Even Ponygirls Sometimes Get The Blues

The welcoming party greeting the fishing boat at the dock wasn’t what Jessica wanted to see, though they seemed more amused than angry about their bunnies’ audacious escape attempt.

As soon as the boat had docked the handlers went aboard to retrieve the cages containing Jessica and Kate. Two men, one lifting each side of the cage, easily carried them from the boat, along the jetty, onto the shore, and straight onto the flat beds of the pony trailers. One cage was placed on each trailer.

“Gags!” One of the men said. “Better gag ‘em before they get in more trouble.”

He rummaged around in one of the accompanying boxes of supplies. “Here they are, brand new gags. Mmm..Mmm! Smell that fresh rubber and leather!” He lifted up the shiny red ball-gag by its neat black leather strap and tossed it to his colleague standing next to Kate’s cage.

The handler reached a hand into the front of Jessica’s cage, and resigned to her fate, she opened her mouth as wide as she could. He still had to push hard to get the ball behind her teeth. “There we are Jessica... all buckled up with a nice big ball. Boy, that gag looks good on you!”

She’d heard that compliment before. Apparently it was the way her lips were stretched back exposing her pearly-white teeth, biting into the red rubber.

Another man approached Jessica’s cage. He wore his usual crooked and gleeful smile. “Welcome back, bunny Jessica! Did you have nice day at the port?” It was Master Kurt, one of the senior handlers, renowned for his Teutonic sense of humor and devious tortures (although some argued these were the same thing!)

Jessica shook her head as much as her chained collar would allow, making an angry and incomprehensible sound behind her gag. In truth, she didn’t have a reply to such cruel sarcasm so the ball-gag spared her the task of delivering a worthy response. She glared back at him from behind the bars of her small cage... if looks could kill!

Master Kurt smiled wickedly. “Oh come on Jessica, cheer up! At least you had a little adventure... met some of the natives... participated in their quaint local customs... had so much fun you nearly missed the last boat back!... How are the new cages? Comfortable? Looks quite cosy in there.”

Chained and locked within a cage no bigger than her own crouched form? Yes, it was cosy. Even cosier by the time they packed the area around Jessica’s cage with cases of canned goods and janitorial supplies!

With a jolt and a lurching motion the small ponygirl trailer started to move. The pair of ponygirls ahead of each trailer, naked except for their sturdy working harnesses, strained hard to heave their cargo into motion. Their driver, sat on the small bench seat between the ponies and the cargo, tugged again on their reins, his whip ready to deliver the necessary incentive.

Leaning forward to get more power from their muscular thighs, the ponygirls soon made a strong synchronized walking stride, the most that could be expected of them when pulling a heavy load up the hill.

The track levelled and the ponygirls managed a slow trot with encouragement from the driver’s whip. Just a well-aimed sting of the whip on each of their buttocks was sufficient. It was more of a command than a punishment - one that they instinctively responded to. The sound of the trailers’ mountain-bike wheels rolling along the gravel path and the bells on the pony boots provided the soundtrack to Jessica’s inglorious journey to the Lodge.

THE CELLS

Jessica was delivered straight to the cell-block and into solitary. A place with no windows, and where natural light did not enter. The door to her cell slammed closed, the bolt thrown and the key turned in the heavy lock. High-security at any time, even more so when she was still locked within her small cage in the middle of the cell floor.

It had been twenty four hours since she last ate, and Jessica was close to fainting. Her back, with its ten wounding stripes, was still tingling with pain. She could do nothing about either, except wait and hope somebody would show her mercy before the inevitable punishments started.

Some time later the clattering of the key in the lock woke up her up from a light snooze. A man entered. It was Master Alex, General Manager of The Lodge and principal tormentor of Jessica’s soul.

Master Alex was twice her age, hair graying and receded, with steely gray eyes and a lean, chiseled frame. Handsome in his way, but more than that he exuded an intellectual and emotional self-confidence. People respected and admired him. Yes, even Jessica, despite herself.

Jessica held her head downwards, not wishing to face him. It would have been so easy for Master Alex to make a few cheap jibes at her expense in the same way that Kurt had done earlier. Too easy, Alex thought, hence no sport at all.

“Jessica,” he called her name softly, expecting to see her handsome face and her usual fiery defiant scowl.

She raised her head slowly and peered out of her cage at him, revealing her splendid ball-gagged mouth, a tired furrowed brow and dark eyes pleaded with him. For this day at least she knew she had lost.

“Have you eaten today?” He asked.

She shook her head meekly.

“Okay, I’ll take care of it.” He said. How the tormentor of her soul could surprise her! Sometimes cruel, yet often sensitive to her needs. He walked out of the cell and moments later came back with Erik, the sub-Master for the Lodge and an expert in ‘slave care’.

“Should we leave her in the cage?” Master Alex asked him; as willing as ever to defer to the judgement of others when appropriate.

Erik studied Jessica’s face; sensing her fatigue and hunger. He also noticed the deep welts on her back. She’d really taken a beating at the port. “No, let’s get her out of there. We’d best get the wounds treated before we do anything else. Where are the keys?”

Master Alex shrugged. “New cages and new high security locks. There should be a set of keys with the other goods.”

They left Jessica alone and went in search of keys. Food too, she hoped and prayed.

Erik returned first, carrying a plate of something steaming. “No keys,” he informed her, clearly disappointed. “Seems that Miguel left them in the police station when you were put in the cage. You’re gonna have to spend the night in there. We’re not going to hack away at a brand new cage.”

The cruel irony was lost on Jessica, that Miguel’s forgetfulness with keys, having enabled them to stow away on his fishing boat, was now the cause of her spending the night in the cramped cage!

Erik reached into the cage and unbuckled Jessica’s gag, and prised the large rubber ball from behind her teeth.

“Eat!” Erik said, poking a spoonful of vegetable casserole through the bars of the cage. Jessica hardly needed encouragement, she gratefully accepted it and the other spoonfuls that followed.

When the food was finished Erik slapped a general purpose healing salve to Jessica’s back, reaching through the bars of the cage as best he could. He warned it might sting, and it did. Jessica winced in pain as Erik’s fingers expertly worked the lotion into her skin. With her hands chained behind her and linked to the top of the cage Jessica was not in a position to resist.

Erik didn’t need much time to complete the job and there was little incentive for him to spend time in the company of a woman chained inside a small cage. For someone in Erik’s position there were far more appealing sights in store.

To Jessica’s dismay he was intent on replacing her ball-gag.

“Erik! Do you have to?” she pleaded, as he pressed the red ball to her lips.

“You’re forgetting your place Jessica... now open up.” Jessica knew not to bite the hand that feeds her, nor to refuse his gag afterwards.

Once gagged, Jessica became stoically resigned to her long, miserable, lonely, jaw-aching night ahead. But she’d suffered worse in the past and knew she would do so again in the coming few days.

Erik left, locking the solid cell door behind him. Moments later Jessica was plunged into pitch-black darkness. The floor of her cage was well padded, so Jessica’s knees and shins were well cushioned. That was the defining feature of the cage - not the pain but simply the torment caused by her immobility. A long-term cage. Jessica shuffled around with the inches she had available looking for any small improvement in her comfort.

THE PENDULUM

Jessica’s first torment of the next morning was The Pendulum . Her torture-master for the day: Master Kurt and his cruel smile.

She was naked, and had been suspended belly down by chains coming from a single point on the ceiling. Her weight was taken by sturdy leather cuffs on her wrist and ankles. A thick belt around her waist was connected by a chain to the ceiling so that her torso stayed parallel to the floor, dangling just a few inches above it. Layers of wide white surgical tape were plastered across the lower half of her face. Attached to the front and back of the belt was a tight crotch rope, nestled between her labia and the crack of her buttocks.

Like all Rabbit Island bunnies, Jessica had been in suspension bondage before; this didn’t seem so bad, particularly with the belt around her waist taking the weight. However, Master Kurt had a new format to try and Jessica was its first test subject.

Master Kurt turned his attention to a tray full of tea-warmer candles... dozens of them. Jessica looked on in fascination as he carefully lit each candle in turn with a taper. It looked quite pretty, that tray full of flickering flames, almost like a rectangular birthday cake.

He slid the tray along the floor and under Jessica’s belly. Although several inches above the flames, Jessica panicked as she felt the warmth turning into a burning heat from her breasts to top of her thighs. She jogged and jolted herself desperately trying avoid the heat and pleaded with Kurt behind her taped-up mouth.

Kurt stood back and waited a few moments more and enjoyed Jessica’s panic, knowing that her nervous system was sending her brain messages of intense burning pain, even though she was unlikely to be burnt for another thirty seconds or so.

He knelt down, cupped her face in his hands and stroked her hair, as if to comfort her; savouring Jessica’s final agonizing moments before firmly pushing her head away from him, and away from the heat of the candles. She started to swing like a pendulum. The relief was instant, and as Jessica swung back and forth over the tray of candles she realized how she would be spending the next hour.

Kurt stood up, crossed his arms and inspected Jessica’s swing. It wasn’t easy, but if she timed a tug of her shoulders on the back-swing she would maintain her momentum and avoid dangling motionless over the heat of the candles.

“So you see Jessica, that’s all you have to do - keep swinging.” To her horror, he grabbed the ropes above her and stilled her back over the candles. “Now let’s see if you can get started without my help.”

He watched, greatly amused by Jessica’s frantic squealing as she tried to jog herself into motion. Eventually she succeeded and worked diligently to maintain a swinging arc of several feet. Kurt left her gently swinging in the cell and strolled off to his next appointment.

Once Jessica perfected her technique it became easy to act as a human pendulum. But it was having a side effect - that crotch rope was digging and rubbing into her moist crease with every swing.

KATE’S DEPILATION

Meanwhile, Kate was in the next cell receiving special treatment of her own. She was suspended under a wide spreader bar, left wrist and ankle to one end, right wrist and ankle to the other.

Her labia was open, hanging down like a luscious fruit, five feet from the ground. A perfect position for receiving all manner of attentions for Kurt. His first job was to remove her pubic hair, a particularly enjoyable task in his opinion. A safety razor might be useful for dealing with stubble, but for that initial removal of the bush, wax was his preferred method. Hanging doubled-up and wide open as she was, Kate had a good view of Kurt’s handiwork.

“Ever been waxed before, kate?” Kurt asked as he firmly pressed a series of wax strips onto her mound.

“Not like this,” she said with a slow shake of her head.

“Good. I shall enjoy it even more! It's like losing your virginity, except much more painful... but the result is worth it. I’m going to let the wax dry a little to make sure it’s ready.”

Master Kurt left Kate to contemplate her impending hair removal - he had to go see how his human pendulum was performing. By coincidence Master Alex had also just arrived in Jessica’s cell and was admiring the scene. Jessica was swinging with an accomplished economy of effort, aquick learner. The candles gently warming her as she passed back and forth over them.

Master Alex had a delighted grin on his face. “Bravo Kurt! Superb idea.” He said, giving his German colleague a congratulatory pat on the shoulder.

“And how is it for you, Jessica?”

“Kurt. Could we set this thing up in the lobby for the tomorrow’s cocktail party?” Alex asked, always looking for new ways to enhance the evening entertainments.

“No problem! I have some extra modifications in mind to make Jessica more useful. If we rigged up our pendulum correctly I think she could provide the power for several ceiling fans.” Kurt led Master Alex from the cell, and to Jessica’s surprise he left the door open; not that she could contemplate an escape from her current position.

Master Kurt switched his attention to Kate in the next cell. She hung helplessly in her bonds, becoming increasingly anxious as the wax dried tightly onto her pubic hair. He prodded her waxy mound with his fingertips, checking its softness, and whether it was ready for the big moment.

Her cell door was also left open. Clearly Kate’s moment of pain was not intended to be a private one.

Kurt prised a fingernail under the first wax strip until he was able to grip it firmly between finger and thumb. Without warning he pulled hard. The sound of ripping hair was followed a moment later by Kate’s terrifying scream. The sound of her anguish reverberated throughout the cell block and beyond, and into the Lodge itself.

Jessica, was still swinging calmly over the candles when Kate’s scream seemed to rip through her. She’d never heard such a horrific noise from her friend. In her own distress and remorse for feeling responsible for Kate’s punishment, Jessica lost her swinging rhythm and found herself suspended motionless over the candles. As long as Kate’s cries rung out Jessica couldn’t concentrate on getting herself swinging. She started to feel the intense burning of the candles.

Kate’s loud sobbing was punctuated by further cries that lessened in intensity as if she had simply run out of breath, as can happen to a small child. Master Kurt was very happy with Kate’s denuded sex. Kate was regaining her composure as Master Kurt poured some after-shave lotion into his hand. “My own blend,” he explained proudly.

Poor Jessica had only just got back into her swing as Kurt rubbed his special solution deep into Kate’s exposed follicles. Her screaming resumed.

It had been a good morning - Kurt thought to himself as he tidied up his tools. He lowered each of his tormented bunnies to the concrete floor but left them in their bonds as he closed and locked the two cell doors. It was time for lunch!

Kate sat on the concrete floor of her cell, legs and arms outstretched by the long spreader bar. And now she wore a ball-gag, her ‘lunch’ Kurt jokingly called it. She studied her still-smarting, denuded mound. It was so close, barely 12 inches from her face, yet she couldn’t touch it despite the overwhelming urge to do so. She laughed to herself at the absurdity, her torture had merely been a waxing, albeit not the most gentle one. She had no idea of the distress her cries had caused Jessica in the neighbouring cell.

In the afternoon Kate found herself suspended by her spreader bar again. Her clean pussy dangling fully exposed, soft and fleshy like ripening fruit, and Kurt was keen to have his dessert! Kurt’s fingers grabbed her thighs, fingers digging deeply into her straining muscles, and she felt it, a powerful and painful jolt. Kate mmppphhhed, looking wide-eyed at Master Kurt, asking what the hell he just did.

Master Kurt smiled cruelly. “That’s your hamstring, stretched nice and tight, tuned to D sharp I would guess.” He pushed his thumbs viciously into both her thighs, enjoying Kate’s convulsing pain that accompanied each press.

Kate was panting, trying to recover from the pain as Kurt’s finger trailed admiringly over her labia, moving onto her clitoris. He liked her in this position, her pussy and face so close together. He liked to see her facial expression change as he worked on her sex. “Would you like me to lick it for you?” he asked.

She shook her head and grunted ‘go to hell’ from behind her ball-gag. Defiant but ultimately helpless. Kurt continued his invasive actions, his tongue teasing and arousing her as he enjoyed his dessert. He noticed a glazed distant expression in her eyes. Enough for now, he thought, Jessica awaited him in the adjacent cell. She too would be the recipient of Kurt’s widely acknowledged expertise in matters of erotic torture.

THE STANDING CAGE

The next day Jessica had an appointment with the ‘standing cage’. She had encountered this device before and didn’t like it - not one bit!

It was like one of those medieval torture cages, but this was more devious than cruel. There seemed to be a million adjustments that could be made - little round-tipped probes that could be pushed against her flesh at known pressure points. Gradually as the hours passed, Jessica became immobile, standing within that human-shaped cage.

“Those ancient Chinese were clever people you know, with their acupressure points,” Kurt explained to the pretty blonde girl assisting him. “We are still learning from charts that are more than a thousand years old.”

Kurt continued fixing dozens more probes in position, the ones at Jessica's temples and a special one for her nose leaving her head held rigid so she could only blink in response as Kurt tightened the probes digging into her ribs and thighs. The blonde girl continued to assist him, appearing to have great fun poking Jessica’s body. She was what they called a ‘pussy girl’ at the Lodge, a submissive who had over a period of time become a willing participant in the deviant activities of the lodge.

Eventually, every possible part of Jessica’s body with a nerve ending was being pushed with a probe. All that remained was for Kurt to plug in the random electro-shock unit and leave her alone for the next couple of hours.

TWO INTO ONE DOES GO!

Kate was hanging around in the neighboring cell, the strain showing on her face after hanging doubled-up from the spreader bar for the second day in a row. A couple of men arrived at the cell at 2pm, as arranged. They were Filipinos, two of many employed to look after the grounds and generally facilities.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen.” Kurt welcomed them heartily, trying to distract their staring eyes from Kate’s body for just a few seconds. “Did they explain what was required of you?”

“Yes, we think so.” One of Filipinos responded. “We fuck the girl two at a time while you film us. $500 each, $1000 if she cums.”

“Exactly! The cameras are already set up. Kate’s ready, as you can see. Here are your masks to preserve your identity. Don’t forget the lubricant and condoms. And if you want to see the film, just come and see me later this evening.”

Master Kurt then approached the wide-eyed, panicking Kate, lowering her suspension chain to the correct height of his evenly matched visitors. He left to go to the Lodge’s control room - a small room full of recording equipment and monitors, part security control center, part video mixing suite. Today he had a simple bespoke request to fulfill. One of Rabbit Island's senior members had paid for a video of a particular scene.

“Such a pretty girl, this one.” One Filipino said to the other.

“Yeah. I always like this blonde slut. Now I get paid for going up her ass. You know, José, this is a very good job we have!”

Kate trembled slightly as the man behind her started to caress her breasts. His hands were warm, and massaged her breasts with consideration, literally getting the feel of her. Although he was still clothed, his crotch pressed against her buttocks, as if checking for the correct height. She was perfectly positioned, and the feel of her taut spread open buttocks had instantly put him in the right mood. Both men stripped naked and donned their carnivale-style masks.

The rear guy went to work, lubing Kate’s anus with his hand, a gentle push and two fingers were moving easily in and out of her sphincter. His penis replaced his fingers, and pressed smoothly up to its hilt into her rectum.

Kate liked anal sex. When that devious bastard Arab boyfriend sold her, he told the buyers everything about her sordid sex life. She’d been taken by two men once before, and loved it! But that was as a free woman, just playing around on a wild evening; not as a prisoner, suspended in cuffs and chains!

As she felt herself impaled by the rigid penis in her anus, the strain of hanging by her wrist and ankles had eased as if lifted by the man’s member. After some simple but effective foreplay from the front man, Kate was doubly impaled and the weight taken by her wrists and ankles vanished.

Kate had become the filling in a human sandwich, female flesh squeezed tightly between warm male flesh. She mewled complaisantly behind her ball-gag. The men acted cautiously, far gentler than she expected, obviously determined to try for the full $1000 dollars. Kate increasingly felt she would have trouble denying them that bonus as they started to thrust slowly within her, sometimes with alternate strokes, at other times with one combined thrust that made it seem like there was just one giant penis within her. As their pace increased Kate found herself bouncing up and down like a contorted, powerless rag-doll.

She couldn’t hold out any longer and released herself to their insistent thrusting. It wasn’t as if she had to pay the bonuses! - she thought, as her body pulsated and trembled. Those guttural gurgling sounds she made from behind that larger rubber ball-gag would surely provide the evidence the Filipinos needed for their bonuses!

BEDTIME

The beds in the cells were made up - fresh clean sheets, a plump pillow and a neatly tucked-in fluffy blanket. Alongside the oh-so-soft and pristine bed stood Kate, naked and leaning forward against the wall, hands chained up high above her head. Jessica was fixed likewise in an adjacent cell. This was another of Kurt’s innovations: Fix up the bunny so she spends the whole night standing in chains next to the softest, most inviting bed she could ever imagine.

THE COMMITTEE DECIDES

Several days later the sentencing committee met in the Lodge’s boardroom. There was only one thing on the agenda...Jessica!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we must face the facts, bunny jessica has shown little sign of her purported submissive tendencies.” The man was making reference to Rabbit Island’s policy of only acquiring those with proven submissive traits. “Somebody got it wrong. It’s unfortunate, but it happens sometimes.”

He looked down at his typed-up notes. “A few months ago she kicked a man so hard that the poor gentleman needed surgery on his testicles. She has also attempted to bribe her way off the island. Finally she attempted, and very nearly succeeded, to escape from this island using our own transport. I vote we grant her wish to leave the Island and put her up for auction immediately.” The man’s comments met with mumbles of agreement from others around the table.

“Very well,” the chairman conceded. “But why don’t we give Jessica the choice? Become a ponygirl, or get shipped out. She can decide for herself.”

The meeting concluded. Master Alex walked to the cellblock to present Jessica with her limited options.

“Never!” she yelled at him.

“Jessica. Do you know what could be your fate if you went up for auction? I do, and believe me, you are better off on Rabbit Island.” Master Alex was growing tired of trying to convince her.

“You are asking me to willingly agree to be turned into a pony! How can I make the choice to subjugate myself like that. I’d rather spend my life chained up in a cell!” Jessica stared at him defiantly. She was stood against the wall, arms chained wide and high as they had been for several hours. A silken sheen of perspiration reflected from her straining muscles of her finely toned arms. Master Alex admired that very much.

He was concerned that he was about to lose this battle. Lose what? The argument or Jessica? He decided to say something he never had before. “What if I promised that if you stayed on the Island you would be free in two years?”

“Two years? But that’s a lifetime!”

He shook his head then made sure Jessica’s eyes met his. “No jessica, two years is two years, a lifetime is a lifetime, and I don’t know how long that lifetime would be if you were sent elsewhere. That is your other option. You have...” he glanced at his watch “...forty two hours to decide.”

BOUND MEDITATION

The Lodge had a special place for those who needed time to think. Jessica, cuffed and blindfolded, was led through various hallways of the Lodge to a room. She didn’t know where, nor indeed would it matter where it was, there was nothing for her to see.

Jessica was glad to be back in Erik’s hands. He was a firm handler but not cruel, and although she would never admit it, she responded to him. Perhaps because he was fair.

“Sit!” Erik instructed her. Jessica sat down onto a two foot high platform. It had a cool and smooth wooden surface, according to the feel of her hands and naked buttocks.

Erik manhandled Jessica’s legs so she sat with her ankles crossed over and her knees spread wide. The crossed ankles were slotted into a rigid metal restraint fixed to front of the platform. Her hands were uncuffed, but only to be fitted into this same device, palms down, fingers forward, wrists on top of her ankles.

Jessica thought it seemed a comfortable position almost like meditating although her wrists and ankles were held utterly immobile by the device. Her wriggling, exploring fingers were soon dealt with by a roll of surgical tape that Erik wrapped around each hand to hold it in a fist.

Next came the ball-gag with a full head harness. Jessica could feel Erik’s hands tightly buckling up the straps trailing up and over her head and under her chin. He had a strong but sensitive touch.

“Jessica. Listen to me carefully.” She was surprised to hear the distinctive measured tones of Master Alex. How cruel that his cultured New York accent tormented her with a reminder of home! She always noticed it more when she was blindfolded. “Erik will plug your ears in a few moments time. Then you will be hooded...

The hood was next - a black loose-fitting leather hood. She could feel Erik smoothing it down over her head then drawing it together around her neck. She felt a large padlock beneath her chin locking the hood around her neck, and could feel the cold heavy metal laying against her skin. That was all she could feel.

Erik said at his desk, with Jessica secured and silent on the platform behind him just a few feet away. It was a wonderful idea of his to put the platform in the office! Sometimes there would be three or four women sat in a row, each deprived of all senses, not even aware of the presence of others beside her.

Over the next few hours he watched Jessica from just a couple of feet away, while she sat in her enforced meditation, oblivious to his presence. He never touched her, although the pair of full and shapely breasts, crowned by those wonderful large nipples seemed to be calling out to him, slowly rising and falling as she breathed.

The first few hours weren’t so bad for Jessica; actually it was quite peaceful. For the first time in several days she wasn’t being whipped or burned or clamped or pierced! The aching of her buttocks on the polished wooden platform was soon replaced by a dull numbness that she couldn’t alleviate.

Why did they think this treatment would make her want to be a ponygirl? She would still rather take her chance of being sold to another bunny camp. Bunny camps? How little did she know what kind of place she would be sent to! Do these other places even call them bunnies?

Jessica found that the first eight hours was up when she felt the padlock at her neck moving. The leather hood was lifted off. How wonderful it felt when she could feel somebody’s fingers unbuckling the straps of her head harness! Those fingers were soon between her lips pulling out that rubber ball. Her blindfold remained in place.

“Thank you!” she said to the hands that had released her. How strange her voice sounded with her ears bunged up, as if she were at the bottom of the ocean. There was no response, not that she would hear it anyway. She felt something wooden at her lips. It was a wooden spoon carrying food; warm and tasty. She ate like a hungry nestling, her mouth wide open waiting eagerly for the next mouthful.

“Thank you!” she said again to her captor, this time for feeding her. A few minutes later it was not the spoon but the rubber ball-gag being pressed against her lips. Jessica readily opened her mouth to receive it, as if to say ‘I’m not defeated’. She felt those hands again; definitely Erik’s, she thought; buckling her into that tight head harness. She was hooded, and the heavy padlock fastened again at the front of her neck.

Jessica felt she’d coped well with the first eight hours, but that was another trick - it had only been six hours. If she felt that the next two sessions of her sensory deprivation felt longer, she would be right, each was an hour longer.

Erik played Freecell on his computer, listening contentedly and with some amusement to Jessica’s random moans and occasional struggles as she sought but failed to change her position, not even by a fraction.

At the third feeding break Jessica hungrily ate everything that wonderful wooden spoon offered her, but afterwards was not so keen to accept her gag. “Five more minutes,” she pleaded to her anonymous warder, but the rubber ball was insistent, it wanted to get back in her mouth. Those fingers (“definitely not Erik’s”, she though), why couldn’t they touch her properly? Stroke her hair? Touch her ears? Treat her like a human being? She leaned her blindfolded head towards the fingers, desperate for some kind on human contact. Even to be slapped would be something - to feel pain, to sense an emotion; but she was denied even that.

Somebody decided that Kate would have a session on the platform before being released back to the bunny camp. Kurt delivered her, blindfolded of course, to Erik’s office. He fixed her up in the same way as Jessica - ankles crossed, wrists on top of them. The gag, the earplugs and the hood followed.

Jessica’s ability to distinguish between her imagination and reality had long since diminished, yet in her silent darkness she felt something strangely comforting - a presence. She found herself thinking of Kate.

KATE RELEASED

Eight hours of silence and darkness later Kate was removed from the platform. It was late afternoon when she was to be sent back to the bunny camp. Erik took her to the appropriately-named ‘Releasing room’. This was the place where bunnies would be prepared, then released from.

She was fitted back into her old handcuffs, chain and collar set. After the trials of the last few days in the cells the familiar roundness of the steel bracelets was actually comforting. She became excited about getting back to the cabin and telling her adventurous tale to the other bunnies.

They had something else for Kate. Something to dissuade her from straying in future: Leg-irons for her ankles, with a 12” chain between them. Erik carefully secured the rounded steel manacles on her slim ankles making sure they were tight enough not to rub the skin as she walked.

Immediately before kicking the bunny out the door the Lodge had one more tradition - ten strokes of the paddle on her behind. Kate was bent over an wooden A-frame, all chained up and ready to receive her parting gift. She swallowed hard and waited.

Kate turned around to face the Lodge. “You fucking bastards!” she yelled at the building in the distance.

Erik and Kurt, looking out the small window, laughed heartily when they witnessed her fall. “Very good, better get back to work,” Erik said to his colleague.

DECISION TIME

Jessica’s worst spell was to come after Kate was taken away. She had been sleeping lightly when suddenly she became wide awake. She felt her limbs being pulled hard in four different direction, fingernails like talons digging into her flesh of her wrist and ankles and drawing blood. Pulling so viciously as they tied her to a wooden table that her shoulders and hips were almost dislocating. A masked man was holding a large axe. He ran his finger over the blade and smiled as it drew his own blood. He swung the axe at her in a wide arc, Jessica watched it swing through the air and knew it was about to take her arm off.

She awoke with a jolt the moment the axe made contact. It had been a horrible nightmare, and left her shaking. Gradually she regained control of herself. She felt her mind rewinding like a video recorder until she remembered that she was sitting crouched on a wooden platform hands and ankles locked together. She could feel the undersides of her arms touching her soft and warm breasts, and she felt safe again. What stuck in Jessica’s mind was that wherever this nightmare was taking place it wasn’t Rabbit Island. She began to think it might be a premonition, and a thought occurred to her: ‘This would never happen on Rabbit Island’.

The next few hours passed quietly for Jessica, no nightmares, she even had moments of lucidity in her thoughts. After more than 24 hours sat hunched on the platform life had been reduced to a big rubber ball in her mouth, a heavy padlock at her neck, occasionally replaced by a spoonfuls of food she couldn’t taste, and unseen hands that removed and then replaced the straps around her head.

The fourth feeding break arrived. Jessica ate the spoonfuls of food listlessly. She was depressed and demoralised and could scarcely remember why she was there. Something about ponygirls, she vaguely recollected. Minutes later she felt the rubber ball pushing at her lips. This time her mouth stayed closed. The ball pressed again, more insistently this time. She clamped her teeth together, refusing to let the ball in. Then she spoke, although she hardly recognized her own voice.

“I’ll do it. I’ll be your ponygirl!”

The ball pressed again, and Jessica panicked fearing that she’d forgotten what she had to say to be released.

“Please stop. I said I want to be a ponygirl. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say?” This time she was sobbing.

Erik picked up the phone and dialed Master Alex’s suite. “Sorry to wake you Sir, but I thought you’d like to hear it for yourself.” Erik removed Jessica’s earplugs. She felt like she was slowly emerging from a cocoon, as a different creature. ‘No! I’m still the same Jessica,’ she reassured herself.

A minute later Master Alex was standing in front of the blindfolded Jessica. Erik showed him his new trick - he pushed the ball against Jessica’s lovely lips.

“I said I’ll be a ponygirl...please!” she said, as if begging them, weren’t they the magic words they’d been waiting for?

“It’s late Erik, why don’t you leave Jessica here and get off to bed?” Master Alex suggested.

“Better not. She won’t be ready to work tomorrow if we leave her like this. She can come to bed with me. That way she can start pony training in the morning. Ray will be very pleased to know there is a new ponygirl coming!”

“Two years!” Jessica said, reminding Master Alex of his words to her.

“Two years,” he replied.

Jessica felt a gentle kiss on her forehead, and knew that her ordeal was over. Tomorrow would be a new beginning.