The Island

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part V: A Mistress In Any Other Name

Kathryn entered her apartment, motioned her also in, and closed the door. She started to undress but the unsympathetic voice from before ordered.

“No, my pet. For now, I want you dressed. Order our toy to the far corner.”

“She's mine to command, Mistress, and she was ordered to always stay in my line of sight. I'm afraid; you will have to work around her.”

“You're as impertinent as always, Kathy. Unfortunately, the law is on your side. Lie down; I don't want to prolong this any further.”

The woman was more than a head shorter than her Mistress and instead of muscles her body was covered with fat. Her mousy brown hair was streaked with grey and had a somewhat un-kept look.

The tall woman did as she had been told and soon she was stretched out on the hardwood floor with her arms at a 45° ankle from her body and her legs almost one and a half feet apart. Then the other woman touched the device at her wrist.

Her mis… Kathryn screamed; her muscled contracted from the stomach outwards but it didn't stop after a couple of seconds, like it had with her. She it was not so, but Kathryn's body almost seemed to come off the ground.

Twenty-one seconds.

‘Dear Goddess, let her lose consciousness. Make it stop.' Chris silently pleaded.

Kathryn's body convulsed, sweat quickly covered her skin, and she lost control of her bladder.

Chris wanted to run and help her; she wanted to scream for help and attack this horrible woman who still held the button of the wrist device pressed down.

Forty-three seconds.

She finally stopped but Kathryn's body continued to thrash about for another three minutes and twenty-seven seconds. ‘Damn this time-sense.'

The woman, Supervisor Jolene, had a contented smile on her face.

“Judging from the shocked expression on your newbie's face you didn't yet introduce her to the joys of the higher settings of the collar.”

She sauntered over to where Chris was standing with her back to the door.

“You see,” she said while waving the infernal thing in front of her face, “at the highest setting not only the culprit gets a fairly high charge of electricity, she also has the bonus of staying conscious through it all. One really has to appreciate the ingenuity.”

Chris' eyes burned with hatred and at the same time she felt profound shame. This was all her fault; her Mistress was suffering because of her. With an effort she made her eyes and face expressionless. She wouldn't give this monster bitch from hell the satisfaction to read her feelings from her face.

Her mistress meanwhile had struggled to a seated position.

“Who allowed you to get up, you stupid cunt?”

The Supervisor reactivated the collar, Kathryn's body shock as if in an epileptic seizure but this time she didn't cry out.

‘Fourteen seconds, fourteen endless seconds'.

Chris' heart clenched at having to watch this but she deserved nothing better. This was all her fault.

Kathryn slowly calmed down and the blonde remembered what she had told her, this first day when she had punished her with the collar. ‘A strong charge agonising every cell in your body for hours on end.'

“Get up, and clean up the mess you made on the floor. Don't forget to also clean yourself. You have three minutes.” The Supervisor said with a triumphant glint in her eyes.

Kathryn stood and moved to her bedroom, none of her movements betraying the pain she still must feel. She filled a bucket with water, added some cleaner and a cloth, and returned to scrub the floor. The woman seemingly paid no attention to her. One minute thirty-eight seconds. She returned everything to the bathroom, put her soiled clothes in the hamper, and took a quick shower. Three minutes ten seconds. She dried herself and put her hair in a ponytail. Three minutes forty-six, and they were back in the living room.

The woman studied one of the book shelves. “Mistress, I'm at your command.”

“Of course you are, my pet, but you also are late, one hundred seconds late, one hundred. And you know how I hate to be kept waiting. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Nothing Mistress. We both know that it wouldn't have changed anything, even if I had made it in time, Mistress. You always honour me with one hundred strokes whenever we have been apart, Mistress.”

“Sarcasm doesn't suit you, slut, and it certainly won't get you out of this maintenance spanking. Go and get the wooden paddle with the five holes.” The Supervisor ordered.

Chris was taken aback at the woman's constant use of bad language; she obviously didn't care about the language code.

Kathryn took the paddle out of the closet and then knelt in front of the shorter woman, offering it to her.

“Please, take this instrument of discipline and help me to learn my place, Mistress.”

“That's more like it, Kathy. Take your position, no, two steps to the right. This way, your Initiate will better be able to see everything.”

The tall woman spread her legs, bent over, and grabbed her ankles.

“The venerable elder has been lenient to you, spreading the forty strokes over ass and thighs, very lenient but we'll see about this later. Now, count and thank me after every five strokes.”

Chris shifted her weight, preparing to step in and shield Kathryn's body with her own but a warning glare and a shake of the head from her mistress stopped her in mid-motion.

“One.”

The paddle made a strange sound when swung through the air, it almost whistled, not like the swishing sound the one used on her made.

“Two.”

Pfft, twack.

“Three.”

The blonde longed to look away; she longed to be anywhere but here. Even the pitch darkness of her solitary cell would have been better. But she forced herself to watch. She should be the one beaten by this horrible woman.

“Ten. Thank you, Mistress.”

There was a certain rhythm to it. One stroke on the left cheek, one on the right, one on the left, one on the right, and the next hit both. The woman took her sweet time, before this fifth stroke she rested the paddle for a moment on the skin as if taking aim and then delivered the blow.

“Twenty-six.”

The red welts from the caning were still visible but slowly another kind of red was beginning to cover them.

“Thirty-five. Thank you, Mistress.”

The whistling sound of the paddle was enervating; Chris tried to shut it out of her conscious mind but it didn't work.

“Forty-two.”

Being gagged and bound was not her true punishment, Chris now began to understand. Her punishment was that she had to watch the consequences of her actions, to watch how someone else suffered because she had been absent-minded and disobedient. She could have kicked herself.

“Fifty-seven.”

Supervisor Jolene stopped in mid-swing and let her arm drop to her side. She walked over to the armchair and said.

“Get on your hands and knees, culprit, and crawl over here. I'm tired of standing.”

The raven-head did as she was told and Chris marvelled at the natural grace the woman displayed even in this degrading position. She moved smoothly like a predator stalking its prey.

“Fifty-eight.”

The angle of the strokes now was slightly different; the impact seemed harder now, as if she wanted to drive her forwards with every hit.

“Sixty-One.”

Her Mistress was so graceful, so beautiful. She was proud to belong to her. ‘Where by the Goddess was this thought coming from? Were her vivid dreams spilling over into reality?'

Chris was confused – even more so when it occurred to her that she didn't like to see her Mistress on her hands and knees. This should be her place. But she was so beautiful, she was perfection.

“Seventy-five. Thank you, Mistress.”

Kathryn's voice betrayed nothing of the pain she must feel. She had been wrong, the blonde mused. The Supervisor had muscles under the layers of fat. Her strokes did not get weaker, her rhythm never changed, like clockwork: left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek, taking aim, descending dead centre.

“Eighty-five. Thank you, Mistress.” She counted as if she were checking an inventory or something. “Eighty-eight.”

Only twelve more to go, and then it would be over.

Chris knew that she was only kidding herself. This was just the beginning, and she would have a front row seat for everything the bitch would come up with.

“Ninety-three.”

Kathryn's arse cheeks were red and swollen; the marks of her earlier caning had long been covered. The blonde longed to put some soothing balm on the tortured skin but she knew that would not be possible. The bitch from hell would never allow it.

“One hundred. Thank you, Mistress.”

Kathryn changed her position and kissed the paddle, followed by the woman's hands.

“May I return the instrument of discipline to its place, Mistress?”

“Yes, you may, my pet, but you will do it on your hands and knees. Go!” The woman answered with a smirk.

Without missing a beat, the tall woman turned around and crawled over to the closet. She had to stretch to put the paddle back on its hook and then returned to the seated woman. She kissed her hands a second time but instead of receiving a kiss on the forehead like it should have been, the woman slapped her hard across the face. Kathryn didn't even flinch.

“And now let's talk about why I had to get up before dawn to come here, Kathy. You always were my problem child, and even now that you have achieved more than most others you still are. Tell me, why did you petition the Council of Elders to be assigned this Initiate? You're at a level that you no longer have to waste your time with these newbies.”

“Please, Mistress, stop playing harmless. You know as well as I do why I did it, Mistress.” Kathryn's voice was calm and neutral. “I did it, so you wouldn't get your hands on her.”

“Don't forget your place, slut.” The woman said angrily. “You are at my mercy here. I'm the one who decides when your debt is paid and just now you have definitively added to it. Besides, Supervisor Sara was initially assigned to her case.”

“I apologise if my words have offended you, Mistress. It's a punishable offence to lie to one's Mistress, and you know that I never will object to your authority over my body, Mistress. Sara doesn't even breathe without your permission; you have broken her spirit and made her a mindless slave. She would have been the Instructor only in name; you would have called the shots, Mistress.”

“What you insinuate would be a serious crime. You're getting on thin ice here.” The woman was clearly loosing her calm and her smirk had long disappeared.

“A crime you have been found guilty of once, when you tried to break Linda though she was supposed to be the responsibility of another one of your playthings, Mistress.”

“Ah, sweet Linda, by the way, where is she?”

Chris understood less and less of what these two were talking about, and she really hoped that she would get an explanation as soon as the horrible woman was once again on her way.

“Besides, that's old news. I took my punishment and was reinstated. It's bad form to talk about past transgressions.”

“Yes, you did, Mistress, I apologise. And to answer your question: Linda is not here. I sent her away; I didn't want her having to meet you, Mistress.”

“You really do nothing to endear you to me.”

“Would you really want me to, Mistress?”

Before the woman could answer the grandfather clock struck twelve and the door opened. A portly woman, followed by two servants, entered and began to set the dinner table in the corner for two.

“Supervisors, lunch is served. Kathryn, could you take the girl's gag off. I'll bring her to the kitchen to get fed.”

“Of course, Cookie, thanks for reminding me. I'll block her vocal cords, so she won't ask you a thousand questions. And could you please see that a bottle of wine is brought for our guest.”

Kathryn undid the straps of the gag and Chris almost spit it out. Her whole mouth tasted like rubber. She wanted to protest, to be allowed to stay but her mistress had already activated the collar.

“The restraints stay like they are. Cassandra will be by to feed her. Chris, go with Cookie, and don't make any trouble for my people. After the meal they will bring you back.”

She kissed her on the forehead and sent her away.

~*~

The kitchen was very big and it smelled deliciously. To one side was a very long wooden table where most of the people Chris had seen coming to her mistress' office these past two days were sitting together, eating quietly. The blonde was sure that midday meals usually were livelier here and that the current mood had a lot to do with the woman in Kathryn's living room. When this was over, Chris promised herself, she never would willingly disobey an order.

Cassandra joined them a couple of minutes later and the blonde tried not to be too embarrassed because she had to be fed. Soon after one of the Servants appeared and smashed her fist against the surface of the table.

“Oh, how I wish I could gut the horrible bitch. She de…”

“That's enough, Hannah. You'll only get yourself into trouble. You know Kat's very strict about language violations.”

“But Cass, you should have seen what this…, this… what she does to Kathryn. She has to kneel on the ground; she wants her to beg for her food, and she enjoys every minute of it. I just want her to taste her own medicine.”

“Then we only can hope that she won't stay too long,” Cookie said. “You should know our fearless leader by now. She never begs, so she will go without food for a while. Kathryn knows how to deal with Supervisor Jolene. I know you all worry about her but the best we can do now is to keep things as normal as possible. Kathryn is strong, she has lived through it before, and she will now. I trust in her, you all should too. And Hannah, come and find me after your shift, then we'll address your violation of the language code.”

“Yes, madam, thank you, madam.”

Everyone seemed lost in their thoughts for the rest of the meal; and Chris was convinced that most of them were focused on what was happening upstairs.

When Cookie escorted her back to Kathryn's quarters about twenty minutes after they had left, she saw that the woman wasn't wearing any cuffs. She was close to ask her about it when she remembered that her voice had been cut off.

The portly woman opened the door without knocking. Kathryn really was kneeling to the right of the table. Her legs were spread wide and her hands clasped behind her back – ‘kneeling attention' the book had called it.

But Chris believed she picked up on a subtle change of atmosphere in the room; she couldn't pinpoint it but her mistress seemed calmer, more centred. Cassandra entered after them and bowed to the comfortably seated woman, sipping her glass of wine.

“Supervisor Jolene, Domain 1 is awaiting your inspection.”

“And it will continue to wait, young woman. I'll let you know when I'm good and ready. If you want to do something useful, go and see to it that the remnants of the meal are removed. Leave us.”

Kathryn used the woman's distraction to get up. She deactivated the collar and Chris willingly opened her mouth to once again accept the ball gag. The loyalty to her mistress that she just had felt in the kitchen had made her regret her actions, her disobedience even more.

This punishment, being forced to watch without being able to stop what to her was random injustice and cruelty, was somehow changing her. It let her see things in a different light and some of the things in the book now made much more sense.

As soon as the others were gone Supervisor Jolene took her glass and the bottle and seated herself in the big armchair. She refilled the glass and ordered Kathryn to crawl over and reassume her earlier position.

“And now Kathy; back to business. I'm getting bored with your stubbornness. Elder Ika sent me a video with the incident and your punishment. You stated yesterday that you take full responsibility for your charge's behaviour. Do you still think that way?”

“Yes Mistress.”

“Then I'm sure you will not object to take the punishment your Initiate should have received, right?”

“No, I don't object, Mistress.”

“So, refresh my memory, what's the punishment for breaking the language code, disobedience, and disrespect?”

This time, Chris remarked, her mistress didn't provoke the woman by reminding her that she knew the rules and regulation as good as anyone. Her tone remained neutral.

“Justice has to be satisfied in the eyes of the offended, and the rest is up to the discretion of the mistress concerned, Mistress.”

“Yes, Kathy, it's up to me.” She gulped down the rest of the liquid in her glass and refilled it. “I hope you remember that whenever one of my girls speaks out of turn she has to pay for every single word and every single letter she irresponsibly spoke.”

“Yes, Mistress, I remember.”

“And do you have the faintest idea how many words and letters your precious Initiate used?”

“No, Mistress, I don't.”

“Why am I not surprised?” The woman said with sarcasm in her voice.

Chris searched her mistress face, and though her expression was as neutral as her voice, she was convinced that she could have given her the requested numbers.

“It were,” the woman continued, “eighteen words and fifty-nine letters. That makes a total of seventy-seven. I hope your ass is up to it because I won't show any mercy.”

“And I will not ask for mercy, Mistress.”

“Get the chair ready and bring me a cane. I'll add to your tally if I'm not content with your choice.”

Kathryn did as ordered and then knelt in front of the woman who had just emptied another glass of wine and offered her very long cane.

“Good choice, my pet, even if only applied with moderate force it will mark you nicely. Take your place, and don't break position.”

While the chair was the perfect height for the blonde, for the taller Kathryn it definitively was too low to be really an effective support.

The woman poured herself another glass, stood, and stepped behind the chair. Chris still had a sickeningly good view of the proceedings from where she stood to the left of the mantle.

The cane hit her mid-thigh and immediately a bright red mark flared up. Chris was sure that she wouldn't have been able to hold her position had she been in Kathryn's place.

“One, thank you Mistress.”

“No, don't count, don't thank me. I'm tired of your voice.”

Instead, Chris counted. The second stroke hit the same spot, same height, same force, as did the third. Number four was aimed a quarter of an inch higher. If she continued this way, the thighs and not the already abused buttocks would take the brunt of the punishment, the blonde calculated.

Number twenty-seven hit the thigh, the woman stopped; the cane already high in the air for the next stroke. She walked back to the armchair and sat down. Chris expected her to gloat, to admire her handiwork, to lecture Kathryn but instead she buried her nose in the glass of wine. The next one emptied the bottle and she downed it as if it were water. Then, she got back to work, this time concentrating her strokes on the arse cheeks alone.

The bound and gagged blonde had a hard time to keep her mind on what was happening. Images from her dream began to pop up in her mind's eye.

The instrument of discipline was almost the same, Kathryn had used a different cane on her, one that didn't make this horrible wheezing sound and the proceedings had been different as if from another world. She continued to count.

‘Forty-nine.'

In her dream she had earned her punishment and her Mistress more than once had stopped the caning to soothe and caress her. This woman only wanted to inflict pain. She didn't want to teach a lesson, she didn't do it to fulfil her duty. She did it because she was a sadist. She wanted others to suffer but her Mistress didn't give her what she wanted. She held her position, she didn't cry out, she didn't beg.

‘Sixty-one.'

Chris hoped that one day she would be as strong as Kathryn, as her Mistress.

‘Sixty-three.'

This one broke the skin and the woman paused to admire the trickle of blood running down.

“Finally,” she said, “now, we're getting somewhere.”

She hit the same spot once again, with even more force, and Chris thought to detect an almost inaudible gasp from her mistress. But the woman apparently hadn't heard.

‘Sixty-six.'

Every stroke now was breaking Kathryn's skin but the tall woman still didn't budge. She held as still as a statue.

‘Seventy.' Chris breathed a little easier now, only seven left.

Kathryn was bleeding freely by now and the woman didn't show any sign of letting up with the force of her blows even the slightest bit.

‘Seventy-three.'

The Supervisor had worked herself in a frenzy by now; speeding up the cadence of her blows.

‘Seventy-seven, seventy-eight.'

Chris wanted to shout, she wanted to choke the woman, to break the cane in two over her head but instead she just stood there as if rooted to the spot. The bitch didn't stop. She continued to frantically beat the other woman for two more minutes and thirteen seconds bringing the tally up to one hundred and six. Then she dropped the cane and let herself slump into the chair. Kathryn remained bent over the chair.

The blonde cursed her accurate sense of time. Her mistress was suffering and all she was able to do is count seconds.

Kathryn was so quiet she didn't know if she was even still conscious and her tormenter seemed totally out of it. She was staring straight ahead, with unfocused eyes, clutching her empty glass.

Five minutes and counting. Finally, she heard Kathryn's voice.

“Mistress, may I be allowed to move and thank you as it is my duty?” She in vain searched for any kind of emotion in the raven-head's tone.

The woman looked up; her eyes zoomed in on the blood still dripping on the hardwood floor. She slowly stood and squatted down to find Kathryn's eyes.

“I don't know how you do it, Kathy. There still are tears running down your face, and yet, you never made a sound. Where do you get the discipline? – No, don't answer. I know the answer; you have told me many times.”

Then she stood, walked over to some sort of phone and called for a doctor.

When a physician and two nurses entered a couple of minutes later, she had herself back under control.

“You have half an hour to patch her up and clean up this mess. I'm eager to begin my inspection.”

The women helped Kathryn up and where about lead her to her bedroom when she stopped them. She turned around and knelt in front of the woman.

“Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress.”

“It was my pleasure,” the woman answered with a smirk. “But don't forget, this was the punishment you should have given your Initiate. You on the other hand are not forgiven yet.”

“I never would have thought so, Mistress. May I now remove the instrument of discipline, Mistress? It needs to be cleaned.”

“Let the others do it. I won't need it for a while. You have twenty-six minutes left. I want you to wear a skirt and a wide blouse, no shoes, no underwear. You'll regret it if you make me wait.”

This time Kathryn didn't object to being led to the bedroom. The doctor wanted her to stretch out on the bed but she refused.

“Just stop the bleeding and let me take a shower,” she almost growled.

“But, Kat, you need to be treated and you should rest for a few hours.”

“Eileen, please stop it. I appreciate your concern but now's not the time or the place. I have to do this my way. Just do what is necessary and then leave me alone. And don't try and talk to Supervisor Jolene. It wouldn't do any good.”

“I will comply, Kat. I don't like it but you are probably right.”

The doctor began to efficiently care for her wounds and was gone a mere eight minutes later.

Her mistress told her to wait and disappeared into the bathroom. Chris stood next to the door and was once again counting seconds. All the time trying to school herself not to think in seconds any longer but it didn't work.

Eleven minutes and eighteen seconds later Kathryn reappeared and dressed quickly. Soon she was standing with one hand on the door-knob to return to the living-room, her other hand gently touched Chris right cheek and she said.

“This has nothing to do with you, Chris. I was wrong to make you watch but it's too late to change anything now. I'm sorry, Chris.”

Kathryn took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold to face the other woman once more.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART VI