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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8v0tkHel6a
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWvrWEqt8TU
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEdi3LeSHC
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xsMRWCVBS
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRg5ybNOvq
“Then drive into town.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvRSP1YZQev
“The car’s gone.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2EVdfbgi16
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69YA1CNJ9C
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnjG0JGYO3K
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. 497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xSQxgPLKh
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43lLp8t6B0
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbnYVCvD2Z
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffMeBVsBcv
“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?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtw00AOUFBM
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqoTG0TQHXp
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMjgvLAI2h
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrUMJ5SkjkI
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrl8btbrk1
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8v9BzAbjGy
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2sHShtbVR
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81IciJHw0O
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDR1N4mWs2z
They weren’t real friends. Not really.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9nEMBDSFto
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7wrGcCsF9p
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsQZZlv8Av
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4gFDEiXvC
Sister Eliza’s bible.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkImbbZbSLP
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyzz5Hw4eUb
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nvEPsqUCq
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGx2OE4Ma3
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBbMIADxZg
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF26gJOREdS
“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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxMNLSpyTr
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7J1WHB055m
“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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4jLKB6evp
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSyQUvK1Xki
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv8exF3ywL3
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGEMBt1JfWy
“What is said between us dies with us.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY4LyrQz0VL
What is seen between us burns with us.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6kyGSqanoe
What is known between us lives only in silence.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvOxF1WKZFR
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVdm71Dq0rF
Present Day497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡndRswWQYQT
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWYIdb6bRv
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIrCzlfdxL
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj4zzAwyjKS
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6fsOoZGa6
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡycOHS9vR14
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNv3Ji4VMj
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOgeixZRRPg
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.” 497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI4ACtEqbP7
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10SqFO0zmF
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ISy4dIrn7
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. 497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOE1o73o5zT
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1y31U6eoW
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEW7s6aItEG
“I lied about what I saw.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAhdjh3keQ
“I wanted the fire to happen.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoziU2iR4TV
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5a8p7kalBo
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmd9FE2T5xk
It was ash. Just four words:497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxUxlhdDLF
“You were supposed to burn.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMVRzDbrzD
The Next Morning497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpc6q6Zxs2
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKrwUtK2JLC
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzIYMKGnFl
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHzgFFWFRdH
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjquov6yLP
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyv8ndEqHR
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡztRO9FAZZF
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaUI6fRiYvf
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡinSimr5FfG
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyk3r6v7PO1
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD76RuB76ai
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlKPeQO65PD
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3Fuyv593h
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9GdBaHhX3
“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?”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7dEw9TUvf
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnlsm3ty1z
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv2q51oxV5p
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfSa9eMKr8m
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkdtVMtKrzR
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4jTwjbUb41
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzb1FVyrwl
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8e59fquQxj
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7Ugf2YrcZ
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDzJk4bAzeI
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAqNbyeBey8
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIBTjQKbNyQ
“You watched her die.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaWOJvbLEJA
You didn’t stop it.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsP9Yp4vf8O
Now you get to watch again.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVjRMGpbKM
Later That Afternoon497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JZ77lJqNi
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. 497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFCNkzC6bw
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:497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPMeN0ZKZej
“You lied in the confessional.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGMgXqnyss
She heard you anyway.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVY1nu4EwK
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCfnxDH8ph9
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNvNWymjtc
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-497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwFWfV1yYaA
“You let me burn.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GHfqyK8Kg
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.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcY5jNjenTS
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVajT10diM
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjukkkOHOpb
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhm4WbBaxSC
“What is said between us dies with us.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9hKr7yFUF
What is seen between us burns with us.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSxHnwhw94c
What is known between us lives only in silence.”497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9ncLt4j0X
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqDIGpMUkR
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.497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuzeMcGe2iS
497Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWRcdO1j1g
and then Add to home screen.