"No no no no!" I held my back against a door, a crazed raider with a knife was attempting to end me with what looked like a rusty icepick. "No!" I kept him back with my rifle, broken and turned to shrapnel. "Fuck off!"

The raider leaned into me. "Just die, just make it easy" He threw himself into a push, grazing my vest with the shank. "Come on!"

I leaned back against the door, putting all my weight behind the sock of my rifle. "Eat--shit!" I threw him back, sending him pinging off the wall across from me. He pushed off and kicked at me, his boot catching against my rifle.

I was flung back, the door missing. "Holy shit!" I felt my heart jump as I rolled backwards down a flight of stairs, the wooden shell cracking and caving as I tumbled. I felt my feet go over my head and against the wall. I pushed off, trying to get my feet under me. My mask's display turned off as I slammed against something. An electric tingle washed over me, something like an EMP sent static across my entire body.

I stopped tumbling, my body too stuffed with adrenalin to feel pain. I knew I should be, my sluggish movements and the fact that there was an impact hard enough to turn off my mask were telling enough to know I was about to be in some serious shit.

I scrambled back and pulled my mask off. The metal shell hit the ground hard, pinging off the stone floor and bouncing behind some boxes. "Jesus." I backed up until I hit a wall. "Where are you, come on!" I jumped up with my rifle in hand. "I'll bash your head in!"

"Hello?" An unfamiliar voice came from my side as the room lit up. "Who's down there!?"

I held my breath as a strange set of feet started down the stairs to my left.

That's not where those stairs were.

I turned and backed away slowly. The light turned the unseen room into a stuffed basement with boxes and crates stacked all around. I patted down my empty holster, secretly hoping my pistol would magically reappear. "Come on, I dare you to come down here--"

"Who's talking? Bell? That you?" The noise got closer, a horse with a lantern around its neck peeked down into the basment.

I felt my skin warm as the horse walked down. "Oh...thank god." I let my rifle hang against my stomach. "Hey girl-" I made my way over. The horse just stood stock still. "-little one, aren't--"

The horse let out a strange gasp and backed up against the wall. "No no no! No!" He shook his head hard. "Please don't kill me! Just get out!"

I didn't notice I was shaking until my vision rattled around. "What the fuck, what the hell!?" I raised my rifle up and held it over my head. "You back the hell up! Freak!"

The horse shook his head hard. "No no no--"

"Shut up!" I backed up, taking a quick look around the room. A busted mirror sat broken on the ground, but other than that this must have just been a devil horse. "You understand me?"

The horse nodded. "Yeah, yes, just stay calm!"

"Put the lantern on the ground and get in a corner!" I brought my rifle into position against my shoulder, they didn't need to know it didn't work. "I said put the lantern on the god damn--"

The horse let out a horrid cry and threw it off his neck. "There!"

I flexed my fingers around my rifle and pointed it away from the stairs. "Over there and count to one-hundred!"

The pony bolted away from the stairs and behind a set of boxes. "One--two--three...."

I sidestepped over to the stairs, scooping up the lantern and letting it hang against a notch in my vest. The smell of sawdust came down as I hurried up the stairs. "You move you're dead!" Another empty threat, but it seemed to hit the pony hard enough to get a whimper.

I hit the top of the stairs, the burned out house I had entered was no longer burned and wasn't covered with melting snow and slush. The cold air in the room felt like a summer day compared to the blazing icy chill I'd left just minutes ago.

My skin crawled as I slid across the wall, leaving a smudgy ash stain as I moved towards the end of the hall. "...Yeah so I didn't even get a chance to--" Another horse stopped talking as I stepped in.

I put my finger to my lips as the mare stared at me. "Keep quiet." I was obviously seeing thing, but it couldn't hurt to tell my hallucinations to shut up.

The pony just sat there shell shocked, mouth agape, another pony sharing the same look as I maneuvered my way to the door. "Head trauma...must be." I pushed the door open with my foot and kept my gun trained on the horses. "Makes sense, unless I'm de--deaahhh." I went dumb as the overcast sky over St. John's turned into a slightly cloudy winter morning, complete with castle hanging overhead.

My body started shaking hard enough to make my rifle rattle. "What the fuck!?" I looked around, horses were slowly gathering up around me, keeping about two meters back. My body was shaking so violently everything on me rattled or jingled.

I felt something press against my back. "Hey...you alright little guy--"

I swung my entire body around, leading with the back of my hand. I caused a satisfying crack as my arm swung right into the jaw of one of the horse people. "Back off!" I hopped back, my arm throbbing from the sudden beat down.

The crowd let out a collective scream and started bolting away like a star burst. The pony I'd struck was out like a light, laying flat with his eyes open and mouth running some unheard call for help. The screaming overshadowed it all, shrill and piercing. I needed to move, I had one wall to my side and that wasn't going to cut it if I was going to get swarmed.

I stepped over the groggy horse and took off down the smooth stone walkway. The roads were cobblestone, the paths were some kind of stone or concrete, the buildings were tall and ornate, and that castle that loomed overhead was harrowing. I needed to get safe, I needed to find out where I was and what happened.

"Hey stop!" A sharp angry voice growled from above. A grey bird was hovering over me, slowly turning into a horse as my eyes adjusted. "Stay where you are!"

"Holy shit they can fly!" My voice was wrought with fear, more of a squeal than a shout. "Piss off!"

"Hold it!" Another horse in gold blocked off one side of the street, then another my escape, and another until I was surrounded completely and utterly.

I held my rifle low as they slowly tightened up around me. "You wanna go!? I've got nowhere to run!"

A brave one charged at me dead on. I swung my rifle at him, catching him in the side of the head and knocking his helmet off. "Vicious animal!" Some pony screamed, another rush landing against my side and leaving me stumbling.

I pushed back, trying to dig my heels in. "Try me! I'm not afraid to die!" I shoved back, catching another flying horse to the back, the collective weight of my gear and the ponies slowly tipped me over until I was left splayed out on the ground. "Get off me you freaks!" I swung my elbow back, nailing one of the guards over the head. "Off me!"

"Knock him out!"

"Spanner, do it!"

I looked up, a gold armored one with a grey coat was slowly lowering his head to me. "Don't you touch me! Animals! All of you--"

My brain shut down, my world went dark. I felt so tired, nothing was going to keep me awake. I was done. Next Chapter: Fear Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 14 Minutes