AFTER SLEEPING for several hours, Bella groggily lifted herself from the cold ground, and immediately, she felt like the weight of her head would slam her back down. She let out an involuntary groan, suffering from the intense pounding at the base of her skull, and her fingers flew up to touch the dried vomit at the corner of her lips.

She looked up with glazed eyes at Cole, who was sitting across from her. His iced eyes were trained on her, his head was tilted back and his eyebrows were knitted together.

"What?" Bella asked him, her eyes squinting as a result of her overwhelming headache.

"Nothing," he shook his head.

Bella noticed Elliot leaning against Cole, his growing blonde hair falling in front of his closed eyes as he slept. Bella noticed that he seemed to be sleeping a lot lately, and it worried her.

"What happened?" Bella asked, straining her mind to recollect any memories from the night before but to no avail - she only remembered walking out of the bathroom upstairs.

Cole chuckled under his breath and shook his head again.

"Tell me," Bella demanded, pressing her palm against her forehead and resting her elbow on her knee. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he took a deep breath.

"Uh," he exhaled, "Well, you were on top of me for a good amount of time."

Bella winced and tilted her head down, attempting to hide her flushed face.

"You scared Elliot, you told me about your mom cheating on your dad," Cole continued to explain bluntly. "And you were basically saying that The Bitch and her fucked up boyfriend aren't so bad. You were acting just like her."

Bella swallowed, the sides of her dried throat sticking together as she stared at the floor and played with the hem of her new dress.

"Her boyfriend could be used to our advantage," Bella spoke, her voice low but Cole seemed to hear her words.

"How? He's done nothing but-"

"Just listen!" Bella exclaimed as loudly as she could without waking Elliot. Her skull continued to ache in desperation with each word she spoke, but she ignored the intense throbbing. "He said he would do anything for me."

Cole furrowed his eyebrows and looked away, his shoulders tensing. "Did... he didn't... touch you at all, did he?" Cole asked, his deep voice strained and filled with discomfort.

Bella shook her head gently. "No, and I don't think he will-"

The door flung open, the doorknob slamming into the drywall so hard it almost cracked beneath the force. Mommy stood at the doorway, contused circles surrounding the lower area of her wrinkled, tiny eyes as she stared between Cole, Elliot and Bella.

Bella wondered if she was going to punish her for vomiting on the ground, and for being in the room after they were supposed to be separated. She ducked her head down and refused to make eye contact with Mommy, but she could feel those terrifying, beady eyes staring her down.

"Would you look at that, the slut's first hangover," Mommy said, chuckling lightly afterwards.

Bella slowly brought her eyes to look at Mommy, who had her fingers laced together and a large, yellow grin flashing between her lips. She was clad in baggy sweatpants and a large sweatshirt that hung off of her thin and tall body - it was the first time she wasn't wearing a dress.

"You," Mommy pointed a thin and bony finger at Cole, "Come here, now."

Bella watched as Cole hesitantly moved away from Elliot, making Elliot stir and slowly blink his eyes open to watch Cole try standing without the use of his arms. Elliot's hands instinctively reached out to latch onto Cole's leg, but Cole just looked down at the small boy.

"It's okay, Buddy," he comforted Elliot quietly, and Elliot slowly detached himself from Cole, his lips pouting.

Cole tiredly trudged towards Mommy, most likely too exhausted to bother arguing or disobeying.

Mommy's eyes shifted to Bella. "You too," she ordered.

Bella looked at Elliot, who stared back at her with huge eyes that were clearly terrified to be in the room alone.

"W-why?" Bella asked quietly, but she stood shakily to her feet, nonetheless, almost falling over in the process. She didn't want to disobey but she also didn't want to leave Elliot.

"Don't question me," Mommy said sternly through gritted teeth, staring at Bella as she moved beside Cole. She gestured for them to move out of the room, and Bella noticed that Cole was staring at Elliot with a worried expression in his eyes.

"Can I come?" Elliot asked in a tiny voice, standing to his feet and practically running towards the door.

Mommy slammed it in his face, and almost instantly, the three of them heard the small, scared boy wailing from behind the door. Cole's shoulders dropped at the unsettling sound as Mommy walked across the small basement corridor and into the cluttered bathroom.

She shoved Cole inside so roughly that he almost fell to the ground.

He stumbled but collected his balance as he mumbled very softly under his breath, "Cagna ubriaca. Calmati."

Mommy ignored him and brought her thin fingers to touch the small of Bella's back as she moved her into the bathroom as well, but not as roughly as she did Cole. Bella stepped beside him in confusion, anticipating what Mommy was going to make them do.

Almost instantly, she noticed clothes sitting in a pile on top of the dirty sink, and a razor with shaving cream sitting beside the clothes.

"Clean him up, little whore, you must be trained," Mommy demanded, gesturing to the razor, "And get his face shaved. He is starting to look like his father. His hands will not be released, as the last time I released him, he showed that he could not be trusted."

'You must be trained'? Bella didn't know what to make of Mommy's words, and felt almost immediate fear of the meaning behind her statement.

Mommy slipped her finger through a strap on Bella's dress and pulled her closer, her face moving so close to Bella's that she could smell the cigarettes and liqueur on her hot breath as it invaded the air surrounding them.

"That razor will not be used to hurt yourself or him, because if it is used incorrectly, you do not want to know what will happen to your little brother," Mommy licked her lips, a deceiving glint in her dark eyes. "Got it?"

Bella just stared up at her, a mixture of fear and hatred in her expression.

"I will see you in ten minutes, and he better look handsome by the time I return," Mommy explained, releasing Bella and walking towards the doorway. She stopped and flashed a small smile at Bella. "Thank you, Sweetheart."

Bella recoiled in confusion, and she heard Cole inhale sharply before Mommy slammed the bathroom door.

"That was cute," Cole remarked, and Bella turned to him, her palm pressed against her clammy forehead again.

"Please get undressed," Bella demanded quietly, still shaken up from Mommy's previous statement. "I just want this to be over with."

"Of course, let me just undress myself," Cole said sarcastically, lifting both of his shoulders to show that his hands were firmly restricted behind his back.

"I'm not taking your clothes off," she told him, shaking her head. "It's not happening."

Cole sighed, "'Guess she should get you drunk again first, then you wouldn't have to even think twice about it."

Bella rolled her eyes and and moved behind him, her trembling fingers working to untie the fastened knot confining his wrists. The rope fell to the ground and she picked it up, glancing at the doorway every few seconds to make sure Mommy wasn't peeking in.

Blood was dripping to the floor from the bloodstained rope, and she couldn't stop staring at the torn, bleeding flesh of Cole's wrists as he started unbuttoning his pants. Bella turned away from him and stared at the wooden door, her eyes drifting towards every line and crack in the old wood.

She noticed a dark crack near the doorknob that was so wide and deep, it went all the way through the wood to the other side. Bella squinted her eyes, moving closer to the door as she saw a sparkle on the other side that confused and interested her.

That was when she realized that the sparkle was from an eye, an eye that was dark and staring inside at them.

Mommy's eye.