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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPLYkbn3xi
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQSqNcoySP
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyfT0xsRJ5
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJvF7UF0W9o
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcU2bX1V1F
“Then drive into town.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5OXHOvRMz
“The car’s gone.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQop2I1wwB
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNEGThLB0y
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSg5DXxwEr
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. 158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡATkvZzy61J
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQJuC5RV3s
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡboPR2b0ugG
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtg869TUGP
“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?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqzn4IzduJ
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQystbdysqz
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqSMXzovi8v
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoEPJz8mMnn
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIEKpG6HonM
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fQQqpNB5H
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhADlwcTuQ
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlB9faI6pPw
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIX8rLFUxN9
They weren’t real friends. Not really.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnWd1iPHfN
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXgXXSR6AJ
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5lOi9KkEF
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULfGCAtmiP
Sister Eliza’s bible.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1qdVhokgy
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUvOXaZeDD
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtIdFgg0fK
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0n4Wh5c2gm
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZv1eJLoik8
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp5G7h3fiqX
“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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2DselsRy2I
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIWQm9m6ZC
“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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwO1el9fi5l
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrFXm405dda
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡINgNaNPviF
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIuVcpljreW
“What is said between us dies with us.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlg5LZV6Jx8
What is seen between us burns with us.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWGC9REIgdM
What is known between us lives only in silence.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoyH0ynQJN
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2v1nSbYDgc
Present Day158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWiZiES06To
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2RptGsiUDV
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvZ1WzFZ4y
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOa7KbzQJN
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpU1kTbZJs
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNHSv9uqwCM
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvncw4DmKo
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtsWei9TcDg
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.” 158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzs0UKD7Ym
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsO1hmMfix5
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0riOnU6R9c
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. 158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3nfQrUIlYh
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkBKARIHaU
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTMQGzUH5lU
“I lied about what I saw.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZHqxrIhHuj
“I wanted the fire to happen.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhAPCbykstw
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKYiwaNDvIP
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsy4gFjsLu
It was ash. Just four words:158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmvhsqY3ZX4
“You were supposed to burn.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPR1Q4dPAEn
The Next Morning158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2GtGXQPOhJ
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXttbHBLJLF
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtI8pxefeDo
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJgVCyWJ7m
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGEddscTD6
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4Nawfeoaq
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdvACHw8JV
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdefMN89ftm
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRR6KBTl5N8
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhgpSxtvJ1
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIug1BmkvS1
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlEmD51nWD
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Zwx4wTpXJ
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4SF1QbqhLz
“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?”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfOxRbfOlAS
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXcSZ4v9xKt
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7G4MxJGvx
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ZwZJaVSFs
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd5V7ha3KSA
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6URWrfeS6W
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GYn16okkA
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWLEUl9UBv
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4txOKmYQD3
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnC2n2gEdSG
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC3fcH7WbkT
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6VcgmOhKON
“You watched her die.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPL4IUp1dSJ
You didn’t stop it.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1dDsNBQOy
Now you get to watch again.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6A1EOdKeV8
Later That Afternoon158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qFS8WEqXM
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. 158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKW431GPDA
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:158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIuAiFg5pU
“You lied in the confessional.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlC63NBeP2l
She heard you anyway.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIu1LYffFtc
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0bV6EINjD2
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2ngoL94pL
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-158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqhO6SZ0xEx
“You let me burn.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAckj9tlDh
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.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKNzd2Jz4Nx
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gg4uBim9r
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsNDVKrOHk
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcveM7Btyd
“What is said between us dies with us.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpG4U1NLsrn
What is seen between us burns with us.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcIBiqvWBN
What is known between us lives only in silence.”158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwg9xbfFeDP
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeEuU4UhIoa
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.158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz3faDlrNy9
158Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJrCWc9VbBP
