The Safe Room

The Safe Room
Selena's POV
The explosion threw Selena against the wall.
Her ears were ringing. Smoke filled the hallway. Someone was screaming her father's name.
"Get down!" David shouted, tackling her to the floor as bullets smashed through the windows.
They were back at Enzo's mansion. After escaping from the pier, David had insisted they warn her father about Morrison and her mother's betrayal. But they were too late.
Morrison's army had found them first.
"The panic room!" Enzo yelled from somewhere in the smoke. "Get Selena to the panic room!"
David grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway. Men in black gear were breaking down doors. Gunfire echoed through the house like thunder.
"Where is it?" David asked.
"Behind the bookshelf in Dad's office!"
They ran through the chaos. Past broken glass and overturned furniture. Past Marco's men shooting back at the attackers.
David kicked open the office door. The bookshelf stood against the far wall, looking normal and innocent.
"How do we open it?" he asked.
"Dad never told me!"
More explosions shook the house. The ceiling started dropping chunks of plaster on their heads.
"Think, Selena! There has to be a trigger!"
She ran her hands along the books, looking for anything unusual. There! One book was pushed in further than the others.
She pulled it.
The bookshelf swung open like a door.
"Go!" David pushed her into the small room behind the wall.
The panic room was tiny. Just big enough for two people to sit down. Thick steel walls. No windows. Shelves with food and water. And a bank of security monitors showing different parts of the house.
David slammed the door shut behind them. Heavy locks clicked into place automatically.
"Are we safe?" Selena asked.
"For now."
On the monitors, they could see Morrison's men searching the house room by room. Her father and Marco were fighting back from the kitchen, but they were outnumbered.
"We have to help them," Selena said.
"We can't. This room doesn't open from the inside for twelve hours."
"What? Why?"
"Security feature. Once it locks, it stays locked. No matter what."
Selena stared at the monitors in horror. "So we just watch them die?"
"We stay alive so their sacrifice means something."
On one monitor, she saw Morrison walk through the front door like he owned the place. He wasn't even carrying a gun. Just smiling his cold smile.
"Where is she?" Morrison asked one of his men.
"We're still searching."
"Find her. And find the man with her."
"What about Enzo Rossi?"
"Kill him. He's served his purpose."
Selena's hands pressed against the monitor. "Dad, run! Please run!"
But her father couldn't hear her. The room was soundproof.
"There's nothing we can do," David said quietly.
"There has to be something!"
"Selena, look at me."
She turned around. David was leaning against the wall, breathing hard. The fight at the pier had taken everything out of him.
"You're getting worse," she said.
"I'm fine."
"Stop lying to me!"
"What do you want me to say? That I'm dying? You already know that."
"I want you to tell me the truth about how much time you have left."
David was quiet for a long moment.
"Weeks. Maybe a month if I'm lucky."
The words hit her like a punch to the stomach.
"That's not enough time."
"Time for what?"
"To fix this. To fix us. To figure out what we mean to each other."
"We don't mean anything to each other. I'm your bodyguard. You're my job."
"That's not true and you know it."
David looked at the monitors instead of at her. "It has to be true."
"Why?"
"Because caring about people gets them killed."
On the monitor, Morrison was talking to someone on his phone. Selena turned up the audio.
"Yes, she's here somewhere," Morrison was saying. "The panic room, most likely... No, I can't get in. But I don't need to... Because she'll come out eventually. And when she does, we'll be waiting."
He hung up and smiled at the camera like he knew they were watching.
"Smart girl, hiding in daddy's safe room," Morrison said to the camera. "But you can't stay in there forever."
Selena felt her blood turn cold. "He knows we're in here."
"How?"
"I don't know, but he knows."
David checked the door locks. All secure. He checked the air vents. Too small for a person to crawl through.
"We're safe as long as we stay in here," he said.
"But Dad isn't safe. Marco isn't safe."
On another monitor, they watched Morrison's men drag her father into the living room. Enzo's face was bloody, but his eyes were still defiant.
"Tell me where your daughter is," Morrison said.
"Go to hell."
Morrison nodded to one of his men. The man hit Enzo in the stomach with the butt of his rifle.
"I can do this all day," Morrison said. "Or you can save yourself some pain and tell me where she is."
"I'll never tell you anything."
"We'll see."
Selena couldn't watch anymore. She turned away from the monitors.
"I have to get out of here," she said.
"No. We stay put."
"They're torturing my father!"
"And if we go out there, they'll torture us too. Then kill all of us."
"So we just hide?"
"We survive. That's what your father would want."
Selena slumped against the wall next to David. The panic room suddenly felt smaller than a coffin.
"I hate this," she said.
"I know."
"I hate being powerless."
"I know."
"I hate that everyone I care about gets hurt."
David looked at her. "Everyone?"
"Yes, everyone. My mother betrayed me. My father is being tortured. And you're dying."
"Selena—"
"And the worst part is, I think I'm falling in love with you."
The words hung in the air between them like a live wire.
"Don't," David said.
"Don't what?"
"Don't fall in love with me."
"Too late."
"I'm not worth it."
"That's not your choice to make."
David was quiet for a long time. On the monitors, Morrison's men were still searching the house. Still hurting her father.
"If I wasn't dying," David said finally, "would things be different?"
"What do you mean?"
"Between us. Would we have a chance?"
Selena's heart started beating faster. "Do you want us to have a chance?"
"Want doesn't matter. I'm dying."
"But if you weren't?"
David looked at her with those gray eyes. For the first time, she saw something other than ice in them.
"If I wasn't dying," he said, "I'd probably already be in love with you too."
The admission hit her like lightning.
"David—"
That's when the lights went out.
Emergency power kicked in, casting everything in red light. An alarm started blaring.
"What's happening?" Selena asked.
David checked the monitors. They were all dead. Black screens.
"They cut the power. And the security system."
"But we're still locked in, right?"
David tried the door handle. It didn't move.
Then they heard something that made their blood freeze.
The sound of drilling. Coming from the other side of the wall.
"They're cutting through," David said.
"How long do we have?"
"Not long."
David pulled out his gun and checked the ammunition. Only six bullets left.
"When they break through, stay behind me," he said.
"David, there are too many of them."
"I know."
"You can't fight them all."
"I know."
"You're going to die."
David looked at her one more time. "Then at least I'll die protecting someone I love."
The drilling got louder.
And louder.
And suddenly, the wall exploded inward.
Morrison stepped through the hole, smiling.
"Hello, children. Did you miss me?"