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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByhtmrsW1c
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqg75GOQ5Tf
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnpzU8KnOr
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BGoUKEKNN
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFzCMriKXE
“Then drive into town.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ67tHNUWECQ
“The car’s gone.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG9UF2qyLvT
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fVidm3x8t
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiSbxxjSLqP
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. 194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPf9g7sC0g
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG48ib6kOkB
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmvRUDFaiS
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbW4BDUeR2z
“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?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTdJyeoekF9
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRDucrvlUm
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG95kDX00p2
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡASR8B2UQMx
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJGBAnhks9o
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLvegfVGWD1
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ14RPGZ7eFF
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbN4ggmJ8t3
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrAF6Zhnby
They weren’t real friends. Not really.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsTFAr8pQ0w
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhzXMESNWR
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrjIWBJcC5R
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCIIw6hW60k
Sister Eliza’s bible.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwV0zuKbas
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMFsaxOTYwl
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo9QbbBJpE5
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjV5wss5By
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkd23dPGnlD
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHE9tVTp4LG
“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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yXzbi6FLP
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBvIw3iiDF
“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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgvjVTUssl
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnNQcQq4r3
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6IaXMjAWeY
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoKtxSQzhO2
“What is said between us dies with us.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwLRc3tC9k
What is seen between us burns with us.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgV8HB8jhb9
What is known between us lives only in silence.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlTqrCuJpT
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkhQ00zGuL
Present Day194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEEVyUQ5Iq
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyemQLvbgMZ
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5budZ2otaP
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ11q95pCZZ2
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡio2kaENhGO
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Jmhy9wrOq
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9um0X7ig3V
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxtnpHtIwH
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.” 194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOL9OqU1COI
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZiW729DEBp
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1vBYsEITH
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. 194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUeUUcndteT
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiaz6u1OaEH
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOEAsljHPSp
“I lied about what I saw.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YF21nJVoM
“I wanted the fire to happen.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZx86ckaHJ0
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuMRVq8vWFL
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS3pzCb8Qjk
It was ash. Just four words:194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TuTNn2CWP
“You were supposed to burn.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zfZ98BOOq
The Next Morning194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRgorKugyz
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMF7PL0TCMh
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWtdEq8558s
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOyY3kWN95
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2azzQwIdy
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmPLAOEGXJ
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8L3QqvMir6
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2q5r7Zx6py
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcAFNc8TJr
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrtCme9WQJk
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXLL3HU9eZ4
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQM2h9EdAmp
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZy2Nt1p2hb
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3xhG5xjvF
“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?”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO3dPi1QUDq
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzEtRxHgmO
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ02qbsOJBo5
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWGCvg54ZBR
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WWq3tfwKK
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEH09d99hO
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6akqmuaAB
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIrMtiVpwl
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYUWkwVdss
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjtnB62RjMf
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTU2i4skJp8
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblvpzCBwCt
“You watched her die.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1cN5t6Kofb
You didn’t stop it.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwayWtdhlD4
Now you get to watch again.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8hPzgrGEhe
Later That Afternoon194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhmr08ume3
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. 194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJCPogD3laq
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:194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡweGcTkgets
“You lied in the confessional.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrytCheNmj
She heard you anyway.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRS3odHd3o2
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwvo9tUkpQ
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMjqy0Tij98
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-194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIepu1vdCAH
“You let me burn.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZuUcgyvZk2
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.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4mESRl8A4
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBnDOJ90DJd
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ562O2HA5hP
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMhXqWsdbx
“What is said between us dies with us.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUjMBqEShwE
What is seen between us burns with us.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJv07PDaOvy
What is known between us lives only in silence.”194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJkRS9Cneux
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYw8wIlcY8
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.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rOiwJ1WDP
194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA8RRDKJcvg
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