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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqbopmSEty
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXv8eJfazdx
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchLvvaMGVQ
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡegb9YCWRt2
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLWIOC2EpRP
“Then drive into town.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXUkDo6SMeo
“The car’s gone.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OaG1EOxhD
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVlIadOULu
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5Z0cpDbU3
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. 107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rJXrwsBWJ
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEOUl78dtPz
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrlQIvJIoqN
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡth7IVQNo5s
“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?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0L0cikuHWc
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TmAyJIfwQ
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3BI0jrGQ8
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0X7O6CJv5
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeBqwhGfzkT
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCsRUzTo6X
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdof5IDLiZU
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNzlupTFcPf
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXXtxB6c2J
They weren’t real friends. Not really.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBIHoIF1duI
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqTdaN243uE
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ45qAVkZYap
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMR0feQn5n8
Sister Eliza’s bible.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZFBGWLXQq
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31IEBSuvwZ
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXffAEIyDR
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdYDF8fRwN
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ905BbNM5iv
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTc6CfdoyY
“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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmtmoyK1GO
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUnYaNS4iVk
“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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqYP6ilcfJ
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHvtAuO0py
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPz7wbvUd8n
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVRULcF41GH
“What is said between us dies with us.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iU96TD8sS
What is seen between us burns with us.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8zauUvlAZk
What is known between us lives only in silence.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZDAGkoMQM
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnrGYbZMJO6
Present Day107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡISR1PxPAje
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnYOaD5jxB
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52a4nnFbOu
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOBUm65Ka8
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLScVJcRAYV
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8HT0Aip4Y
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RfkwORunx
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MWQl0ta13
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.” 107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN2WRfPRZZd
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNq3S6NAIqA
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3kmD87a8NQ
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. 107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqi1EzsUGW
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCX25sPLfq2
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXZGoWRwfn
“I lied about what I saw.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYS9ptzZ2mF
“I wanted the fire to happen.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz87dGitmFj
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCsHe5Hi5Y
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuO2UBMNqTI
It was ash. Just four words:107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpcy4jnvOZy
“You were supposed to burn.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5ImlJjVgk
The Next Morning107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQP19R0632
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvUvfUUBOq
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhA76lGg7tx
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKjNqbrTUN
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9uom5NR1lf
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbiekobdNiP
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEsSnn6To7L
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7lZPchTii
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoXPaxgdPM
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNatnlRz6s
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyZuNSuJ5g
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpVbY5bvrW
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnmjNo1VNF
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeJFnK0wdun
“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?”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzeXoAK7utR
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ZIvHODFra
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxAEEm0WBb
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjlwPlqtcj
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJk3kKgxvj
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgEGNV29cE
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0iHgOIPLdn
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5llObgFKEB
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPDQors78hy
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYDSp6NULjh
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9Uor1oTd2
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj82lu4G8cV
“You watched her die.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4g2J7XeGGH
You didn’t stop it.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZAzWZUwRl
Now you get to watch again.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYWchOVEfMc
Later That Afternoon107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAaXCNMQmLu
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. 107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzMDix4QNH
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:107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnQSoqELjB
“You lied in the confessional.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtf8YWyY84z
She heard you anyway.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfVskd1ms5
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4af5bvzwDd
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfBDIWyWx7O
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-107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8SMX6szvXW
“You let me burn.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHppcACFCu
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.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcOP4V6jBw
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2hhz96yGH5
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5wi1Q6hpp8
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnl0H1cHLLv
“What is said between us dies with us.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPEdAVhcnK
What is seen between us burns with us.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4znvkhawR
What is known between us lives only in silence.”107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡch8WgEFip1
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcb8ZziWPY
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.107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BwMNWnDX3
107Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlTXVDJAYhx
