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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2azPuGjRQ
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTHYjkdP9U
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVC4EVTJNKc
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHZpWE93U2
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqUboTeuNLY
“Then drive into town.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyCwbxk2Yv
“The car’s gone.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxlxyRfTyP8
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPC6Hel9jKa
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3p5wdaDdMO
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. 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvlYJ3hCeMK
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEytaFSXtzR
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxmgJgb0fg
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuktOjkaSmi
“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?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrUUoyP1An
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cAmCfzLIn
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeHFxw55YP
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0TgPl14kWu
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkltyUE1IHn
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMoxadWWL9t
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡinFRYmkqKf
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkf5yde5WAO
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZP31azSzw
They weren’t real friends. Not really.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiV74gUrI5
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhuxaOMsQfw
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtsb49OuWCf
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjUwX8iYRt
Sister Eliza’s bible.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkh70pBIZgf
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbp9bgDmqmf
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfS9hBgdvQ
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHHOVfojDM
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwjZLKPtK9
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHEmZkWOF6
“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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ962Ta9wvDh
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVP03DFyl7T
“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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqTlRCpPybX
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbdSD3bDwN
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXTfrVBpWz
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYJ03XYXOP
“What is said between us dies with us.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdvrW9ILL12
What is seen between us burns with us.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FNm3KTOhO
What is known between us lives only in silence.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuxA58RoHDq
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKJsKPkdEQ
Present Day142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqilQfmW15Z
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYjxbxpXxFa
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNAMPRQCIf
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqONVvbShk
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswnWn2gMxw
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxQUX3NSww
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcJcVJz9WB2
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuu1b5quJfZ
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.” 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUBjSkYcYr
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6TzTjOaxeZ
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8ciFovYFe
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. 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvjIQ0pWiT
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM22sqLGJ6K
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4an4OAdUd
“I lied about what I saw.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUOqAC8Yqd
“I wanted the fire to happen.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswb26uDK0t
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKEsQnTQ8D
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjoyvPrcqI
It was ash. Just four words:142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoGXaNRGIn1
“You were supposed to burn.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXICrDX9rv
The Next Morning142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZaeQARkLX
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVFZtwAaV83
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfgH6HB81j
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2ACmLCjc6
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAGtJjv89B
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9apHmXX8D
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqwwpr7wEj
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQh2BNEZZpf
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqfkc9UsZwM
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw3uXIpg8wL
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFJ0TqepiY
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWjwy4oggkN
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWHOl34niO
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡto0xy7uZJB
“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?”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcth5qLTir
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgtE1kUU52
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21RQzC7CoF
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJ7R0ISXZX
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOmhil6j4q
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnF7VkKSyFQ
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7uHzREEZu
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzOtZ0PxxoE
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2bQAFGgdL
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmoyVI4WAL
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAb7lhmuFb
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdkQB8ax0FJ
“You watched her die.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOfTJSojAcs
You didn’t stop it.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4vaYKLoTv
Now you get to watch again.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5jD3Hz7mKI
Later That Afternoon142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXxYZsE7X5
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. 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZHVv76lOq
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:142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQuCBkMeXEK
“You lied in the confessional.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPKhekrJN9e
She heard you anyway.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHwirDotBD
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5a0GRTnpsL
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Rsya5hPnx
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-142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARfwGvO2jX
“You let me burn.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRzHoBWnBS0
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.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqaVkYrX4hc
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDxvtCC06S
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYA7SibajGw
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkWsI1xavQ
“What is said between us dies with us.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCNLBmJ0SYN
What is seen between us burns with us.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJWmFJz2f3n
What is known between us lives only in silence.”142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JKdZhEQdY
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBNtjFS7gMP
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.142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwjENwq1CN
142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqvrDFu229
and then Add to home screen.