Chapter 5

AN: Didn't have the heart to leave you guys hanging for too long – here's the next chapter.

oooooooo

Winry's eyes remained closed, her nerves drawn as taut as violin strings. Envy's hands moved across her body and she squirmed, trying to sink into the mattress. Not this, not this...anything but this...

She heard the door open and cringed at the thought of someone walking into her degradation. But the intrusion seemed to have earned her a temporary respite – Envy had ceased his assault, presumably to give his attention to whoever had just walked in.

"Why Envy, I never knew you had such a malicious streak in you." The voice was female, and eerily familiar. Winry couldn't place it, but she was certain she'd heard it before. It wasn't enough to induce her to open her eyes, though.

"What the hell do you want?" Envy growled.

His fingers tightened, digging ruthlessly into the flesh of her thighs. Winry refused to wince.

"Master wants you to join us. We need to create the Red Water as quickly as possible."

'Red Water?' Winry thought, bewildered. Something about the way she said it made Winry imagine 'Red Water' with capital letters.

"Not now," Envy huffed, "I'll come when I'm done with Fullmetal's whore."

Again, Winry stiffened with indignation at the derogatory nickname. She still didn't open her eyes though. Not so much out of fear, more out of the feeling that she was defying him by refusing to acknowledge him.

"Now," the mysterious woman repeated.

A hissing sigh ghosted across her cheek. Winry clenched her jaw and held perfectly still, again for the feeling of petty resistance.

"Fine," Envy snarled, "Be there in a moment, just let me take care of her."

"Envy..."

"Just tying her up! No need to get so damn tetchy!"

"It seems to me as though she's already tied."

Envy's laugh was cruel, and Winry fought the urge to whimper in fear. "I think she needs to be a little more secure."

The door closed, and Winry's eyes flew open. Envy had leaned in so close their noses almost brushed, and terror paralysed Winry's limbs.

"You're smart," he continued, "I saw the pen nibs on the floor. I think you need a bit more than just immobilised hands to keep you in line."

He laid one hand on her stomach, holding her in place despite her frantic kicks, and with the other he tore one of the silken hangings from the bed.

Envy flipped her onto her stomach and she kicked again, craning her head over her shoulder to try to give her blows some aim, however skewed. More by luck than design, her heel caught his jaw, snapping his head to the side. Winry felt a brief flash of satisfaction – it was the first time any of her attacks had made any sort of impression.

Triumph morphed into alarm when Envy seized her ankle and began to twist it savagely. Winry smothered a yelp, her back arching as she fought not to scream.

"That wasn't very nice," Envy said mildly. His face was calm, but his eyes oozed malevolence as continued to ruthlessly grind the bones beneath his hand. "I should teach you some manners."

Winry bit into the pillow to stifle any cries she might let slip. She was grimly determined not to scream. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Another jerk brought tears of pain to her eyes – he had to be inches away from snapping her ankle!

To her surprise, his grip slackened. So great was her relief, that at first Winry didn't notice the cloth that whispered around her ankles, until Envy yanked it tight. She kicked again, but with her feet bound together, the movement was cumbersome and slow.

Envy wasn't finished. Winry felt him grab her feet and force them upward, towards her bound wrists. Another rip, and she could see two more silk hangings fall into Envy's hands. She tried to twist away from him, but his grip tightened remorselessly. She felt the fabric thread between her wrist and ankles, before the tell-tale shifting that told her a knot was being tied.

When he released her, Winry went limp. She wasn't an idiot – she was hog-tied, and in this position, she could do precious little to escape or injure him. She lay still, breathing heavily, trying to conserve her energy.

Then she stiffened as she felt the other hanging encircle her throat. Was he going to throttle her? Terror lending strength to her limbs, Winry thrashed like a hooked fish – wildly, desperately, and in the end, uselessly. The soft material felt like a band of steel across her windpipe, choking off her breath. Unable to put up much of a fight due to the way she was restrained, she craned her head back, trying to let the silk slip over her head. It didn't work – it felt as tight as a gallows rope.

Just as Winry's vision was beginning to blur, the horrific pressure across her throat relaxed. Coughing, gasping and swallowing reflexively, she managed to gather her wits enough to realise that he seemed to have secured the cloth to the cords binding her limbs somehow, she could feel the tension in it's length. She continued to take huge gulps of air, hardly believing she'd come inches away from strangulation.

But when Envy bent over her, she reacted. Winry felt a need to resist in some way, as though to prove even his near-throttling hadn't cowed her.

So as Envy's fingers came within reach, Winry bit him. Again.

This was different from her previous attack. Then, the intention had been to snap and release, to remove the hand across her mouth as swiftly as possible. Now, the intention was to bite and tear, to hurt and damage. Winry felt her incisors break the skin, her jaw beginning to ache as she tried to grind them in ever-deeper.

With a roar of rage and pain, Envy ripped his hand from between her teeth. Winry spat out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, feeling a burst of savage triumph at having finally caused him real damage.

But to her shock, with a small flash of light, the wound closed before her eyes. She saw Envy's hand descend, and there was no way to evade the blow.

The slap split her lip and made her ears ring. The entire side of her face went numb, then began to throb and burn. The blow half-stunned her, and Winry was barely aware when Envy's fingers gripped her jaw and forced her mouth open. Another tearing sound, and she felt silk jammed between her lips, the cloth knotted at the back of her head in a make-shift gag.

"There," Envy smirked, "That should keep those sharp little teeth under control."

Winry glared fiercely, the gag absorbing her insult until 'go to hell' sounded like, "Gro' 'oo eh!"

"Now don't worry," he chuckled, "I'll be back to finish what we started soon enough."

He patted her cheek, more like a slap, then left the room.

The adrenaline pounded through Winry's veins began to die, the fear it had held at bay coming back full force. The realisation of what so nearly happened to her made her shake, silent sobs shuddering through her body. She realised her nose was starting to run and instantly tried to repress her tears. With the gag in her mouth, if her nose ran, she wouldn't be able to breathe.

Winry tried to get herself under control , taking several deep breaths through her nose and firmly telling herself that hysterics wouldn't help. She had to get out of here, and there would be time for a long cry and a healthy mental breakdown as soon as she was free.

When Winry was calm, she reviewed her situation.

She was hog-tied on the bed, with her top pulled up and her pants tugged down. Envy hadn't even bothered to adjust her clothes, and Winry suspected that was partly the point. To leave her tied up, exposed and humiliated. She swallowed away the tightness in her throat.

She knew the ropes were solid, but tested them anyway, trying to stretch and wiggle her limbs.

The cloth around her throat suddenly pulled tight, cutting off her air. Choking at the unexpected attack, Winry began to flail from side to side, trying to loosen the stranglehold. It wasn't working, if anything, it seemed to make it tighter!

Winry forced herself to relax – panicking would simply expend the air in her lungs that much faster. But almost immediately clean, unhindered air began to fill her lungs. A few gasps got her breath back, and now that the struggle was over, she found herself more puzzled than scared.

What had happened?

Testing a hunch, Winry tried to unbend her knees – slowly, this time. She could feel the material around her neck tightening, and stopped immediately. That explained it. Envy had done something to her bonds, she didn't know what, but it ensured that whenever she shifted her limbs the ligature around her neck tightened like a noose.

'Okay,' she thought to herself, trying to quell the urge to panic. 'Okay, you're definitely tied good and tight, but that doesn't mean you can't escape. Where there's a will, there's a way, right? And there's got to be a way out of this. Come on, think! Think, think, think!'

But Winry's options were severely stunted. She couldn't move either arms or legs without risking choking herself, and the gag prevented her from calling for help. And Winry had a feeling she wouldn't get much assistance even if she could cry out. Not in this place.

Blood had crusted on her neck from Envy's earlier bite, drying into an itchy trail on her skin. She could taste more of the red fluid on her tongue, whether from her split lip or when she bit Envy, she couldn't be sure. It slipped around her mouth, leaving a coppery tinge in it's wake.

As though a light had suddenly clicked on in Winry's head, she saw a way of escape.

Her ankles were bound with silk, but her wrists were secured with rough rope. Rope that had already abraded her skin. Winry began to twist her hands again, deliberately scraping the overly-sensitive flesh against the gritty fibers. Pain shot up her arms, and she bit into the gag to help her tolerate it.

If she could make herself bleed, her wrists and hands might be slippery enough to wriggle out of her bonds. It wasn't much of an escape plan, but it was the only thing she could do.

The thought of Envy drove her on. The look in his eyes as he held her down...she never wanted to see that look again, she wanted to be out of the ropes and away from this place before he came back. In spite of her impressive show of courage, he had horrified her.

Winry breathed deeply, sheer willpower overcoming the pain as she continued to scrape her raw skin against the rope. 'Envy thinks this'll hold me? He's never taken on Winry Rockbell before!'