Tasam1075 requested: How about 'arsonist - seriously off the rails Scott'
Lucy having to somehow pick up the pieces of the catastrophic aftermath
Maybe if Lucille had known it was a problem, she could have put a stop to it before it got so out of hand.
Perhaps then she wouldn't be racing home right now towards smoke and flashing lights.
It all started with curiosity. Her eldest was a very curious child, always asking her what things were and what they did. She was used to him following her around, practically clinging to her and trying to get involved in everything.
There was one day when he was about four. He was playing on the floor of the living room, whilst Lucille lit a candle to freshen the place up.
As she lit the match, a small voice suddenly spoke from her side.
"What's that?" Scott asked in his usual curious voice when he was trying to learn more about the world.
"A candle. It's to make the room smell nice. This one is apparently meant to smell like lavender," she explained as she set the wick ablaze and blew the match out. She had assumed Scott had been asking about the candle, and hadn't realised that his eyes had been fixed on the match this whole time.
She placed the candle on a shelf out of her son's reach and put the matches away. The afternoon continued whilst Scott played and Lucille tried to get some work done, until it was time to grab her son a snack.
She only left the room for a moment to head to the kitchen.
When she got back, it was to the sight of Scott standing on a cabinet, trying to reach for the shelf she had left the candle on.
"Scott!" She dropped the juice box in fright, and Scott froze for a brief moment, before he clambered down.
"You could have been hurt. What were you doing?" She quickly looked him over, but he was fine. He was staring down at the floor guiltily, and Lucille felt her pounding heart start to calm down. She had found him before he'd fallen, everything was alright.
She looked up at the candle on the shelf and then back down at her son, and realisation dawned on her.
"Oh, you wanted to smell it? Is that it?"
Hesitantly, Scott nodded, his eyes still on the ground. Although, he started to lift his head as Lucille moved over to get the candle from the shelf.
She blew the flame out and waited for the melted wax to cool off before she held the candle out to her son. Scott glanced up at her, before he slowly gave it a sniff.
He didn't really seem to be interested for long, as he soon turned away and went back to his game, although more half-heartedly than before.
Lucille just put his behaviour down to getting into trouble, so she put the candle back where it was. She didn't bother to light it again as it had been burning for a while, and the smell of flowers filled the room. Then, she picked up the abandoned juice box and handed it to her son, hoping it would lighten his mood as she got back to work.
There were other instances, later on. Nothing that gave her reason to be concerned. There were days in the winter when they lit the fireplace, where he would sit on the carpet and watch it for hours. She would just drape a blanket over his shoulders and give him a hot chocolate, and then wait until he had tired himself out before she put him to bed.
Another time, she had searched the whole house and found no sign of her eldest. It wasn't until she stepped outside to look around, when she heard movement and saw a small light coming from the barn.
She pushed open the barn doors, and found him perched on a hay bale, a lighter in his hand that he constantly flicked on and off.
"What are you doing?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
The sight was just like one a few years ago. A son caught in the act, except this time instead of freezing on the spot, Scott jumped in shock.
The lighter flew out of his hand and bounced off the floor, catching a few stray pieces of hay.
The ground lit up, and it was Lucille's fast reflexes that stopped the whole barn going up. She stomped on the flames before they had a chance to grow much more than a small flicker.
When the adrenaline had worn off, she turned back to her son. Scott had leaped up from his spot, but hadn't dared move. He at least had the decency to look guilty.
"Where did you get this from?" She picked up the lighter from the ground. She immediately recognised it as Jeff's, but wanted to hear it from Scott.
"Dad's office." He looked down at his feet, and Lucille was reminded of a four year old who just wanted to smell a candle, though now she was wondering if it was more than that.
"You know how dangerous these are, don't you?"
A small nod.
"You're lucky I found you before you did any serious damage."
Another nod. Then, a cheeky smile as he raised his head.
"Can I have it back?"
"Absolutely not." Lucille laughed as she pocketed the lighter. She couldn't blame him for trying, he got that from her. "Go and play with your brothers."
Reluctantly, he trudged out of the barn, and Lucille shook her head in amusement. She glanced around the barn to check for anything else, but the charred hay at her feet was the only thing he seemed to have set alight. She left the barn, and the incident was filed away as the behaviour of a young boy growing up, and she forgot about it.
As more time went on and their family grew, Lucille's attention was divided between five boys and a sixth who was away a lot with his work. She tried to keep up with all of them and their antics. They all had differing personalities and interests, some of which were fleeting and some of which stuck throughout the years, but she was learning. She was learning what it was like to bring up children, to find out what they were into.
However, none of her other sons were into anything like how Scott was into fire.
He never stopped. No matter how many times she caught him with a match or a lighter. At one point, she thought maybe her son had got his hands on some cigarettes, so one afternoon when he snuck outside, she followed him.
Expecting to find him sneaking a cigarette out the back of the barn, she was surprised to find him setting alight an old oil drum. Unlike the instances in the past, she didn't make her presence known. She stayed hidden around the side of the barn, and just watched what he did.
But he didn't do anything. He just stood and stared at the flame. He had his back to Lucille, so she couldn't see his face, until he turned just enough for her to catch the smile in the glow of flames.
It made her stomach churn, but she didn't know what to do about it, so she just walked away. She left him to it, and when he got back to the house later, she subtly checked him over for burns. She didn't find anything, except for the lingering smell of ash, so she could at least know he was unharmed by this odd interest of his.
However, that didn't last.
She knew she should have done something about it. She knew that it wasn't a normal obsession to have. But she didn't want to admit it, because she always wanted her image of her perfect little boy, a boy who was not capable of this.
It was a day where she was left home with her boys. Jeff was working late and Alan was sick with a cold, and she'd run out of medicine. It was just a ten minute drive to the nearest pharmacy, and she genuinely thought she could trust her eldest sons to look after her youngest for just the half hour it would take her to run to the store and back.
Just thirty minutes.
Those thirty minutes changed her life.
She was just a few minutes out when she could see the bright light in the distance. It stood out amongst the darkness of the evening, and even in the dark she could see the smoke billowing like a cloud above her.
She could tell where those flames were coming from, and her heart plummeted.
She pushed the car as fast as it would go, and as she got closer she could see the flashing lights. She was only comforted a little by the knowledge that help had already arrived.
She did the worst parking job of her life as she pulled up outside the house, but that was the least of her worries when the house she pulled up to was encased in flames. There were ambulances and fire trucks and so many people dressed in various gear trying to put a stop to her worst nightmare.
Lucille started to run up to the house, but was stopped by a firefighter suddenly in her path.
"Ma'am, you can't go in there." The firefighter gripped onto her arms as she tried to push past him.
"My sons!" She cried, her eyes never leaving the bright, burning house.
"Are those your sons over there?" He pointed towards the back of one of the ambulances.
Lucille looked over to find the familiar mops of black and orange hair.
She didn't even say anything to the fireman before she was running over. Virgil and John were being tended to by the paramedics. Both of them had emergency blankets draped over their shoulders and oxygen masks on their faces. They were both coughing as they gulped in the air.
When Lucille reached them, she caressed both their cheeks as she coaxed them to look up at her. Both their faces were covered in ash that was streaked by tears, and their eyes were filled with worry as they looked up at her, but they were alive.
"My boys," Lucille whispered, feeling relief for a moment, before she looked around. "Where are your brothers?"
She turned around to look at all the people who were running about trying to save their home that was already gone. The thick smell of smoke filled the air, but Lucille barely noticed.
It wasn't long until her eyes landed on Scott. He stood out as being shorter amongst all the adults around him. No one seemed to notice him standing next to one of the fire trucks, watching the house like he did when he held a match.
Something in Lucille stirred, and she marched over to him. When she reached her eldest, she stopped in front of him and grasped his arm, blocking his view of the destruction.
"Did you do this?" There was a fire in her voice not unlike the one roaring behind her.
Scott's eyes were blown wide as he continued to stare ahead. Tears pooled in his eyes, but had yet to spill. He had also been given an emergency blanket, but it had been left forgotten on the ground.
"Why am I even asking," Lucille shook her head in disbelief. "I shouldn't be surprised. All the signs were there. I've been so stupid."
"I-I didn't mean to," Scott finally spoke as the tears finally spilled, joining the grime on his cheeks. "I was only messing around and-"
"And what? You put your brother's lives in danger!" She froze as she realised she still had two sons unaccounted for. She couldn't feel the heat of the fire past the chill in her spine. "Scott, where are Gordon and Alan?"
Scott sobbed, and she could feel him shaking.
"I'm sorry."
Lucille opened her mouth, but before she could say anything else, she heard a commotion come from behind her.
She turned around to find two firefighters emerging from the blaze, both holding little bundles in their arms. The firefighters were yelling to the paramedics, who came over with two stretchers.
As the two boys were placed on a stretcher, both hacking up harsh coughs that made Lucille wonder if they could even breathe through it, she forgot about Scott for a moment.
She hurried over to them as they were wheeled towards the ambulances, getting a look at both her youngest. Someone had already given them oxygen masks, which looked too large on their small faces. Their clothes were burnt and Lucille feared what kind of injuries they had, what all her sons had, but they were alive and that was all she could ask for in that moment.
"We need to get them to the hospital," one of the paramedics told her as her sons were loaded into the ambulances.
Lucille might have nodded, but she was in shock as she tried to process everything that was happening, so wasn't sure. Her world was being turned upside down, all at the hand of her son.
Virgil and John were guided into the same ambulance as Gordon, leaving Lucille to ride with Alan. But before she could join her son, there was still one more unaccounted for.
She found Scott standing a short distance away, hesitant to get any closer. Lucille did not have the time or energy to deal with him right now, so she just grasped his arm and pulled him into the back of the ambulance with her.
Scott didn't resist or say anything, and it was in his best interest to do so. Lucille didn't know what she would say to him if he tried to argue, but she would probably regret it later once she had calmed down and knew all her sons were okay.
However, she knew that they would be dealing with this later. Scott was not going to get away with this. That she knew for sure.