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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHQSoPsUZcm
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjL8zWrW6n
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNv8kTQVds
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡII1275W34Q
“I tried,” Elin whispered. “The landline’s dead. Cell service too.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡclCcIRPuJ2
“Then drive into town.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUn17GRIlmc
“The car’s gone.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSXosXgq963
Harper turned to her slowly. “What?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXUI8CqAKgk
“I went to check. It’s not there. None of them are. Not even yours.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcslRQ5mBm
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. 120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ709C8VTyfa
Lena. Not carved. Written. Dripped. Fresh.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5eud6rkq1f
Harper stormed toward her. “What the hell is this?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5cCk1UegAX
Lena didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmK9Zuc0qP7
“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?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs8VyCpMs24
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbXkYPtcU9D
Nine Years Ago – Weeks Before the Fire120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMTZKnjtbuT
They called themselves The Chapel Girls. Five of them.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wQVDXehXB
Rowan, the leader- charismatic, cruel, a born queen.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWIKJAtS11H
Mara, her shadow- beautiful, loyal, hollowed out by envy.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQBnWjzDML
Tori, the quiet one- mouse-hearted, eager to please.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdtdzEbWqV
Harper, the viper- smiled like a secret, bit like a blade.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7bujMUve8s
And Lena, the ghost- always watching, always silent… even then.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiroUACrQs
They weren’t real friends. Not really.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvalwxVVfpS
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeDOnl1wwh
Truth or Dare. Confession or Consequence. Games dressed as rituals.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEeSlZDJixQ
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hP82NoMSF
Sister Eliza’s bible.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQkxW2l19k
Harper whistled low. “Where the hell did you get that?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt9uMGYg3hI
“Borrowed it,” Rowan said. “She won’t miss it. Not for one night.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LZvTUJZCR
Tori shrank. “We’ll get expelled.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNI8XvGDGDn
Rowan smiled, cat-like. “Only if we get caught.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9AdSQjhIg4
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleeqivw3An
“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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwG5loT1qw
Mara leaned forward. “What does it say?” Rowan looked up. Her eyes gleamed.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxIHWJfp7N
“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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmAJoJSH52D
Tori shook her head. “That’s not funny.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbuTP21bCDi
“Who’s joking?” Harper asked. “It sounds fun.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn4cT6SgA6H
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyv7c0PvjRD
“What is said between us dies with us.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbMiUtadQm
What is seen between us burns with us.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa9jQYupe9I
What is known between us lives only in silence.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFnnj5oSpd
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVEUVpfiMhT
Present Day120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUox3hhXmKz
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbyGoN1JHUO
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMztncEDNou
“They think it’s me,” Lena wrote in her journal.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jHbkzipkI
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbawJlwsEh8
“Rowan wasn’t the first to speak. She was just the first to be caught.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Qx1jyFihM
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJD7hlYWpvH
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl74Arqwhnd
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.” 120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5g4xRgJiy6
Lena hesitated. Her hand hovered over the card. Then she wrote: 120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVPx3jW1mBS
“The fire wasn’t the worst part.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvx2tpZib9T
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. 120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1ngH81krd
“I kissed Sister Eliza.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpYYZUXoYLt
“I saw someone lock the chapel doors that night.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVBfvb6bGCH
“I lied about what I saw.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡABmofyYFR3
“I wanted the fire to happen.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQcMNEWeIx
Lena’s breath caught. That last one. No name. No handwriting to match. But someone here had written it. Someone had wanted it.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡokk0YFolmk
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2GNyIfJKc
It was ash. Just four words:120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRM0OCiKiw
“You were supposed to burn.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUrcKTtQ3V7
The Next Morning120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudvQ0ywRB6
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡES1Yv97KFI
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYCpAauYxj
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfTbnanbsLz
Harper took off her glasses slowly. “There was ash on my mirror.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLp0eOYGml8
Elin tilted her head. “Ash?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPmwFWERm9
Harper nodded. “Someone’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. Unless the inn is haunted, which at this point I’d believe.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPhMbFjhWA
Mara snorted. “Maybe it’s Rowan.” Tori flinched.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhObx64dWL
“You think this is funny?” Harper snapped.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc2kWaW2S1P
“I think we’re all losing it,” Mara muttered. “This place- this whole reunion- is fucked. Why are we still here?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH95NBbof5V
“Because someone wanted us to be,” Tori whispered.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGe8OIJqh3E
Lena’s pen scratched across her journal: “Someone planned all of this.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKw3vqCcjeu
Harper noticed. “You’ve been quiet. Too quiet.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA10UB29JDs
Lena stared at her. Just long enough.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdjyjGb9CZC
“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?”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKAybd9jaFB
Lena’s throat ached. The vow wrapped around her like a noose.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHyyQBqzvSv
“She can’t tell you,” Tori said quietly. “That’s the whole point, remember? She hasn’t spoken since-”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9ixfHZ6PK
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzSmeuHG1y
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtUFkF6MDrK
“She didn’t do that to herself,” Tori said, her voice shaking.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhWA6ilu0D
Harper’s gaze locked onto Lena again. “I think you know who did.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQ3rk4pi2d
Silence stretched like barbed wire. Elin cleared her throat. “We’ll be hosting another memory circle this afternoon. It’s helpful to-”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRREOYmEjCL
“We’re done with your little therapy sessions,” Harper snapped. “We want to leave.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2tUNYOVMPK
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Elin said gently. “There’s a storm coming.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlh8oqtlUxh
“It’s already here,” Mara muttered.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXG3j580wF
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWyu6Phlz2
“You watched her die.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡncqiDgGfd1
You didn’t stop it.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPPaQcRuuVk
Now you get to watch again.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyhBQx2SE2
Later That Afternoon120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡishjcrOLTd
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. 120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Dfe1CfU19
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:120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaeGlf1olsH
“You lied in the confessional.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDN2I1uSfzM
She heard you anyway.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHufjKkJh2Y
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszxv4PfLfu
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XqszG8fea
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-120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpnB0DdP5H
“You let me burn.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9xffqRVaJ
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.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4PfUdiYzKQ
“I’m not feeling well,” Tori said, too fast. “I- just give me a minute.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2JxEHxAFd
“I’ll wait,” Elin replied.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwxFnFZXc3
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE0uUEYI5Sz
“What is said between us dies with us.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgmqNoOxCEU
What is seen between us burns with us.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8l8J2ytAh6
What is known between us lives only in silence.”120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGhtsvJ4N4C
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRCrGE8OSD
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.120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5n6TEtZMP
120Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAZAGfQMV6
and then Add to home screen.