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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1yUAemrUl
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXum8aELE6
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNcLZSSTch
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgK1FzFBbkL
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTm1Psc2Ax
“Then drive into town.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjV0HVK45bP
“The car’s gone.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0p4X7DwnVY
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbGgrrzhh0
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3mGQlkTNnc
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. 211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDitSwDUi8w
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1oSs7wWOhC
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5T5zTXwAl
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLLJyvokQ7w
“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?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrzqEs1mar
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp65GZ7ZAij
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraTdWybpRr
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDMtjbuTij
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbzr0OtN5H
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvwgAiN657
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjfMXAPUzw
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOwCfFRCva
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkd8iP40B8
They weren’t real friends. Not really.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jVTUODmUJ
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjycSZ7mOl0
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKy5IYDUItF
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjgV0ZLKqSo
Sister Eliza’s bible.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAF98PwOZWo
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsn7CymKKfi
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡstzDDYiJzs
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVWOcjaoCN
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSJ7MxnQrv
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ULsvnvehN
“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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszgflRb5F1
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWtMu7oREm
“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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQKNan7Sv1r
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRPxe1VUet
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBGTXI5I3v2
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJgZtE029X9
“What is said between us dies with us.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdSdgIbJ4ic
What is seen between us burns with us.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf28bbCLPqD
What is known between us lives only in silence.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcWs5wO0hG
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpEXdPGYAL
Present Day211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡueecGCl2eN
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbLHfUoJt1Y
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsSDOPCqYH8
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMKpPc2E6Oi
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVgNhAcOuI
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsagNAHkYge
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhA1VMcjHM2
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVkksJKwpc2
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.” 211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87Eh4dbGol
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsf6ut5Sl2t
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYnNRF9QZ7
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. 211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw2qvc4dNra
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlRTUo8eDhT
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ErHafxmLs
“I lied about what I saw.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3NaKy4Z9QU
“I wanted the fire to happen.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKAomPIxzk
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZc9CjXfIh
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57lXzLIbHY
It was ash. Just four words:211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbGwsAQPqL
“You were supposed to burn.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx6fzshnwkG
The Next Morning211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyO1J2QKiri
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLO0ZeSIbkZ
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeDc03afy6
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEPTdT8vrW
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZH9pIlwFpe
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCZBuWbGBRO
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjBNNmT1rw
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDLJfr2ZoR5
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwFV4IQ9aO
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aApZ4OK8X
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLm7Ucvnx9
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBX9W2sfHhS
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWAH3Lghxcu
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgBpcHxHSA
“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?”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7xMUR5IruN
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZH6dwAMnM
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpAGvEvYF7B
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsnyWGEF6F
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ7tMykeSy1
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHJdqTTmlNr
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYixbKpTkdK
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCi4SfngQcV
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjKhsmkMyq
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFAH2YF6i2Z
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ405Oxe5YbX
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4cs5weXM9
“You watched her die.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xDXyvl6GB
You didn’t stop it.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdTPD40mLg
Now you get to watch again.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvdyhTGv9n
Later That Afternoon211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7yZDqFRqtL
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. 211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5L3XLCDoDw
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:211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzCXwEYbWE
“You lied in the confessional.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡau5tc042x8
She heard you anyway.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuiqjyyPyv
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANKvamtmlK
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjBxFqSeod
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-211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXE8fKQaaO
“You let me burn.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvGj9OVsFr3
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.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqETRW4zRks
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRigfXq5sA3
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXbS0nhjNs
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowGSDEV8x4
“What is said between us dies with us.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXDt6bR94e3
What is seen between us burns with us.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEafriDicJN
What is known between us lives only in silence.”211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgK11b2XdZL
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAD2vIFpXa
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.211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dR6YbH3CT
211Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UtG1c3CJf
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