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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrhITZn5tlq
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTAwFCIKob
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhXIdmOth2
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZXIod1QLt
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2y3jeVGZWJ
“Then drive into town.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkjjTpo3ba
“The car’s gone.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLjFgc7jR7
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMmw9cG8po
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwXMCQyysgL
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. 136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzfCBBnEuL7
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgm09AEfpvg
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhM1jNSkx92
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fY34SvAaz
“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?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqVsh7h1xPM
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKar25T8Qb
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2LGDsxLS2
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHJJUBDUB0R
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbvDiUGe88
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPMEC8qwTD
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡERUw5bW8xb
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQebdTlWNMP
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjwIRHoIwvR
They weren’t real friends. Not really.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzaqmi7hOJ
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbPzHzNyPT
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsaqyWUaQN
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcjf2amguPg
Sister Eliza’s bible.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFevDvfk0P
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lqzP8Rflt
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8Qc4I7u0n
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUh55A1cun
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWDdBjzhST
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4W7xWOgKbq
“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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpDHFUhQTGi
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuKeoENDy4
“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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFXaRP7gycp
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZuKQ3swj9Y
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmq5J022Nz
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5OSwkgaFe
“What is said between us dies with us.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeozAZwiISc
What is seen between us burns with us.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZ1Y3qsegr
What is known between us lives only in silence.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2MzFuNv2mb
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHqUVn2ydJ
Present Day136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikLqmg4GBy
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLTb1p6wUv
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI9bi2uRWGY
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHxMfwmwIGB
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnfw5BiIdC
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbFiL7Aelq
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4aIfMJOEt
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0duSPs3QbW
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.” 136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlB3WzxcL1v
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbmBe3OByn
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2oGpNGQx1R
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. 136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9z2dSOILJ9
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVL8h5Jckj
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYn8j3FjQE
“I lied about what I saw.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuiSS7hPUp2
“I wanted the fire to happen.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLmjMkaXhm
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQ4xrgYSWW
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmJl6TQSU2
It was ash. Just four words:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ70b97gbY8d
“You were supposed to burn.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgc83ODBmCb
The Next Morning136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4Dc8ENqIF
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ06sfsYxLc
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qM254yMxV
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3z7JIEQUE4
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbp95kNeWkZ
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbEkvaAzCs
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelIiOWCPWs
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvrHF3Mr6j1
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMtSSUYC2B
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYwHidtsdx
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡflSIJIZdWK
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qdA08zz2S
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6pjfv0M3E
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrl0P2R6sWG
“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?”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9XkdxNhgA
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLRFbneAivb
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJB8cTGxoxC
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoZ71XP7bW
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSbMJGfRucG
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSd6ClYKxW
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpfwnlTTXj5
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVRW2IJK8l
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxygJRSMqK
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEYe3rAWaV
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrXSEh3z1k
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNkWSO9uYB
“You watched her die.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNE7iDAWho
You didn’t stop it.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKfo4cNFw1e
Now you get to watch again.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrewTdeJIk0
Later That Afternoon136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKpwdMyJoA
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. 136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgukfaZq0Mr
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:136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK70H65ZOeQ
“You lied in the confessional.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4cFaJ4hRg
She heard you anyway.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaINpjC9uhe
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsvaDWAVS9
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRVKdlQcnv9
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-136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVDmZYThUx
“You let me burn.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcf5y33EoCZ
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.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fhgM3c8qb
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEb5imP8z5
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxzaSeSAT4
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZHuNs4ffu
“What is said between us dies with us.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP4bReQvUaR
What is seen between us burns with us.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEJm87JKSr
What is known between us lives only in silence.”136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg93r6Ktrj2
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2UYQXPVgLp
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.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡutYPMVJkgC
136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEvnwMO4LU
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