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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzZeXR4n71
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgNz6Q8jwRa
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcT7KzNgmxf
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOigOwLzur
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbxsfvb2Rfn
“Then drive into town.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOSAPU2N82
“The car’s gone.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ5ZhjTZlpT
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7D9Ln7SFP
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0mBiknPac
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. 195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GjjT0Z6tj
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvulRz3ovr7
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckDxvjPwFk
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCgfg0Li6T
“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?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDMxBAMMJq
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pT8MOCUIK
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvspBp37vA
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGXw2B9CvCr
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpUfXQzgIFa
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAydIriGE1e
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuISqACCkPS
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmh5FDETIY8
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgr2QFWYsTr
They weren’t real friends. Not really.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FRmUIRzeW
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3gob6WQan
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP02qm7rO2y
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡovuPhSbSWz
Sister Eliza’s bible.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsIL2WclY7D
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6dltEUBr0
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3jK9GNwMA
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7e9OBmC2cz
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY69M9GSac2
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5MrfUXD5XS
“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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGgPea3Sfep
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡODFyA6IGVm
“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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6moP97KBof
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXXkd1SbDZ
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6clLQ9PRw
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAYeonzwEub
“What is said between us dies with us.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSPnLH5oRph
What is seen between us burns with us.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡySv06a10k9
What is known between us lives only in silence.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyOVCeeVUts
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnbRuxBKhA5
Present Day195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUkVe5MtyH
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngksNjdpj7
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvprRW611Y
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHVTwsFzg8
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlne8ZrP2tJ
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvYNR6dTQG
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWrZVo65cVT
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlfsGk5dGTl
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.” 195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mWnZNMGFF
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpuCvkxTKs
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHcuwKiZtS
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. 195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyPvLWDxN5C
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYczledA1xC
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavpNKAu8Sp
“I lied about what I saw.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxyeu4B3B6
“I wanted the fire to happen.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglenHPtVU8
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAg8GliKmuB
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy8AWinosZi
It was ash. Just four words:195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1jXoooGT3
“You were supposed to burn.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLCVtQciSWS
The Next Morning195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWp8QOQofnN
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgiZP0ssysc
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMP3IssDjy
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4e15YBHDNu
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLZJOcYLpG
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbHi9cWY8TX
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfaknPnx5T
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDh7sHLo1Z0
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlDzjHKFI6B
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSLKC3qsUAg
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6UG5q4JhiA
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfpzffk67t
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZ58oPuhXW
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaF1ULL1H8N
“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?”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx51q0VThy0
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUHYSs1oB7
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡocjRlo2HFE
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWh0upmlt3
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkov20J795j
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwsOtBl3ls
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNww9t21Vm7
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJCw8DxE5o
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMjLWBJsnpK
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIgAc1GsAiD
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq1b8dX4FWI
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEbeSKhYRhE
“You watched her die.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxHYp66y6Z
You didn’t stop it.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2V6Xeoc9A
Now you get to watch again.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoiS3yaJcX
Later That Afternoon195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYFAUURTQyp
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. 195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWubbi633c
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:195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡClBT9kt0LD
“You lied in the confessional.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJz8GhYIXa5
She heard you anyway.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwRVAyhFlU
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzn0kEFNPR
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLt1QW8H5I5
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-195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEH98fB1Ykk
“You let me burn.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuznXAP0de
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.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nRlhpVUDR
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLYlILx4A5b
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUPMXAJiuB
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUEjztTAiSh
“What is said between us dies with us.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwGLlAFchV
What is seen between us burns with us.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MLaD3GKas
What is known between us lives only in silence.”195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAf6I1mGcIs
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOuzNM6ZBn
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.195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jF6vZ6O8M
195Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlqTvOfIyhz
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