99 "I thought my seven-month-pregnant wife was hiding a betrayal from me because my own mother kept whispering poison into my ears.

Megan and I stared at the glowing red keypad.

"She's lying," Megan whispered, her voice shaking. "She's trying to divide us. It's what she’s always done."

"Maybe," I said, my mind racing, calculating the risks. "But if she’s not... if this system is wired to a pressure plate or a motion sensor inside the entryway, she could kill Lily by cutting the air. We can't risk it, Megan."

"I’m going," Megan said instantly, stepping toward the door. "She’s my daughter."

"Megan, no," I said, grabbing her hand. "Eleanor doesn't hate you. She doesn't care about you. You are an obstacle to her. I am the one she wants to destroy. If you go in there, she will kill you just to make me watch. If I go, I can play her game. I know how her mind works. I've survived her my entire life."

"You shouldn't have had to survive your own mother, David!" Megan cried, tears finally streaming down her face, glittering under the harsh light of the bare bulb. "I can't lose you. I can't let her take you too."

"You won't lose me," I whispered, pulling her close, burying my face in her neck. "But right now, Lily is in there. I need you to stay here, look for another way in, and be ready. If I can get the door open from the inside, I’ll need you."

From inside the steel door, a muffled, tiny scream echoed.

"Mamma! Daddy!"

Lily.

Megan’s face hardened, the tears freezing on her cheeks. She looked at me, her eyes filled with a tragic, beautiful strength. She nodded once.

"Save our girl," she whispered.

I turned back to the keypad. The speaker crackled again.

"Ten seconds, David," Eleanor’s voice whispered. "Choose."

A sequence of numbers was scribbled in dust on the wall beside the keypad. 0-9-1-8. The date of my father’s death. The day my mother’s total control over my life had begun.

I pressed the numbers.

The keypad beeped, a long, high-pitched tone, and the heavy steel door unlocked with a deep, mechanical hiss.

I looked at Megan one last time. Then, I pushed the heavy door open and stepped into the darkness of the fallout shelter.