox9Bc
“What is said between us dies with us.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8pCamKCO4
What is seen between us burns with us.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtM1mWFRPWq
What is known between us lives only in silence.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzDvwPCwk5w
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XNtVEHTA3
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.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWL4YXV6Xn
184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpl9YWVBCR
