The Courier
Copyright 2008 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/

(warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, 
forced public nudity, rape, harsh police interrogation)


Chapter 26 – Maria Elena’s Path in Life

The march continued into the countryside as the route left Danube 
City and circled around to the east.  There were rest breaks to 
exchange used torches for new ones, to use the latrine, and to 
drink fruit punch.  The punch stained the marchers’ lips blood 
red, and many of the men dribbled punch down their chests to give 
the appearance of having blood running down their bodies. 

Finally daylight came.  As the sky lightened in the east, Maria 
Elena could see the distant torches from the other group of 
marchers approaching from the opposite direction.  The collared 
servants gathered at a large camp where they would spend the day 
resting and getting ready for the second night’s journey back 
into the city.

Jason Schmidt called the students together to explain what would 
happen throughout the rest of the day; that the group needed to 
eat and then sleep on cots that had been brought in by the 
Danubian Army.  Towards sunset there would be a Church service 
and touching up of the body paint before the marchers resumed 
their trek, which would return them to the Temple of the Ancients 
by sunrise the next morning.  He gave the students a quick lesson 
and some trivia about the Danubian Church and the Day of the 
Dead, ending by teaching the group a simple hymn.  Everyone noted 
that he talked very naturally, with no arrogance whatsoever, but 
in a manner that compelled his listeners to pay attention to what 
he had to say.

A few minutes later the others went into one of the tents to find 
cots, while Cecilia and Maria Elena stayed outside.  They walked 
to the edge of the camp, appreciating the total silence of the 
countryside.  Finally they broke the quiet by talking about the 
march.  Cecilia abruptly changed the topic:

“I think this is the last time we’re gonna be doing this.  The 
march, I mean.  It’s gonna be our last Day of the Dead in 
Danubia.”

Maria Elena glanced over at Cecilia’s painted face.  Noting the 
surprise in her companion’s eyes, Cecilia continued:

“Jason was kinda depressed this morning when we finished walking.  
I asked him what’s wrong, and he told me that he knew where we 
were gonna be next year.  We’re gonna be back in Chicago.  By the 
next Fall Equinox we’re gonna be home.”

“And he’s upset about that?”

“Yeah, real upset, ‘cause he doesn’t wanna leave Danubia.  He was 
kinda hoping that we’d stay here, but…I guess he got this dream 
telling him it wasn’t gonna be that way…that we’re gonna have to 
go back to the US.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“Yeah.  He said we’ve got a lot we have to accomplish in our 
lives, but in Danubia we’ve done what we need to do, so there 
isn’t any point in us staying past next summer.  He told me 
that’s when we’re gonna have to go back, next summer.”

“What about your collar?”

“It stays on until we leave.  He told me that whenever the 
Priestess tells me it’s time to take it off, he’ll buy airplane 
tickets.  I asked him, ‘but what about Mega-Town?’, and he said a 
year from now they won’t give a shit about us any more.  There’s 
only a couple of guys on the Board of Directors who still want to 
get us, and they’re gonna be laid-off the next time the company 
restructures.  When those two go, they’ll toss our records and 
forget about us.  He saw all of that: it’s in the future, but he 
already knows what’s gonna happen.”

“What’s your thought about all this?”

“I’ve never told this to Jason, but I wanna go back.  He’s not 
happy about it, but I am.  There’s people in Chicago that I miss, 
who I wanna see again.  I mean, there’s things here too that I’ll 
miss a lot, but this isn’t where I wanna spend the rest of my 
life, and I don’t really think Pedro ought to grow up here 
either.”

“But, Jason’s OK with it?”

“No, but he’s the one who told me that it’s our Path in Life to 
go back.  He’s not happy about it at all, but he says it’s the 
will of the Creator…”  Cecilia flashed a sarcastic smile under 
her face paint:  “…and I’m not gonna argue.”

Maria Elena pondered the pending change in the lives of Cecilia, 
her fiance, and her nephew.  She realized that the departure of 
Cecilia and Pedro would leave her alone in the house with Victor.

“I’m wondering something.  Do you think…maybe part of the reason 
I came here was so you could leave?  I mean…you were taking care 
of Victor, and now I’m going to replace you.  I’m the one who’ll 
be running the house…”

“You’ll be taking care of Victor, and his household, and you’re 
also gonna have some kids with him.  Jason told me he saw that 
too; you with Victor’s kids…and you runnin’ Victor’s business.  
Someday that’ll be yours also.”

“But…I don’t want to run his business…”

“And if you’ve got kids, just how are you gonna feed ‘em?  What’s 
gonna happen to the business if you don’t take it over?  His sons 
don’t want it, ‘cause they’ve got other careers.”  

Before Maria Elena could think of a response, Cecilia added:

“You know, after talkin’ to Jason, I realized something.  Kim’s 
making a mistake by havin’ a problem with what you’re doin’ with 
Victor.  I’m gonna tell her that she needs to lay off, ‘cause now 
I really do think your Path in Life is gonna be with him.”

The two women stood silent for a few more moments, listening to a 
cuckoo calling from a nearby tree.  

“That’s one thing about here I’ll miss, hearin’ those cuckoo 
birds.  We don’t have ‘em in the States.”

Cecilia turned towards the tents to re-join the rest of the 
group:

“Let’s go.  We gotta get some sleep.  It’s gonna be a long night, 
and we’ll be fucked if we’re not rested.”

“OK…I’ll be there in a second.  I want to get a drink.  Could you 
hold a cot for me?”

“Sure.”

----------

A few moments later, Maria Elena saw Carmen taking a second 
helping of fruit punch.   As they sat under a tree and sipped 
their cups, the two women chatted in Spanish.  Carmen seemed very 
worried.

“I had this dream…I was going to the airport…and I was just like 
I am now, you know…with nothing on…and my family was getting off 
the plane…and they were real nervous and embarrassed…because I 
was totally nude…and I told them I couldn’t help it.”

Maria Elena thought about her own family, who still didn’t know 
what had happened to her.

“I wish I could talk to my family…apologize to my mom…but I 
couldn’t face her like I am now.  There’d be no way.  She’d die 
from humiliation if she knew what’s gone on in my life.”

“My parents would die too…if they saw me…but the weird thing 
about my dream was; it was several years from now.  My little 
brother was…a lot older…a teenager…and he’s just 11 now.  And my 
mom was fatter and my dad’s hair was sort of gray.  I mean, in my 
dream I knew they had to come to Danubia because it’d been such a 
long time since they’d seen me.”

Maria Elena thought about the significance of Carmen’s vision.

“I’m wondering if it means something’s going to keep you here.  
If…maybe you won’t be going home next year.”

“I’m wondering the same thing.  I suppose I shouldn’t have taken 
that oath to stay collared as long as Cecilia stays collared.  I 
suppose that’ll be what keeps me here.”

“Was Cecilia in your dream at all?”

“No.”

“That won’t be the reason.  It won’t be because of Cecilia.  
It’ll be something else.”

Maria Elena was surprised at her own answer, because she was 
totally confident about what she had just said.  There now was at 
least one detail of her life that she knew with certainty.  
Carmen would not be returning to the US next summer.

----------

Late in the afternoon Maria Elena was woken by the forlorn-
sounding bell of a nearby Church.  The ringing was accompanied 
with a series of whistles around the encampment, letting everyone 
know it was time to get up.  She actually felt well-rested after 
having slept the entire day on a cot.  Getting up was followed by 
a trip to the latrine, a meal, prayers, and having her body paint 
re-applied.  The marchers assembled on the side of the camp 
facing the main road linking Danube City to the eastern 
provinces.  They faced into the sunset, knowing that soon enough 
the road would be pitch-black and the only light in the entire 
city would be the fires coming from their own torches.  

Still somewhat shaken from her experience the night before, Maria 
Elena reluctantly took a torch.  She took her place in line 
behind Carmen and waited for everyone else to take their torches 
and get ready to move.  She felt apprehensive as she watched the 
first marchers at the front of the two lines light their torches 
and move forward.  The line became longer and longer, until it 
stretched into the darkness and looked like a fragile bridge of 
light stretching into the void.  Finally the members of Jason’s 
group moved forward.  One by one they lit their torches and 
started walking, plunging forward into the darkness.

----------

Several hours went by and Maria Elena could tell that her group 
had been walking through Danube City for a while.  The buildings 
were totally dark, but she could make out street signs and 
trolley stops reflecting the dim light given off by the torches.  
She also could feel the presence of thousands of black-clad 
civilians, even though the worshipers were absolutely silent as 
they knelt and prayed in the darkness.  She began to wonder if 
she would be spared any further visions.  As curious as she might 
have been to know what the Creator would want to reveal, she knew 
that anything she would see that night would be unpleasant, to 
say the least.

Eventually she realized that she was looking at white powder, a 
dry sea of cocaine that extended in every direction as far as she 
could see.  It fell like snow and blew in drifts like sand in the 
desert.  She saw nothing but endless powder in the pitch black 
night; nothing but black above and white below, stretching out to 
the horizon.  

She saw pellets, similar to the ones she had swallowed in Panama 
before boarding the fight for Frankfurt.  The pellets where not 
clean at all: they were soaked in blood and feces.  A knife was 
cutting away at skin and intestines to expose more pellets, and a 
gloved hand was picking them out of a horrific mess that had been 
a young woman just a few minutes before.  The most awful detail 
was that the woman was still somewhat alive.  Her handlers had 
not even bothered to kill her before cutting her open.  They 
counted the pellets to make sure they had them all, before 
leaving their victim to die alone in a bathtub.  Others would 
come along in an hour or so to dispose of the body.

The dying woman was having convulsions as her soul separated from 
her body.  She turned her head towards Maria Elena.  She was 
staring into her own face.  She realized she was looking at 
herself, seeing a different alternate reality from the one she 
had seen the night before: the death that would have awaited her 
had she completed her trip to Germany.  She wondered why they 
would have killed her instead of simply letting her expel her 
pellets, but the fact remained that she now knew with certainty 
that she would not have survived her trafficking effort.  The 
only reward awaiting her in Germany had been her own death.

Maria Elena came back to reality of the black night and the line 
of torches, barely able to breathe from the fright of her vision.  

----------

When Maria Elena’s senses returned her to the Realm of the 
Living, already she could tell that morning was approaching.  The 
sky was no longer pitch black.  As the marchers continued their 
journey, more and more of Danube City was becoming visible in the 
increasing light.  Church bells began ringing, breaking the dead 
silence that had shrouded the entire country over the past 36 
hours.  Minutes later the marchers were crossing the Plaza of the 
Ancients and retracing their steps through the Temple and the 
forest park that lead to the East Danube River.  Following a 
3,000-year old tradition, the marchers tossed their torches onto 
a huge bonfire before stepping into the river to wash off their 
body paint.  The bath was cold and totally unpleasant, but the 
marchers were obligated to clean themselves as best they could, 
to wash off Death and return to the Realm of the Living.  Before 
they could return to the Plaza, they had to have the paint 
completely removed from their bodies and faces.

When all of the marchers had disposed of their torches and 
cleaned-off their paint, they assembled in the Plaza for a final 
hymn before being released.  The Grand Duchess stood in front of 
a microphone at the top of the steps to lead the singing and to 
close the ceremony.  Her attractive figure contrasted with the 
black-clad Clergy members surrounding her.  Unlike the naked 
crowd in front of her, the Grand Duchess was not shivering, 
because she had been treated to a hot bath in the Temple instead 
of a cold plunge in the river outside.  It was a tiny privilege 
the Clergy had allowed her, but one that put her in a much better 
mood.

The Grand Prophet handed Anyia an announcement to read: that all 
criminals currently serving sentences had to report to the 
Central Police Station and talk to their Spokespersons to pick up 
their winter capes and boots.  People serving Public Penance 
would have to remain at the Temple and write down their names and 
shoe sizes to be issued winter boots from the Temple.  Once she 
finished the announcement, Anyia quietly stepped away from the 
microphone to join her husband and her parents, all of whom were 
wearing black prayer robes.

With that the naked crowd began to disperse as the collared 
criminals drifted towards the Central Police Station to pick up 
their winter clothing.  Jason’s friends from his Church group 
departed, along with Cynthia Lee and her husband.  Jason rounded 
up the students and led them into the Temple, because that 
morning Penance would end for 12 of them, and also for Victor 
Dukov.

The students gathered in the area were most people began wearing 
their Temple collars.  The fire-pit where people had to toss 
their clothing was lit and the students were grateful for the 
heat it put out on that chilly morning.  Jason organized the 
others into two rows and moved to the front with Maria Elena and 
Victor.  Once everyone was properly kneeling, Jason left to 
summon the Priestess under whom he was training, the one member 
of the Temple staff who spoke fluent English and who was the most 
comfortable working with foreigners.

The Clergywoman showed up with two Temple attendants carrying 
prayer robes and a set of keys to unlock the collars.  Jason 
knelt as she took his hands and smiled warmly.  A twinge of 
jealousy rose up in Cecilia, because she knew that the Priestess 
had been a very important part of her fiance’s life over the past 
four years.  In a way she considered the Priestess a rival, 
because she had assumed a central role in her fiance’s life as 
his mentor, a role that years before Cecilia had expected to 
fill.  

Jason explained that 12 of the students, along with Victor Dukov, 
were satisfied that they had pleased the Creator and felt ready 
to resume their normal lives.  The Priestess asked Criminal # 
101025 to stand in front of her friends and thank them for the 
personal sacrifice they had made on her behalf.  She was 
genuinely grateful and made sure the others knew it.

After a hymn and a brief prayer, the Priestess asked the students 
to step forward one by one.  She unlocked each collar and handed 
it to one of the attendants.  Once the students were de-collared, 
the other attendant laid 12 prayer robes at their feet.  The 
students dressed together, with Cecilia and Carmen casting sad, 
envious glances at those who were resuming their normal lives.  
Within a couple of hours the others would go home, get properly 
cleaned up, and go back out dressed in their regular clothing.  

The Priestess de-collared Merchant Victor Dukov separately.  She 
grabbed his hands and commented:

“You see that the Creator answered your prayers and safely 
returned this young woman to your household.  I expect you to 
spend the rest of your time in the Realm of the Living 
appreciating what the Creator did for you.  I also expect you 
always to treat Criminal # 101025 with respect and love.  Your 
task is now to teach her what you have learned about life and to 
assist in her redemption.  Take this robe and return to your 
house.”

With that Victor put the robe over his head and knelt.  The 
Priestess ended the brief service and abruptly left to attend to 
other worshipers in the Temple.  

----------

As soon as the ceremony had ended, the norteamericanos asked 
their Colombian classmate to accompany them in the Plaza to have 
some tea, and from there the group would walk to the Central 
Police Station to watch Maria Elena pick up her Ministry of 
Justice boots and cape.  The students wanted to go with her 
partly out of curiosity, because the capes were considered an 
abomination of fashion and were the source of numerous jokes.  
The students were curious to see an infamous winter cape up 
close. 

Criminal # 101025 took her place in line, waiting for Spokeswoman 
Lee-Dolkivna to hand her a garment bag.  Her reaction was the 
same as nearly everyone else who had ever picked up winter 
clothing from the Ministry of Justice.  The first thing she 
pulled out of the bag was a pair of boots, which were the same 
shade of orange used for road construction warnings. Bright 
orange boots. That definitely was not a good sign. Sure enough, 
when Maria Elena opened her garment bag she pulled out the most 
hideous piece of clothing she had ever laid eyes on. It was a 
bright orange top that looked something half-way between an army 
poncho and a cape. It had a hood and a sewn-in wool shirt 
underneath. There was a yellow stripe running up the middle of 
the cape and blue reflective strips sewn around the edges. There 
were several drawstrings to tighten the hood and waist. On the 
back was a large patch of Velcro.

Kim handed Maria Elena a white Velcro patch with # 101025 
embroidered in thick black thread.  She commented:

"You’ll need to wear your criminal number attached at all 
times…that is, IF you want to wear the top. The Ministry will let 
you wear the boots without the cape during the winter…which is 
what I always did when I was serving my sentence. If you keep 
your feet warm and stay moving when you're outdoors it's not so 
bad. Not bad enough to wear this."

The norteamericanos passed the cape around, impressed by what a 
ghastly-looking item it truly was.  Maria Elena, like every other 
criminal, would avoid wearing it as much as possible, but at 
least she did have something to put on during cold snaps.

----------

That night, Cecilia invited Maria Elena, Victor, and Carmen to 
accompany her and Jason to the Socrates Club.  The night promised 
to be special, because Kim and her group would present several 
new songs.  As always, the club would be the first to hear the 
newest music from Socrates’ Mistresses; the raw and unrefined 
versions of songs that later would be recorded and sold 
throughout Europe.

Jason cuddled Cecilia as they were sitting at the table.  Cecilia 
had a nervous look on her face, because her fiance was gently 
stroking her breasts and thighs.  Every so often he traced one of 
her nipples with a fingertip or reached between her legs.  
Everyone at the table pretended not to notice.  It was very 
strange to see Jason and Cecilia switch roles.  For the past four 
years she had teased him, whispering to him what a naughty boy he 
was and how much he deserved to be spanked.  Now it was his turn 
to do the exact same thing.  He continued to tease her, warning 
her not to become aroused until he gave her permission.  If she 
dared to disobey him, she would pay for her disobedience with a 
very long spanking.  She resisted as best she could, but both of 
them knew that Cecilia had very little control over her own body 
and her impending punishment was inevitable.  

Sure enough, she became aroused.  He put his finger between her 
legs and showed her the wetness.  He placed the wet finger 
against her lips, forcing her to lick her own juices.  With that 
he took her upstairs.  He carried her to one of the intimacy 
rooms and laid her on the bed.  As always, before spanking her, 
Jason would make love to her, because there was no point in 
wasting a good orgasm.

For the next year Cecilia would be obedient to Jason, up until 
the moment her collar came off.  Then their relationship would go 
back to normal and she would return to spanking him every time 
they made love.  After all, nothing aroused Jason Schmidt more 
than having his bottom warned by Cecilia, especially after he had 
been a naughty boy.

----------

While Jason and Cecilia were gone, Maria Elena noticed one of her 
fellow ex-Royal servants coming into the Club alone.  He was one 
of Kim’s clients, the young missionary from the US who had been 
convicted to a 10-year sentence for proselytizing a foreign 
religion.  He looked a bit disoriented because it was obvious 
that he was visiting the Socrates Club for the first time.

Maria Elena felt nervous seeing one of her fellow ex-Royal 
servants in the Club, but she realized that she needed to get 
past the trauma she had suffered under Anyia.  After all, she had 
only been in Anyia’s place for one week, and there were servants 
who had suffered under her for two years.  Maria Elena stood up 
and greeted the American, and in broken English invited him to 
sit at her table.

The missionary’s name was Anthony.  He introduced himself and 
talked a little about his background and his sentence, speaking a 
mixture of English and Danubian.  It turned out that his home was 
only a few miles from where Carmen’s grandparents lived, and that 
Carmen knew exactly where his former church was located.  From 
that point forward Anthony and Carmen chatted with each other 
about their lives and places they both had visited.

Carmen talked at length about her experience as an exchange 
student and the reason she had decided to wear a Church collar.  
Anthony talked about his own experience, first as a convicted 
criminal and then as a Royal Servant.  Prior to his internment in 
the Royal Residence, his religious convictions had encouraged him 
to stay aloof from his fellow criminals and therefore he had 
never visited the Socrates Club.  His traumatic experience under 
the Grand Duchess, the dramatic way it ended, and finally his 
participation in the Day of the Dead march, convinced him that he 
needed to accept what he now was; a Danubian collared criminal.  
He said sadly:

“I’m not a missionary anymore. That’s something I don’t think 
I’ll ever be able to do again…because my faith…it just isn’t 
there…it’s totally gone. And, anyhow, everyone points at my 
collar and calls me by a number…and I’ve realized…that whatever I 
was before I got arrested, right now I’m now I’m just criminal in 
this country, no better than a drug user or a burglar.”

Carmen invited Anthony to dance.  They continued to exchange 
details about their lives as they became more intimate.  Then 
they danced more closely and touched each other’s bare bodies.  
They were attracted to each other; that was something Maria Elena 
could see very clearly as she watched them on the floor.  
Interesting…Carmen and Anthony had met only because Maria Elena 
had invited him to sit at their table, and she had invited him 
simply out of being polite to someone she vaguely knew.  And yet, 
from that simple invitation the lives of Carmen and Anthony would 
be changed forever.   

She knew that Carmen would eventually become more serious with 
Anthony, and he would be the reason she’d end up staying behind 
in Danube City after her classmates left.  Her decision to remain 
collared would simply be the result of falling in love with 
someone serving a long sentence, someone who could not leave 
Danubia, and who she would not be able to leave behind.

----------

Socrates’ Mistresses completed the presentation of their new 
songs.  Kim asked if there were any requests before the group 
left the stage.  A couple of hands around the room went up, 
requesting “The wall that divides my soul.”  It was an old song, 
but the clientele of the Socrates Club never tired of hearing it.

As she listened to her Spokeswoman and her partner Eloisa perform 
the final song of the evening, Maria Elena cuddled in Victor’s 
arms, knowing that she was indeed where she belonged.  Her old 
life was gone, ruined through her own stupidity, but there was no 
point in worrying about that.  Over time she would learn Danubian 
and forget Spanish, she would raise Victor’s kids and run his 
business.  Every day she would give thanks to the Creator for 
having given her a second chance, one that she really did not 
deserve.

Maria Elena touched her collar.  Yes, the collar marked her as 
property of the Danubian Ministry of Justice.  She knew that she 
would never again experience freedom in the way that most people 
understood being free.  And yet, at that moment she was happier 
than she had been at any time in her troubled existence, because 
for the first time the world seemed to make sense to her.  Her 
destiny would be to serve her husband, her children, her friends, 
and her new country.

Criminal # 101025 had found her Path in Life, her proper place in 
the Realm of the Living.


(Note from EC:  This conclusion is tentative, because I will have 
to give this novel some thought and decide if I am satisfied with 
how I wrapped up the final chapter.  It is possible I will add an 
epilogue and/or a couple more chapters, but for now I feel that 
the narrative of Maria Elena’s story is complete.)
