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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGUyOhRefE
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkM2N9oZ2Kd
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxKKd6NsDz
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSpAxEoviF
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbBbogVxNC7
“Then drive into town.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmh1WvauLIM
“The car’s gone.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtA5aYXpJmP
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhafXFyDhM2
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKbPKFTHNtz
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. 182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbi7YiSnLe
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgroT4jJiN
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMLcOrfD0V
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMgjyRQNsi
“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?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0uEEplqyeV
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7j2vxjN0M
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡilJNyEbxr5
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZanrOQdvF
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQEkfSIkfu
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3PDzqZOSR
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDa7F6QJrqH
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡok1LUnYus4
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNi5yHVYUkq
They weren’t real friends. Not really.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHheqKFbFj6
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJX6VQ4xQds
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cEzzfzsBG
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqkyZyqTTE
Sister Eliza’s bible.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75dEC76i0W
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsitHpf6UUn
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRXS9W0Fi37
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0IuqzSkQM
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4o1KCn013
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhjyqraTmka
“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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSzteFdYLAW
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RyV7WHQd0
“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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pKH15ZVak
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzdGLG0I4H
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJhawqoRvx
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2ixOPlUZM
“What is said between us dies with us.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡem0l6MX1qN
What is seen between us burns with us.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwU1TDF6Jy
What is known between us lives only in silence.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqz6xIikbf
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntJUprBfoO
Present Day182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFnER0M8Ah
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwB9PoqAowa
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5lC19GJ7M
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2qkihVaWg7
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHvEAP5LGr5
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡldmipn1Gfd
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BZVDPIjfF
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk09EnnPJXN
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.” 182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK3KAPz6hhK
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFuUtTpL5mm
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuepTULmqH5
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. 182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qAguT8iXX
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgqWKU0B8a
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjS3K5SFf0n
“I lied about what I saw.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5jOcQhipN
“I wanted the fire to happen.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdhywiVS1My
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIVAUqZ9wNr
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWWWJdFn1s
It was ash. Just four words:182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOASgoqpHD2
“You were supposed to burn.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxWa0FIuqS
The Next Morning182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCu2c81oFD
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTA5d5FGMeq
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLUslC6KVQ
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKlpynBOh2
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXcvhbiQlV5
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJ7m5M4CDm
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBbU6kh1hY
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5xusmZ3S1j
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbs1Svf3X8
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqZx4CI9Nm
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2n87xaKsnz
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQN9im4ehI5
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGRIoD3KeM
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcw3H5kXiQa
“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?”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIj08Lh7mpV
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmyZeXSpuG
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRW9B2NceH1
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSRtmFV7uK
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPF9SWCSmp
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOv860rZNtM
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgjAHYJybn
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoDMPE36SCy
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fbG6EMcCL
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVlx3pKztVE
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5pcpMQQ3nC
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFc83raCw5O
“You watched her die.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwtUlfY4pms
You didn’t stop it.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUfLtI9aecJ
Now you get to watch again.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmUAr0VzqM
Later That Afternoon182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkKPi58bHo
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. 182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZuiq1FIxV
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:182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl35UhkyiGH
“You lied in the confessional.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjt3V7GK0jw
She heard you anyway.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpTlSF89xrv
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6mFrpLxFg
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPYgvOWmWo
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-182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC3GYGyMOb1
“You let me burn.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkAN1vfjQFt
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.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfS384j6cT
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXIO2Li6ow
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaiS9y34R02
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUUzwGEAAR
“What is said between us dies with us.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7O6FErzLfq
What is seen between us burns with us.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xJc7mHe9c
What is known between us lives only in silence.”182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQbfLIcahx
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7eS32Eb5Pc
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.182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYfdRRw7Yo
182Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInUnoHqas7
