The Truth (Mommy's House 2)

Part Fourteen

"Hi, buddy, we're so happy to have you here with us today," I said quietly, watching Elliot shade a colouring book page with red crayon.

Elliot looked up at me and Liv, before giving us a smile and continuing to colour the picture of an elephant.

It was a few days after Elliot was discharged from the hospital, and we all felt that he was in a well enough state of mind to ask him some questions. Though, Liv and I were nervous about what we were going to hear, as the boy was only seven years old.

"His name's Rusty," Elliot said suddenly.

"Uh, who?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

Elliot pointed to his picture. "The elephant. See, he's a red elephant."

"That's a very lovely picture, Sweetheart," Liv said, placing a cold cup of water in front of Elliot as well as a package of cookies.

"Do you have a Smurfs colouring book instead? My favorite colour is blue," Elliot asked, but we both shook our heads.

"Sorry, Elliot, we only have the jungle one you have now," Liv apologized.

"We just have a few questions to ask you, Elliot. Is that all right with you? You can continue colouring if you would like," I told him, and Elliot nodded, his dark eyes blinking up at me.

"We noticed that you were quite excited to see Cole the other day," Liv pointed out while tying her hair back into a low ponytail.

"Yes, I think Cole is my best friend!" Elliot said with a dimpled grin.

I chuckled, adjusting my glasses on the bridge of my nose. "But we also noticed that you didn't seem too fond of Bella at first."

"Fond of?" Elliot tilted his head.

"Ah, it seemed like you didn't like her, I meant," I corrected myself.

"Yeah," Elliot exhaled. "I was scared."

"Why is it that you are... afraid of Bella?" Liv asked, tilting her head to the side as she watched the innocent child in front of her.

"Well..." Elliot started, looking up in thought. "Can you keep a secret?"

I looked at Liv before turning back to Elliot, tapping my fingers on the shiny wooden table.

"Of course we can keep a secret," I gave him a fake smile, trying to hold back my fear towards his question. "All of this is top secret information."

"Okay... Cole told me something," Elliot said, looking up at me and Liv.

"What's that?" Liv asked, leaning a bit closer.

Elliot took a deep breath. "Cole told me that Bella was put under a spell. Like my favorite episode of The Smurfs, there was a wizard! Well, he said that the scary lady was a wizard and just put Bella under a spell and made her hurt him! So I'm not very scared of her anymore!"

I was relieved that it wasn't anything too disturbing. My heart filled with warmth. That would explain the sudden shift in Elliot's demeanor when he saw Bella several days before.

"You have a good relationship with Cole, don't you?" Liv asked gently, with a smile in her tone.

Elliot nodded his head. "At first, Cole wasn't very nice. But I always felt upset because he would be so hurt by the wizard lady. Then, he started to like me more and be nice to me."

"This wizard lady..." I started, "did she ever touch you?"

Elliot furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. "She punched my eye. Be-be-because.. because Cole was being hurt! And I said stop and she... she punched my eye, like this," he pretended to punch his eye lightly, making a sound effect as he did so.