The fire suddenly erupted, engulfing the science block behind the roaring flames. Thick clouds of smoke rose from the building, straight upwards to the sky. The flames followed and grew, devouring as they went. They could only stare, immobilised. The ceiling of the labs collapsed; bits of wall falling outside, tumbling down in fiery arcs. Gradually the whole top floor disintegrated into flames and broken pieces. It had a strange sort of beauty as the colours flickered, but also a way of producing a fear that kept you rooted to the spot and staring.

Yasmin covered her eyes. She could feel herself trembling like a leaf in the wind. She'd always been scared of fire, but this inferno had terrified her with the realisation that there were probably no firefighters at all anywhere that could help them. The blaze filled her mind even as the fire died down, her world just herself and the hungry flames. Closing her eyes didn't help, she could hear the crackling and the splitting of the labs, just across the central school courtyard from where they were.

"Yasmin! Are you okay?" Someone was calling to her, but they seemed distant, the fire close to her and coming closer…

"Hey! Yasmin! You've gone all… weird. Get a grip, it's just the old science building. It's miles away, we're fine here." Yasmin shook her head at the comment, the rest of her still shaking.

"Laura, she hates fire, remember? She's totally terrified right now." Another voice.

A third voice now, the fire seeming almost blocked by the talking and comforting surrounding her. Almost. "Do you remember that time we lit candles in primary school? She had to leave the room. This fire, in comparison… we should get her away from it."

"Great idea," said the second voice sarcastically. "How, exactly, are you planning on doing that?"

Yasmin couldn't hear the fire any more. She opened her eyes cautiously, and looked at the worried circle surrounding her. "I...I'm fine. Really. Just give me a minute", she stuttered.

"Are you sure? You don't look great."

"Yeah… really, I am." She raised her head, took a deep breath, tried to stop shaking. Just a fire...

The explosive fire had almost burnt out, but it was clear the science block was never going to recover. Blackened twisted pieces of wreckage had fallen from it, and several smaller fires that had fallen away from the labs were still burning. Elizabeth turned to Aaron. "It looks bad… there's still a lot of smoke. I think something behind the science block is still burning."

"Yeah, looks like it. I'm going to check it out."

"I'll go, too. It doesn't take this many of us to help Yasmin recover from her phobia." They walked off, towards where smoke was rising into the air behind the blackened remains of the science block, where the library was.