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 25  The Equinox

Two days after her release from the Royal Residence, Maria Elena 
returned to her job at the university.  There was plenty of work 
for her because the leaves of all the trees on campus had started 
to turn and already the grass needed constant raking.  Criminal # 
101025 knelt in front of the university gardeners and was 
promptly issued a rake.  With no further ceremony she stood up, 
walked to a section of lawn near the campus administration 
building, and began gathering fallen leaves.  Her supervisor had 
told her that would be her primary concern for the next month, 
raking as much as possible during her working hours.  Once the 
leaves from their sections were gathered, Maria Elena and her co-
workers had to dump them into specially-built wagons and later 
move them to an enormous compost pile located next to the 
universitys agriculture department.  

In Danubia it was illegal to burn leaves or any other organic 
matter.  Leaves had to be buried back into the soil or 
transported to collection sites.  At the height of autumn, many 
criminals, especially ones who had spent the summer working 
outside, were ordered to help collect and transport leaves and 
garden debris from public parks and also from the yards and 
gardens of pensioners and other people who were able to gather up 
the leaves, but not strong enough to transport them.  

To add to the effort, the Danubian Church handed over many of the 
people performing Public Penance, which that year included 
Cecilia and Jason.  For several weeks the couple joined a group 
of 20 other university students who were performing Public 
Penance.  They wandered around the neighborhood outside the 
university with their shovels and wagons, taking away the garden 
debris of older residents and hauling it to the compost pile.  
The work was dirty and hard, but because they were collared 
servants they had to do what they were told.

----------

Cecilias transition to performing Public Penance turned out to 
be psychologically difficult.  She knew that she had to be 
extremely careful to adhere to correct protocol at all times, 
because everyone was watching her.  One very important detail 
that set her apart from hundreds of other people performing 
Public Penance was her dark skin.  It was obvious she was not 
Danubian, but she was performing a deeply Danubian ritual.  She 
became the focus of much curiosity and people paid much closer 
attention to her than they would have paid to any Danubian under 
the same circumstances.  

Cecilia was very much accustomed to being in charge, but her 
collar took away that perceived authority.  In class, for 
example, she had to get out of her seat and kneel whenever she 
was called upon to answer a question.  She had to assume the 
correct posture, which meant getting on her knees, extending her 
hands out in front of her, spreading her legs, and arching her 
back to completely expose her vulva to anyone standing or sitting 
behind her.  By Wednesday afternoon all of her classmates had 
seen her in the posture of Penance, which meant that everyone she 
knew had seen her vagina and anus fully exposed.  She had one 
professor in particular who seemed to delight in her predicament.  
He called on her continuously and instructed her to come to the 
front of the class before kneeling and answering so that everyone 
could see her.  

Cecilia knew that she did not have the right to complain, because 
the entire purpose of Public Penance was to experience humility.  
Being forced to expose herself changed her personality.  Much of 
her self-confidence had vanished with her clothing.  She dropped 
her bossy abrasive manner of treating people and became more 
reserved and shy.  Jason had told her that eventually her self-
confidence would return, but once it did return it would be a 
different type of confidence and much more profound.  During the 
first few days of wandering around the campus in the nude and 
exposing herself to everyone she knew; she didnt see how that 
would be possible.

As Cecilia had foreseen, Jason took a leading role in her life.  
She quietly followed him around Danube City, watching him and 
copying whatever he was doing at the moment.  She wouldnt have 
wanted to admit it, but whenever she was not in his presence she 
felt very uneasy, to the point of feeling unprotected and afraid.  
She needed to be with him as much as possible.  She had always 
felt that need, ever since she met him, but she had managed to 
keep that need in her subconscious thoughts.  With the collar on 
her neck she no longer could hide behind her authoritative 
position or her abrasive personality to conceal her underlying 
fear of being without her fianc.  She would not be able to live 
without Jason, and for the first time in her life could openly 
admit that, both to him and to herself.

Up until she began performing Penance, Cecilia only had a vague 
idea about what her fianc did with the Church, since he was not 
one to push his beliefs on her or anyone else.  Now that she wore 
a collar, the Clergy expected her to understand why what she was 
doing was spiritually significant.  It turned out that Jason knew 
all about Church teachings and was able to explain them.  He was 
well advanced in his theological training, whereas she knew 
absolutely nothing.  He had memorized a large portion of the 
Texts of the Ancients, knew the parts of the Judeo-Christian 
Bible that were relevant to the Danubian Church, and could sing 
Danubian hymns in their original language.  She would have to 
rely on him to catch up and not look like a total fool in front 
of the Priestess.  One of the very first things he had to teach 
her was correct prayer protocol, since she didnt even know that.

Even though Cecilia was wearing a Penance collar, officially she 
was classified as a criminal.  Because she was collared, she had 
a custodian and an owner.  Many places in Danube City that 
previously had been open to her now were off-limits.  There were 
clubs and restaurants that she had been able to go to with her 
students or with professors that would no longer welcome her.  
She reluctantly acknowledged that her place in society had 
changed; that there was no point in thinking she could possibly 
be the same person or lead the same life she had led before she 
visited the Temple.

Cecilias feelings about the Socrates Club changed along with how 
she felt about herself.  She had been going to the criminals 
hangout throughout the entire time she had been in Danubia, but 
always as a guest of Jason or Kim.  She could not be a member 
because she was not collared, thus whenever she was there she 
felt like an intruder.  The reason she really went was because 
the club was the only place in Danube City where it was possible 
for her to make love with Jason.  

On Friday afternoon Cecilia Sanchez filled out a membership card 
to formally join the Socrates Club.  An assistant manager 
interviewed her to make sure she understood the clubs rules and 
her own role within Danube Citys criminal society.  The Socrates 
Club, which previously had been a place where she felt like an 
intruder, had become a place of refuge, a place where she was 
accepted and where she belonged. 

That night Cecilia took her place at the microphone on the stage 
of the club.  In accented Danubian she recited her own life, from 
her experiences growing up, to her studies in Chicago, to her 
flight to Danubia, and finally her current transformation.  She 
concluded with:

I dont know if I will be performing Penance for the rest of my 
life or not.  Maybe I have a future, or maybe I have nothing 
ahead of me except the endless present, the reality of the collar 
on my neck, until my soul separates from my body.  I guess that 
is something the Creator does not want me to think about, so I 
will try not to think about it.

She looked at her fianc, took a breath, and continued:

Now that I am performing Penance, I know that the only thing 
people will see about me is my collar.  The collar and my 
nakedness have become my identity to the world.  The Creator has 
forced me to understand that I cant think of myself as a 
university program director any more.  I have to accept that my 
job is not who I am; its only what I do.  I guessI 
supposeafter four years of living in Danubia, I still have to 
figure out who I really am.

Cecilia left the stage, returned to her table, and cuddled in 
Jasons arms.

----------

While Jason and Cecilia were sitting at the table, she couldnt 
resist doing what she always liked to do, massage his penis and 
work him into an erection.  Slowly she rubbed his thighs and 
gently touched his testicles before circling her fingertip around 
the end of his penis.  It did not take much to make him very 
hard.  As usual, they left the table and slipped out of the main 
dining area of the club through a small door on the back wall.  
As usual, she led him upstairs with her hand fimly gripping his 
shaft.  

Once they were in the room, their normal sex routine changed.  
Cecilia was in a relatively quiet mood, so instead of straddling 
Jason, she got on her elbows and knees on the bed and presented 
her backside to him.  He held off on the temptation to enter her 
right away to concentrate on touching and massaging her widely 
spread bottom.  He gently touched her vulva and teased her 
clitoris, making her desperate.  She arched her back even more, 
frantic for him to enter him.  He continued rubbing her bottom 
and teasing her, but made no move to actually push inside.  He 
was desperate himself, but he held back because Cecilia needed to 
be taught a lesson.  She was collared, and thus not in a position 
to give him orders.

Oh JasonOh pleaseOhhhhh.

He surprised her by saying:  You need to wait.  Dont be so 
impatient about everything.

Finally he did decide to push inside her, not because she was 
desperate, but because he could not hold off any longer.  As he 
thrust and she moaned with pleasure, he silently berated himself 
for not having more control over his own body.  He pushed into 
her as hard and as deeply as he could, climaxing, but staying 
inside as long as he could to make sure she had the orgasm she 
wanted.  After they were finished he would have a big surprise 
for her.

Exhausted, they cuddled for a bit.  Cecilia dried off her lovers 
penis and began to play with it.  She normally would have started 
telling him what a naughty boy he was and that he needed a good 
spanking, but that night he did not give her the chance to start 
up with that.  He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed.  He 
grabbed her wrist.

You need to get over my lap.

What?

Youre collared, Cecilia.  That means some things in our lives 
are gonna have to change, and that includes what we do in here.  
Now, Im telling you again, you need to get over my lap.

Reluctantly Cecilia obeyed, moving across Jasons lap.  With his 
fingertips he pushed her legs apart and made her position herself 
so that her bottom was tilted upwards and properly presented.  He 
began massaging her bottom-cheeks.  When she started to respond, 
he reached between her legs and gently touched her vulva.  She 
was becoming aroused again.  Abruptly he stopped.

We need to get something straight.  As long as you have that 
collar on, I am the one wholl decide when you cum.  I will 
decide when I think you deserve to have an orgasm.  You need to 
turn that part of your life over to me.  If you really need it, 
its OK to ask, but dont expect me to always say yes.  Do you 
understand?

Shocked by her fiancs sudden transformation, Cecilia silently 
nodded.  Jason landed a very sharp slap on her bottom.  She 
squealed.

Look, how many times have you told me that nodding is rude?  
Youve always told me to say yes, Cecilia and no, Cecilia.  
Now its my turn.  I expect the same standard of behavior out of 
you that you expect out of me.

He landed a second hard slap on her bottom.

Do you understand?

Iyesyes, Jason.

Theres another thing.  Ive given this some thought, and Ive 
had to make another decision about things between us.  As long as 
you wear that collar, you cant spank me.  Im the one who will 
have to spank.  You have to agree to that, because you need to 
understand that humility is not just for when youre out on the 
street.  Your collar requires that you exercise humility with me 
too.

Cecilia thought for a second, still terrified at what was 
happening.

Jason, pleasecan I sit up so we can talk about this?

No, not right now.  Ill tell you when you can sit up.

Butyoure collared too.  You dont have no right to tell me

Yes, Im collared, and Ive been collared for four years.  That 
means I have four years of training over you.  Do you really 
think you know more than me?

I guess not

I guess not also.  This is something youll have to do.  I know 
that for a fact.  You have to do it.

Still shocked by Jasons authoritative voice and his certainty 
that he knew what he was doing, Cecilia said nothing more.  She 
lay quietly, waiting for whatever it was that he was going to do 
to her.

He could feel her trembling slightly.  She was scared, not only 
of the painful experience she knew she was about to endure, but 
also because the last remnant of her authoritative faade had 
been surrendered along with her clothing.  They had changed 
places, because only a week before it had been Jason lying across 
Cecilias lap.  She was vulnerable, realizing that her only 
choice was to obey Jason.  Obeying him had never been her 
intention, and yet, that was what she would have to do.

He massaged her bottom, relishing the feel of her soft, warm, 
dark skin.  Finally he rested his hand on her right bottom-cheek.

I love you.  Youre the only woman Ill ever love.

Im yours, JasonIll prove it

There was nothing more either needed to say.  Cecilia would have 
to feel what it was to be spankednot spanked erotically, but to 
be spanked severely, to the point of tears and beyond.  

Jason started with moderate slaps, hitting her on alternate 
bottom cheeks.  He was in no hurry, so he let several seconds go 
by between each slap.  He sensuously massaged her bottom between 
slaps and occasionally touched between her legs to tease her 
vulva.  He was strict about her staying still and quiet.  If she 
moved or tried to put her legs together he gave her a warning 
pinch on her labia.

Nothing more was said, but Jason paused after he had spanked 
Cecilia for about 15 minutes.  Her bottom stung, but not too 
badly.  In fact it felt hot, and had Jason wanted to, he could 
have easily aroused his fianc.  However, arousal was not the 
reason he had Cecilia over his lap.  In the interim while he 
allowed her to rest, she knew that what she had just endured was 
only a warm-up.  Within a few minutes Jason would be slapping her 
very hard.  She was desperate to have the waiting come to an end, 
but also desperately scared of what was about to happen.

Jason positioned her with his fingertips and massaged her bottom 
one final time.  Then he slapped her with real force.  She 
squealed, but dared not move.  

SLAP-SLAP!...SLAP-SLAP!...SLAP-SLAP!...

Jason was spanking Cecilia with quick double-slaps, one on each 
side of her bottom.  She knew that he worked out and continued to 
be an excellent runner, but she did not realize how strong he was 
until she felt his hand on her bottom: over and over, with no 
hint that the punishment would end any time soon.  

Finally she was able to surrender herself and cry.  Through the 
haze of her pain, she vaguely hoped that her fianc would stop as 
soon as tears started falling, but the spanking continued 
uninterrupted.  Once her body was heaving with sobs, Jason slowed 
down, but struck her with a very hard slap about every 15 
seconds.

Cecilia was crying uncontrollably when Jason finally stopped.  He 
placed a reassuring hand on her back and gently rubbed her very 
sore bottom.  Finally he told her to stand up and to lie on the 
bed.  He gently stroked her back while she cried herself to 
sleep.  In a very quiet voice he said something to her, although 
because she was asleep she couldnt hear him.  He really was 
saying to himself:

Youre mine, Cecilia.  Youll prove yourself to me, just like I 
had to do for you.  That is our Path in Life, for both of us. 

He kissed her swollen bottom and lay beside her to go to sleep.

----------

By the third week of September, signs of the impending change of 
seasons dominated the Danubian landscape.  Already the trees were 
turning color, the nights were becoming longer and colder, school 
children were settling into their routines, and the countryside 
was busy with the first part of the harvest.  The Fall Equinox 
was rapidly approaching, which meant the nation was beginning its 
descent into the darkness and cold of winter.  Along with the 
Fall Equinox would be the most important religious holiday of the 
Danubian calendar, the Day of the Dead.

Cecilia spent several days teaching Maria Elena about preparing 
for the ceremonies.  The most important part of the preparation 
was special food.  Blood-red fruit punch and blood-red sauce had 
to be prepared, along with black noodles and potato pastries 
shaped like skulls.  The food was unique for the Equinox, because 
protocol prohibited any recipes eaten during the Day of the Dead 
from being eaten at any other time of the year.  Also, any 
prepared dishes eaten during the Day of the Dead could not be 
purchased for money; therefore each household was responsible for 
preparing its own food.

Four years before, Victors wife and Tiffany had taught Cecilia 
how to prepare the Day of the Dead dishes; now it was Cecilias 
turn to teach Maria Elena.  She invited Carmen and several other 
students from the exchange program who were performing Penance, 
so for several days Victors kitchen was full of naked women 
learning first hand about the most Danubian tradition of all.

When Carmen noted that the pots of blood-red juice and sauce 
looked like something from a horror movie, Cecilia commented:

This is only the beginning.  Were all gonna be marching this 
year, and when we do, youll really get to have the death 
experience.

----------

On the morning before the Equinox, the women packaged up the food 
they had prepared to take it to the Church that was located on 
the university campus.  They had not prepared the food for 
themselves, but for the Church to distribute to marchers and 
worshipers over the next two nights.  Because Cecilia, Maria 
Elena, and Victor all were collared, no adults in the household 
would remain to have dinner.  Pedro would have to spend the 
holiday with Spokeswoman Kimberly Lee-Dolkivna, who also had to 
take care of the sons Vladik Dukov and his wife Tiffany.

The women were joined by the other students from the group of 13 
who had taken collars to protest Maria Elenas trial, along with 
Victor, Jason, Kims sister Cynthia and her husband, and a couple 
of Jasons friends from his Church group.  The group carried the 
food over to the university and dropped it off at the Church.  
There were over 20 people present, so one of the Priests came 
outside to give them a short service and blessing.  From there 
they boarded a trolley and traveled downtown to the Plaza of the 
Ancients, where thousands of naked criminals and Church penitents 
already had gathered.

Maria Elena was rather surprised that the square was very quiet, 
because she would have expected that such a large crowd would be 
making more noise.  However, the collared subjects understood 
that they were about to perform a very important service for the 
Church and the Danubian nation, something that all of them took 
very seriously.  The tradition went back 3,000 years, to the very 
beginning of Danubia.  The weight of those three millennia fell 
very heavily upon both the marchers and the Clergy members as 
they prepared for the ceremony.

Clergy members and Temple attendants spread out around the plaza 
with buckets of white and back body-paint.  Other Clergy members 
pulled tarps off huge piles of wooden torches that had been 
deposited at foot of the steps of the Temple.  Behind the torches 
were piles of arm-slings and a row of basins full of oil was 
lined up at the top of the stairs.  

There was a religious service on the plaza and an explanation of 
the significance of the Day of the Dead for those who were 
marching for the first time.  Maria Elena was pleased that her 
comprehension of Danubian was good enough that she actually 
understood a lot of what Grand Prophet # 4 was saying.  Following 
the ceremony and several hymns, the Grand Prophet picked up an 
unlit torch and a sling.  He called a naked young woman to step 
forward and stand next to him.  Maria Elenas heart skipped a 
beat, because the young woman was Grand Duchess Anyia.  

At first fear and hatred rose up in the Colombian, but then she 
took a closer look at Anyias face.  She could tell that Anyia 
had changed, because all of the arrogance, greed, and cruelty 
that had been part of the Grand Duchesss expression had 
vanished.  She was a totally different person, quietly and shyly 
doing what she was told to do.  Grand Prophet # 4 told Anyia to 
kneel in front of him, which she quickly did.  She assumed the 
proper position, with her arms extended in front of her, her 
forehead touching the ground, her knees spread, and her back 
arched to properly display her vulva and sphincter.  She had 
knelt facing the Grand Prophet, so her body was lewdly displayed 
to everyone standing in the Plaza.  

The Grand Prophet told Anyia to stand up and face the crowd.  He 
handed her the sling, which she placed over her shoulder.  He 
then handed her the torch, which she put into the sling.  The 
Prophet explained how best to carry the torch to avoid muscle 
fatigue in the arms or back cramps while Anyia demonstrated.  
When the Prophet explained how not to carry the torch, Anyia 
demonstrated the incorrect holds as well.  The Prophet explained 
how to light the torch and how to quickly put it out if 
necessary, with Anyia continuing her demonstration.  Once Anyias 
task was over, she set the torch down and resumed her kneeling 
position in front of the Grand Prophet.

As she watched Anyias performance on the steps of the Temple of 
the Ancients, Criminal # 101025 realized that she had something 
to be very grateful for.  She was ordinary: an ordinary criminal 
leading an ordinary life.  No one would pay any special attention 
to her apart from Victor and her university friends.  No 
television cameras would follow her; no commentators would have 
anything to say about her; no fans would worry about what she was 
doing and try to imitate her.  Her anonymity was something for 
which she could give thanks to the Saints, or in this country, to 
the Ancients, as they were called.  She would not have exchanged 
places with Anyia for anything.

Maria Elena understood that there was no point in hating the 
Grand Duchess, because there was nothing left to hate.  Anyia now 
was nothing more than a possession of the Church, just as Maria 
Elena was an asset belonging to the Ministry of Justice.  Anyias 
life was no longer her own: she had to rise, or kneel, or pose 
for a demonstration on the orders of the Clergy.  In fact, in a 
way Maria Elena now felt sorry for Anyia, because of her 
notoriety.  She felt that the Church, in its triumph over the 
Grand Duchess, was parading her in front of the public, making 
sure the world understood she lost her authority and now was 
nothing more than living property.  Maria Elena realized that, 
for herself, the fall in her life was not nearly as 
significantreally, how much worse was it to be a collared 
criminal than a drug courier?  Butfor the Duchess

The Grand Prophet was not finished using the Grand Duchess as a 
demonstration prop.  He ordered her to rise and again to face the 
crowd.  He explained the significance of the body paint that 
everyone in the march would have to wear.  Meanwhile two Priests 
quickly covered Anyias body and face with white paint.  One of 
the Priests highlighted her with black details, which totally 
transformed her appearance and made her look ghoulish.  Over the 
next hour everyone in the Plaza would undergo the same 
transformation.  Anyia knelt upright facing the Plaza while she 
waited for her fellow marchers to be painted and to get ready for 
a night of walking.

While Anyia knelt in silence, the Clergy members organized the 
Plaza crowd into several lines.  The body paint came first, then 
the torches and the slings, and finally fire for the torches.  
While the marchers were being painted, Church bells rang across 
the city to announce the beginning of the first evening of 
mourning and repentance.  After Maria Elenas friends and Victor 
were painted, she was frightened by how different they looked.  
It seemed that there was something more to their transformation 
than just a crude paint job.  She took a deep breath as she felt 
the cold wet paint cover her body, because she was beginning to 
feel very apprehensive.  The low, sad pitch of the church bells 
certainly did not help her mood: unlike the higher-pitched 
ringing of church bells in Latin America, there was nothing 
cheerful about the sound of Danubian bells.

The sun set; and the bells suddenly stopped.  The city fell into 
complete silence; it was so quiet that Maria Elena could hear the 
breathing of everyone around her and the hiss of the blood 
flowing though her own ears.  The silence overwhelmed her.

The Grand Prophet handed a torch to Anyia.  The Grand Duchess 
walked along the row of basins to light the oil.  She let out an 
ear-piercing whistle to let everyone know that the march was 
beginning.  The marchers closest to the Temple approached the 
steps, picked up torches and slings, lit their torches in the 
oil, and passed through the main Temple.  On the other side of 
the building they separated into two lines, one going north and 
the other going south.  

Maria Elena followed Carmen and the other norteamericanos up the 
steps, her thoughts still on Anyia.  She dipped her torch into 
the burning oil and then glanced over to see that Anyia was still 
standing next to the Grand Prophet.  Anyia would march, but 
because she was by herself she would have to trail along behind 
the Clergy members.  Maria Elena felt ever-increasing sympathy 
for her former nemesis; not only was the Duchess a public 
spectacle, but she had come to the Temple alone and her only 
companionship over the next two days would be the Clergy.  

Maria Elenas line of marchers plunged into the darkness of the 
forest behind the Temple.  The night was overcast and pitch-
black, so all she could see was the line of torches stretching 
out ahead of her and the light from her own torch reflected off 
Carmens painted back.  At first the foliage from the forest 
obscured the dots of fire stretching off into the distance and 
the Columbian could see only a few torches ahead of her.  
However, eventually the marchers emerged onto the river beach and 
climbed up onto the main street heading north.  The line of 
lighted dots extended as far as she could seeseemingly into 
infinity.

Maria Elena became aware that the marchers were not alone.  
Huddled on either side of the road were crowds of silent Danubia 
civilians, all wearing black prayer robes.  The worshipers had 
covered their heads and were barely visible in the dim light.  
More than anything they looked like a sea of lost souls, shrouded 
ghosts in the Realm of the Dead.  

At that point Maria Elena experienced a feeling that nearly 
everyone in the march experienced; a sensation of leaving the 
Realm of the Living.  The line of burning dots extending into the 
darkness, the pitch black of the night, and the shrouded figures 
that did not seem human all gave her the sensation she no longer 
was alive.  

----------

Whether or not she was still alive, Maria Elena realized one 
thing; she no longer was in Danubia.  She was in Pereira, back in 
Colombia.  She had never left Colombia, because she had never 
broken up with Jose Pablo.  They were both at the university, and 
when they were not in class they were hanging out with their 
friends.  It was a good life they had, one full of promise.  Each 
got along just fine with the others family.  Drug trafficking 
was something that she heard about on the news, but not something 
she had any experience with first hand.  And Jose Pablonot dead, 
not dead at all.  He had never joined the Colombian Army, and was 
nowhere close to that platoon when it was ambushed.  She saw, in 
vivid detail, what her life would have been like had she done 
just two things differently the year before.

Maria Elena was still on campus when a young woman came up to her 
and slapped her hard across the face, knocking her down.  She 
looked up to see herself, the self of the alternate reality, the 
self who was well-dressed and leading a happy productive life.

Why did you do this to us?  Why?  You killed me, you killed the 
man we both loved, and you killed yourself!  Why?

I dont know

With that, Pereira faded into darkness.

Maria Elena spent the rest of the night badly shaken by 
thatdreamor visionor whatever the hell that experience was.  
Anyhow, she no longer had to guess how her life would have been 
had she not wasted it; she now knew for certain.  


