BELLA FLINCHED at the sound of the whip hitting Cole's lower stomach. He winced, and let out a small grunt in pain, but had no energy to beg for mercy any longer as a thick, red line appeared across his abdomen.

Tears stung Bella's eyes as she stared down at Cole, who was slowly dying in front of her. She sniffled while Cole blinked up at her.

"Do what you have to," he mumbled quietly, making her heart break in half. "Please, please tell my mother I love her when you get out. 'Ti amo, Mamma', please say that to her."

Bella's bottom lip quivered. "'Ti amo, Mamma'?" she repeated in a mere whimper.

Cole nodded, his bloodshot eyes closing.

Bella didn't want to do this. But she had no choice, as the silver blade of the knife slowly dragged along the delicate skin of his neck. She slid it beneath his Adam's Apple, which bobbed against it as she struggled to gain the courage to swipe it across his throat.

"Just do it," he begged through gritted teeth.

Mommy giggled from beside Bella, her small eyes trained on the blade that played along his gentle flesh.

"He needs to die," Mommy cooed, teasing the whip along the edge of his waistband. Cole squirmed at the feeling and shook his head slightly, the leather tormenting his sensitive skin.

"Why?" Bella asked quietly. "I thought you loved him, he is your son-"

"I love him too much," Mommy replied gently, her eyes glittering she stared down at him. "He's my husband, after all."

Bella took a deep breath, noticing that Mommy's disorientation with reality switched on and off.

Cole wasn't safe with Mommy - the best way to end his suffering would be to take him out of his misery, and that comforted Bella.

"Goodbye, Cole," Bella said through an unexpected sob, tears flying down her cheeks at a rapid pace as she pressed a little farther down against him.

Her fingers were shaking, the damned blade practically vibrating against his skin. She had to do it for her father - she needed to see him.

"I- I- can't," Bella said shakily, trying to blink away her clouded vision and the way her sticky, wet eyelashes stuck together. Her eyes were stinging and her nose was running, but Mommy was clearly growing impatient behind her.

"Kill him before I kill you!" Mommy screamed into her ear, startling both Bella and Cole. "Hurry!"

Bella closed her eyes and took a deep, trembling breath, allowing her lungs to overflow with the dreaded air of Mommy's house. Her fingers gripped the blade and she prepared herself, successfully steadying her breath and vision.

"Goodbye," she said one last time. "I am so, so, sorry..."

And she did it.

Blood splattered across her face, cascading down her fingers that were slipping around the base of the knife as she held it in Mommy's neck.

Thin, cold fingers latched onto Bella's neck and she gasped for air, her eyes widening in desperation. She wrapped her fingers around Mommy's and tried desperately to pry them off, but to no avail, her fingers were stuck on her neck.

Mommy's eyes were rolling back in her head and her cracked lips were parted to take in as much air as possible, her yellow teeth gritted together. The sight was absolutely horrifying, and Bella was sure it would be engraved in her mind for the rest of her life.

Bella's mind was fogging and her skull was aching at the edges, black dots lining the sides of her vision as she ripped the crimson covered knife from Mommy's neck.

"I win," Mommy said one last time, her voice hardly escaping her lips.

Mommy immediately fell to the floor, blood pooling around Bella's knees and the dirty mattress on the ground. Bella had just killed somebody, and she couldn't stop her entire body from trembling and seizing as she stood to her shaky feet.

"C-C-ole..." Bella whispered, tears staining her cheeks as she looked down at him and saw his eyes closed.

The fabric around his wound was entirely black from the heavy amounts of blood pouring from him, but the blood was still flowing, and Bella knew that was a good sign.

"You- you- you're n-not going to d-die, we-we'll be okay n-now," Bella croaked, her words filled with pure fear.

She reached underneath Cole's arms again and lifted him, dragging him off the mattress. Her breath was heavy and the front of her skull held a continuous ache but she knew that it was now or never. Cole was minutes from dying and he needed help.

Out of breath, she groaned and grunted, trying to drag him up the stairs. "Stick with me, Cole, p-please," she cried out.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she pulled him up with a heavy moan and left his body beside Sir's. Shaking, she searched the house for a phone desperately, before suddenly, burning acid came rising up her throat and splattering on the counter in front of her.

She continued vomiting, to the point where her eyes were stinging and her throat was on fire.

"You killed me, my daughter," Bella heard Mommy's high and gravelly voice directly in her ear.

"I killed you because of Cole, I killed you for him!" Bella repeated, wiping her eyes frantically as she continued to scour for a phone.

"I was the only one that ever loved you, and you betrayed me. I loved you with my life, I trusted you-" Mommy's nagging voice continued.

Bella found the cream coloured phone on the wall and ripped it off the hanger, dialing the '9'.

"Look at what you're doing- now you are exposing me-"

"-Get out!" Bella cried, slamming her fists against her head. "Get out! You needed to die!" She got to the '1'.

"-As if I was never your mother, as if I haven't given you life and provided you shelter-"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Bella pleaded, her voice breaking.

"Cole will never love you the way I did. Your father will never love you the way I did. I was the only one that ever loved you, from the second you were born-"

"It's not true! You aren't my mother!" Bella screamed at the top of her lungs, her bloodshot eyes burning as she stared at Cole's helpless body. "He needs help!"

"You're a murderer. You murdered me. You took my life away from me, before I had a chance to get better," Mommy's voice lingered, and Bella put her head in her arms and bellowed a loud and echoing screech.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry!" Bella's heart raced as she confessed to Mommy's ghostly figure, standing right before her eyes.

And she dialed the last '1'.

A dull ringing, before an operator picked up.

"Hello, 911, what is your emergency?"

Bella dropped the phone. She reached her blood-stained fingers up, wiped the blood splatters off of the side of her face as she walked away from the phone, which hung from the receiver and rocked back and forth.

"Hello? Hello?" she heard from the phone.

"I killed somebody!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, her heart racing in her chest as the image of Mommy would not go away.

Bella stepped over Sir's body, then Cole, and walked over to the basement door. She walked down the stairs, each step carefully, individually, one-by-one.

She walked over to the room on the right, spotted Mommy's body on the ground, and walked over to it.

She stared down at the lifeless body of the woman who tortured her, tormented the two boys who also happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She knelt beside Mommy, glided her blood-stained fingers against Mommy's cold and skinny face that held a specific beauty that Bella couldn't understand in that moment.

Guilt flooded Bella's emotions. She took a life, a human life. Despite everything Mommy had put them through, she couldn't help the bone-crushing ache in the pit of her chest.

Her mind felt foggy as she stared at the red-hued flesh of her fingertips. What had she done?