The woman put the video tape in the machine and sat back, straightening her skirt and getting comfortable. The screen went from black to a momentary interference signal and then Sophie came into view.

The little girl who appeared on the TV screen was no more than nine, her round face and large eyes looking at the camera. There was a sound of a chair being moved. Someone settling and a voice off said: 'Sophie, don't worry about the camera. Just look at me.'

'Yes, ma'am,' said the child deferentially. She brushed some of her neat blonde hair from her face and wriggled in her seat.

'Try to sit still, please. Just where you are. Thanks, Sophie.' The woman's voice was kind and the girl nodded.

She sat, clearly trying not to fidget and look at the camera recording her. She brushed her hand down her white t-shirt, past the applique picture of a cartoon spider on a web. A smiling, happy spider.

'That's a nice top,' said the woman out of camera. 'Where did you get it?'

'She gave it me. I like it.' Sophie sat up straighter and pushed her chest out, looking down at herself. 'This is Spinderella, it's our name for her.'

'Spinderella? I see.' A pause. 'That's like Ella. You know anyone by that name?'

'Course I do,' chuckled the girl. 'It was her name. Ella's name.'

'Ella, yes,' said the woman. She sounded as if she was looking down at something. There was a rustle of paper off camera. Notes being examined perhaps.

Sophie had resumed sitting normally while she waited for the next question.

'Did Ella ever tell you her second name?'

The child's pretty face crumpled into a frown. 'They asked me that already.' She glanced at the camera, a flicker of a look and then back.

'They?'

'The police. They asked me a lot about her.'

'And you said what?'

'I said I didn't know. It was Ella. Ella and me.'

The female didn't speak for a moment. 'You said Ella and me.'

'Sure. I like Ella. She was nice to me.' A beat and a flickered look at the camera. 'We were friends. Real good friends.'

'Okay,' said the woman, her tone suggesting a change of tack. 'Was that why you like your top, because it was present from Ella?'

'Yes, and it's me, here.' Sophie pointed at a small mark in the web.

'What's that?'

'A fly.' Sophie had that little one's look of saying "Duh! Can't you tell?"

'A fly,' repeated the woman.

'That's me. I'm in the web. Ella's Spinderella, she's caught me.'

A silence, the woman considering her next question. 'Sophie, were you scared when you were tied up.... um, in the web?'

'No.' Another look of wondering why adults didn't understand.

'But you were... ' The woman off camera paused. Unsure. 'I mean, you said you were... tied up. Um, spiders eat flies they catch. You know that?'

'Sure. Flies get tied up in webs.' Sophie put her head on one side, completely calm. No distress.

'You didn't think Ella would, uh, eat you?'

Sophie laughed and shook her head. Her long hair shook with a rippling wave.

'Okay.... So Ella tied you up. A lot?'

'Course she did.' A slight indignation.

'Do you like being tied up?'

'By Ella.' Sophie looked faintly disgusted there should be any doubt about such a matter.

'Were you ever tied up before. I mean, before you met Ella?'

'No. I wouldn't have liked that.' The child on the screen was firm.

'You ever want to be tied now?'

'Hmmm... Only if Ella does it.'

'I see.... Ella's gone, hasn't she?'

Sophie shrugged in response.

'You think she'll be back?'

'Yeah. She's Spinderella.' A chuckle. 'Spiders always come back.'

'When? Did she say when she'd be back?'

A shake of the head, then: 'When the time's right, she said.'

'How do you feel about your family rescuing you?'

'It wasn't any rescue! Ella was my friend!'

The woman tried to soothe the ruffled feathers. 'Okay, Sophie. Let's move on... Did it hurt when Ella tied you?'

'Sure. Sometimes if I was in a hogtie.'

'Hogtie? What's that?'

A look of disbelief on the girl's face. 'You know! Kinda arms back to your feet. I mean, ankles.' The child stretched her arms back behind her, shoulders back, flat chest outwards. She put her head back. 'Sometimes she tied my head to my ankles, so I had to look up. Like this.'

'I see. And Ella did this a lot to you?'

Sophie relaxed back to her normal position, but she put her hands behind her back. 'Uh-huh. It was her favorite. She said I looked cute. That and tied to a chair.'

'What, any chair?'

'Um, just like this.' Sophie patted the seat she was on. 'Kinda tall back, but with sort of gaps in the back so I could get my arms through.'

A slight pause while the woman off camera considered her next question. 'Sophie, did she force you when you were tied up? I mean, did she just tie you up without asking, when you wanted to do something else?'

'Sure. She was a spider. She said that's what happens to flies. They're just... just doing something and the spider just grabs them. Spiders don't ask permission.'

'Permission. Interesting... So you were just doing stuff and the spider - Ella - just grabbed you?'

On screen Sophie nodded. 'That was why it was cool. Jus' doing things and she'd sort of grab me.' The child took her hands from behind her and grabbed round herself. Then she put her arms back behind her.

'And you told her you didn't want to? You said "No" to her?'

The girl was mystified. 'I was a fly. I couldn't say no. Anyway, sometimes I was gagged.'

'What kind of gag?'

'Uh, ball gags mostly. But sometimes her underpants.'

'In what way?'

'Kinda balled up and pushed into my mouth. Then tape.'

'That must have tasted bad.'

'It was okay, when I got used to it.' The child shrugged. 'It was better than the punishment gag.'

'What was that?'

'I had a special gag she called the punishment gag. Sort of like this,' the girl took her hands from behind her and made her hands into two half ball shapes, and then moved her fingers apart as if hinged at her wrists. 'Kind of expanded in my mouth, with a screw thing. She turned the screw so it got bigger in my mouth. And it had all these straps that went over my head. Like a web! '

'If you were very naughty, the gag was made bigger?'

'Yeah. Sometimes like this.' The girl opened her mouth to maximum aperture, her young jaw straining down. She closed it a moment later and at the same time put her hands back behind her. 'Sometimes it made me cry.'

'Did she apologize if she hurt you?' The woman asking the question seemed a little agitated.

'No. Spiders don't do that. Anyway, it was better that way.'

'Why?'

A look of deep concentration from the girl. 'Ella said you had to feel being tied up. Otherwise you were jus' playing at it. And if you do tying up, you have to do it properly. No escaping.'

'Did you want to escape?'

'No! Anyways, I couldn't.'

'Sophie... I notice you have your hands behind you. Not in front like before. Any reason?'

'Um...' The girl suddenly looked embarrassed. 'I forgot.'

'Forgot what?'

'Ella said, when I wasn't tied I had to sit with my hands behind me, like I was ready to be tied.'

'But Ella isn't here.'

Sophie flicked another look at the camera. But she didn't say anything. Nor did she move her arms.

'Sophie, it's important you understand that no one will see this tape. Only me. You know I'm a doctor and it helps me help you. I'm here to help.'

The girl nodded, but her arms stayed back.

'Okay... if you like sitting in that pose, that's fine.'

Another nod from the girl.

'Let's move on... About being tied to a chair. Where did she do that?'

'Most places.'

'Like where?'

'She had chairs - bondage chairs all over her house. I'd have to be tied to them all.'

'And for how long?'

'Depends.'

'On?'

'Um, if I'd been good.'

'So if you were bad, you got tied up for a long time?'

'No, silly,' Sophie laughed. 'I got tied up a long time if I was good.'

The woman watching the tape adjusted herself in her seat.

On screen the woman continued: 'I see... And if you were bad?'

'I got tied up and couldn't watch TV, or I had to be on my own. In a dark room.'

'Ah, so this was punishment. What was being bad?'

'Trying to speak when gagged. Wriggling when I was being tied up. Not counting properly when I was being spanked. Not going -'

'Wait. You were spanked?' A note of incredulity in the woman's voice.

'Sure. I had to bend over her knee.' The child pursed her lips. 'Ellla would spank me so's my bottom was sore, for when she tied me to a chair.'

'But... if you hadn't done anything to deserve a spanking, why was that?'

'I was a fly in the web.'

'I don't understand. Can you tell me more, Sophie?'

'Um... Spinderella captured me, so she could do what she wanted.'

'And that meant punishing you?'

'Punishing... no.' The nine year old shook her head. 'It wasn't always punishment. Sometimes she just spanked me because she wanted to. 'Cos she liked me crying.'

'I see. And you didn't mind?'

'No, why should I? I was a fly and I was in her web.'

The woman off camera gave a small sigh. 'I see... well, tell me of a typical bondage event.'

'Bondage?' Sophie's face crumpled to a questioning look.

'Bondage. It's what people call being tied up. You were in bondage.'

'Right. Ella said bon- uh, bondage was cool.'

'Is it?'

'Sure. Um, okay, you want to know what it was like being tied up?'

'Well, not that so much. More what would happen in a typical - I mean everyday - tying up.'

'Hmmm. I guess it was like... um... ' The girl faltered.

'Let me give you a day, right? It's Saturday morning. You've got up and gone downstairs -'

'I couldn't get up. I was chained to the bed at night.'

'I see. Well... So when you were released.'

'Okay, I had to put my chains away neatly - I had to put them in my chains drawer, all neat and laid out just as Ella said they had to be - and then get dressed. I had to fold up my sleep suit, which was rubber and -'

'Rubber? Was it hot, being in rubber all night?'

'Uh-huh. Real hot. It was tight here.' Again the hands came back round and Sophie showed where it fitted tight: across her flat chest, her waist and then down between her legs. The child flipped her little skirt back so she could show how it pressed up against her sex, demonstrating with the flat palm of her hand against the crotch of her pale pink pants.

The woman watching the tape caught her breath.

'Sophie,' said the woman off camera, a little embarrassed. 'Uh, that's fine. Thanks. You can put your skirt back down.'

Sophie did so and then said: 'You gonna tie me up too?'

The question was so unexpected the woman off camera gave a small choking sound. 'Sophie... I'm here to help you and I -'

'Helping me would be making me all tied up. On this chair, like Ella did.'

'I can't do that. I'm not here to hurt you. Just to find out what happened, how you feel about it.'

'I feel good about it. I liked being tied up.' The girl paused, working something out. 'You said you wanted to help me.'

'I do.'

'Then tie me up, or I won't say another word to you. Won't answer your silly questions. I'll be gagged.' In one swift movement the child suddenly leapt up, shucked her pink pants off and returned to sitting as she balled up her own pale pink pants and pushed them into her mouth. To demonstrate how it worked, she said 'Mmmmph!'

'Sophie, that's not helping me or you,' said the woman, a tad irritably.

The child, with her arms back behind her, shook her head and mmmphd again.

'Sophie, why are you doing this? Okay, let me ask you so you can answer yes or no, okay?'

The child nodded.

'Do you want me to stop this interview. I mean, end our talk?'

Sophie considered it and then shrugged.

'Right. You want me to help you?'

A slow nod. Suspicious, or cautious.

'But you want to be tied up?'

Another nod.

'Do you want to be tied up because you miss it?'

Sophie nodded more.

'But I'm not Ella, am I?'

The girl shook her head. A little hint of sadness in her eyes.

'But you would talk to me if you were tied up?'

Sophie appeared to be smiling behind her self-imposed gag as she nodded.

'You couldn't be gagged, you know that? Only tied up?'

The child nodded.

'This is most unusual but... Listen, I'm going to stop the video tape and get some rope.' The woman sounded a little different, as if somehow the cold clinical mask had slipped and she was a little aroused.

The woman watching the tape gulped. This wasn't how interviews with vulnerable children should be conducted.

The tape here jumped to black and a half-second later back to the little girl sitting on the chair. The child's cheeks still bulged as if filled with something like pink panties. But she was looking intently at something off camera. A movement in front of the lens blocked the view for an second or two: a figure in a dark blue suit. A female, of course.

The figure moved round behind the child, a glimpse of something long and white in her hands. 'Sophie, I've never done this before so you have to tell me if I have it right. I promise I won't ask you any questions about your time with Ella until you are happy I have done it right.'

Sophie made no move or gesture but was half looking over her shoulder, but not moving her head much.

'You understand Sophie? I need your help. I need the gag out.'

The girl nodded. She opened her mouth and let the wet ball of pants, a darker pink now, fall to her lap. 'Okay,' she said, 'but you have to tie me like I tell you. Like Spinderella did.'

'Sure.'

'Okay, first rope round my arms and my chest. Just below my little tits.'

'You haven't got... okay, I understand.'

'But two loops, and they have to be tight on my arms.'

The woman standing behind the child did what she was told. Sophie snorted. 'That's not tight enough. Ella did it real tight.'

The woman watching was absorbed. Her breathing was shallow, absorbed in what she was seeing on the screen.

'I don't know if I can. I don't want to hurt you,' said the female doctor.

'You won't too much. Anyways, I'm used to it.'

'Of course,' said the woman and tied the ropes tighter, tight enough for the indentations to show clearly on the video tape. Sophie said nothing and didn't try to struggle.

'Now two more loops, above my tits,' said the child. 'Tight.'

The woman did it, fumbling a little but the girl remained still and didn't complain. 'How's that?' asked the woman apprehensively.

''S okay. For a beginner.' A pause. 'Now my elbows and run the rope round me, then back, tying off to keep my elbows tight.'

'I don't understand,' said the female.

Sophie repeated it, allowed the woman time to do it, complained and it was done again. 'That's good,' said the child. 'Now you tie my hands. Cinch them, that means -'

'I know. Or I think I do. That's tying a rope between them.' The female busied herself, trying to work out the best way of doing it. After a minute or two, she succeeded.

'Now my legs. Above and below the knees, and ankles.'

'Isn't this enough already?'

'No! It's not! Ella tied me a lot more'n you're doing.'

'Um, okay... but I have to get some more rope. I don't think I have enough.' The woman came back towards the camera and it flicked off - and on again.

Sophie hadn't moved though the wet gag wasn't in her lap. But it was back in her mouth judging by the bulging cheeks - something had happened when the camera was off. The woman reappeared and began on the child's legs, nodding when she was told to cinch it tight at the knees. 'An' lots of loops,' demanded the girl as she spat the gag out once more.

The woman bound the pre-teen's legs, though Sophie's ankles were out of the shot they were bound too, judging by the time the woman spent crouched in front of the child.

Then the child did something surprising. She wriggled back in her seat so her arms were trapped between her body and the chair back. Her legs, heavily bound - and surprisingly neatly tied - stuck out in front. 'Now you gotta tie me to the chair. You've got enough rope.'

The woman did as ordered, winding rope round Sophie's already tied body to pin her to the chair. Then a last rope over the child's lap, though not trapping the wet panties. 'How does that feel?' The woman asked.

'Cool,' said Sophie, the nearest she had come to looking happy while she had been there.

'It doesn't hurt?'

'No, why should it? You haven't put me in a hogtie or make me kneel on something, have you?'

'Uh, no... I don't know...' The woman trailed off, clearely uncomfortable with all this.

'Okay, so you can ask me questons now,' said the bound girl, brightly. Happy.

'Okay,' said the woman off camera. 'Let's go back to -'

'I like being tied up by you,' said Sophie suddenly. 'You do it good. Like Ella.'

There was a hesitant silence from the woman off screen, as if she was blushing. 'Uh, I'm not Ella,' said the woman, a note of self-consciousness in her voice. 'We ought to move on an-'

'But you could be Ella,' interrupted the little girl. 'You could do to me what she did.'

'I couldn't,' said the woman. 'To do that I'd have to... I mean...' The woman's tone changed to her old brisk self. 'Sophie, I am here to help. Not replace someone who did that to you.'

'But you tied me up now, see?' The child on camera gave a little wriggle to demonstrate her ropes were tight. 'I like being tied up.'

'Sophie, we know you do.' The woman off camera caught her voice. 'I mean, you tell us do, but perhaps you were just scared.'

'No I wasn't.'

'Okay, well, I need to ask you about what happened after, let me seee, you put your chains away and went downstairs.'

'I didn't go downstairs naked!' The small girl laughed. 'I had to get dressed.'

'Okay, so how did you get dressed?'

'I got out my uniform.'

'Uniform? Describe it to me.'

'Um, well it had this cute little short skirt. It was made of plastic, not rubber, and it was red. The top was plastic too but white with these little ruffles at the neck and arms.'

'So, your chest was covered by this?'

'No! It had this hole, where my chest was, so my nipples could show. Ella said it was to show my tits, when I was bigger and had them.'

'Uh, I see.' The female doctor as struggling to keep her voice business like. 'And what did you have on underneath the skirt?'

'Nothing. Ella said my bottom had to be seen, when I bent over.'

'And...' the woman off camera sounded as if she gulped. 'You bent over a lot?'

'Sure. Ella liked me to do that. Everything I had to get I had to pick up the floor, like my breakfast. She'd put it on the floor and then I could pick it up.'

'Ella - she stood behind you while you did this?'

'Yeah! How did you know?'

'Just a guess,' said the woman. Then she said. 'So when you'd eaten your breakfast what then?'

'Hmm, it was shower time.'

'B-but, you were already dressed.'

'Only in plastic. Ella said it was waterproof. That means it can't get wet.'

'Uh-huh... So you took a shower and then got dried.'

'Not really got dried. You see, Ella tied me up before I went in the shower an' when I'd finished she left me to kinda drip dry. It was fun.'

'My god,' croaked the woman. 'Y-you didn't mind?'

'No. If it was a cold shower then I looked forward to gettin' warm again. I jus' stood there and waited.'

'But you could have got out of the shower and maybe got to a radiator, right?'

'You've never had a little girl to tie up, have you?' The bound girl laughed.

'Of course not! Bondage is for - uh, I mean, I wouldn't dream of doing any such thing.'

Sophie chuckled some more. 'Well if you do you have to tie them to the shower thingy - that pole that the shower sprayer just slides up and down on. That's so you can't run around drippin' water on the carpets. Ella said I coulldn't come out of the shower until I was really dry. Or maybe she forgot me. Some days I was in there for three hours.'

'That's... that's terrible! Didn't you call her and ask to be let out?'

'You can't when you're gagged.'

'Gagged? You didn't mention that before...'

'Huh! Of course you have to gagged when you're all tied up. I used to have special rubber gag for the shower. Ella'd pump it up in my mouth. She said it was so I didn't swallow any water.'

'Did she use ordinary rope on you in the shower?'

Sophie shook her head. 'No. The knots get all wet and you can't undo them. Ella only used to do that every so often, when she wanted me tied up in the shower for a long time. Mostly it was rubber straps. My size.'

'Okay, so when you were dried, what then?'

'Then I would be allowed to watch TV or eat or play.'

'Still in your short....' The woman's voice faltered as if she was having difficulty concentrating. 'Your short skirt?'

'Sure. If I was eating I'd have my chains on. Or if I was watching TV I would be tied to a chair.'

'I see. This is... well, most unusual. You said play, correct? How did you play and what did you do?'

'I guess the same. I'd be tied up somehow.'

The woman interviewing sounded incredulous. 'But, is that all you did? Just get tied up?'

'Sure.' The child looked puzzled. 'What else is there to do?'

'You didn't go out or meet with other children?'

'No. They wouldn't have been tied up. and anyway, Ella kept the doors locked. But I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.'

'This frankly ridiculous!'

'It isn't.'

Suddenly the woman of camera sounded angry. 'I'm stopping this interview. If you keep indulging in this grotesque fantasy.... If you won't help me then we can't make progress.'

'But it's all true! I am helping you.' The child was momentarily obscured by the back of the woman as she stood and turned to the camera to switch it off. The last sound was the child saying: 'But you don't understand! None of you do! I wanted this becau-'

The woman watching the tape sighed before she turned the TV off and ejected the tape. This, she concluded soberly, would take a little resolving.

---

'And that was it?' The Senior Psychologist at the Neurheim College of Child Psychological Studies looked at Miss Goodrich. 'That was all that happened at your meeting with this Sophie? There's nothing else except what's on that tape?'

'Yes.' The smartly dressed young woman sat opposite the older woman, a little stiffly but that was to be expected when being interviewed by one of the leading child psychology experts in the world. 'I decided to terminate at that point because, well, the subject was acting irrationally.'

'Miss Goodrich, forgive me, but she wasn't, from what I saw, in a position to act anything. You had tied her to a chair. Quit tightly, judging by the way she couldn't move.'

'You saw what I did, Mrs Barkett.' A pause and the younger female gulped. 'What I had to do. I was trying to bring herself out. I had to explore the issues and she said she would cooperate if she was tied up. I can assure you that I would only take such an extreme course of action if I thought it necessary. I mean, in your book "Understanding the Younger Mind," you said that in some cases the good intervie -'

'Never mind my book. I need to know what you think.'

Jane Goodrich flushed slightly. She had, like so many in her profession, read the works of W Barkett. Wisteria Barkett. Though the woman wouldn't have thanked anyone for using her first name. She barely tolerated "Wis"

'So, what do you think?'

'I think I behaved appropriately in a difficult situation. As you know the child was referred to me by her parents who had rescued her from -'

'That wasn't the child's view, was it?

'Well, no. I was trying to examine why she felt that her, um, spell in captivity was -'

'Again,' sighed Wis Barkett, 'you are making assumptions.'

Jane blushed once more. 'Very well. I attempted to examine why Sophie felt she was not in any danger, or indeed any sense of captivity given that she was, by all accounts, with this woman Ella for four months. I felt it germane to the understanding of her condition.'

'Her condition was, according to the tape you made and the notes you took, one of extreme bondage.'

For the third time Jane blushed, deeper now. 'I am not comfortable with the word.'

'Bondage? But you used it yourself. You reminded the child of it. Remember?'

'I-I was trying to get her to open up. She was a very closed subject. Marriot and Lenansky in their work on child emotion separation said that -'

'Don't quote those two charlatans at me,' said the older woman. It was said pleasantly but there was enough edge there to make it clear what she thought of those two researchers.

'Well then, I believe I used it correctly. Bondage is a condition of slavery. Not just, um, ropes and gags.'

'Bondage is being bound and gagged. It used to be slavery but she was hardly a slave was she? She wasn't put to work as far as you could ascertain.'

'Given time I could have discovered more. I suspect this Ella was intending to sell the child into slavery.'

'Oh, for heaven's sake Jane! Think! This Ella would have done that early on. Or put her to work sooner rather than later. Didn't you detect the love in the child for the woman?'

'Love?' Jane was startled. It wasn't a term they used much in her world. There were reasons and motives and parental stereotypes and peer-influences and behavorial patterns but... love?

'Yes love. Old fashioned but still a motivator. Even I watching your tape could tell that Sophie loved Ella. Would do anything for her. Tell me, how is she with her parents?'

'Well, I'd say remote.'

'So you think she loves them?'

'Of course! Though at the moment perhaps more from duty.'

'So what heals her?'

'Excuse me?' Jane stared at the older woman. 'I don't understand.'

'We are psychologists, correct?' Wis Barkett, never married but still a remarkably good looking woman for someone in their mid-fifties. 'We probe but we don't cure, am I right?'

'Why, yes... Psychiatry is about healing. We are -'

'The explainers.' Wis sighed. 'Like a sideshow. Isn't that how you described our profession in your article to the Child Medical Journal?'

The deepest blush yet for Jane Goodrich. 'You quote me out of context.'

'I know, but that's what we are remembered for.' The older woman straightened in her seat and gathered up her papers. 'On reflection I am not sure you should continue with Sophie.'

'But her parents have made me another appointment to see their daughter.' A pause as she floundered. 'I am sure I can talk to her again and perhaps make sure she feels accepted.'

'I think you have done the damage,' said the Senior Psychologist with an air of finality. The decision had been made. 'Ask my secretary to find a window in my diary and send her over to me. Oh, and I won't be using any of Marriot and Lenansky's theories either.'

'Yes, Ms Barkett,' said Jane.

---

'Your office is bigger than that other woman's.,' said Sophie as she looked round. 'An' your older.'

'Well observed.' smiled Wis Barkett.

'But you're better looking than her.'

'What makes you say that Sophie?' The woman settled herself into the chair opposite the child and adjusted the hem of her skirt.

'It's true. She was all...' The child screwed her pretty face up to show something sour.

'I know just what you mean.' The woman mirrored the look and Sophie laughed.

'You gonna ask me a lot of questions about Ella?'

'Hmmm. What do you think?'

The child shrugged.

'You want to talk about her, or about something else?'

'Like?'

'Scooby Doo?'

'No way!' Sophie chuckled again. Then: 'You haven't got a camera, like she had.'

'Oh a video camera. No. But I can get one, if you like.'

'No. I'm fine. Ella used to make movies of me.'

'Did she? Anything good?'

'Um... just her and me.' The child paused. 'You know what she did to me, right?'

'I heard you and her had some fun.'

Sophie grinned. 'My mom and dad won't tie me up,' she said.

'Really? Did they say why?'

'They say it's wrong. Little girls shouldn't be tied up. My mommy said so.' A faint wrinkling of the nose in disagreement.

'Does she know you and Ella had some good fun, when you were tied up?'

Sophie nodded. 'I guess.'

There was a brief silence between the two before the child spoke. 'You ever been tied up, when you were little?'

'Me? No I wasn't. What's it like?'

'It's nice. You get this funny feeling all the way through you. Sort of warm and icy.'

'Wow, that sounds great. You think I should try it?'

Sophie shrugged.

'Well, I'll try anything once. Look, I'm sat on this chair and I could put my hands behind me - is that what I'd do?' The woman demonstrated it, placing her arms round the back of the chair. 'Um, I don't know if people have their legs together or open when they're tied to a chair. What do you think?'

Sophie chuckled, enjoying this. 'It depends. Ella says if you want to keep them real tight and can't move you have to tie them apart. But then you can... um, see things.'

'See what?' The woman spread her legs as the child suggested, one leg by each of the front chair legs. Her skirt, which was surprisingly short for a woman of her age, rode back a little.

Sophie gave a snicker. 'Your pants.'

'Really? Can you see mine?' The woman didn't break her position.

'Uh-huh,' nodded the girl.

'Are you sure? I usually wear black pants so you shouldn't see anything.'

'They're not black! They're white!'

'Oh of course. I put white on today. Thanks for reminding me.' She still didn't break position, watching the girl staring at the woman's crotch. She continued: 'You know, now I'm like this you could tie me to the chair.'

'No! I can't!'

'Why not? Is it because I'm, um, too old?'

'No. You're not old!'

'How about I would wriggle too much?'

'No!'

'Hmmm. Okay, then what do we do?' The woman looked thoughtful, arms still back, legs apart.

'I dunno.'

'I need to think,' said the woman. 'Wow, you know sat here like this makes me feel hot. You think you could help me?'

Sophie looked puzzled.

'I know it's kinda funny, but while I'm like this do you think you could unfasten my blouse so I can get cool?'

Sophie snickered. 'That's what I used to do with Ella, when she was ready for bed.'

'Wow, that's good. Then you know what to do.'

'But you can do it.'

'I know... but I'm real comfortable like this. I don't want to move my arms. It'll spoil it.'

'Okay,' said the child, hopping off her chair.

'Thanks honey.'

'Honey?' Sophie laughed. 'That's not my name. I'm Sophie.'

'That's right.' The woman pushed her mature bust forward so the little girl's nimble fingers could open the buttons up, peeling back the blouse from the woman's chest and body without being asked and revealing a white and pink lace bra. 'But you don't mind - seeing how we are friends - that I call you honey, eh Sophie?'

'No. I don't mind.' She stared at the woman's chest with a curious look, and then said: You've got a nice bra on. Ella had one like that. It had a little bow right there.' She pointed at the small pink bow between the woman's bust.

'Where? I can't see it,' said Ms Barkett, peering down. 'Show me please.'

'Right there!' Sophie reached out and gently touched the pink bow between the twin, lace covered mounds.

'Oh that! You're right. So, am I ready to be tied up?'

'You're silly,' laughed Sophie. 'Anyway, you need rope to be tied up.'

'Yes, that's right.... Hmmm, I wish I has some. Tell you what, honey, go and look in the top drawer of my desk and see what you can find.'

Sophie chuckled and scooted off to the desk. In a moment she said: 'Wow, there's a whole load of rope in here!'

'That's great. So you can tie me.'

'Really?'

'Something wrong, honey?'

'Uh, it's just that I never tied anyone before. Ella said I was the one who was tied up...'

'So, what you telling me, Sophie?' The woman hadn't moved but looked steadily at the child, who was stood by the woman's desk, fidgeting with the soft white rope hank in her hand.

'It's just that... uh... well, I don't know what to do.'

'I guess you do what Ella did to you. I mean, I like being like this and you liked Ella tying you up, right?'

Sophie nodded. 'But if I tie you, then what?'

'Then we talk a bit more.'

'I was gagged,' said Sophie briefly.

'Well maybe when we've talked you can gag me. I won't mind.'

The little girl considered the options. Then she smiled and said: 'Okay. But you won't complain if it isn't tight?'

'No, I won't complain. Anyway, if I did, isn't that what gags are for?'

Sophie nodded. 'Ella said that,' she smirked and stepped forward. She crouched behind the woman and carefully began tying her hands. It didn't take the child long to bind them and she even remembered to cinch the rope.

'Perfect,' said Wis over her shoulder. 'I think you're good at this. Now my elbows. Please.'

Sophie attended to the woman's elbows - and for one so young managed to get some leverage to haul them closer together. Then she passed the rope round several times round the woman's body ('I think both above and below my boobs,' offered the woman) and tied it off.

'You 'kay?' asked Sophie nervously.

'I feel great,' smiled the woman. 'I can see why you liked it so much, Sophie. Ella must have loved you a lot.'

'Love me?' Sophie blushed. 'She didn't say that.'

'Well, I think she must have done. Now, my legs, please.'

Sophie nodded and set to work on each leg, tying the woman's ankles and then looping rope round the top of the chair front legs and the woman's thighs, just above her knees. She knotted the ropes enthusiastically and even made the woman wince. 'Sorry, that hurt?'

'Yes and no. But I like this game, so I don't mind.'

'You want me to gag you now?'

'Um, not just yet. I thik we should sit and talk and perhaps we -' The bound woman was interrupted by a small red light and gentle buzzer above the door.

'What's that?' Sophie was alarmed.

'Relax, Sophie. It's my secretary. She knows not to interrupt me when I have a client, but there's a visitor on her way in.' Wis smiled. 'A special visitor.'

The door opened before Sophie could ask who. There was a silence of no more than a second as a young, slim woman stepped in to the room and closed the door.

'Ella!' squealed Sophie. 'You came back!'

The girl ran to the young woman and flung her arms round the female, burying her grinning face into the woman's belly.

'Of course I'm back, Sophie. A spider wouldn't leave it's captured little fly, ever.'

The excited child grinned up at Ella, her face split with joy. Then she gave the woman a tighter hug and said 'Ella Spinderella' several times as the young woman laughed gently and stroked the girl's long, beautiful hair. Suddenly Sophie looked at the bound woman. 'But how did you know I was here. With her?'

'I said Ella is a special visitor,' said the bound woman from her chair.

'That's right,' said Ella. 'The woman you tied up is special to me. She's my mommy.'

'Y-your... your mommy?' Sophie's jaw gaped open. 'I didn't know...'

'No, but you do now,' said Ella.

'But... I tied her up!'

'Which is perfect,' said Ella as she bent her face close to the pre-teen. 'You did what we wanted. Now, give me one of your special kisses and we can gag her.'

Sophie needed no second invitation as she plunged her mouth to Ella's, sharing a passionate kiss for a full minute.

'Now it's time for you to do something for my mommy,' said Ella as the kiss broke. 'Something she likes a lot.'

'What?' asked Sophie, almost dreamily, looking up into the eyes of the woman who had kept her a prisoner so lovingly for so long.

'You're going to finger her. Inside her pants,' said Ella gently. 'Right after we gag her with your panties. And then...'

'Then what?' excitement bubbled in the child's voice.

'Then I tie you up and I finger you.'

'Oh!' Sophie's voice checked, the biggest look of happiness ever on her face. 'And will you gag me?'

'Not for a while, other than with my tongue in your mouth.'

The child moaned in suppressed delight.

---

Sophie did what she was told, first pushing her own damp little panties into the bound woman's mouth and tying a scarf to keep them firmly in. Then she slid one of her her little hands down the front of the woman's pants, feeling the shaved slit - just like Ella had between her legs - and wiggling her slender fingers in the soft, hot depths of the woman.

As told, Sophie slid her other hand inside one of the bound woman's bra cups and manipulated her generous boob, chuckling at seeing her fingers through the thin lace as she rubbed and pinched the hard nipple of the whimpering tied-up female.

'You have to do what you're doing until I tell you to stop,' said Ella, watching carefully. 'You see, my mommy is my little capture, just like you. I drew you into my web but I already had my mommy in my web. All tied up, just like you were.'

'And will be,' said Sophie, looking at the younger woman.

'Too right,' laughed Ella. 'Now, both hands working away and concentrate on making her cum. Or trying to.'

Sophie looked at Ella curiously and the younger woman laughed. 'Oh, it's a little punishment game I have for her. She gets soooo excited and soooo close to cumming and then... we stop!'

The gagged woman moaned into her gag and wriggled against her ropes. Sophie merely chuckled and fingered a little slower, a little deeper. Butterfly fingers in the bound woman. Then she asked: 'When I'm tied up, will I cum?'

'Sometimes, Sophie,' smiled Ella as she stroked the child's hair, the spider watching her little fly excite the bound older woman. 'Only sometimes.'

'Will we do everything we did before?'

'Sure we will. And more. I've got lots of tying up games for you.'

'Good! And your mommy.'

'And my mummy will... wait, she's going to cum soon.' Ella was watching her mother's face and knew the signs. 'So we stop.... now!'

Sophie gurgled with delight as she instantly brought her sopping wet hand out of the panties witha little slurping sound and extracted her hand from the bra cup. The helpless woman could only buck in desperation in her bonds, desperately mewing into her gag. Another orgasm denied and the sweetest torture of all.

'Just perfect,' said Ella. 'Now you, Sophie. Sit up and in the right position.' She indicated the chair facing the panting, struggling and flushed older woman.

Sophie jumped up, wriggled back and put her little arms behind the chair. Just like she always did. 'Tight please, spinderella' she asked with a beaming smile.

'Very tight,' said Ella. 'You've been naughty, haven't you.'

'Oh yes,' laughed the child as ropes were wound round her flat chest and upper arms.

Ella went on tying the little girl, binding her hands and arms and body and legs as tightly as she could, making the child squeal at each knot, each sharp tug on the rope. Eventually she got tired of Sophie's painful yelps and gagged the child with her own pants, forcing them deep into the small girl's open mouth and taping them in place before she resumed binding her.

Only when she had finished did Ella smile and plant a kiss on the silenced girl's sealed lips. 'You are so perfect, my little fly. Now I have you all tied up you'll never escape me again. You and my mommy fly, all bound in my web. Oh, and my mommy fly will help bring other flies into my web. little girls like you who I will tie up like you.

'But you my sweet will always be the best fly of all and deserving the best web of all.' There was another soft kiss for the gagged child.

Sophie was crying - though with tears of joy or pain didn't matter. They were one and the same now. The main thing was she was crying and she was helpless.

Helpless and crying and waiting to be fingered in her sweet little cunt.

And that always made Spinderella very happy.