I went flying backwards down the stairs. My shriek of fear got sucked out of me by the ball of flames that suddenly surrounded me. I was certain my life was over, that the fire was caused by a bomb, and the blast would kill me once my body impacted with the floor or the cages below.
Instead, the flames wrapped around me, cushioning me from the outside world. I couldn’t see or hear anything but the sound of the fire consuming all the oxygen around me and the sight of it as it burned bright, keeping a buffer between me and the walls and floor.
Just when I thought my oxygen would run out, I landed on the concrete with a wumph.
The women around me were screaming, and the noise confused me after the strange fireball incident. Pushing myself up from my stomach, which is how I’d landed on the
