-By Mary





Frank didn't realize it yet, but he was reaching a decision point. Sheri wanted the stage set so when he was faced with the question he would know that his answer was irreversible and would effect his immediate situation. Sheri was not offering any explanations as she adjusted his restraints and ensured that he was not only helpless, but also nearly immobile.





"Do you feel well secured?"





Frank was sweating and a little short of breath. Lois's question brought his attention to the reality of the present and a little away from the apprehension of the near future. "Yes, in every sense. The restraints seem very inescapable, but are not causing any discomfort. You did a great job of applying them. You're turning into quite the bondage expert, Lois."





"Sheri told me to put you into this position and then play a recording for you. At the end of the recording you are to provide an answer. If you answer yes I will gag you tightly and lace a leather hood over your head. If you answer no you will be released from this position and placed back in the manacles so that you can greet Sheri at the door when she returns. Are you ready to hear the recording? Remember at the conclusion of the recording your response is to be either yes or no, nothing more, nothing less."





"I'm ready."





Sheri's recorded voice filled the room. "Hi Frank, I hope you're up for this, but if not that's OK too. What I want to do is give you the most severe whipping of your life. Lois says that she is able to watch and not interfere if you agree ahead of time. It seems that the past few days have provided her with enough data to adjust her definition of the word harm.





I want this for many reasons. The first one that comes to mind is that I'm going to enjoy it. I've always held something back during your previous whippings. We never wanted to get to the point where you would need medical attention, but this is the first time that a medical professional could be present for advice and post whipping treatment.





This is not about testing or expanding your limits. We will not communicate before or during your ordeal. Your gag will prevent you from pleading, and the hood will keep you from begging with your eyes. Your limits will be passed quickly, and I expect you to lose consciousness several times before I'm through. Lois will revive you each time and we will continue.





This whipping will allow Lois to collect data on the results from each whip, crop and flogger. I want her to record strength, speed and effects of each type that she will be expected to use while I'm gone. I think that this is the best a quickest way for her to see what you can take and how you act when it's over.





As for you I want you to have an intense experience. I want to drive you so deep into your submissive space that you will still be there when I return. I want you to agree to this punishment not because you deserve it, but because I want to give it to you.





Lois ask him your question."





"Frank, do you willing agree to be whipped by Sheri for as long and as hard as she wants regardless of the pain, suffering and injury that this will cause you? Once you agree you will not be allowed to recant, and no mercy will be shown. Do you agree?"





Frank allowed seconds to go by. He thought about what the whipping would be like first. Then he thought about Sheri would feel if he said no. He decided that this decision was one that he would have to agree to before he signed the contract, and knew that this might be his only chance to demonstrate his willingness to go to extremes. The last thought he had before he spoke was one to calm his worst fears... Lois will keep her from doing any real harm... "Yes!" Frank gasped.





While Frank was thinking it over Lois had gathered the gag. Frank did not recognize the gag, and doubted that it would be very effective. There was a strap that looked like it would cover his mouth, and a kind of an upside down Y arrangement that would ascend both sides his nose and attach at the rear to the strap that would me holding the gag strap. What looked strange to him was that the part that would go in his mouth. What looked like an empty leather bag hung from the inside of the gag. He thought that a little wadded up leather would not be as quieting as some of their ball gags. The front of the gag had a threaded opening and a slotted disk cap that set flush.





Lois held the gag to Frank's face and he opened his mouth. The loose leather hardly took up any room in his mouth. Lois cinched the buckles tight behind his head and locked them with small padlocks. He moved the leather to one side of his mouth with his tongue. The fear that was knotting his gut subsided. He was thinking that Sheri was only testing him to see what his response would be. He thought that he would be able to communicate with her during the whipping.





Frank's attention was drawn to Lois as she produced an unusual device. It had a small clear hopper that looked like it was full of sand and a plunger. A short barrel extended from front of the device and Frank began to worry as she threaded the barrel to the opening of the gag. As Lois depressed the plunger the sand was forced into Frank's gag. The shape of the gag was cast from Frank's dental records and would fill his mouth perfectly. Lois pumped the plunger until a red light illuminated indicating that the gag was full. Frank's eyes bulged over his gag as he fought to squish the gag into a bearable shape. Lois turned the plunger and a small, powerful fan drew all of the air out of the sand leaving a dramatic vacuum. Frank didn't understand what had happened. His gag felt as though the sand had turned to hardened concrete. She pushed and turned the plunger to close the cap and removed the device.





Frank was shaking his head and twisting in his restraints. He was blasting air through his flared nostrils. Lois stared into his eyes, as he became accustomed to the severe gag. He fought to communicate with her, but he was only able to produce nasal snorts and throaty grunts.





Lois opened a drawer and retrieved a thickly padded leather hood. The thick padding over his mouth and neck would further muffle any sounds that he tried to make. The blindfold snapped down, and would allow his captors to raise it quickly to see if he was conscious. After lacing the hood tightly Lois connected a chain to a loop at the top of the hood and adjusted it to the point that almost all movement of his head was eliminated.





Lois reached out and placed the flat of her hand on Frank's chest. She was measuring his vital signs and establishing a base line for later comparisons. Frank drew strength from what felt like human contact. His nerves calmed down as he concentrated on deep breathing. He shifted his weight and discovered that he was secured with perfection. Never before had he felt such precision.





Lois raised his blindfold, so he could see Sheri enter the room. Sheri strode across the room, her stiletto heeled boots clicking on the floor. Silver chains draped from her high leather collar to her shiny black leather bra. Her small tapering waist was visible above a black leather mini skirt. Frank shuddered at the sight of her heavy, black leather, studded gauntlets and bare shoulders. He recalled her telling him once that she never wore a shirt for serious scenes, because they limited her arm movement. Sheri held Frank's hooded head between her hands and stared into his eyes. She didn't say a word as she snapped the blindfold in place, plunging him into total darkness.





Sheri selected a soft flogger with wide tails. Standing to one side she softly stroked Frank's shoulders and back. She used just enough force to cause the flogger to extend fully before it landed across his back or butt. Even though Frank was unable to move perceptibly in any direction, Lois was able to detect him leaning into the mild caress of Sheri's strokes.





Slowly Sheri increased the tempo. Now the flogger was moving through the air fast enough that Frank could hear the breeze of each stroke as it landed. She varied the strokes, moving from below the base of his neck to above the backs of he knees. She was taking her time, painting a soft glowing pink across his body. Lois recorded the level of excitement that Frank was displaying as his flaccid member rose and twitched with every fall of the whip.





Sheri paused, then lashed out with nearly her full strength with two strokes across his pink ass. Frank sucked in air through his nose, surprised and the sudden change in her strokes and slowly released the air when Sheri stopped. Frank strained to hear what was going on. He knew better than to hope that this was the end, but he couldn't help wondering what was coming next.





Sheri hung the soft flogger on the wall and took a wide wooden paddle. Her first five swats landed across his ass with resounding thwacks. Frank knew he was in trouble. He was having a hard time getting enough air and already he felt lightheaded. Sheri started to vary the amount of time between swats and each was harder than the last. Frank knew that his behind must be glowing red, or even starting to bruise. He had been counting but lost track as his muscles threw themselves against the unyielding restraints. Sheri didn't even notice as his arms and legs pulled against the locked leather cuffs.





She quickly switched the wide paddle for a narrow one patterned with holes. Her feet were about shoulder width apart as she fully rotated her upper body back. Holding the vicious paddle with both hands she brought it forward with her full strength. By relaxing her wrists she was able to add extra speed and power to the stroke by un-cocking her hands and accelerating the paddle into his helpless bottom. She was starting to do some damage now. Frank felt the warmth of his behind ignite into a searing blaze of pain.





Sheri had worked her body into a sweat, and her disposition into a sadistic lather. A slight grin was pasted on her face as adrenaline coursed through her veins. Her hands were twitching slightly as she dropped the paddle on the floor and reached for a braided leather cat. Frank slumped in his bonds as Sheri rained blows across his back. Lois knew immediately, but Sheri stopped whipping Frank before Lois had a chance to say anything because Frank's bladder emptied it's self at the same moment.





"Lois bring him around and make sure he is able to take this." Sheri stood watching Lois, holding the cat stretched between her hands.





Lois raised the blindfold and held a broken ampoule under his nose. She watched as his eyes fluttered open. Frank thought that it was funny how good he felt when coming out of a faint. The words "I'm alright" coming unbidden to his gagged lips; surely it had to be over. He had passed out before, and Sheri was always close to panic as he came around. He swung his head as far as he was able. Neither Lois nor Sheri was making a move to free him. Frank was appalled that they were not going to remove his gag.





Sheri began again with the cat. Not quite as hard as a moment before, but enough that Frank was driven deeply into an agony he had never felt before, each blow falling across a patchwork of welts and bruises.





Sheri exchanged the cat for a long riding crop. The leather wound shaft was very springy and ended in a narrow loop. Frank could not tell one blow from another. Sheri caused the crop to turn into a blur from a full back swing into Frank's ass and back again - over and over. Frank would have been dancing on tiptoe if his restraints had offered an iota of movement. He remained conscious up to the point where she stopped. The sudden calm moment caused him to relax abruptly and pass out again.





Sheri seemed annoyed as Lois revived Frank. Sheri almost shoved her out of the way when Frank's blinked open. Frank was able to see Sheri's face through the eyeholes of the hood. Terror gripped his heart when he comprehended the expression on her face. She appeared to have no comprehension of the suffering he was enduring. He saw impatience in her face and what appeared to be an unbridled sadistic lust. Sheri barely glanced into his eyes as she snapped the blindfold back into place.





Sheri took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She gathered up the paddles off the floor and returned them with the crop and the cat to the wall. She slowly drew open a drawer and took a well-oiled, supple bullwhip in her hand. Lois stood watching and calculating the possible damage that the whip could cause. She factored in the length of the whip, the speed that Sheri was capable of and Frank's current condition. The resulting calculations resulted in a 90% probability that she would ask Sheri to stop after 10 lashes and that she would physically interfere before the 20th lash struck.





Sheri didn't crack the whip. Frank had no idea of what was coming. Sheri swung the whip in a circle above her head once before laying it out and across Frank's back with a diagonal slash. Frank's flesh parted cleanly under the stroke and a bright line blood appeared. Lois was surprised at the amount of damage. She quickly reviewed her recording of the stroke and compared the arc of the whip with the effort that Sheri used and discovered the discrepancy. The bullwhip was heavily weighted toward the end. Lois appeared frozen in time as she performed her calculations. By the time she compared what she was seeing with her predetermined threshold Sheri had landed five more cuts. Sheri had established a vicious momentum where the circular swing of the lash started the next stroke with the follow through of the previous.





Frank was delirious from the blinding pain. His gut was twisted with the knowledge that his back was being flayed and that his skin and muscle must be hanging in tatters across his back. He was longing for the peace of a black out, but remained painfully aware.





Lois cried, "Stop!" during the eighth stroke and caught Sheri's arm as she came around for the ninth. "That is enough Sheri. It is going to take a week for those wounds to heal and will scar if I don't treat him soon."





Sheri looked at Lois without comprehension. "You said that you would be able to watch if he said that he wanted it."





"I am unable to allow this to continue. The objectives that you outlined are now complete. My database now contains information about effects of your punishment implements. Frank is past any voluntary limits he would have set. What more do you wish to accomplish? Are you looking for your own limits?"





Sheri's mouth gapped, trying to form and answer to Lois's unexpected question. Frank had fallen asleep and was quietly bleeding. Lois was still hold Sheri's arm and was looking into her face, gauging her reactions. "Lois, fix him up." Sheri said, as she jerked her arm away.





Frank did not awaken as Louis released him. When the hood, gag and last restraint was removed she cradled him in her arms and took him upstairs. After treating his cuts and ensuring that he would recover physically she put him in Sheri's bed and sat down in a chair by the bed to watch over him as he slept.





Frank's eyes opened and he wondered where he was. The disorientation faded as he recognized the bedroom. The memory of the brutal whipping returned. He moved enough to confirm that he was not restrained in any fashion. He lay looking at the ceiling trying to sort out his feelings. His life over the past few years had become a search for intensity. Now that the intense whipping was behind him, and he felt that no real harm had been done the erotic nature of it started to arouse him. Frank's member started to stiffen as he thought about the absolute control that Sheri had exercised, her lack of compassion.





The room was darkened and Lois was sitting absolutely still. If Frank would have thought about it, he might have guessed that she was there. Frank was finishing almost 24 hours of sleep. His wounds were visible, but almost completely closed. Lois had sedated him and treated the cuts and abrasions that covered his body. Lois could not read his mind, but she was making the connection that as soon as he was awake he was starting to get aroused.





Lois removed all of her clothes and slipped into bed with Frank. Without looking he reached out and stroked her side. "Sheri...; that was unbel... Lois?" Frank stroked her side, soft and warm, very human, but not Sheri. Lois closed Frank's mouth with a kiss. She triggered the internal system that would cause her to appear to be a very ready human female and guided Frank into her. She matched his movement and then quickened the rhythm just slightly. Her hands never stopped moving, wandering from his face to his chest and legs. As he neared release Lois grasped his wrists and held him pinned to the bed. He heard a soft whisper in his ear "If you think Sheri was hard on you just wait until you and I are really alone. You will know what real helplessness feels like."





Frank shuddered with one of the most powerful orgasms he ever remembered.