Chapter 15: Halloween Night at Burnside's House

Jason's punishment solved one dilemma in Cecilia's life, what to do about concealing her own impending punishment from Ruth Burnside the final day of October. Halloween that year was on a Tuesday night, only three days after the ill-fated trip to the tattoo studio. She simply could put him on restriction and keep him confined to his room in the evenings as part of his punishment over the tattoo incident. That would prevent him from seeing her body until the welts had healed and keep him from knowing that she had been punished at all.

Cecilia never thought about telling Jason that she had to suffer roughly the same discipline that she had inflicted on him over the weekend. She felt that having to admit to being punished was to display weakness, and thus reduce her authority in her boyfriend's life. She did not want him to see her as an equal, but as his infallible mistress. He saw her as nearly perfect, incapable of making mistakes, and in a way invincible. The upcoming punishment at the hands of Ruth Burnside clearly demonstrated that she was not invincible at all, but she felt no need to share her weaknesses with her lover.

Cecilia was duty RA that Sunday night, so there was no massage and no lovemaking the day after Jason's punishment. She restricted him to his room and announced that he would remain on restriction throughout the entire week. The restriction also applied to Ken. Although she had not punished him, she made it clear that he was not to leave his room in the evenings, and that to disobey her would lead to very serious consequences. Ken, remembering the photos the RA still possessed of the night he and Jason went streaking, was in no position to challenge her.

The following Monday morning Jason had to pose for two art classes. He was back on the morning schedule, which meant that he was the model for the sessions during which both Cecilia and Ken were drawing. The two classes had a surprise when they saw their model with his bottom still badly marked up from Saturday's punishment. Jason felt totally humiliated, having to share his that detail of his life with his professor and 60 art students. The instructor was fascinated by the sight of her model's welts and decided to change his pose to force him to place his bottom on prominent display for the benefit of the students. She lowered a rope from the ceiling and told him to grab onto it and face away from the class with his legs spread and his back arched. Once she had him properly positioned, she resisted the temptation to pat his bruised backside. As for the students, most of them were fascinated at the contrast between the purplish welts on their model's bottom and the unmarked skin of the rest of his body. The students crowded around the model's platform to render Jason's welts to paper, Cecilia and Ken among them.

Following the art class was Cecilia's daily trek to Ruth Burnside's office. As usual, she helped the professor take lecture materials over to her class and helped set up. As usual, during the lecture she stood at the back of the room with the TA to make sure the doors stayed shut and the students stayed quiet. As usual, she looked at Jason and his friends, who glanced back at her with uneasy expressions.

When they returned to the professor's office, the two women went over Cecilia's progress with her research about the economic dispute between the Danubian Prime Minister and the European Community. Cecilia had learned that, upon entering the Danubian Parliament, Vladim Dukov discovered that deputies of both the previous government and the opposition party had negotiated several secret deals with other governments and multi-national companies. The deals had not been mentioned during the campaign that brought him to power, but came as an unpleasant surprise and were Dukov's first crisis as the Danubian leader. One of those deals was to build a major trucking route that would pass through the eastern provinces and exit through a pass along the mountainous northern border. The EU considered the proposed route as an important north-south trade link between its member nations. An extensive logging project in eastern Upper Danubia would provide the money to build the highway.

Upon finding out about the plan Dukov flatly canceled the project. He responded to its foreign backers: "You need this highway, we don't. I'm not spending the Duchy's money and forest reserves on something we don't need." Other European leaders warned Dukov not to cancel the road building project or Upper Danubia's membership in the EU would be jeopardized. Dukov responded by formally withdrawing Upper Danubia's request to join the EU.

Upper Danubia's neighbors needed the road more than Upper Danubia needed the EU. When it became apparent that Dukov's withdrawal was serious and not just a bargaining tactic, neighboring governments began offering concessions to bring Dukov back to the negotiating table. He still was not convinced his country needed or would benefit from a large road, but over time was willing to listen to proposals. Cecilia's research predicted that the project eventually would be approved, but under conditions much more favorable to Upper Danubia.

Burnside was very pleased with her student's progress. She commented as she handed the papers back to her student: "This is what I wanted from you. Now you have a grasp on an important issue facing Prime Minister Dukov, and you'll be able to talk to him about something more intelligent than how much you like Danubian music."

Even as they casually discussed Danubian politics and economic policy, the student's mind wandered to what was happening the following evening. She wanted answers and was trying to figure out how to ask her professor exactly what to expect the following afternoon. Finally she took a deep breath and blurted out:

"Dr. Burnside, I ... was curious ... you know ... about tomorrow."

"What about tomorrow?"

"I ... I mean ... what's gonna happen ... like ... what do I gotta do?"

"Cecilia, what's 'gonna happen' is that you 'gotta be' at my house at 3:00 p.m. sharp, and be prepared to stay until about 4:00 the next morning. What you 'gotta do' is exactly what I tell you to do. That'll be it."

The student swallowed hard and asked another question.

" ... and you're ... still ... gonna punish me?"

Burnside's fierce eyes bore into her student. "Can you think of any reason I shouldn't? Can you think of anything that's happened between last month and now that changes the fact you chose to dig around in restricted test files and because of that I have a reprimand sitting in my personnel folder?"

"No, I 'spose not, Dr. Burnside."

In spite of her uncomfortable situation, Cecilia left the office no longer afraid of what was going to happen to her the following night. However painful Burnside's punishment might be, she was confident she could withstand it. Instead, she felt somewhat relieved that an issue clouding her relationship with her mentor was about to be resolved. She would take her punishment, submit to Burnside's commands for an evening, nurse her injuries for a few hours, and then return to her normal life. Undoubtedly Wednesday morning her backside still would be covered with painful welts, but she would deal with the pain, attend her classes, continue to discipline Jason, and move ahead with her research and her studies.

She reflected that in some ways Ruth Burnside's role in her life was similar to her own role in Jason's life. In the same way that she wanted to mold Jason's character through discipline, Cecilia Sanchez rightly assumed that Dr. Burnside wanted to mold her into a very different person from the one who stepped off the incoming bus from New Jersey the previous summer. She didn't mind the changes Burnside was attempting to impose on her, because she hated who she had been and the life she had led prior to attending college. If it took the will of another person such as her professor to help her break free from her past ... so be it.

The following day Cecilia flatly told Jason that he was not to leave his room, even though it was Halloween night and the university was teeming with parties. When she saw the disappointed look in Jason's face she coldly reminded him:

"You're on restriction, and just 'cause it's Halloween doesn't make any difference to me. You should've thought about that before the tattoo studio."

"But ... what are you gonna do for Halloween if I can't go out with you?"

"Me? What do you think? You think I'm gonna be partying? Yeah right. I gotta do some work for Dr. Burnside."

"She's gonna make you work Halloween night?"

"Yeah ... work. So don't feel so sorry for yourself. I won't be havin' any fun either."

With that she kissed her boyfriend goodbye and left to catch a bus to Burnside's house. She had told Jason part of the truth about her evening, but in telling him part of the truth she completely deceived him about what she actually was going to be doing. Jason pictured his girlfriend spending a long night pouring over stacks of papers in her professor's office. He never could have imagined that instead she would spend the night serving drinks in a crowded living room, in the nude with a collar around her neck, and displaying a row of welts on her exposed bottom.

A half an hour later Cecilia sadly got off a city bus and followed Burnside's instructions to walk the final several blocks to her house. The professor lived in a nice neighborhood of 1960's ranch-style houses. Cecilia sighed at seeing the quiet, spread-out area as she wondered if she ever could afford a house of her own. After several minutes of walking along tree-lined streets she finally came up on a house whose number corresponded with the address on the slip of paper in her hand. Her heart pounding, she rang the doorbell.

Burnside answered the door, dressed in a gray sweatsuit. The professor's outfit came as a total shock to her student, given that she never had seen Burnside wearing anything other than her formal teaching outfits. The living room was a bit of a surprise as well. It was huge, much larger than what was normal in an average sized tract home. It seemed sparsely furnished, but there were boxes of party supplies already on the floor and a stack of black sheets sitting near one of the walls. Cecilia stepped inside and sadly looked at the professor, waiting for her first order.

"OK, you're here at 3:00 just like I told you. Good." The professor then handed her student a paper grocery bag. "I want all your clothes off. Put your stuff in the bag and take it to the back room."

Cecilia went to the back room and slowly stripped. She felt very uneasy about parting with her clothing, even though Burnside already had seen her body the month before when she spanked her after the ethics committee hearing. She sensed that Burnside was bi-sexual, remembering the older woman's fingertips brushing against her most private areas immediately before the spanking began. She wondered if Burnside would touch her again, fervently hoping she wouldn't. She returned to the living room and faced the professor, her hands at her sides and her heart pounding.

Burnside's next order was to tell the student to go into the guest bathroom, get cleaned up, and completely shave off her pubic hair. Cecilia's pubic hair already was partly shaven, because she wore thong underwear and had to shave along the sides to keep her panty-line clear. However, what remained had to come off as well. Burnside insisted that anyone serving at her parties had to be completely shaved, to be as exposed as possible. Cecilia ran bath water and shaved off the small amount of black hair remaining on her pelvis. Upon getting out and drying off she looked at herself in the mirror. She felt a faint thrill of erotic excitement, somewhat surprised by how much she liked the way her vagina looked stripped of any hair. With no pubic hair she looked younger and much more vulnerable.

Again the student returned to the living room, where the professor was waiting. For the next hour the two women moved furniture into the guest bedroom, leaving only the chairs and a couple of large tables. Cecilia worked hard enough to forget that she was completely nude, even as her bare body contrasted with the gray sweatsuit of her professor. The next task was to hang sheets on small hooks around the large room. Burnside brought a step-ladder, told Cecilia to climb up, and handed her sheets as she reached up to attach them to a row of hooks near the ceiling. As she stood on the ladder with her body exposed and her hands reaching up over her head, Cecilia remembered that she had forced Jason to do the exact same thing the second night she caught him outside his dorm room with no clothes on. Burnside, meanwhile, admired the Dominican's attractive figure and dark skin. The girl's bottom jiggled slightly as she moved about, while the professor's gaze took in every detail with pure pleasure. Such a lovely dark bottom ... such a perfect target for punishment...

The room's walls now were covered with black sheets, which totally changed its appearance and made it look much more sinister. There was a brief break while Burnside brought her dog into the house and shut him in the garage, and then the final set of commands, to unpack several boxes onto the tables.

Cecilia shuddered when she saw what the boxes contained. They were full of fetish implements: whips, leather paddles, wooden paddles, a couple of canes, leather handcuffs and collars, leather restraints, painful-looking metal clips, and a few items that she had no clue what they could be used for. The implements frightened Cecilia, but at the same time fascinated her. They represented a more extreme dimension of the relationship she already had with Jason, a progression of submission, punishment, pain, redemption, and finally a release through sexual pleasure. Cecilia knew that, as much as he feared being punished, Jason's best orgasms always followed a spanking or, better yet, a belt whipping. She looked at the collection of leather implements, wondering if she should try to take her relationship with her boyfriend to a higher level of more severe punishments, more severe pain, more complete submission, and perhaps better orgasms.

The final item to be brought into the living room was a heavy piece of furniture that looked something like a gymnastics horse. It had a sturdy base and padded leather cushion. Also, it had two sets of adjustable chains for mounting bondage cuffs. Following Burnside's orders, Cecilia took one end of the heavy item and helped the professor move it from a back bedroom to the middle of the living room. Cecilia's heart pounded, because she knew that momentarily she would be draped over the padded leather cushion, her hands and feet immobilized by the chains.

Burnside said nothing, but returned to her bedroom and came out with a truly scary-looking item, a long, thin, black leather switch.

"Put your hands out in front of you."

When Cecilia complied, Burnside laid the switch in her hands. There was a detail that truly frightened her as she held the punishment device in her hands. The switch was very thin and flexible, but also seemed very heavy. It was obvious that any stroke from the implement, even a light one, would hurt.

"Take a good look at it. It's a Danubian police switch, what they use to punish criminals with in Upper Danubia. If I'm not mistaken, I think your singer Kimberly Lee got punished with one of these."

"Y ... yes ... Dr. Burnside ... she did ... three times..."

"Well, now it's your turn. I realize that you've put that spot of irresponsibility from last month behind you and that you are continuing to fulfill your potential as a smart student. But you will understand that every action that you take in life has its consequences. The consequence from looking into my test files will be the punishment I'm about to give you. Do you understand me?"

"Y ... yes ... Dr. Burnside ... I ... I ... understand."

"You will also understand that once I'm done with you, I will consider the matter between us settled. I don't hold grudges against people willing to face up to their mistakes. I guarantee that any further fall-out from the incident last month will be my problem, not yours."

"Yes, Dr. Burnside."

With that Burnside took the switch from her student's hands. She laid it across the punishment bench before going over to one of the tables and picking up four leather cuffs. She wrapped the cuffs around the young woman's wrists and ankles, and then returned for a metal collar to place around Cecilia's neck. The message was very clear, until the collar came off; Cecilia had given up her freedom. For the evening she belonged to Ruth Burnside.

The professor tapped the switch against the leather cushion of the punishment horse. Saying nothing, Cecilia stepped up, draped her body over the top, and allowed her arms and legs to hang freely. Burnside knelt down and clipped the four cuffs to the chains. The student now was helpless with her arms and legs chained to the bench and her bottom spread and facing upwards. She tried to tighten the muscles in her buttocks, but realized she couldn't because she was so completely immobilized. For the first time in her life, Cecilia had surrendered control of her own body.

Burnside took her time. She stripped off her sweatshirt, leaving herself completely nude from the waist up. Her large breasts jiggled slightly as she slashed the switch through the air. This was a moment for her to truly enjoy, the comfortable feeling of the cool living room air on her upper body, the lovely sight of the attractive helpless bottom in front of her as it waited to be marked from the punishment, and the feeling of inflexible authority the implement gave her as she gripped it and felt the weight in her hand. She walked a full circle around the student, slashing the switch through the air as she contemplated the trembling body immobilized over the punishment horse. Cecilia was terrified, of all things, by the sight of her professor completely naked from the waist up. The professor's bare upper body somehow added to the severity of her appearance as she walked around slashing that terrifying strip of leather.

Burnside stopped and gently tapped the switch to the base of Cecilia's bottom. She positioned herself, tapped her target again, and struck hard. She struck expertly, laying an even, parallel line across the lower part of both sides, just above the crease that separated Cecilia's bottom from her upper thighs. The pain from the first blow mounted as the student struggled to catch her breath and fight back the tears. She desperately wanted not to cry, even though the pain from the switch went way beyond anything she could have imagined.

Burnside waited, enjoying the sight of the student as she struggled with the agony from the first stroke. That was the first stroke out of what was to be a lengthy punishment. Ultimately she planned to give Cecilia a total of 15 strokes, but they would be laid on with force and spaced well apart to make sure she felt each blow fully and separately. She also wanted to force the student to cry, if at all possible, to break her and demonstrate who truly was in control. From her silence it was obvious that Cecilia was going to try to resist.

Burnside tapped the spot immediately above the first welt, left the switch in position long enough to let her victim know where the next stroke would land, drew back, and struck hard. The professor's switch landed exactly where she planned, just slightly above where the first stroke had landed. Cecilia again drew a deep breath and tightened her lips, desperately trying to stay quiet.

Very slowly and methodically Burnside struck a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth time. The routine always was the same; she gently tapped the spot she planned to mark, left the switch touching the student's skin long enough to let her know where the stroke would land, and then struck hard. Each new welt was laid immediately above the preceding one, creating an ever-widening band of solid pain across the young woman's bare backside.

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 lit up 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.