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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8jFz1NbI6O
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8S1KBz5F6l
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsUwbWk4Ml
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTX53pr4wp1
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3yIUXTUnXs
“Then drive into town.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD87HBNdVBt
“The car’s gone.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9zBh1eR1f
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6wz03Af8nC
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmUOnVQ9Ud
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. 61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw5DA94JA03
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EHlV39XdF
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSgx6Wl39I
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEKtLUrZW3
“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?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojYwDtJ9SP
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLoOgNUXQI
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx5ZE4yr1JX
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0YB9norSej
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmveGc0XaUi
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWUrKLcaiW
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHLIZP6X7Qj
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYspagSA9S
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGkusICJdu
They weren’t real friends. Not really.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmqTJJRW1H
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dPx8nDEhE
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkEFzp8BrAX
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbs6UJQEKrm
Sister Eliza’s bible.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCiL2oD26a
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qRnjk4UED
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXATc7bn0u
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjiiGrMkqx
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLrMc2Gpzv
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCY5H1Tc7br
“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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpV9YHGDEvr
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhUNQYgQaa3
“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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPCBhxTPuI
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0r912z4hFQ
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX7ifEinyDF
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8zKLnXcHIN
“What is said between us dies with us.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT15RmB6I4K
What is seen between us burns with us.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEbPht6vZjt
What is known between us lives only in silence.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW9Gd1CCoGF
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRCXLIQS11
Present Day61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSeR8uEawK5
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKO05OzKb9T
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoSdT48cEn
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvFiBLStrH
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVBd0GuN8nj
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqnvg5vTNx
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrD6ut8Jw4
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEnvv44Nlq
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.” 61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOg3h00l4o
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhzqvxG5n7
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHYdexereQ
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. 61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ZfL6TjQ6i
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ71WQeLhdwf
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8YzJ2ro5hW
“I lied about what I saw.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TcaUVrroR
“I wanted the fire to happen.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt0CJjl4fvh
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpE4coyUUn7
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbLSv8Dk24
It was ash. Just four words:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZCBr4gFjJ
“You were supposed to burn.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspJRCpKZck
The Next Morning61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcp1bg4zW88
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoL2wNdJzHV
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBBomE3BEt0
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8wtJ90qkck
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgREXiFuSjs
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlkMcaqK7iy
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkyDTRv4Zg
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Ukc4C9gBo
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1iEEMr7Nc
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbxcatOhlbb
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyTzMc5frJr
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3XFMv6jZZl
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqX0Q5MrayP
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOGiYsRdvf
“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?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6aelU5qr2
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfamxNQgVSO
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAJYS7IlIE
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc6UcR310F2
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQzGEUg9ET8
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOC8Qe1xVw
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiR5nXEEDeF
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUmony92uLR
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcYMgoZDuXr
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlpf9JmGEZi
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLcm0tJYgx
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8TTkAyoAU1
“You watched her die.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxFboiT49xw
You didn’t stop it.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJY7UzHUS2
Now you get to watch again.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1w8WFDItWk
Later That Afternoon61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdsYLENZoxa
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. 61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2MaNZxX24
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:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3hOvZPxPbQ
“You lied in the confessional.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsRbWoZ1HC
She heard you anyway.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BtM8eMurI
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3q9X2qy9cl
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFEQRkaai7
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-61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOcmmms2Lcq
“You let me burn.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqurLOu1OYM
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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbKoR7oSvnw
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YFIOEkzGL
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG4c1pyridV
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHLojkUkD4
“What is said between us dies with us.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsttNHFHe1k
What is seen between us burns with us.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsnDMPVbvd
What is known between us lives only in silence.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVdO1aX30v
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAL2lP0wLC9
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9v6gthPuB2
61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVMZCb5aeY
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