Chapter 7:

I woke up from my slumber to smell of smoke. I quickly looked up to see my entire room was ablaze. I jumped out of bed and as fast as I could, grabbed my gun along with some money. While covering my muzzle with one of my hooves, I tried to make my way through the fires. When I reached the door I found that it was sealed shut by something. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" I was burning up from the hot smoke and ash that covered almost the entire floor. If I stood there any longer I'd be engulfed in the flames. So I started to slam my entire frame into the door. Over and over and over again until my side hurt. That didn't work at all. I looked at the door closer to see the wheel that turned in the center before it would open normally. With all my might I put both front hooves on it and turned. It started to come loose just as the fire drew nearer to my hind legs. I bit hard onto the metal ring and pulled with all of my body. Right as the flames were searing the tip of my tail, the wheel on the door turned quickly and lifted halfway.

I galloped out into the hallway away from the searing ashes to find the hallway itself was also on fire. "Great, now I definitely know this wasn't an accident." I said to myself before a pony ran out of the other rooms on fire. Their body was charred with skin bubbling and peeling off in large chunks. The pony's gender was only recognizable by her screams that were bellowing throughout the hall. She ran quickly to one side and smacked herself against one of the walls. Her head slammed into a large nail that protruded from the wall and she went silent. She peeled off the wall leaving a large blood mark and fell to the floor.

She was dead and it happened so quickly my body just didn't know how to react. I turned and saw some of the fire was growing surprisingly since there wasn't anything flammable out in the ha… I then realized that someone must've actually come here and set this whole place on fire. Somepony probably poured gasoline or oil all over the place before setting it off. I ran as fast as I could past the burning rooms and corpses turned to charcoal from the flames to the end door out. The door opened and I escaped.

I was breathing hard covered in soot and sweat all over my body. I took my wallet out quickly to see if it was still there. It was. My wife and little daughter's faces glowed in the drab dark area I was now in. I placed the photo back inside the wallet to see on the wall were words painted with what looked like a mixture of burnt tissue and blood. Underneath was a Pegasus like me, but his face was completely burnt and his right hoof had bone surrounded by ripped and burnt muscle. Now looking up from the disgusting sight read

"Abandon every hope all who enter"

The letter R's end streaked down to the hoof of the colt below. I whispered "Well at least your suffering has ended my friend, but I'm afraid mine has only begun."