CHAPTER 5: THE APOCALYPSE STARTS AND I WATCH FROM HIS BED

For five days, we prepared.

Killian's bunker was not a bunker. It was an underground palace. Three floors deep. Built by his father during the Cold War and upgraded every year. It had its own power station, water well, air filters that could block chemical weapons, a hospital, a gym, a cinema, and a wine cellar with 10,000 bottles.

And now, it had my food, my medicine, my weapons too.

For five days, I didn't see Damian. I heard from Killian's spies that he told everyone I was crazy, that I made up apocalypse story to steal money. He didn't buy food. He didn't prepare. He threw a party for Bianca's baby shower instead. In my old house. With my old friends.

Idiot.

On the sixth day, June 19th, I woke up at 6 AM. Today. The day I died in my last life.

Killian was already awake, dressing in black tactical clothes. He looked like a soldier going to war.

"Today at 2:13 PM," I said, sitting up in bed - his bed, because we moved me to the master bedroom on day 2 for safety, he said, but I knew why. "It starts at the Raven City Central Hospital. A patient, Patient Zero, coughs blood on a nurse. The nurse touches her face. Then it spreads. Airborne. In three hours, half the city is infected."

"How do you know the exact time?" he asked, buckling his belt with a gun holster.

"Because in my last life, I was watching the news in the bunker when the first report came at 2:15 PM. The timestamp was 2:13 PM on the hospital security camera. I memorized it while I was dying," I said.

He stared at me. He believed me now. After five days of me being right about small things - the stock market crash yesterday that I predicted, the mayor's heart attack this morning - he believed my crazy story.

At 12 PM, we went into the bunker. Deep, deep down. The heavy steel door closed behind us with a hydraulic hiss. Airtight. Safe.

We went to the monitor room. 20 screens. Showing the entire city, from drones, from hacked cameras.

At 1:00 PM, city was normal. Traffic. People shopping. Damian's house - party still going. Bianca in pink dress, Damian toasting.

At 2:00 PM, Killian held my hand. His hand was big, warm. "Whatever happens up there, you are safe down here. With me."

At 2:13 PM, it happened.

Screen 7: Raven City Central Hospital. Emergency room. A man, skin grey, eyes red, on a stretcher, convulsing. He sat up, grabbed the nurse by the neck, and bit her. Not like a human bite. Like an animal. Tearing flesh.

The nurse screamed. Blood everywhere. Then she stopped screaming and started convulsing too.

Screen after screen turned red. ALERT. ALERT. VIRUS OUTBREAK.

At 2:15 PM, news channel: "BREAKING: Unknown virus at Central Hospital - stay indoors -"

At 2:30 PM, screams in the streets. People running. Cars crashing. A man eating another man on Main Street. Live.

At 3:00 PM, Damian's party - guests running out screaming. Bianca fell, holding her belly. Damian dragged her inside his house and locked the door. His house with no food, no bunker supplies, no money.

At 4:00 PM, power flickered in the city. Then went out in most areas. But our bunker lights stayed bright.

I was shaking. Watching my death happen again, but from safety this time.

Killian pulled me into his chest. I could hear his heart beating, steady.

"You were right," he whispered into my hair. "You saved us."

On the monitor, at 5:00 PM, Damian's house - he was at the window, looking out at the burning city, holding Bianca who was crying. He looked up, directly into Killian's drone camera, like he could see me. Like he knew.

He mouthed: ELENA.

I didn't feel pity. I felt nothing. Or maybe I felt justice.

"Turn it off," I said.

Killian turned off the screens. The bunker went quiet. Just us, breathing.

Outside, the world ended. Screams, sirens, fire.

Inside, in his bed, deep underground, Killian Thorne kissed my forehead.

"Welcome home, Elena Thorne," he said. "The world ended today. But ours just started."

And for the first time since I was reborn, I wasn't scared of the dark. Because the monster holding me was more dangerous than any virus outside.

I looked at Killian, this man who waited three years for me, who burned a nursery for me, who held my hand while the world died on screens.

"Why me?" I whispered again. "You could have any woman. A model. A princess. Why the broken, barren wife from next door?"

He smiled, that slow, dangerous smile that made my stomach flip. He leaned in, his forehead touching mine. His breath was warm, smelled like black coffee.

"Because Elena," he said, his voice low, rough, like he hadn't slept in days. "The first time I saw you cry in your garden at 2 AM, I knew. You were not broken. You were caged. Like a wolf that was forced to be a lapdog. And I like wolves. Especially angry female wolves who slap mistresses and steal bunkers."

He kissed me. Not on forehead this time. On lips. Soft at first, then hard, possessive, like he was claiming what was already his for three years.

Outside, the sirens wailed louder. The world was ending.

Inside, in his bed, 100 feet underground, my new world was just beginning. With a kiss that tasted like coffee, guns, and survival.

And I kissed him back. Because in an apocalypse, you don't need a hero. You need a monster who loves you more than the world.