Luke saw a snake eat a bird once. He saw a classmate accidentally light his own hair on fire and do it again an entire week later. He saw the sky go dark in the middle of the day when the Moon passed in front of the Sun in 1950. But he had never, ever, been more surprised as he was when he saw Tasi run in from his peripheral vision and body-slam Tally off of the desk.

Luke processed it all in slow-motion. He watched Tasi's face twist with rage and fear, and he saw Tally's neutral expression fade and be taken over by surprise. He saw her putting her hands out to protect herself from the fall while Tasi was already running away. He saw his handgun slide off the desk and scatter across the floor. And then he suddenly felt his chair give away underneath him, and he fell backwards then sideways. The ropes suddenly felt loose, and he wiggled out of them. Tasi used one hand to yank him up and the other to help Elsie.

And the moment he was standing, he saw Tally raising her shotgun. He and Elsie rushed her at the same time; it seemed they were both either playing hero or certain they would die, so why make it easy for her? The shotgun was forced upwards, and instead of pulling the trigger into the ceiling, Tally shoved Elsie aside, sending her stumbling to the floor. She tried to aim at Tasi, but Luke forced the barrel upwards again at the same time Tally pushed him away, and the result was her losing her grip on the shotgun, it falling, and both of them staggering apart.

His head was throbbing. He knew the lobby wasn't actually swirling; he was only seeing it that way. 

Instead of diving for either of the guns, Tally reached into her pocket and took out a lighter. When Tasi screamed for her not to do it, that it could kill all of them, Tally sparked it and let it fall to the ground.

The gasoline-soaked lobby erupted into flames. 

Luke was just registering that his left shoe was on fire when Tally closed both hands around his throat and starting walking him backwards. He grabbed her wrists, trying and failing to loosen her grip. Tasi had raced behind the reception desk and was now running around maniacally with the extinguisher, eyes alight with panic just as the lobby was alight with fire. Elsie was getting to her feet, cringing away from the flames and trying to find a free spot.

Luke rammed his head into Tally's, seeing a new eruption of spots in his vision but finally loosening her grip on his neck, too. He grabbed her hands and tried to pin them behind her, but she kicked him in the knee, and they both lost balance, falling over. The good thing about rolling around on the ground during the fight was that his shoe was no longer on fire, and the bad thing was that Tally seemed hell-bent on dragging him right into the flames again. He let go of her, intending to back off, but she only started hitting him, so he hit her back. They kicked each other around until Luke was pushed up near the same step Tasi had been told to wait on, and he couldn't get away. The shotgun was only a few feet to his side, he realized, but well out of his reach.

Smoke was filling the air. The Paradise Hotel and its inhabitants were all falling apart. It was a misnomer, in his opinion. Hell Hotel didn't have a welcoming ring to it, but it made much, much more sense.

At the exact time Luke wondered where Elsie had gone, and he hoped she had run out the door to save herself, she materialized nearby. He caught her eye, and she screamed, "Watch out!" and then disappeared behind the Christmas tree.

Luke guessed what she was about to do and made one last desperate attempt to get away before it happened. He grabbed Tally's arm and squeezed, digging his thumb right through the gauze and deep into the bullet wound. He felt his nail scratch against bone, and Tally screamed, rearing back just enough for him to crawl away.

And Elsie pushed the Christmas tree.

The tall, great loblolly pine, heavily adorned with ornaments and lights and tinsel and not one, not two, but multiple angels, came crashing down. Luke was already in the clear, and so it fell only onto Tally with a cacophony of broken branches and shattered glass. She screamed again and furiously fought against her prison.

Luke grabbed the shotgun. It didn't matter that he couldn't see well or aim well because he was standing right above her. Animalistic fury overtook Tally, and she snapped through the branches and lunged up for him, and he shot her right in the face.