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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENDVrAy0Dc
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI85mlIlHns
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ72gPf6RQN2
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGW1fmbPq5
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoaVJSTvO7
“Then drive into town.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ZXxyMriYc
“The car’s gone.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7tSs9MAtD
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5BIa4V5Qp4
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQfh8Tna48
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. 60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLyDJRbiCtm
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4Bz2q7J91
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LIr73mgkR
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfNdMnChiMU
“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?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVMhYexf02
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSlKpDqUFZ
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUynkyFrU27
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIU8hU1wsIO
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIVQ5D5bEp
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLRgI1qubus
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6gppKFZnN
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuJOzGQJ2t
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgPKPLbMKj
They weren’t real friends. Not really.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxB8B6uWBVy
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwxlvCEmnU
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAB0xiACLrt
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5zsHWCnZO
Sister Eliza’s bible.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMsSEvldNWl
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1aq3ypb0h
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5XSQ8RqPZ
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFTtGXqJEM
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BRHxzWSJi
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWfIaaoAxU
“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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlLA4QpsTz
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJgix8nd6wu
“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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJHs8srA4o
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03u62Fgnqb
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbjowUzyshM
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxALyXJaUy
“What is said between us dies with us.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF0gL95YcyP
What is seen between us burns with us.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwV2zj4mMnh
What is known between us lives only in silence.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrzC0iaxC9t
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFpoRCwfbtW
Present Day60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcEZajcNLe
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡas7qBzY0RJ
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEb18ognSat
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZNxemuJSJ
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUdPk2zYkS
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjS1r58nhg5
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1ULyv12mz
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYg37izYXQ
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.” 60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbMK3Td5tCt
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRiElyDWDBl
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43Ot60jXqL
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. 60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjw14nOhze
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzygn2bEOmr
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxfFRPvgB1
“I lied about what I saw.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyzvLEZD7i
“I wanted the fire to happen.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSeZ4gBb5yE
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8LLL0IFiv
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZWq8riEw3M
It was ash. Just four words:60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5o296Mxgtm
“You were supposed to burn.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡptnG0js90F
The Next Morning60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhBdyLf9bpb
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG4hYiLqil0
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡErSnyIAlgl
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ATreBiCLt
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3vrbgKldp
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaRuvuzozG
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FxZ0vZezT
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqBrzc7qm2
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3uZV7jowHB
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnOWamkTHSk
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkaDM8BzxIq
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWrpOjm4IPd
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hZ5JjzKjx
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIX7eMUJ5C1
“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?”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNQLLo12ho
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWawlauY21
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFDGJZn1Rhb
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBAaDLFaAOw
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6pm1jmjMzS
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtSLSeL0jEI
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvLYGNN2r8
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8tGw7IHKDc
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYS1aPhcGv
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjS0pIH844
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbUNKkI5LW
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IKc3CDl4a
“You watched her die.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJIrzxhch9o
You didn’t stop it.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡerpEicHqrZ
Now you get to watch again.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJbreL6uUM
Later That Afternoon60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalMffHRXJ7
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. 60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgfF4fyOsmU
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:60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Enaf2X0mD
“You lied in the confessional.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC7WelXMtre
She heard you anyway.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisWjbx6Sb5
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYFaoJpcAeP
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrLTFODdV2j
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-60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZQdF2u7zb
“You let me burn.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJpBYSOZTJ9
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.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8g9Hb0Bjsm
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUgWCFu0Ot
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZmJPh02Ta
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡea1pRlgwqE
“What is said between us dies with us.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbQBROd1Ec
What is seen between us burns with us.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGSrQx554l
What is known between us lives only in silence.”60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjv3JfTWhK
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwoQHRYjGzF
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.60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7QarA1sInj
60Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvipLPJmjYt
