The Freshman Ch. 15

Burnside was determined to punish Cecilia as severely as possible, but also concerned about not breaking her skin. She calculated where each stroke would land and was very careful not to cross the welts. At the same time she proceeded at a very leisurely pace, fully enjoying the growing set of painful marks on her student's dark skin. Her plan was to finish up at the top of her victim's bottom, then return to the base and lay the final strokes immediately below the first weal.

Cecilia gasped and grunted each time Burnside struck her. She clenched her teeth and struggle unsuccessfully to keep the tears from flowing down her cheeks. Her entire being was focused on a single thing, the terrible throbbing and stinging that was tearing into her and increasing each time a stroke landed. But she would not cry. She wasn't Jason and she would not cry...

Burnside's eye shined with pleasure, as they always did whenever she punished a student, male or female. This also was the first chance she had to try out the Danubian switch with which Halsey had beaten her and then presented as a gift. The welts it left were impressive and obviously very painful. Burnside knew that Cecilia had a very strong character, and if this switch could break her, it could break anyone.

Fifteen minutes had passed when the professor laid the twelfth welt across the upper part of her victim's bottom. She had three strokes to go, one across the tender area where the young woman's bottom met her thighs, and then two final strokes across the tops of her thighs. Cecilia grunted and gasped each time the switch made contact and her face was wet with tears and sweat, but she had managed not to cry. She was breathing heavily and her legs were shaking, but, with every bit of her strength, she was not doing the one thing Burnside wanted, and that was to cry.

Burnside showed no mercy as she laid the final three welts across the upper part of the student's thighs. The girl continued to gasp and shake, but it seemed that Burnside never managed to get any closer to actually breaking her. For that she grudgingly admired the Dominican, who had resisted 15 of the most painful strokes she ever had delivered to a student.

Burnside stopped after the 15th stroke marked Cecilia's upper thighs with a pair of cruel reddish lines. Her entire backside continued to swell and darken, as the final welts changed color to match the first ones. The student, her hands and feet still immobilized by the cuffs, continued to struggle against her instincts to scream or cry. No, she would not...she would not give Burnside the satisfaction of hearing her cry.

The professor stepped back to admire the marks and the student still gracefully draped over the punishment horse, but finally decided she needed to release her. The punishment was over and it was only fair that Cecilia be let up and given time to recover before having to serve drinks. Saying nothing, the professor unhooked Cecilia's cuffs from the punishment horse and helped her to her feet.

"Alright, you're done. I'm going to change into my party outfit and I'll give you a few minutes alone to recover. After that, my guests will start showing up and you'll be taking their coats and serving them drinks. I expect top performance out of you. You give that to me, and things between us will be settled."

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

With that the professor picked up her sweatshirt and disappeared into her bedroom. Cecilia staggered into the guest bathroom, the welts searing into her with every movement she made. Her world still consisted of almost nothing other than the burning pain in her bottom, to the point she couldn't imagine a time in her life she had not felt such agony. She made it to the bathroom, closed the door, and collapsed on the floor, lying face down. She did indeed need to have a good cry, but she'd be damned if she'd let Burnside know about it. She buried her face in her arms as the tears flowed and her body heaved with quiet sobs.

It took about 15 minutes for Cecilia to finish crying and look beyond the switching she had just endured. She got up, wincing as the welts shot new waves of pain through her backside to protest her movement. She washed her face and prepared to face an evening of servitude, and finally, redemption.

The doorbell rang. Cecilia answered it and had a huge shock. The first person to arrive was Mark Gertz, Burnside's TA. What was even more shocking than Mark's presence was his appearance. He had cut his hair short, dyed it black, spiked it, and was wearing black lipstick and eyeliner. He also was wearing a black leather collar. Cecilia felt horribly embarrassed having to greet him wearing nothing but bondage cuffs and a collar, but then the TA did something even more shocking. He took off his trench coat...and...was not wearing anything underneath. Another shocking detail was that he had shaved off his pubic hair and his penis was imprisoned by a cock-ring.

There were more surprises coming. Burnside came into the living room wearing a fetish outfit. Like her TA, she was wearing black lipstick, makeup, and fingernail polish, but she had powdered her face to make her skin look white and contrast with her lips and eyes. The outfit she wore was a leather two-piece costume that at first reminded Cecilia of a female version of Tarzan. From the front she seemed to be wearing a somewhat average leather swimsuit, but then she turned around. From the back the professor was almost completely naked. A very thin strip of leather, no thicker than a shoestring, ran up between the professor's buttocks. Another string ran around her waist, and a third string secured her bra across her back. If someone was standing any distance whatsoever away from the professor, when her back was turned it appeared at first glance that she wasn't wearing anything.

The young man immediately knelt at the older woman's feet, as the sophomore watched in total disbelief. It turned out that Burnside's employee was one of her many casual lovers, and also one of her most trusted submissives, or "subs", as they were called in the world of fetish. He knelt with no reservations whatsoever, kissing Burnside's toes and placing his shaved testicles and bottom on lewd display to the naked young woman standing behind him.

Throughout the night Mark crisply knelt every time Burnside spoke to him. Cecilia later learned that she had "collared" him the year before, which was a formal declaration on his part that he would submit to both her orders and her punishments. Cecilia watched the professor look down at her servant with satisfaction, but also with a cruel, knowing smile. The graduate student would have a bit of a surprise in store later that night. What he didn't know was that she planned to call him out of the kitchen and test his resolve to remain her sub. She was planning on having him submit to a live demonstration of her new Danubian police switch, a full-scale criminal punishment of 50 hard strokes in front of 200 guests.

In the meantime, Burnside's TA also was committed to serving guests at the party that night. The hostess took both assistants into the kitchen and explained how she wanted drinks for the guests to be fixed and served. His job would be to pour and mix the drinks, while Cecilia's job would be to take the drinks out to the guests and return to the kitchen with empty glasses. He was over 21 and she was not, hence it made sense that he would be the one actually handling and pouring the alcohol. Burnside also wanted to extend the Cecilia's punishment by forcing her to appear with her marked backside in front of her guests. Cecilia had been severely switched, and it was her duty to place herself on display for the benefit of the party. The welts, like the bondage cuffs and the collar, were part of her servant's outfit.

Cecilia had no desire to show her punished bottom to a room full of strangers, but she reflected that it was only fair that she do so, given that she had forced Jason to pose with his badly marked up bottom in art class the previous day. In one aspect she was luckier than her boyfriend. She had to appear naked and punished in front of strangers, while Jason had to display his welts to 60 people who knew him.

Cecilia moved stiffly as guests began arriving, still wincing from her 15 welts. One of the first couples to enter the house was the head of the university ethics committee with a woman who appeared to be his wife or girlfriend. They both had cross-dressed: he was wearing her clothing and she was wearing one of his business suits.

Dr. Halsey arrived shortly afterwards dressed in a leather motorcycle outfit with chaps that left his wrinkled bottom exposed. The older man's eyes scanned the Dominican's bare body, very much to her horror. For some reason she felt that she could not bear the thought of Dr. Halsey seeing her like this. He knew that, and did absolutely nothing to comfort her.

"Young lady, you will turn around please, so I can see how well Ruth has mastered the Danubian switch."

Cecilia sadly turned around to allow the older man to have a close look at her punished figure. There was no argument from the student. Her agreement had been to complete the disciplinary alternative "to Dr. Burnside's satisfaction" and the last thing she wanted to do was anger her professor's lover.

There were other guests arriving, all in unusual or outlandish outfits representing various shades of the world of fetish, with an emphasis on S&M. Cecilia, as she ran about the room with a tray full of drinks and a notebook for drink orders, realized that Ruth Burnside was something of a leader among the area's fetish enthusiasts. It was strange to watch her in an environment that was so totally different from the classroom and in a revealing outfit that was so totally different from what she wore at the university. Yet, just as she always was in charge while in class, she also was very much in charge among this crowd of sexual adventurers. She moved about with complete confidence, mixing with small groups of guests for a few minutes before moving on, making sure she talked to everyone in the room.

The party was more of a costume party than anything else, but there still was plenty of S&M play and practice with Burnside's collection of punishment implements by the guests. Cecilia observed that there was one important rule in the room, that either Burnside or Halsey had to be present if any guests wanted to use any punishment implements or the punishment horse. Burnside and Halsey had the authority to stop a punishment and also to determine whether or not any pictures could be taken. There also were two other rules in the room: a person being punished had to undress, or at the very least completely expose their bottom, prior to the beginning of a punishment, and the other rule of the room was absolutely no sex. The nature of the party was sexually oriented punishment, but sex itself...well, that was for later, at home after the party ended. A final rule was no drunkenness. Burnside told Cecilia that if she saw anyone who appeared intoxicated, she was to notify either herself or Dr. Halsey immediately.

Cecilia was kept so busy that she really did not have time to think about her own dilemma. She moved about the room as quickly as possible with her tray and notepad for drink orders, then made quick trips to the kitchen to drop off orders and empty glasses, pick up finished drinks, and dash out to find the people who had ordered them. She was hard-pressed not to fall behind and somewhat dismayed by the Mark's efficiency in the kitchen. No matter how quickly she moved drinks out to the living room, it always seemed there was a backlog of filled glasses waiting to be taken out. Finally Cecilia learned that her fellow servant worked at a sports bar, which explained his efficiency with the drinks.

Finally, about an hour after midnight, Cecilia heard Halsey asking the guests to clear the area around the punishment horse, while Burnside approached Cecilia, holding the Danubian switch in her hand. A pang of fear swept over the young woman, as she wondered if she was about to be subjected to another switching.

"Please get Mark out of the kitchen and have him join Dr. Halsey and myself. Tell him he's relieved of fixing drinks, because I need him for a demonstration I'm giving for the benefit of our guests. Also, tell him to take off his cock-ring. I don't want that on him because it might be a safety issue."

With that Burnside handed her student a metal clip and issued a final order.

"Once he has his ring off, hook his hands behind his back and escort him out."

Cecilia, somewhat relieved that apparently she was not to be the subject of the "demonstration given for the benefit of the guests", went to fetch Mark out of the kitchen. She relayed her command for the TA to take off his cock-ring, at which his expression changed. He sighed nervously as he worked to get the metal ring off his penis.

"I'm in trouble. She never has me take off the ring unless she's going to punish me."

A series of questions popped into Cecilia's head. She was curious about his relationship with Burnside and what being her collared sub actually meant. However, there was no time for conversation at the moment. Mark quietly turned his back to Cecilia and positioned his hands so she could hook his cuffs together and escort him over to the dominatrix and her boyfriend. The naked Dominican led her naked companion through the crowd to the spot where the punishment horse was located.

Immediately Mark knelt on the floor at his mistress's feet while Cecilia nervously stood next to him. Cecilia did not want to kneel because she did not consider herself Burnside's sub. Her situation at the party was a one-time occurrence (so she hoped), and there had been no formal collaring agreement between the student and her professor. Burnside said nothing to Cecilia, other than to ask her to step back and join the spectators.

Halsey and Burnside had put on plenty of demonstrations at their parties over the years, so they knew how to make sure everyone had a chance to see what was going on. Halsey took the switch and directed to circle of spectators closest to the cleared area to sit on the floor, two bodies deep. The next circle of spectators was instructed to kneel. As for the people standing in the back, he directed the group to sort themselves by height, with the shorter spectators standing immediately behind the kneeling spectators and the tallest ones to stand behind everyone else. Thus organized, the entire room had a clear view of what was about to happen at the punishment bench. Cecilia, having no desire whatsoever to sit on her punished bottom, backed away to join the row of kneeling spectators.

Mark knelt forward, once again placing himself on lewd display to the audience immediately behind him. Burnside announced that anyone in the room who wanted to take pictures was welcome to do so, given that her sub had surrendered his free will when she had collared him. Cecilia noticed the TA trembling slightly, because he was well aware that something very severe was about to happen to him. Just how severe became evident when Jim Halsey held up the Danubian switch and began explaining the Danubian judicial system to the crowd. Upper Danubia was the only country in the world not to have any jails, because instead of being incarcerated, criminals were forced to wear metal collars and submit to periodic switchings throughout their sentences.

"Now, I suppose that many of you are wondering what one of these switchings must be like," continued Halsey. "Well, for your benefit we are going to conduct a demonstration for you, a full criminal's punishment of '50 vigorous strokes on the naked buttocks' as they say in the Danubian courts. We are fortunate enough to have a standard Ministry of Justice leather switch with us," Halsey held up the switch, "and we are fortunate enough to have a volunteer who has graciously agreed to contribute his bottom to our humble effort to enlighten you."

Halsey tapped Mark's upturned bottom with the switch while the guests applauded. He then picked up a police cap and placed it on Burnside's head.

"Most importantly, we have a volunteer who will perform the role of the Danubian police officer, a lovely young lady whose skills and talent with leather and wood are an asset to us all."

Burnside bowed to the cheering room, then took the switch from her lover. She slashed it through the air as the leather made an ominous whoosh. She then handed the implement back to Halsey, who continued:

"In Upper Danubia the criminal is restrained throughout the duration of the punishment to a switching table. Ruth and I have determined that the punishment horse will make an adequate substitute, because our culprit will be properly restrained and bent over for the switch."

Burnside tapped the kneeling young man and directed him to drape himself over the leather punishment bench. She quickly immobilized him, hooking his cuffs to the chains and forcing his legs apart. Halsey shined a flashlight at Mark's exposed anus and scrotum.

"The criminal's genitalia is on full display during a punishment. A Danubian criminal has no right, and no expectation of any privacy."

Cecilia caught a glimpse of Mark's face. She could tell by his expression that he was absolutely terrified, given the severity of what was about to happen to him. However, the fear he felt gave him a tremendous psychological rush. It was when he was afraid...afraid of something real, something truly terrifying that he could not control, that he felt truly alive. His emotional stress was at its peak, extreme humiliation, extreme anticipation, extreme fear, and, momentarily a release through extreme pain. That was what it meant to be Burnside's sub.

Burnside took the switch back from Halsey and held it beneath Mark's face, so he could see it clearly. She bent down and spoke to him.

"I want you to take a couple of minutes to think about what's going to happen, and how much it's going to hurt. You're going to be feeling some real pain in a couple of minutes, and we're going to be at it for quite a while. And it's going to be in front of nearly 200 people, all of them watching and taking pictures. Now, aren't you scared?"

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

"And totally humiliated?"

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

The room was completely quiet as Burnside lovingly caressed her sub's bottom, first with her hand, and then with the leather switch. She knew that the dread, the moment of anticipation, was a key part of the punishment experience for her sub, so she sought to drag it out as long as possible. He was shaking slightly and had an erection. Finally the professor stepped back, measured her distance, and delivered a fearsome blow to the base of her TA's stretched bottom. He gasped, but stayed quiet. Burnside nodded to Halsey, who stepped in front of the audience to address them again.

"You will notice the savagery and pure viciousness of the first stroke. And yet, our pitiful subject did not cry out. Why is that? Because it is a point of honor for the Danubian criminal to stay as quiet as long as he can, just as it is a point of honor for the Danubian police officer to break the criminal as quickly as she can. It is a cruel game between the offender and the enforcer, but one that, in the end, can have only one outcome. Let us resume our exercise in cruelty and see what happens."

With that Burnside resumed her punishment. She struck again and again, marking her victim with welts that were perfectly parallel and almost touching each other. Cecilia, having felt the same switch only a few hours before, flinched every time the cruel leather made contact with Mark's unprotected skin. At first Mark's punishment seemed to be a duplicate of Cecilia's whipping...like her he perspired and gasped and with all of his willpower struggled not to cry. He would have done just fine...had his punishment ended at the 15th stroke, as had been the case for Cecilia. However, he was due 50 strokes, not 15.