Steve stood before the cage. Cindy joined him. I stood up. Steve sniffed the air, the smell coming from my cell. The smell, I realized, of warm sweet straw mixed with the musk of my previous lust.

“Tsk, tsk.” Steve said.

“Someone has been having fun.” Added Cindy.

I hung my head in shame. Steve took the key from his pocket and unlocked the cell door, then pulled it open. He stepped back. After a moment I moved to step out of the cage onto the cool stone floor. Cindy was ready with a brush, passing it all over my body to remove the strands of straw clinging to me. The stiff bristle scratched my skin a bit. Cindy seemed to pay more attention to my breasts than was necessary as she scrubbed the brush over my nipples. She had me spread my legs while she rubbed between them with the brush. The pieces of straw were glued on between my thighs and she began using her fingers to pluck the strands away from around my pussy. At times she would draw a piece of straw through my pussy lips making me tremble and shake.

“Enough.”

At the command Cindy stood up and moved me away from the front of the cell. She bent to sweep up all the loose straw and flick it back into the cage. Steve took my arm and guided me over to the stone platform. He let go to stand behind me. When I tried to step up the ankle chain pulled tight and my toes hit the edge an inch below the top. Steve stood behind me, waiting. I moved my feet closer to the platform and tried again. I strained against the shackles and managed to hook my toes over the edge. Steve stood behind me, ready, I realised, to grab me if I fell. I put all my weight on the toes of that foot and lifted myself up onto the platform. I paused a moment, then moved to stand in the center underneath the hanging rope.

The man stepped up beside me. He handed one end of the rope to Cindy, then tied a loop about two meters from the other end. He took my hands by the chain between the shackles and raised them up to my face. I watched him thread the end down through one cuff and then up through the other. Then he passed the end through the loop above and tied a simple slip knot, snugging it down firmly. He turned to Cindy who pulled on the rope to take up the slack, then to draw my hands up over my head. She looped the rope over the hook in the column, then waited.

The man used two short pieces of rope to bind my feet to the rings set into the stone. He pushed the shackle on one ankle up and tied the rope around my ankle just above my foot. Then he tied it to the ring. He did the same to my other foot. My legs were now spread apart. When he let the other shackle drop I could feel the outward pull of the ropes on one side of my ankles combine with the inward pull from the chain and shackles. Steve stepped off the platform to take the rope from Cindy. He pulled, raising my hands higher, then he pulled some more. My arms stretched up over my head. I could no longer reach the end of the rope and the knot that would free me. I felt the bite of all four of the hard steel shackles against my flesh. I raised up on my toes to ease some of the strain. That was a mistake. Steve had been waiting for me to do that. He tugged on the rope again, removing all my slack, then lashed the rope to the hook on the column.

I struggled briefly in my bonds for a few moments while Steve and Cindy watched. Then I began to settle a little. I began to resign myself to my predicament. I tried to find a balance between the strain on my toes keeping me up and the strain on my wrists if I relaxed them. There was no good point of balance to be found. I closed my eyes and a small moan escaped my lips.

I felt a movement as Steve stepped up in front of me. He gently cupped my chin in his hand and gazed deep into my eyes, searching. I let my eyes give that almost imperceptible sign, I was ready. He smiled. I leaned my head into his warm hand, letting his touch steel me for what was to follow. Steve moved closer and gave me a whisper soft kiss on my forehead. Then he lowered his hand and stepped off the platform, leaving me hanging alone to ready myself.

My eyes followed him as he walked to the rack and selected a whip. I saw Cindy cross to the stairs to sit, making herself comfortable for the show. Steve selected a multi tailed flogger from the rack, then returned before me to show it to me. It was a wicked looking device, perhaps ten strips of brown leather 10 mm. wide, hanging down about a half meter from the handle. Steve spun the handle between his palms and the strips fanned out in a circle. He then waved the whip through the air before me and let it crash down on the stone at my feet. I heard the loud smack and swallowed a lump in my throat.

Steve stared once more into my eyes. Yes. I was ready. He moved to take up a position at my rear. A few moments later I heard the sound of those strands flying through the air followed by a sharp crack. The pain flared across both cheeks of my bum. I jerked against the bonds at the impact, then settled. I took stock.

I had felt every one of those strips striking my ass. It had hurt, of course, but it hadn’t been at all like I had expected it would be. Sparkles of pain which had spread out and dissipated rather quickly. Steve gave me a few moments to adjust, then I heard, and braced for another blow.

The same place, sideways across both cheeks, but the other way, from left to right. Crack! Again the shock, the sudden sting flaring bright, then dying away, leaving a warm glow in it’s wake. Crack! another blow, same way. Again, the opposite direction. One more blow and Steve paused, moving to stand in front of me once more. That’s it?

Cindy had joined Steve to stand before me. He spoke.

“Donna, we can stop now, if you want. You can be proud in how well you have stood up, for a first time. Do you want to end now?”

My mind was spinning. But I couldn’t get it in drive. I thought for a few moments. This whole experience had been nothing like I had thought. Chained in the cell, I had cum so nicely, and quickly, the last one took me before I even knew it. And now? I hung there shifting my weight from one foot to the other. My ass was burning, a bit. But it wasn’t half as bad as I expected. And there was one more thing. On those last two strokes I had a sensation, a kind of a departure for places unknown. Was this the path that everyone was talking about?

I looked up at Steve. I heard myself use that little girl voice that I’d heard Judy use. “No.” I said. “Can we continue. Please?”

There was a hint of a smile from them both. Steve said, “All right. Donna, it’s sometimes easier if you yell and scream, if you want. To avoid any confusion we use what is called a safe word. When you say, Blue Moon, I stop. No, stop, please, help, all other sounds will be ignored until you say Blue Moon. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Please say the safe word now.”

“Blue moon.” I’d never seen a moon that was blue.

“Good.” Steve said. “I want you to know that you won’t come to any real harm tonight. I know what I’m doing. O.K?”

“All right.”

Steve set the flogger down on the stone beside me. He went back to the rack and selected a thin wood cane, testing it’s flex by bending it, and a whip, a single strand. These items he set down on the stone platform and he took up the flogger once more. Cindy sat on a bench off to my right. Steve took his position behind me.

Steve took up where he’d left off, on my bum. But he didn’t limit his torture to that one area. Because of my position, stretched up and open, he took full advantage, bringing that flogger to bear all over me. He didn’t hit me on my lower legs, my arms, head or feet. But everywhere else was fair game. He went softly on my lower back, my kidneys. And my breasts, delightful pain there. Steve warmed me all over with the flogger, then set it down to take up the switch.

I’d yelled and screamed under the flogger but that springy stick brought out a much higher note of anguish. Steve didn’t need to put muscle behind the blows, the thin wood left stinging fire wherever it landed. I howled when it found the tender spot on each side of my pussy and then gently insinuated itself smack in the middle, between the lips, the tip softly grazing my clit. Once I had all my weight on my hands, trying to curl up in a ball, I guess. My feet were just above the surface of the stone… Steve bounced the switch off the stone twice, quickly, before I could react, slashing the sole of one foot, then the other. That hurt seemed to radiate lightning fast up my legs and spine to blast out the top of my head.

The flogger had been the lift off. The cane, the full burn. I was rushing headlong into the unknown. On course, all systems go. Then, suddenly, I was there. My hand on the door. Throttle back, Steve exchanged the cane for the whip. It’s length snaked around my body from one hip, across my chest, my left tit, and onwards, curling up through my armpit to tap me on my back. I lost it. Explosion. Major malfunction. Again the slash across, the other way this time. Tiny flare ups inside the debris field, another big explosion, rocking me to the core. The whip slashed across both nipples, quickly bringing me to the brink again, then down low to gently kiss me, there. My clit. Sending me crashing headlong over the edge once more. I screamed low and long as I rocked and shook. Wave after wave rocketed through me. Without end. I remember taking a huge breath, then holding it, riding it, knowing that if I didn’t return soon I would soon be totally consumed by that white hot fire. But I couldn’t turn away. A flash. The whip, again. Stoking that fire, blinding me. A high pitched keening echoing back to me, deafening.

I fell from the sky, landing in a heap on the soft cool grass. I stirred and opened my eyes. Steel bars. I was lying on the straw in the cage, the door open, Steven and Cindy in the pool of yellow light, looking at me. Steven closed the door and locked it. Good night, Donna, I heard, from far away. They turned to go, climbing the stairs and shutting the dungeon door with a bang. I heard the scrape of the lock as the key was turned, then, nothing, save for the beating of my heart.

Later on my eyes flickered open. I saw Cindy, sitting on the floor in front of my cage. I might have smiled. I closed my eyes and slept.

At some point Steve and Cindy came to release me. The cage door was opened and they helped me over to the platform to sit, the cool stone feeling nice on my bum. Steve removed the shackles which had held me throughout that long night. They helped me to stand, then supported me as I walked up the stairs, out of the dungeon and up into their kitchen once more. Sunlight streaming through the windows blinded me and I moaned. Cindy took me through the house to their bedroom and a big bathtub full of cool scented water. As I passed the mirror I looked, but the sight didn’t register on my brain. The water stung a little as Cindy eased my sore body into the tub. She turned the jets on low, the water swirling around me felt good. I looked up and smiled.

"Cindy, I. . . "

“Shhh.” She cooed. “We’ll talk later.”

I noticed the clock on the wall. 11:00. Twelve hours. A lifetime.

Cindy came back for me an hour later. I must have slept in their tub as the water washed around me. I felt better. I stood up and Cindy gently patted me dry with a soft fluffy towel. After I got out I examined myself in the mirror. My sight didn’t look as alien as before. Cindy told me she used some mineral salts in the water to promote healing. She spread the towel across her bed and I lay down. Cindy used some skin lotion and rubbed it all over me where the whips had left their marks. She took her time rubbing me gently with her small soft hands, leaving me feeling great. All the stiffness was gone. My skin felt tender still, but I had survived, hadn’t I. Cindy took me to my room and helped me dress. Steve came in and handed me a coffee. As a last thing she took my two little black bracelets and snapped them closed around my wrists.

“You earned these last night,” she said closing the strap. “I never saw anything like that in my life.”

Steve asked “How do you feel?”

How did I feel. “Sore. Drained. Like I did a twenty hour shift in the mine.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that.” he said. “You took the whole twelve rounds, Donna. For a first timer you were there. Hitting the peak like that doesn’t happen very often. How do you feel?”

How did I feel? “I feel more alive than I ever have before Steve, Thanks.”

“I thank you, Donna. For giving Cindy and me the honour of taking you there, for letting us witness it. That was some show.”

“Come,” Cindy said, “let’s get you something to eat.”

I walked with them to the kitchen. I laughed when I saw a fluffy pillow had been placed on one of the wooden chairs at the table. Outside the window, in the bright sunlight, the workers from yesterday were setting up a canopy and unloading tables and chairs from the truck. Cindy filled my coffee cup and placed a bowl of cut up fruit pieces before me.

I didn’t think I was all that hungry but after the fruit I ate some pancakes with sweet jam and syrup. Then came two fried eggs and a small steak with some fried onions and green peppers. When I mopped up the last of the egg and the juices from the meat with that lovely dark bread Cindy had, I sat back, carefully, feeling much refreshed. I was just done eating when Mark and Judy showed up. Over coffee and cake Steve and Cindy excitedly told them all about last night.

At first I was a little shy about having the most intimate of details spoken in the broad daylight, but I became less bothered by it when I saw, Judy’s in particular, their reaction to the tale being told by Steve. Both Mark and Judy kept glancing my way, a mixture of wonder and fascination on their faces. Cindy played mother hen dispite my protests and dragged me back to my bedroom so Mark and Judy could have a look at my marks.

In the room Cindy helped me off with the shirt I had on, then I undid my skirt and let it fall to the floor. Judy gasped.

“Oh, Donna.”

Mark said “Wow!.”

I turned around, watching myself in the mirror. Everywhere the flogger had touched was a dull reddish colour, fairly even all over. Bright red lines, tinged with white marked the path of the cane. Then, the curls of the whip where it had wrapped around me and left it’s marks. I had some dark coloured bruising on my body, and also a few small bruises on my wrists and ankles, from those heavy shackles. My bracelets helped to cover the ones on my wrists. Cindy lay me down on the bed and told Mark to get out. Then the two girls spread more of the soothing skin cream over my tortured flesh and began to gently rub it into me.

I thought I would never need to have an orgasm again, after that last one downstairs but, as the two rubbed the cream all over me, my passions once again began to stir. It was Judy who noticed first as my nipples hardened under her touch. Cindy traced a finger through my slit, making me jump, feeling the growing wetness there. She giggled. The two girls then proceed to drive me forward, over the cliff, straight into a lovely little cum which left me writhing and breathless on the bed. After a while they helped me up to stand before the mirror once more. Now my flushed face and neck matched the redness of the rest of me. After much giggling they helped me dress and we went back to the kitchen.

Steve was shaking his head when we entered. Mark had a big grin on his face. Apparently the antics in the bedroom had not gone unnoticed.

“Jeez Donna, don’t you ever get enough?” Steve asked jokingly.

For the next hour we sat and discussed what had happened in Steve’s dungeon last night. From the things they told me I was able to piece together the events, and gain a much better understanding of the reactions I’d had. Near the end I had been so out of my mind with lust I hadn’t really been aware of what happened. Cindy filled me in, how the passion had taken complete control of my body even as the flames of it consumed me. The power released then had enveloped the both of them, filling the room with a force so wondrous it was almost beyond description. Steve said it was almost more than he could bear, watching me up there. It was all that he could do to steady his hand, to give my body the final touches, to maintain those searing flames until all had been scorched clean.

Afterwards Steve had held me while Cindy lowered my hands. When I was untied he carried my limp but still trembling body to the cell and gently lay me down on the straw. They both waited until they were sure I’d be all right before leaving me.

“When you first opened your eyes,” Steve said, “In the cell, afterwards. For a brief moment I saw no one there, and I was afraid. But then you groaned and I saw the life force flow back into your eyes and I knew that you had made it. That you had taken the trip and had returned safely. Locking the cage and walking away was hard for me. I wanted to take you up and comfort you. But I also knew you needed some time by yourself, to come to terms with what had happened.”

I took Steve’s hand. “You were right,” I said, “to give me that time alone. I woke, a couple times, sore, chained, alone. But in my mind I was still standing on that wondrous plateau, overlooking that place I had touched. The hurt will pass, but that place will be with me always. Now, about that straw. Whose idea was that, anyway?”

I told them about the fight I’d had with the straw, how I’d gotten my hands stuck behind me and then, and then, that big cum that had snuck up on me. All three laughed hard at that one. Cindy owned up to the straw idea. She admitted to something similar happening to her down there in that cage. We were still laughing about it when the guests began to arrive for the party.