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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsY4yufrWNK
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQURVSI8WM2
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSLI50A3bY
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JTp0tyIpF
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFITzw3j2XS
“Then drive into town.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡti8cPmKPSc
“The car’s gone.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KvsLQSzXA
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVr5eXLzyj
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIiBb5C0bJt
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. 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChEGucXpLY
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgYXjERruf
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDbCzfEe5A
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0dd7jMDisl
“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?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFXELqDE0E
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZrKQ2rIEo
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7L1vHcJgo
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnIXyVxp05
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZFt4RpBPC
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1H5Zp3H9UV
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxH2XJtGyi8
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbgYZAydLVR
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUSqZsCMQF
They weren’t real friends. Not really.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEhW6YsHZyw
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RYeW5roEr
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsWw7YWR45
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1QP5RWPvj
Sister Eliza’s bible.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjLeBGK6wU
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XS3epC3KR
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEKdXTmfra
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8LooG17Ao
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOaFUViF1Di
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHf423zsHDT
“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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVu7555tti
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJoxapogFY
“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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLOXS7MLNgY
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5hyYjO4Gk
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPhlsRbuvL
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXnvieBuAhY
“What is said between us dies with us.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF3xyyuDbpW
What is seen between us burns with us.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVfg1OLgVoO
What is known between us lives only in silence.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWdEuc9jrJ
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7zHKjd3V9
Present Day22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNCvDZpIs6r
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMmMia3dSU4
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxNEKmV263t
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0BIQB3zUPI
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjUgJFYU3L
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtJYRVFEJxN
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVIYcTwBbAc
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYhUjenDej
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.” 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOPzkms4EB
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡELjQxVSp2W
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTJnqqrA0m5
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. 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkooasLH8N
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGM53Z3RJlC
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdYRY3pUbr
“I lied about what I saw.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH86pEaCVtn
“I wanted the fire to happen.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8c02nlyDPr
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFPgsONU4q
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PgHpPjZwR
It was ash. Just four words:22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL70gKxfu5T
“You were supposed to burn.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeIhwCrnww
The Next Morning22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1VDQCzxyOf
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT2lNRjg5c7
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBd88aRKku4
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqhfL4LQmw
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhF1dMxRyZ
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVUgLb46ZB0
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaxNhlxvNte
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi34zvjfgyz
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXLKwx1jVm8
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZhaDQ8Uiu
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8lNp2Hsx6
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXd7yqUODQ2
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtqLydq2zS
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VBOgpHpha
“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?”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkIOYmh6Vm
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dQlOdIm2t
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0c4k4v5TP
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfLYCv22kD8
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLjMUTnDfBj
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKTr9zU5FNU
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHMzkwJPgq
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4DrBYvuya
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3krLiqxJ7L
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI2jut24mqh
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRosgBlSNMe
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxX38NjBiv8
“You watched her die.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLJGqrmpA2
You didn’t stop it.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPReznCK88e
Now you get to watch again.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqzJlbZ2DyO
Later That Afternoon22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOQ1sxuRpN
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. 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rm7QNXEvp
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:22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdf7GC4dxE
“You lied in the confessional.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34YHhIEH8U
She heard you anyway.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoGWuxdIue
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVe1397OYQ0
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb6G1R3yU0z
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-22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEf0QvUEd7
“You let me burn.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0QMgL6tpT
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.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ97tIxSjabi
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KCIkLrZhV
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIypiHjvjfa
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBuAS8IPUbn
“What is said between us dies with us.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYfdnj1qBM
What is seen between us burns with us.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9NmSRgc3R
What is known between us lives only in silence.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡne6zgGk03n
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHgniGfggh
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.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVo85aHtt1
22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvc2DSYB4tB
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