This is the last of the shorter chapters. The next are going to be a good bit longer.
This one contains more mature material than the previous, the parts I looked forward to writing the most! (Mwhaha.)
Thank you for reading! I appreciate the reviews I've received!
As usual, let me know what you think!
Envy entered into the hideout. He kicked open the door to the main area, a large room with a circular couch filling most of it. Lust sat on one side, stroking gluttony's head as if he were a cat. Sloth on the other side with Wrath nuzzled up to her side.
"Well aren't we one big, happy, fucking family." Envy dropped Emilee, letting her strike the hard ground with a thump. He sat on the couch, sitting distant from both pairs, but much closer to Lust than Sloth.
"You seem to be in a good mood." Lust laughed. Her hand momentarily paused in it's stroke of Gluttony's bald head. He looked up at her, confused at the break in attention.
Wrath sat up, pulling his head from Sloth's side and eyeing the figure on the ground. "Why's a human here?"
"She's not a normal human." Lust said. Her violet eyes met Envy's. "You can't just leave her there, you know."
"What am I supposed to do with her?" Envy huffed, crossing his arms and slouching deeper into the couch. He looked away from Lust. "I don't understand how she's not a normal human. She's probably the easiest person I've ever kidnapped. If anything, she's weaker and dumber."
Lust smiled. "I don't know why you'd complain about the simplicity of taking a hostage."
"He likes the hunt," Wrath laughed.
"Exactly. For once the kid's not spouting dumb shit."
Wrath frowned and Sloth glared at Envy. She put her arms around the boy pulling him closer.
"Oh, don't fucking coddle him." Envy stomped his foot on the ground and stood. "I'll just go tie her up and leave her in that prison cell. He walked back and lifted the girl by the back of her dress, holding her like a briefcase.
"Why do you underestimate her?" Lust asked, smirking.
"She's a fucking human. Didn't I tell you how easy she was to knock out?"
Lust sighed. "She'll escape if you're so careless."
Envy glared, his eye twitched.
"You saw her perform alchemy. Weren't you paying attention?" She teased.
Envy shrugged.
"She doesn't need to draw a transmutation circle or create one with her hands. She can transmute anything she can see. Cover her eyes. And well." She looked down at Gluttony. "If she has any bit of vision of her surroundings, she can escape."
"Can't we just cut out her eyes?" Envy shook the girl a bit as if trying to knock something out of her clothes. "It'll make it easier to use her as a sacrifice."
"We need her alive and secure, but her eyes are important. Besides." She laughed. "Father doesn't want to use her as a sacrifice."
Envy raised an eyebrow. "Good thing I didn't kill the fullmetal pipsqueak, then."
Lust's eyes narrowed.
Envy smirked, then turned and walked to the door.
"Oh, and keep the light off."
Envy stopped in the doorway and glared at Lust. "You think I can't tie a cloth around someone's fucking eyes?"
Lust shrugged. "Just in case."
Envy walked out of the room. "It'd be easier to just cut out her eyes, you know," he shouted over his shoulder before slamming the door.
Her blue eyes opened slowly. She coughed. She felt dizzy and disoriented. Everything around her was black. Her eyes closed again.
Some time passed and her eyes opened again. Severe coughs rattled her lungs and her head throbbed. It felt as if she had water in her lungs. Had she drowned?
Emilee looked around and saw nothing. Awareness began to return and she realized she was sitting in a chair, wrists tied to the stiles and ankles to the chair legs. Something was on her face, blocking her vision. A bandana?
Memories floated back to her brain. Her mother, no, someone with green hair. He held a cloth over her face and she went unconscious. Her heart picked up speed.
"Help," She screamed, struggling against her binds. She couldn't see. She couldn't perform alchemy. "Someone, please." Tears poured down her cheeks.
How could she be so stupid. Following a stranger down a back alley. What was she even thinking? With each damning thought, her breathing grew harder and rougher and her head throbbed more. She bit her lip in frustration.
Emilee shook her head and took a few deep breaths. "It's okay," she told herself. "That green haired man. He wasn't human. Who would expect such a scenario?
It was true. Who would've anticipated something like that? Who would've figured that someone could change their appearance like that? But still, she felt pathetic and helpless.
She let herself wallow in self-pity for a while before pulling from the perturbing thoughts, finally accepting her situation. She was trapped. She needed to escape. But how?
Emilee looked around, though her vision was completely blocked by the confining cloth. She shook her head, willing the cloth to come loose. Her head dropped when she finally gave up. The violent head shaking accomplished nothing but invoking a return of the dizziness and compounding her headache. All her effort and she still saw nothing but the black material of the cloth.
She froze. "Nothing but the black material of the cloth," her mouth echoed what her mind had uttered. "The black material of the cloth." She began to laugh maniacally. How could she let herself be so overwhelmed to overlook this fact.
What was it made of? Felt like cotton. No, it was polyester.
She stared at the black material and there was a flash of light. It momentarily lit the dark room she was in, exposing the walls and ground to be made of stone. The ceiling had three bulbs dangling, lifeless like corpses. She didn't see the door. Was it behind her?
The knife, composed entirely of polyester, dropped behind her, barely being caught by her right hand. Emilee had compressed it as far as the molecular structure allowed. It created a dense material that wasn't as effective as steel, but still formed an edge sharp enough to slice through the ropes restricting her limbs.
Her fingers rotated the blade and she began to carefully saw through the rope around her right hand. Once that was cut and her right hand was free, she easily cut the ones gripping her left hand and both ankles.
Finally, free from her restraints, she stumbled through the dark with hands outstretched until her fingers met the stone wall. She felt her way along the edge of the room, gasping in relief when her hand found the door. She yanked on the handle but the locked, metal door didn't move. Not even slightly.
Her eyes had begun to adjust to the dark. She could see the surface of the door but stopped herself before deconstructing it. She didn't know what lay outside it. She needed to formulate a plan first. It would help to have some light.
She began feeling the wall on the left side of the door, brushing her hands across the surface. There were lights overhead, how did they turn on? "Where is the light switch?" She whispered, praying it wasn't located outside.
"Looking for this?" A voice teased.
The lights flipped on and she saw the spiky, green haired man facing her from the right side of the door. Before she could react, his hand reached out and grabbed her face. His fingers swiped her eyelids closed and pressed hard, shoving her head to the ground.
A thump vibrated through the room as the back of her head hit the stone floor. She was dazed for a few moments, but rapidly regained awareness. He was straddling her. She squirmed and tried to get out from under him but he was much heavier than he appeared. He held one of her hands down and she tried to force his hand off her eyes with the other. He managed to grab her other hand, holding both down with the same hand. Her legs kicked but made no difference.
He leaned in close to her ear, hot air on her neck. "I can't kill you and I'm not allowed to damage your eyes." He paused a moment, chuckling. "But that doesn't mean I can't hurt you elsewhere."
Emilee's breath caught in her throat.
"I can't let your attempt to escape go unpunished." He warned in a light voice as if she were a small child. He brushed something sharp along her upper arm, dragging it gently down and tickling the skin. "How about we start by cutting into your arms."
He had a hand on her eyes and was holding her arms with another. Emilee's mind raced. Did he have three arms? He was a monster.
He stopped halfway down her forearm and pressed it in harder.
"No, please." She screamed. "Don't!" She felt a sharp pain as the blade pierced the skin. "Stop!"
"Don't stop?" The man laughed maniacally. "I'm happy to oblige." He slowly dragged it up her arm, lengthening the laceration.
Emilee felt blood flow down the sides of her arm and drop to the floor. "No!" She screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The door opened and the man stopped, but left the sharp thing in her arm.
"Envy, what are you doing?" A sultry female voice asked.
"Don't worry about it."
"Help me," Emilee cried. "Please, help."
"That's not how we treat our guests, Envy."
"Guest?"
Emilee could feel her body shake as the man called Envy laughed.
"Why'd you put her in this room? What did you do to her?"
"You told me to put her here," Envy snarled.
"I told you to put her somewhere until she woke up. Not lock her in a prison cell and torture her when she did." The woman's footsteps came closer. "I told you not to hurt her."
"You told me not to damage her eyes, Lust."
He reduced the pressure of the sharp object in her arm. Emilee felt relief even though the lack of pressure caused more blood to stream down her skin.
"Leave. Get out of here." Lust said, her voice irritated.
Envy tsked, pulled the sharp thing from her arm and climbed off her. Her eyes flickered open, just catching a glimpse of his back as he left.
The woman before her was beautiful. The most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. She wore a tight dress revealing cleavage, long gloves, and high-heeled boots. All were a deep black.
She kneeled down to Emilee and helped her sit up. Emilee wrapped her arms around the woman and sobbed into her clothes.
"Thank you," Emilee managed through her tears. "Thank you so much."
The woman pushed Emilee off her a bit and grabbed her arm to examine it. Blood still rolled down it, but had slowed from its original state. "Come, I think we have bandages in the other room."
Emilee followed her down the dim hallway. She remained as close to the woman as possible, constantly looking around in fear that Envy would return. If he did, she wouldn't have long to do any life-saving alchemy.
"What is Envy?" She asked quietly.
"Hmmm?"
"That thing isn't human. He changed his face. That's not normal."
"You could say that he's very excellent at using masks."
Emilee looked incredulous. "That was no mask. How did he even know what my mother looked like?"
"Here, this room has bandages." Lust said, leading the girl into a small bathroom.
Lust shut the door to the room. leaving Emilee placing pressure on the laceration. She stepped far back from the room and approached a very pissed of Envy who leaned against the wall down the hallway.
"What the fuck was that, Lust?"
"Sorry, Envy." Lust sighed. "I needed to get her on our side. I knew you'd do something like this."
Envy rolled his eyes.
"If I let you watch her, I could save her." She grinned. "Now, we don't have to worry about her trying to escape."
"You are evil." Envy laughed a moment but then his face scrunched in anger again. "But you aren't allowed to manipulate me like those humans."
"Sorry." Lust shrugged.
She went back, pulled the girl out, and walked her to the main room.
Envy followed, only far enough back to stay out of view.
He peered into the main room, careful to stay out of sight of the girl. The other homunculi surely were aware of his presence, but they said nothing.
Emilee sat on the edge of the circular sofa close to Lust, suspiciously eyeing the people around her. She withdrew when large eyes peered at her from the other side of Lust.
"Don't worry," Lust said, patting his head. "This is Gluttony, he's harmless."
Envy silently snickered. He'd never imagined anyone would describe Gluttony as being "harmless".
"That is Wrath, and she is Sloth." Lust gestured to each person as she said their name.
Wrath leaned forward in his seat, cocking his head, and peering at Emilee curiously.
"Those are all very interesting names." Emilee laughed nervously.
The group smiled at her.
She looked down and stared at her hands, the room was silent. She looked back up and tried to keep her voice steady. "So why am I here?"
Lust smiled. "We need your help."