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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzodHiB0oFX
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡztHlTP6Ggu
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkkJBC77Uc
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjHJAYFQll
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfpMLFOmG2a
“Then drive into town.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOQRMomSBp
“The car’s gone.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb2aMwgt2Ob
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMe4X2Pi81d
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1ooLGS0tf
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. 179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡak5eZ0RxDD
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuW71DQuu8M
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡePwrC43mfv
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Hmi2LptBl
“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?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9EyCTrUVJ
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj0dkIlVCex
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYxxMJUdBgy
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEhzFQpQTe2
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqbTNM9EXVV
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOcKIrK6ccq
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0jjYTFlW6
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaQbxqriGB
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYC1Xm6Ml8f
They weren’t real friends. Not really.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7C4mmWWr8
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqu1qLOAGl9
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg1ZkTMUfzB
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbNuM2ESKIj
Sister Eliza’s bible.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWbu3OiAqW
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6EFgJUM8Dz
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAhElsOcd7g
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcJhBdwQQ6S
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRXuPHS81S1
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0EJ4YAAEv
“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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8lyRKjx9wz
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAo5ejCuoC8
“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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ842mRBzvec
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpvs3k33GdW
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSyD8ZUtZgF
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh5N8ukuq87
“What is said between us dies with us.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5aO1051iY
What is seen between us burns with us.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS2JHDGKu3Z
What is known between us lives only in silence.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXeoVgG73fE
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MIQbjELHB
Present Day179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hqq8M3QxI
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgd2bjAph5
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX65Hsu67VB
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs73BitVUXd
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbI9pJodMEc
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkhd3fZzbC
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLGnx4JoE4
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6K812IswNB
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.” 179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDGOjeqcrEr
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPRw89p6US
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAssEJdUII
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. 179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhLlFMKofR
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggt9f0cZJw
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGw1E4m1zZ
“I lied about what I saw.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhhkrqSRFn
“I wanted the fire to happen.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAcPymldb6
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkkRwWSmuWh
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLrBMVOGYZR
It was ash. Just four words:179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjGcAzrOzk
“You were supposed to burn.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZCZv02jUu
The Next Morning179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL76XwSfFah
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr6jxyu4IDW
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8aZWcdvZfB
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZ4hSkmg3w
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFKjZrtU6hO
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2kWTaNpPn
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKu5SsUgpr
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhR3cVJxHO
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBAua6igwe
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmGEHART5MJ
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoavW7on6pi
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVjy2wO0KS
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTB1slc9ZPO
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BLKh2fn91
“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?”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16wGHzkR72
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKycNeKrDk6
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrk9AkWymVh
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtjsLFdXVH
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ946N4TGAK1
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡorZFJlywoQ
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYW0iYvTaf
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHGbRkYxTZ
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8r9eZZ9Lr
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDK3DPPKD7b
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRoNRTtcFza
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZAUq8tOUs
“You watched her die.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKstoSta9i
You didn’t stop it.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5zm0si8tmu
Now you get to watch again.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNp4Y3MV7X
Later That Afternoon179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDRZ4T9EUm1
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. 179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvu3F3qGKwd
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:179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3p5dbqk2Ib
“You lied in the confessional.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mDJ0Wt2Yr
She heard you anyway.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5XDOvW4tE
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4RQvOCbvB
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFyPmbP0Ei
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-179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDs4fL32Mq
“You let me burn.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4YqePshA9
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.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAl60IGJ9qa
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjb69HkGjJi
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMxag3VTvj
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3CaaH0Xs51
“What is said between us dies with us.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2QKjHHFoR
What is seen between us burns with us.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbQrZGavmb
What is known between us lives only in silence.”179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZykiLbas0z
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMr0KcpgTB5
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.179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMLRSp0H7j
179Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQ8No59OpU
