The Pledge Mistress Copyright 2006 by EC EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/ (warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, public nudity, sexual hazing) Chapter 12 – A lecture from Ruth Burnside The morning exercise session came and went, followed by cooling off in the pool, showers, and breakfast. Afterwards the sorority members grabbed backpacks and headed out the front door to go on a two-day hiking trip with the Tri-Alphas. The only people remaining in the sorority house were Heather and the pledges. The Sergeant-at-Arms ordered the pledges into the sitting room to issue some announcements. The first order of business was the activity that weekend, a top- to-bottom cleaning of the sorority house, which would be done for inspection. The pledges had between 9:00 a.m. Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday to complete the task. How they organized and what breaks they chose to take were completely up to them, but they had to be finished by no later than noon on Sunday. On Sunday, following lunch and cleanup, they would be transported to receive a seminar and practical exercise on the erotic disciplining of males. “The house cleanup and tomorrow’s seminar are important for what’s happening next week. Don’t forget that Tuesday the Tri-Alphas are swearing in their summer pledges, and later in the week those guys will start coming over here. They will be responsible for cleaning up this place and you’ll be helping with their supervision. In other words, those guys will be working under you and you’ll be bossing them around.” The four kneeling women looked at each other. Bossing around male pledges? Awesome! “Anyhow, it won’t do anyone any good if you don’t know exactly what’s expected from the cleaning manual. You’ll need to learn what’s in there by heart because you’ll be using it to justify punishments and giving out rewards to the Triple-A pledges doing the cleanup. The best way to learn is for you to do the cleanup yourselves first, and find out what mistakes will get your butt whipped. Keep that in mind. Tomorrow night Pledge Mistress Tracy and I will be doing the walk-through inspection. Your butts will pay dearly for any deficiencies or violations of the manual. We’ll be fair about it, but expect to be punished for anything that’s not up to inspection standards. We’re giving you 27 hours, so that’s plenty of time to get it right. Work together and pay attention to detail, because if you don’t, you’ll be sleeping on your stomachs tomorrow night. Everyone understand?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Tomorrow’s seminar will deal with the other part of your responsibility with the male pledges, disciplining them and how to go about it. For that part we got a special instructor for you, and I’ll tell you that we’re very lucky to have her. Getting a class from her will be a real honor for you, because it’s not normal to have someone of that caliber willing to spend time with freshman pledges.” Lisa heart skipped a beat and she began to sweat. It sounded very likely that tomorrow’s “special instructor” would be Dr. Ruth Burnside. ---------- Heather planned to be in and out of the house throughout the day, but told Lisa that she would be available if there were any problems or questions about the cleanup. With that an idea occurred to Lisa, to ask Heather to do a preliminary inspection in the evening to give the pledges a chance to correct deficiencies Sunday morning. The thought of consulting Heather ahead of time would not have occurred to any of Lisa’s companions. Everyone, both Heather and the other pledges, took it for granted that Lisa was in charge. Lisa decided to tackle the yard work first before the temperature outside got much hotter. Because they were not allowed to wear any clothing apart from their work shoes, the pledges were only responsible for the back yard, not the front. Nevertheless, there was plenty to do, not the least of which was washing down the side of the house and cleaning dozens of windows. Fortunately the hedges already had been trimmed, but the grass had to be mowed and edged and weeding taken care of. Weeding was particularly arduous, because the sorority did not allow the use of any herbicides. All weeds had to be removed by hand. There was the pool, which had to be cleaned and re-chlorinated. The manual stated that not a single dead leaf could be present in the yard, so for nearly an hour there was a scavenger hunt for dead leaves. The sorority’s mosquito trap had to be cleaned out, mold cleaned off the outdoor tables and chairs, and finally the patio had to be swept. Lisa looked at the clock with dismay with they finished, because it already was 3:00 p.m. and the pledges had not touched anything indoors. There had to be a break for lunch. Lisa decided the pledges could save themselves some time by combining lunch and dinner and preparing only a single large late-afternoon meal. In the morning they would eat cold leftovers to avoid having to wash any more cooking utensils and re-clean the stove. “Eat up, ‘cause we’re not gonna dirty up the kitchen again after we’re done.” Once the pledges finished eating, the kitchen took up most of the rest of the afternoon. Unlike in the fraternity the previous week, the Four-Betas did not intentionally leave all the dirty dishes for the pledges, but still, there was a lot they needed to do. As always, Lisa took the worst jobs for herself. For example, she was the one who cleaned the ovens and scrubbed out the trashcans. The next phase was the bathrooms. The pledges used Lisa’s system of cleaning two bathrooms at a time. Once a bathroom was finished Lisa put a piece of tape over the door. She flatly told her companions that the only bathroom any of them could use was the pledge toilet downstairs. After a bathroom was clean and taped, re-entry was strictly prohibited. There was a final task for the night before Lisa let the pledges get some sleep, and that was linens and towels. Lisa instructed her companions to wash, dry, and fold linens, figuring it would be hard for her companions to screw up linens. Meanwhile she swept and dusted upstairs, with the intention of forbidding anyone to go back up once the linen closets were restocked. As the pledges were wrapping up in the linen room, Heather returned from the campus library. As she went upstairs she was confronted by the sight of a thoroughly vacuumed carpet and tape on the bathroom doors. She used one of the bathrooms, but was careful to leave it the same way she found it and to put the tape back on the door. Obviously Pledge Lisa was leaving as little to chance as she could. The pledges returned upstairs to restock the linen closets. As they did so Lisa knelt at Heather’s door and asked permission to speak with her. She handed Heather the manual and asked her opinion about how well the upstairs part of the house had been cleaned. Heather told Lisa to get up. The other pledges nervously clustered at the top of the stairs, but Lisa told them to go to the basement and get ready for bed. Her tone clearly was, “I’ll handle this. You guys get out of here.” Heather was impressed when they immediately filed down the stairs without saying another word. Lisa relayed to Heather what was and was not finished. She thought the entire upstairs was done, along with the kitchen and linen room. The downstairs would be finished in the morning. Heather took up Lisa’s request to get a preliminary walk-through to fix problems. It seemed there were plenty, mostly minor things but still violations that would have resulted in swats to the pledges’ bottoms had they not been corrected. Heather caught a total of 53 violations, which Lisa wrote down. Lisa’s foresight to seek Heather’s advice saved the pledges a total of 53 swats the following afternoon. ---------- After six hours of sleep, the pledges were up again to finish the downstairs and basement. They ate a very late cold breakfast, washed what remained of the dishes, and spent the final hour following Lisa’s instructions to look for and correct deficiencies. Following what she had learned from Heather’s walk- through the night before, Lisa was able to fix many problems herself. By the time the pledges finished, none of them questioned anything Lisa was commanding them to do. She told them what to do, and they did it. They worked as a team, with Lisa clearly their leader. As the pledges showered and got ready for their afternoon training seminar, Heather wandered through the house, very impressed with its condition. She and Tracy would be hard-pressed to find anything not in compliance with the inspection manual. She noticed the tape still left on the bathroom doors. No sooner had she noticed that violation, Pledge Cherine came running upstairs to pull it off. At the last moment Lisa had remembered the tape, and sent Cherine to take care of it. ---------- At noon the pledges were kneeling in the sitting room waiting for Heather’s next instructions. She handed Lisa the keys to their lockers and told them to get their notebooks and put on their shower shoes. Heather ordered the pledges to go outside in the hot sunlight and to get into a minivan. There was some whistling from street as the pledges piled into the van, so they got in as quickly as possible. They would be traveling naked of course, but fortunately the van had tinted windows so the pledges would not be seen by other drivers. Heather drove the pledges around the university to a suburban neighborhood on the other side. The area consisted mostly of nice one-story houses built in the 1960’s hidden behind trees and hedges. Lisa recognized the neighborhood from last February. Sure enough, they were headed to Ruth Burnside’s house. The van pulled up in the driveway. Heather turned to face the pledges. “When we get out, I want you all lined up behind me. I will lead you to the front door and ring the doorbell. I will lead you into a large living room. You will go to the left and get on your knees in line. Once you’re inside, you will keep your mouths shut unless someone talks to you.” “Yes, ma’am.” “Our instructor’s name is Dr. Ruth Burnside. She’s one of our economics professors, but she’s also an expert in the topic of erotic discipline, which is why we’re here. I’ll introduce each of you one by one. When I say your name, you will stand up, step forward, and introduce yourself. Once you shake Dr. Burnside’s hand, you will step back and return to your kneeling position. Do you understand me?” “Yes, ma’am.” “You are not to speak unless she talks to you first. If you do speak to her, you will address her as Dr. Burnside. Consider this a special class from a top-rated university professor, which is exactly what it is.” “Yes, ma’am.” The pledges exited the vehicle and stood naked on the driveway. They were not very visible to the rest of the neighborhood because of all the trees and bushes, but still they were relieved to have the door open and to be let inside. Burnside was dressed in one of her business suits, immaculate, as she always was whenever she taught. The Four-Beta Sergeant-at-Arms shook the professor’s hand and led the pledges inside. They entered a very large living room and quickly turned to the left as instructed. Once the pledges were kneeling, Heather stood in front her group. Lisa and the other pledges noticed a table full of discipline implements and restraints, along with Burnside’s punishment bench, in the middle of the room. There were a couple of wooden dining chairs as well. Heather exchanged some pleasantries with the professor, and then described the tasks and lessons that the pledges had completed so far. Burnside asked if any of the pledges had been punished yet. Heather responded that Bernadette and Kathleen each had been punished once, Bernadette for disobeying an order and Kathleen for inappropriate behavior during a practical exercise. Heather relayed that Lisa already had been punished twice, “because she was so hard-headed and spirited.” Heather called the pledges to stand up one by one and introduce themselves. When it was Lisa’s turn to shake the professor’s hand, Burnside acted as though they were meeting the very first time. However, she gave her student a subtle, but very knowing look that seemed to say “hard-headed and spirited, huh? We’ll have to work on that.” Burnside sent Heather to the kitchen to call out the three young men who were to be the subjects of the afternoon’s practical exercise. She opened the door and three very nervous naked college-age males followed her into the living room. Each was handcuffed. Their pubic hair had been shaved off, making their genitals look much more exposed and vulnerable. Burnside picked up a riding crop and used it to direct the subjects to kneel in line opposite the pledges. Lisa recognized one of the subjects. His name was Mark Gertz and he was Burnside’s current Teaching Assistant. Lisa also knew, from having talked to Cecilia, that Mark was Burnside’s favorite “sub” and that she had officially collared him. The professor and her TA had entered into a formal agreement that he was her slave and subject to any punishment or humiliation she chose to inflict on him. As for the other two, Lisa had not seen them before. They looked very young, not any older than the pledges. Lisa later learned that Mark had recruited them from a human sexuality class he had taken with them in the spring. She found out that Mark had a real talent for identifying possible masochists and convincing them to submit to the professor. One of the younger men had a furious erection, much to his dismay and the women’s amusement. Burnside ordered him to stand up and approach the pledges. As he stood miserably with his penis sticking straight out, she casually asked him some personal questions. She moved to sexual topics that aroused him, which heightened his embarrassment and increased his arousal. “You know, Steve, it must be really embarrassing to have to stand there like that, in front of four beautiful naked young women, and have your little wienie sticking out. Don’t you find that totally humiliating?” “I…I…mean…” “You’d better answer, Wienie-Boy. I mean, think about it. You’ll see these young women on campus, and that’s how they’ll remember you, as the pathetic little Wienie-Boy. In fact, I’d bet that’s what they’ll call you. Don’t you find that totally humiliating?” The subject turned dark red from embarrassment. His distress was clearly visible on his tormented face. “Y…yes…Dr. Burnside…I’m embarrassed.” Tears started running down his cheeks. “Oh, how sad. So now you’re crying. Aww…and those are real tears, coming from the Wienie-Boy. Now they’ll really remember you, as not just as Wienie- Boy, but as Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy.” Burnside turned to Lisa. “Pledge Lisa, what is this kid’s name?” “Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy, Dr. Burnside.” Burnside pushed Steve to his knees. “What is your name?” “I…I mean…Cr…Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy…” Burnside waited a second, as though he needed to say something else. Suddenly she struck him savagely across the back with her riding crop. “You forgot to address me properly, Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy! Where’s your respect?” She struck again. “Ahhh!” “I…Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy…Dr. Burnside…” “There, was that so hard? Not nearly as hard as you are…” With that Burnside grabbed Steve’s arm and forced him back on his feet. She lightly ran a finger over his erect penis as she turned to the pledges. “Cry-Baby Wienie-Boy needs some relief. What he needs is to have a nice big cum right out here in front of us all. So, which one of you is going to volunteer for doing us that honor?” Bernadette’s hand shot up. “Pledge Bernadette. Stand up please.” Bernadette stood up. “Who’s holding the jar to catch the sperm?” “I…I guess I’ll have Pledge Cherine help.” Cherine nervously stood up. Burnside handed her a large jar. “OK you two. Have at it.” Ignoring the miserable and humiliated look on Steve’s face, Bernadette grabbed his penis and began massaging it. Applying some of what she had learned from the initial Four-Beta lesson in male sexual anatomy, she teased him by rubbing her breasts against his arm and chest, while Cherine laid one hand on his bottom and held the jar with the other. As soon as Bernadette began stroking his organ Steve climaxed. He moaned as his semen shot into the jar. Once he finished Cherine handed the jar to Bernadette, who held it up for the rest of the room. Heather handed Cherine a box of tissues. She took several and used them to wipe off the end of Steve’s softening penis. Burnside told Bernadette to put the jar on the table and instructed both pledges to return to their kneeling positions with the others. She instructed Heather to position a dining room chair in front of the pledges. She then ordered Steve to stand next to the other freshman and wait. Next she ordered her TA Mark approach her and position himself so she could remove his handcuffs. Once the cuffs were off she told him to place his hands on the chair with his bottom facing the four kneeling women. “Pledges, I expect you to start taking notes, because from this point forward the material I am presenting will be included in the practical exercise and evaluation.” The pledges opened their notebooks, placed them on the floor, and prepared to write. “Erotic discipline has two goals. Those are sexual arousal through physical stimulation and punishment through submission and physical pain. Most erotic discipline falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. A mild hand- spanking after a wrestling session between two lovers in bed would fall closer to pure sexual arousal, while punishing someone, for example for cheating on a test, would fall closer to the other end, pure discipline with very little sexual gratification at the moment.” “What we’re doing here will concentrate more on the punishment end of erotic discipline. What you’ll be doing with the male pledges is forcing them, through physical pain and the fear of physical pain, to comply with their duties and follow orders without question. Later we will return to the subject of erotic spanking, but that will be only for your own benefit. That’s not something you will be using with the male pledges, at least not at the beginning.” “Anyhow, erotic punishment is not just about beating itself. There are several steps, or phases, to a good discipline session. To start, you should have clearly established rules of behavior and a prior agreement that violating those rules will result in castigation. In other words, before there is even a hint of the first punishment for a specific offense, your subject should understand that if he fails to comply with what you want, you have the duty to discipline him and he has the duty to submit. You have to have that prior understanding, because your authority over him is based on that prior understanding. Now, in your case that won’t be much of a problem because the pledges are subject to the rules of the Tri-Alpha pledge handbook. They’ve already accepted their situation and all you have to do is follow what’s already been laid out for you. But you will need to know the rules inside and out to properly apply them.” “Now, here’s how this will affect what you do with the pledges. For a specific incident that results in real punishment, the first step is identifying your subject’s violation and determining why he needs to be punished. You need to be clear in your own mind why you are punishing him and what you expect to get out of it. Think everything through from beginning to end. Plan your scenario before you approach your subject.” “Second, you need to let him know that he faces punishment. Speak to him with authority, and make sure you can articulate why you are going to punish him. What you say and how you say it are very important. Being able to cite rules from memory instead of fumbling through the rulebook will help you considerably, so spend whatever spare time you have studying that rulebook.” “Third, and this absolutely crucial, you need to establish your dominance and psychologically prepare him to submit. Your subject needs to accept that he should be punished. If you do your job right, you will play on his guilt and make him actually want to be punished. If you can build up tension that can only be relieved with physical pain, you will get a much more compliant sub and probably be able to inflict a more frightening chastisement.” “I’ve given you your first example in establishing dominance for a punishment- type scenario. Steve’s hard-on was a violation of proper behavior. Before touching him we verbally established dominance by making him clearly understand that he was doing something wrong and that he needed to be humiliated because of it. We did that before we ever touched him, which made him compliant for the physical humiliation that followed. Under ordinary circumstances I would have continued the subjugation of Steve with corporal punishment. The only reason I didn’t is because we need to save his bottom for the practical exercise.” “Fourth, is the preparation of the punishment scene itself. Think ahead and have everything thought out. What implement will you use, what position will he assume, will he be restrained, will there be witnesses, and where the punishment takes place are all considerations. For example, if you put a subject over your lap, a riding crop won’t do you much good. Conversely, if you have him bent over a chair, a hairbrush won’t be as effective as a paddle. If you want to tie him, don’t use a sofa where there’s nowhere to attach ropes. You need to be sure of yourself and not make a bunch of clumsy mistakes that will take up time and make you look incompetent.” Burnside paused to give the pledges time to finish writing. She picked up a thick leather strap and tapped the insides of Mark’s thighs to get him to spread his feet. Then she pressed down on his lower back to make him turn his bottom up. His bottom-hole and the backs of his testicles were fully visible to the four pledges. The professor continued: “Now for the punishment itself. First of all, I believe that a person being punished should always be completely naked. Being naked sets the subject apart from the rest of the world and is an important gesture of humility. It also is a part of an unspoken agreement I have with my subjects, that as long as they are naked I am in control of their lives. I take away their clothes, and they have to please me before they can earn them back. Their bodies and their souls are exposed and unprotected, and will stay that way until I decide otherwise.” “A related issue is exposure during the beating itself.” Burnside pointed at Mark’s spread bottom. “You want your subject positioned so the anus and genitalia are on full display. The bottom needs to be turned up and the legs at least slightly spread. This is necessary not just for display, but also to prevent your subject from clenching his bottom-cheeks and reducing the effectiveness of each blow. The rule is, if you can’t see his asshole, then you need to reposition him.” “Now for the blows. Imagine a full circular swing, not one that stops right where the bottom is. You need to hit through your target, a nice wide, graceful swing that will just happened to be interrupted by his butt. Make sure you are properly positioned, so you can lay a blow evenly across the bottom, like this…” Burnside stood off to one side of Mark, making sure his bottom would receive the full force of the blow she was about to deliver. She drew back her arm, and with a full confident swing struck hard across both sides of his bottom. The entire room echoed with a resounding CRACK! Mark did not move, because this was nothing new to him. His mistress had beaten him plenty over the past several years. However, the pledges could hear his breathing change and watched as a wide stripe on his bottom quickly changed from white to pink. Burnside repositioned herself and tapped his bottom with the strap. “Each blow needs to be delivered individually. Position yourself each time and think about what you are doing. Each stroke is an event in and of itself, each one carefully thought out. At this point I’m not worried about the over-all punishment, I’m worried about properly delivering the next stroke.” CRACK! A second stripe, slightly overlapping the first one, changed color and added to the pink on Mark’s unprotected backside. The pledges could see that both strokes had been quite painful, but Mark stayed perfectly still and silent. His duty to his mistress was quite clear; he needed to reduce himself to a teaching prop for Burnside’s instruction. He was nothing more than an inanimate object until his mistress told him otherwise. Burnside changed her position to the other side of Mark. “It is very important that you punish both sides evenly. That’s how you can tell an experienced disciplinarian from a novice. So, every so often you should switch sides and give a good backhanded blow, like this…” CRACK! “Everyone understand?” “Yes, Dr. Burnside.” “Good. In a moment you’ll have your first round of target practice. But before we do that, I want to finish up with the overview of the punishment experience.” “What happens afterwards is as important as the beating itself. After you’re done with the physical part of the punishment, you need to successfully wind down the experience. The point is; once you’ve delivered your last blow, you don’t just hang up your strap and walk off. You don’t just tell your subject that he’s released and to ‘not do it again’. Once you’re done with the physical part, you still have two things you need to do. First of all is a final part of the punishment itself. That can be corner-time, posing for pictures, extra chores, giving a speech about his bad behavior, giving you or someone else oral sex, heavy exercising…just to give you a few examples. Use your imagination. Make sure it’s something either difficult or embarrassing. I believe the post-whipping part of the punishment, just like the physical part, should always be in the nude. The subject should not get his clothes back until the punishment is completely over. Once again, the message is: ‘you are to serve me until I give you your clothes back.” “Now for the final part, redemption and forgiveness. What you’re looking for is exorcising your subject’s guilt, letting him know he’s forgiven, and making sure he understands what lesson he needs to take away from the punishment. There needs to be some type of ritual of redemption at the end of the punishment, something that is meaningful to the person being punished. Try to make your subject understand why you had to punish him, that it was something he needed, and you only did it because you love him and care about him. If you can make him feel good about having been punished, and that the hardship he endured was something necessary for his own well-being, then you will have had a successful punishment session. You’re not going to get that every time, but try to get as close as possible.” As the pledge frantically finished writing, Burnside stepped up to Mark and gently rubbed the stripes on his bottom. He dutifully stayed in position, since he had not been instructed to move. Burnside addressed the pledges: “I’m going to give you the chance to practice delivering blows with this strap. Please take a close look at it, familiarize yourself with how it feels, and then pass it on to your classmate.” She handed the strap to Bernadette and continued as each pledge looked at the implement and passed it along. “You’ll notice the leather is thick and heavy. It’s got some flexibility and will bend upon impact, which helps it reach more of the bottom’s surface each time it hits.” Burnside glanced at Heather and gestured with her hand that she wanted to pledges to get off their knees. “PLEDGES, STAND UP!” The four young women scrambled to their feet. “Now, each of you is going to deliver four blows with this strap, two from the left side and two backhanded blows from the right. Pledge Lisa, you will begin.” Lisa took her position next to Mark. She felt very strange punishing the same guy who taught her seminars, but pushed that thought aside and positioned herself to deliver the swats. There was no difficulty for her, given that she had punished Ken in the same manner plenty of times. CRACK!!!…CRACK!!! Lisa delivered two truly vicious swats that actually made Mark jerk from the pain and force of the impact. Her companions stood dumbfounded, since they didn’t know about her prior relationship with Ken. They had assumed that she was wielding the strap for the first time. Lisa positioned herself for the two backhanded blows… CRACK!!!…CRACK!!! The force of Lisa’s four swats darkened Mark’s bottom considerably. She passed her hand over his bottom, feeling satisfaction at the heat rising from his injured skin. The three others looked at each other, nervous that Lisa had set such a high standard for what would be considered a good swat. Lisa handed the strap to Kathleen. At first Kathleen was too nervous to raise her arm, but then suddenly a memory rose up in her mind. She thought about the humiliation she suffered just a month before at the night of the Senior Prom; when her date never showed up and she sat in her formal gown crying in her family’s living room. The anger welled up inside her, rising from her feet to her guts, and finally making its way into her arm. She delivered a truly savage blow, actually stepping into her swing. She gritted her teeth and struck again. “Good job with the force, Pledge Kathleen. Try to concentrate a bit more on control. Give him another, but focus on where you’re swinging.” CRACK!!! “Excellent! Now for the backhanded swipes. Focus on your aim.” CRACK!!!…CRACK!!! Kathleen stood with the strap, trembling and breathing heavily. She was perfectly ready to swing again, but unfortunately Burnside took the strap from her and handed it to Bernadette. Lisa glanced at her lover’s odd expression. She realized that something inside Kathleen’s soul had just been released and that she very much was looking forward to taking out her aggression on the two freshmen during the practical exercise. Mark had another eight swats coming to him: four from Bernadette and four from Cherine. Burnside was not satisfied with Cherine’s backhanded strokes and made her repeat them. After Cherine finished, Burnside gave a review of her lecture about erotic punishment, emphasizing the purpose and phases of a good punishment. She ordered the pledges to review their notes and prepare for a written quiz on the afternoon’s material. For the next 20 minutes she professor dictated questions about her class as the students wrote their answers. All that time Mark quietly kept his position. He would stay that way until Burnside told him to get up or until he dropped from exhaustion. The fact that his bottom was in serious pain and his legs were starting to cramp was of no concern to him. As Burnside put it: “It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” ---------- The next part of Burnside’s lecture was a demonstration of various punishment positions. Mark went over her lap as the professor showed the pledges various positions for a hand spanking. Each time Mark changed his position his mistress gave him several painful swats. Burnside then led her sub and the pledges to the sofa. Mark went over her lap and properly positioned himself for another hand-spanking. Burnside explained: “For an erotic spanking, this is the best and most comfortable position for both the spanker and spankee. The spankee is fully supported and comfortable, while the spanker’s back is supported and there’s no pressure on her knees. The nice thing about using a sofa is, because it’s so comfortable, you can stay like this for hours. You can’t do that with any other position. So if you’re doing this for sexual foreplay and don’t want anything too serious, this is the best way to go.” Burnside stood Mark up and told him to bend over and grab his ankles. “There are various unsupported standing positions. To use any of these your sub has to be completely cooperative. These are good positions for public punishment and embarrassment, but I don’t recommend an unsupported standing position for serious flagellation.” Burnside struck Mark with the strap while his hands were still on his ankles, then told him to move his hands to his knees, spread his legs as widely as possible, and stuck hard again. She moved him to a table and told him to place his hands on the tabletop and spread his legs. “Now your sub has some support, so you can engage in some serious ass- whipping.” Burnside picked up a martinet and severely struck Mark several times. “Another variation is to have your subject lie flat on the table and grab the opposite edge with his hands…” As Mark stretched over the table, Burnside picked up a large wooden paddle. She gave him a couple of cruel swats and continued: “One position that a lot of people use is to have the subject lie flat on his stomach, for example on top of a bed. Mark, please lie flat on the table.” Mark complied, stretching himself over the table. That position emphasized the contrast between his purplish-red bottom and his unmarked legs and back. Lisa cringed, because Mark’s bottom already had taken a lot of punishment and was in bad shape. She wondered how much more the professor could hit him without breaking his skin. Burnside laid her hand on this bottom. “I don’t like this position and never use it. Can anyone tell me why?” Cherine raised her hand. “Dr. Burnside…’cause he can squeeze his bottom together?” “Exactly. He can squeeze his bottom-cheeks together, which means I’m not in control of his punishment. Remember my rule, if you can’t see his asshole you need to reposition him. Now let’s try a variation of the lying position.” Burnside slipped a hard cylinder-shaped pillow under Mark’s pelvis and ordered him to spread his hands and feet. Now he was completely exposed. Burnside quickly took four short pieces of rope and secured Mark’s wrists and ankles to the table legs. “We just took a bad position and converted it to a very good one. Now he is exposed and his ass spread wide. This is a relatively comfortable position, so you can keep him like this for a long time. It’s also a very humiliating position, so you can use it to punish a pledge during a public event or gathering.” Burnside picked up a riding crop. She struck hard at the tender area around Mark’s shaved anus and the vulnerable skin at the very base of his bottom-cheeks. The strokes with the crop broke him. He started crying, but tried to stay as quiet as possible. Burnside ordered Kathleen to pick up two sets of chains with cuffs on the end from the table. Because Lisa was the tallest member of the pledge group, the professor ordered her to stand on a chair and hang the chains from hooks on the ceiling. Meanwhile, Bernadette and Cherine untied the ropes holding Mark to the table. Mark quietly positioned himself under the chains. Burnside secured his hands in the cuffs and continued: “This position is what you use for a formal flogging. You’ll notice that you have access to your subject’s entire body. However, that doesn’t mean that you can hit him anywhere you want. There are areas you need to avoid, which include the neck, the stomach, the backs of the knees, and the part of the lower back that’s not protected by the ribcage or pelvis. Also, you need to avoid hitting the genitals. And there’s something else you never hit. If you are punishing a woman, you do NOT hit her breasts. I don’t care how many times you see it in literature; you just don’t do it! That’ll cause permanent injury, and that’s not what we’re after. I’ll mark off the areas you need to avoid and then give you a demo.” Burnside took a very thick black magic marker and drew lines all over Mark’s body. With a red magic marker she drew X’s in the areas not safe to strike. When she finished her sub’s body looked something like a butcher’s diagram. She picked up a buggy-whip and positioned herself to strike: “You’ll notice this whip is a modified version of what teamsters used on horses. It looks scarier than is really is. The leather is designed to sting but not break the skin. It’s one of the most effective discipline items I have, because it hurts like hell but I can use it for a very long time and not worry about serious injury. CRACK!…CRACK!… CRACK!… CRACK!… CRACK!… CRACK!… CRACK! Burnside flogged Mark in the areas labeled as “safe” to punish. Within a few minutes he was covered with red lines crisscrossing his upper thighs and upper back. He cried pitifully as his mistress finished whipping him. With that Burnside’s demonstration with Mark ended. She unhooked his cuffs and told him to kneel in the corner with his hands behind his head. Upon finishing the demonstration portion of her lesson, Burnside ordered the pledges and their mentor to take seats at the dining room table. She ordered Mark to get up off his knees and offer her guests glasses of juice or mineral water. He painfully got up and moved to the kitchen. His body was covered with black and red lines from the magic markers, as well as whip marks. His bottom was a dark purplish-red. He not only was in serious pain, but also very exhausted. Once the glasses of juice and water were on the table, Burnside sent Mark back into the kitchen to bring out bowls of fruit salad. The pledges were grateful for the food, even though it was little more than a healthy snack. It took the edge off their appetites and helped prepare them for the next part of the day’s adventure, the practical exercise. As soon as he finished serving, Burnside directed Mark to return to his spot in the corner and get back on his knees. There was no kindness from the professor to her sub, but that didn’t matter. Mark’s purpose in life was to satisfy his mistress, no matter what. The more unreasonable she was with him, the harder he worked to please her. The crueler she was to him, the more he loved her.