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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FKthlMezA
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuDhEXgUfC
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvyCsk64Zv
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmFXGrZ06c
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYZVmPAByG
“Then drive into town.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjL3V2Hkq3R
“The car’s gone.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0otBsjLWFT
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrmDegIl7O5
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJuVOxqwmN8
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. 80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmuqfXL4K4i
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOn0Ik2m1oh
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx69vv2MFCJ
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT7C4KbeU5G
“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?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuEdBKAwCtw
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0qCo4vl7N
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVQoXRnMiX
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mTurSE5Ff
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPVMqHrLE1
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6McDyFfyxN
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi7bqJcMsur
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjyLQGKMJgh
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4SnS2DHEI
They weren’t real friends. Not really.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYdCQsHVKS4
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0dDvRmGyC0
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUPa2PTmlQ
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFBVjIMj2D
Sister Eliza’s bible.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoaCEckqyIq
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr85zwtqFOk
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh3XWYpnZOo
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjBGptsQFs
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5lB3TqfcZ
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqo3q6gTtLZ
“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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgvviCR9GN
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpaqhtgesl
“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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ40NL5Qm6fm
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr0Nqc3pxwj
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3gLYWyYBz
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9HpyncJomO
“What is said between us dies with us.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkn7ZULqgr
What is seen between us burns with us.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RmmoVFL0e
What is known between us lives only in silence.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2PaeK3jKz
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ45nmyKSZu
Present Day80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtm6c9mterE
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhxmBJhLOu
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkiqeNs7Hd
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBOejwbmkJK
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡceWNGOFi0l
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQA35E3UNE
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYwZazlssm8
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhA4oMLpL1E
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.” 80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdbMOBDWyo
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnCIbHtBGe
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9WZExhR7Z
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. 80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx70PWw9sJa
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb1LlKe3pmB
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVkB1WG1Kxv
“I lied about what I saw.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ZFrObKFS8
“I wanted the fire to happen.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrzs11khLru
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWMG33dqf8Q
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXWUVFcMP2U
It was ash. Just four words:80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbwhZKj6l7
“You were supposed to burn.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAKxLgCdhJ9
The Next Morning80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡConLYJsRxX
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVFKFM0FoZF
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2AbgqQXMOj
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNAXyuKAiz
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDzVkzBSUo
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoL3R4afta9
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFiSsCuRfCQ
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXzBN02xFD9
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZKKR1eyrJR
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrrGEcFHfK1
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqXFxpTkLB
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYpglwhJtl
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyRAdPs5xo
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWHQhjmsW9
“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?”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkvf0D0oBVg
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwNh2SKss04
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JVokzT95N
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDJ28Bonbez
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6P07PEa6Lo
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiEsqLXQY5u
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IMEYaZ82c
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsxGAcJ6Ot
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXJujgSizTZ
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡki45A8fgN3
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01nsn17FNY
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrUFYN5Ud6
“You watched her die.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1SpJI03ct
You didn’t stop it.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHfoQBkeSAM
Now you get to watch again.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ64mhuan8FY
Later That Afternoon80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxEInYdZ0T
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. 80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpY7Gk0pSyg
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:80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaKlfftSzUT
“You lied in the confessional.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYePN6wjqny
She heard you anyway.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5h1qg9gqql
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1TavPVDEp
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuxfp6pmBP
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-80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZLMFB2eXU
“You let me burn.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxBR16Cn1Q
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.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4RmVkTcyg
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpiNaT06uCn
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYzwzRnNFi5
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgqARHaBmm
“What is said between us dies with us.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoM7jD5r4oS
What is seen between us burns with us.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUzBWeQQeO
What is known between us lives only in silence.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSnRuo1Cmn
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXDCOtDI2q1
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.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcVPtYsUyzw
80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLYL9UZO0M
