POV: Liam

The fire started in the middle of the third period. One second, Mrs. Patterson was writing calculus equations on the whiteboard. The next, the trash can in the corner burst into flames, no smoke, no spark, just instant fire that roared up like someone had doused it in gasoline.

Students screamed. The fire alarm shrieked. We evacuated into the parking lot while firefighters rushed in, only to find the fire had extinguished itself as mysteriously as it had started.

"Electrical malfunction," Principal Winters announced an hour later. But I'd seen the trash can. There were no outlets nearby, no wiring, nothing that could explain spontaneous combustion. That was...