Switched!

It was nearly eight thirty by the time they pulled the car back into Madison’s driveway. The house was dark, Madison's parents having departed for their BBQ. It took two trips each for them to unload their bags from the car before they baked a pizza and went down to Madison’s room to eat. Her dinner balanced on her lap, Emily flipped through Madison’s book of sexual conquests as she sat on the floor next to the air mattress and sleeping bag Madison’s parents had laid out for her.

Page by page she worked through the binder. She recognized most of the girls in the pictures; from their inner circle, their quad, a few that Emily had shared classes with, and virtually everyone from the Red Cage Society. About two thirds of the way through the book however, the subject matter changed and Emily nearly choked on a slice of pepperoni.

The final third of the book was exclusively pictures of Emily. There were plenty of pictures of Emily up on the walls as well, but these ran an eye-watering gamut from lewd to shockingly explicit. There were nudes of course; Emily remembered posing for most of them, though a couple seemed more candid. Then there were the ‘action’ shots. Emily looking nervous wearing the strap-on, a close-up of her pink cage absolutely pouring pre-cum as Madison’s fingers worked their magic inside of her; one of Emily, face down and ass up as Madison used the strap-on herself to finally help Emily to cheat her cage, and on and on.

Emily felt her stomach fill with butterflies flipping through the book; her face was scarlet and her cage was tight by the time she finished. It was a record of nearly every moment, from the beginning of the semester to the end. She took her time, savouring each memory as her clit alternated between briefly stiffening and then softening again in the cage. “See anything you like?” Madison teased from her seat on the bed; “Or maybe anything you’d like to try again?” She smiled broadly as Emily felt her cage jump in her panties.

“I uh...” Emily scrambled. She had been planning to surprise Madison with the lingerie, not have this sprung on her all of a sudden. Stay cool, Emily. “I have to go to the bathroom!” she managed, snatching up the small bag of lingerie from the pile in the corner and bolting to the bathroom before Madison could object.

“Smooth, Emily.” She scolded herself in the mirror of the downstairs bathroom. She wasn’t too concerned; Madison had been her friend for long enough that she had come to expect her total lack of chill. After all, Emily was about to make it up to her spectacularly. She carefully tore the tags off the lingerie, stripped off her clothes, and carefully dressed. The needed this to be perfect. Just as she was making her final adjustments, there was a knock on the door. Madison, come to check on her; at least her timing was perfect. Striking what she hoped was a sultry and confident pose, Emily opened the door.

It was Sonya.

“Oh my God...” Emily gasped. “Uh... Sonya... I was just...” Emily stammered. She took two steps backwards into the bright light of the bathroom until the back of her leg bumped against the toilet making her stumble. Sonya followed her in and shut the door. She was trapped!

“You were just... hoping we were at the barbeque? Trying on some of your shopping? Getting ready to hop in bed with my daughter? All of the above?” Oddly, Sonya didn’t seem mad. If anything she seemed bemused.

“All... of the above.” Emily sighed. It was impossible to lie when you were caught this red-handed.

Sonya smiled. “I figured. I was just coming down to get some more ice for the party out of the freezer and to say goodnight.” She looked Emily up and down and twirled her finger. “Turn around for me?” Miserably, Emily slowly turned around. “Mmmm...” Sonya mused. “I can see why Maddy’s hardly shut up about you since she got back from Rattangrove... Did you buy this little ensemble just for her?”

Emily was shocked by the tone Sonya was taking, and by the obvious way she was undressing her with her eyes. Maybe like mother like daughter? She wasn’t going to push her luck, so she stuck with the truth. “Yes’m... Madison... she was talking about having a new boyfriend all summer and... I thought...”

Sonya gave her a brief chuckle. “Ah. That would be the boy she’s been sneaking into her room at night, is it? The one she’s so sure I don’t know about?” Emily bit her tongue, unwilling to get her friend in any more trouble than she already had.

Sonya placed the tip of her index finger at the base of Emily’s throat and traced it down until her fingernail clicked against the ball of her navel piercing. “So you thought she’d forgotten all about you?” Emily nodded, equal parts flustered and frightened. “Plus I imagine that your parents haven’t been terribly... generous about your chastity since your punishment?”

Emily struggled to answer; Sonya used the same brand of soap and shampoo as her daughter and the scent brought back all sorts of memories that made her head swim. “No... nothing since... I was punished. Nothing at all.” She tried not to sound petulant, but it was difficult. She knew she’d made a mistake but she couldn’t help but feel a little hard done by. Eight months of denial, broken up only by orgasms she earned at school. It would be two more summers before her parents considered unlocking her again.

“Mmmm...” It was a thoughtful sound, but Emily detected a hungry undercurrent to it. What had Sonya been like to the locked girls she roomed with at Rattangrove all those years ago? Had she been even more of a tease than Madison? “You put in so much effort... and you really do look exquisite.” Sonya cupped Emily’s bare bottom in her warm hand, and leaned in. Emily had a panicky thought that Sonya might try to seduce her, right here in the bathroom. While Sonya was gorgeous and Emily was desperate, even she had limits. Instead Sonya gave her a dry kiss on the very tip of her nose. “I’ll admit, I envy Maddy just a little...”

“So... I’m not in trouble?” Emily asked, tentatively.

Sonya smiled. “Like I told you, I know my Madison. I certainly got into my own share of trouble when I was her age, and I don’t really care if she wants to have a little fun, so long as she’s safe.” In the mirror Emily could follow Sonya’s eyes to the pink cage that showed clearly through the sheer black mesh of her panties. “And without your little key, you couldn’t be any safer...”

Emily blushed as Sonya continued, brushing an errant strand of dark hair out of Emily’s eyes “I don’t mind you girls enjoying a little private time, but I did promise your parents I would deal with any issues like this that came up.” Emily swallowed as her stomach did a graceful back-flip. “So yes, you’ll be punished, as will Madison. Though in her case, mostly for swanning around the house this last month like she hasn’t been sneaking a boy in through the window every other night like I don’t know about it.” Sonya gave Emily’s bottom a very gentle squeeze. “You have half an hour.”

Emily was trembling on the walk back to Madison’s room, but she was committed. She was doing this. It would probably be the damned strap, but she didn’t care. She had come too far to turn back now, even with a sound strapping hanging over her head. She stopped just outside the door, forced a smile, and tried to focus on how she had felt in the changing room. Gorgeous. Empowered. Sexy... She took one last deep breath and pushed open the bedroom door.

The look on Madison’s face was worth all the trouble.

Madison’s eyes bulged and her mouth fell open. “Shut the door.” She whispered as she got up off the bed. Emily had hardly closed the door before Madison was in her arms, kissing her fiercely, her hands seeking out Emily’s bottom and squeezing her tight against her. Madison’s tongue was aggressive, insistent, and her hands roamed Emily’s with an eagerness and roughness that made her forget all about the coming punishment.

“Oh God, Emmy...” Madison groaned. “I’ve missed you so much, and you look...” Instead of a description Madison kissed her again, but this time it wasn’t forceful. It was slow, gentle, and passionate. Madison’s left hand traced it’s way up the hollow of Emily’s back as her right hand sought the tiny pink cage between her legs. Madison’s fingers felt incredible through the silky fabric of her panties, as she teased around the tube of the cage; two semesters as roommates meant that she knew exactly what Emily liked. “I want your tongue... Madison whispered in her ear, “...don’t take off anything... I want you just like this.”

Emily had no complaints at all as Madison stripped off her clothes and laid back on the bed, spreading her legs wide to give Emily access to the delicate pinkness within. Emily was torn. Did she tell Madison about the pending punishment? She considered it briefly as she knelt between her friend’s knees and began gently teasing Madison’s soft lips with her tongue. She supposed it didn’t matter; they’d be punished either way, so they might as well enjoy themselves while they could, and Madison looked, smelled, and tasted incredible.

Emily closed her eyes and pushed away the memory of Sonya and the dread of a spanking-to-come. In a moment she was back in their dorm room; Madison holding a pillow against her own face to stifle her moans so they weren’t caught by the RA, Emily dripping with need as her cage twitched with need. Here in her bedroom Madison made far less effort to hide her pleasure as she squeaked, sighed, and moaned her way to her first orgasm. The athletic blonde came powerfully, gripping Emily’s dark hair in her fist and squeezing her head tight between her thighs as her body spasmed and shook.

As Madison released her and her breathing began to quiet Emily wriggled up the bed to slide in next to her friend. Madison’s cheeks were flushed and her face damp with sweat. She gave Emily a grin and a kiss as she rolled on her side, and began once more to tease her cage through her panties. Madison really was a master at this; she could have made Emily cum whenever she chose; maybe not a full orgasm, certainly not as satisfying as being unlocked, but at least a ruin... but no. For Madison the art was in keeping Emily just on the frustrating side of the line, but always coming back for more. She was never cruel about it, and she was impossible to refuse.

Madison didn’t slide her fingers inside Emily’s panties, instead she stroked the tender skin around her cage through the fabric; an electric feeling. Emily felt herself stiffen briefly, straining against the metal for a few seconds before subsiding. Madison arched an eyebrow at her with a cautious grin.

“They... haven’t let me out since I got caught.” Emily confessed. “After a couple months locked she stays soft for the most part.” Madison’s grin widened and Emily continued. “She’ll... spring back up once I’m back at school, getting unlocked monthly again.” Emily tried to sound convincing but Madison clearly wasn’t buying it. She teased Emily for several minutes this way, trying all her usual tricks that she had learned over countless frustrating nights at Rattangrove, but Emily’s clit stayed almost perfectly flaccid.

She slid down the bed and rested her face on Emily’s left thigh. “Spread your legs, Em.” She instructed. Tenderly, Madison stroked the delicate skin of Emily’s perineum through the soft fabric, making her shiver and leak, but her long-denied clit stayed perfectly soft. Still stroking the sensitive skin just behind the base of Emily’s cage Madison began to kiss Emily’s most sensitive skin through the fabric of her panties. They were light kisses, her lips barely making contact, brief and dry, but they were heavenly. Madison kissed the skin above Emily’s cage, her badly backed-up little plums, and the cage itself.

Through it all, Emily could feel herself leaking but she stayed resolutely soft. She needed to be unlocked NOW. She began to whimper not just from the need but also the humiliation of her clit not ‘rising’ to the occasion even enough to strain. How could she ever lose her ‘front’ virginity if she couldn’t even get stiff?

“Tell me how it feels, Emmy...” Madison teased, looking up at her. “...inside the cage.”

Emily moaned. She hated when Madison made her describe it. “Do I have to?” she whined. “Can’t you just... help me out?” She knew there might be a reckoning with Sonya later if she came, but she didn’t care right now. She didn’t usually give the game away like this; at school she invariably let Madison win. It was frustrating but she knew that as long as she kept her grades up she’d get at least a milking from the nurse. That made it bearable, but now... she needed more tonight. Looking the way she did; the lingerie, the time apart, Madison would see reason, she would let her cum... She had to.

Madison didn’t miss a beat, continuing to tease, touch, and grin up at her. “Maybe... after you describe it.”

“It... it doesn’t hurt. Not like straining where I’m pushing against the cage. It just feels... tender... like the lightest touch would be almost too much, but also...” Emily’s voice trailed off as Madison rewarded her with some extra attention. “...it would be so wonderful... to touch, to be touched... just anything at all.” She managed, at last.

Madison stroked Emily’s stomach. “Mmmm... that’s perfect.” She breathed. “And still perfectly limp.” Emily scowled down at her, making Madison laugh. “Which has its advantages...” She placed her lips against the tip of Emily’s cage and gently blew warm, wet air along her skin, making Emily thrash and shake with the unexpected pleasure. “At least until they put you in a smaller cage.” Madison mused before breathing another delicious lungful of warm, wet air along Emily’s aching skin. “There’s more room than i thought...” Madison teased.

Emily was aware that she was shrinking. The only positive was that now she could actually get a reasonable amount of friction by sliding the slightly-too-big cage against her skin as she ground her pelvis into a pillow. Not quite enough to cheat the cage, but it was all she had. She would be measured and refitted with a new cage on her first day back at Rattangrove, and Madison’s warm air trick wouldn’t work anymore, but for now this was heaven.

“Do you think you could cum like this? Not even being touched? Just the world’s saddest blow job?” Madison was partially teasing, but Emily could see from the look on her face that she would probably let her cum that way if she could. She hated to admit it but the humiliation was starting to work for her a little and...

“She won’t get the chance.” Sonya’s voice sounded from the doorway. Madison snatched at a blanket laying across the foot of the bed and tried to cover herself up as her mother came into the room. Sonya wasn’t red-faced and furious the way Emily’s mother would have been in this situation. She was unquestionably in control but there was no fireworks, just an inevitable punishment. From the way both mother and daughter behaved Emily could reasonably guess that this wasn’t the first time that this sordid scenario had played out.

Sonya took a position in the middle of the room, arms crossed. She wasn’t overly tall, but she seemed commanding from Emily’s position on the bed. “Didn’t we have a talk about this Maddy?” She asked; her tone was sterner than Emily had heard before, tired rather than shrill.

Madison snatched up her panties off the bed and slid them on. “We... we did.” Emily had never seen Madison intimidated by anyone. Angela their strict RA, the Headmaster, professors, she seemed broadly immune to being intimidated unless she was actually bared and over their lap. Now there was no backtalk, no rolled eyes, no attempt to deflect and minimize. Madison looked scared and that boded badly for both of them.

“Yes we did. This morning. About exactly this.” Emily thought about the Sonya from just a half hour before. Who had been so understanding; there was no trace of that in Madison’s mother now. “And what did I say would happen if I caught you two?”

Madison paled as she struggled to separate her bra from her pyjama top and slide it on. “No... please...”

“What did I say, Madison? What did I promise you would happen if I caught you acting like a little slut under my roof again?”

“A... a switching.” Madison looked at Emily apologetically. Emily could see the start of tears in the corners of her eyes.

“A bare bottom switching.” Sonya corrected her. I think three switches each should be sufficient. Get up, go cut them, get them ready, and then I want you both back here in fifteen minutes.”

Emily and Madison sat, frozen, staring at each other. Emily had been switched once during a family camping trip years ago and it wasn’t a happy memory. That had been bad, this was worse. She had to go cut them? Outside? While it was still daylight? In this?

Sonya clapped her hands, loudly, the sharp noise startling them both. “Scoot.”

Emily followed Madison upstairs and into the empty kitchen, the orange light of late evening leaving long blue shadows along the floor. Next to the back door hung a pair of pruning shears on a small hook. Madison sighed as she pulled them down, and with an apologetic look back at Emily she lead her through the door and out into the back yard.

The day had been stiflingly hot and the evening was balmy; a thin sliver of the sun remained above the horizon as they walked barefoot out onto the worn wood of the wraparound porch, the weathered pine smooth and arm underfoot. Emily had hoped for privacy, a nice yard with tall fences and no overlooking windows. Instead, both girls stopped dead a few steps beyond the threshold.

Next door, over a low wooden fence, no more than waist high, was the Homeowner’s Association barbeque. Madison took Emily’s hand and gave it a squeeze; maybe no-one would notice? Maybe they’d keep on with their hot dogs, corn on the cob and light beer; maybe no-one would be the wiser.

They didn’t even make it off the porch before the first wolf whistle.

“Uh oh... I know what those gardening snips mean! Someone’s in trouble again!” A rotund man in a flowered shirt unbuttoned more than halfway called out. Emily dared a peek over the fence. Everyone was looking at her. There were around thirty people in the back yard; mostly couples, some little older than she was, some older than her parents. A speaker was playing pop music from atop a picnic table and a small fire blazed in a fire-pit in the far corner of the yard.

“Who’s your friend, Maddy?” A woman in her early 30s called out. “Get in a little trouble at the sleepover?”

“Not too much trouble, check out the cage on the brunette!” A man, presumably her partner, added, making the assembled crowd laugh. “Make sure you girls cut them nice and thick!” his voice was slurred slightly and while the assembled crowd were all more or less staring, he was leering.

Emily forced herself not to cry. She knew there would be tears soon enough, but she wasn’t letting these beered-up suburbanites see her cry. In the far corner of the yard, mercifully away from the gawking eyes of the barbeque attendees, they reached a bushy stand of hazel shrubs. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Emily whispered, worried about being overheard.

Madison sighed. “I do, unfortunately. You want something about as big around at the base as your index finger, a little more than a couple feet long, not too many branches...” Madison selected a branch and click the shears sliced through. She handed it to Emily. It didn’t feel that heavy, it was flexible and whippy, and it would absolutely hurt if swung with violence, but it didn’t seem all that bad. “Thick enough not to break, and long enough to really fucking hurt.” She added, bitterly. “I’ll show you how to clean it when we get back to the house. For now just make sure it doesn’t have any obvious cracks or anything. If my mom breaks all three switches over your ass before she’s satisfied you’ll have to come back out and cut more.”

Emily waved the branch through the air, feeling the air catch the leaves. She really wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she ran her fingers over the smooth grey bark, looking for any obvious problems. She did the same with the other five switches Madison passed her in succession. She tried to be cold-blooded about it, just check the branch, make sure it wasn’t damaged, but she couldn’t help but imagine each one biting into her tender skin. “Ready?” Madison asked.

Emily nodded and took her hand. The walk back to the house was just as bad as the walk out to the hazel bushes and Emily deeply regretted her thong panties as the hooting and whistling was far worse the second time around. Later, she’d let herself be a little flattered by it, but right now it was no fun at all. They walked as quickly as they could without giving the crowd the victory of seeing them run and beat a thoroughly undignified retreat back to the house.

Safely back in the merciful privacy of the kitchen Madison pulled the small kitchen garbage container out from under the sink and set the small bundle of switches on the kitchen counter. From a drawer she took a pair of paring knives and handed one to Emily. “Alright. Trim it clean and let’s see what we’ve got...” Emily pulled off the small branches and used the knife to cut off some of the larger ones, discarding the surplus greenery into the plastic pail at their feet. When she was finished, and her trio of switches were stripped she handed them over to Madison for inspection.

Emily was struck by how quickly Madison was able to appraise them. Clearly the hazel switch had been a regular visitor to her bottom over the years as she went over each slim, tapered branch with an expert’s eye. Before she approved each one she gave it a few sharp swings, the switch tearing the air with an awful sound, testing that they weren’t hiding some fatal flaw under the bark. “These’ll do.” She muttered, the fear a reedy undercurrent in her voice as she passed Emily back her three switches. “Now we just whittle them smooth; take your time; every little bump hurts but don’t cut away too much wood or you risk it snapping.”

Emily’s fingers trembled slightly as she held the knife against the wood and began to carefully scrape. She watched Madison for a few seconds before she began. It didn’t seem too hard; just evening out the wood. She felt a little ridiculous though; standing in the middle of the kitchen in her elegant lingerie, whittling down a spanking switch to be used on her own bared bottom in just a few moments. It was uniquely awful, having to make her own tools of correction. She had managed not to cry in the back yard, but a few fat drops escaped her eyes as she carefully cleaned the wood,

Not all of the bark needed cut away, just the little imperfections; knots, buds, and the bases of small branches; they would never be as perfectly smooth as a cane, but after a couple minutes she started to get the knack of it. It took nearly ten minutes for Emily to have her switches up to Madison’s standards, or close enough. Madison took each switch Emily had finished and made a couple of final little cuts, her hands steady despite the pending punishment. When they could put it off no longer Madison took the bundle of vicious little branches and they trudged downstairs to take their medicine.

When they got downstairs Sonya was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, looking at her phone impatiently. She looked up as they approached, stood, and took the bundle of switches from Madison. She looked them over carefully for a few moments before using the small bundle to gesture to the bed. “Panties off, Maddy. Emily, you can keep yours up since you’re wearing a thong. On your knees, girls. The sooner we’re started, the sooner it’s over with.”

Emily took her position beside Madison, gritting her teeth in awful anticipation.

“I think we can dispense with the lecture? You’re both smart, university-educated young women, you both know why we’re here today?”

“Yes’m” Both girls answered in unison.

“Good. Let’s begin with you, Madison. Keep your position like a good girl. I think four dozen will do. Emily dear, I want you lying on your tummy, alright? When it’s your turn you girls can trade places. I need room to swing, and I don’t want to hit you by mistake, dear.” Sonya instructed.

Madison whimpered miserably on Emily’s right as the switch tapped her on the bottom. She didn’t cry out on the first stroke, she just let out her breath slowly, trying to keep her courage. She whimpered at the second stroke, and made a choking, hiccoughing sound as the third landed. By the tenth she was giving out small cries of pain with every stroke. Emily listened helplessly as the switch landed on Madison’s gorgeous bottom over and over; by the time the first switch snapped on stroke nineteen Madison was on the very precipice of tears.

“Alright girls, trade places.” Sonya told them as they heard the soft thump of the broken switch falling to the carpet. Emily raised her bottom in the air, trembling. She felt Sonya’s soft hand in the middle of her back as she guided her into just the position she wanted. “Okay Em, scoot your knees towards your elbows a little more, I want your little backside sticking right up in the air.” Sonya coached. “Legs together, sweetie, and pull your cage forward in front of your thighs, we don’t want the switch to catch you there.” Emily did as she was told, and after a moment she felt the switch tap her on the bottom.

“Stay still Emily. It’s going to hurt an awful lot, but you aren’t in any danger as long as you keep position. She tapped the switch lower down on Emily’s thighs. “If you keep still for me, I won’t whip the backs of your thighs, but if I need to I’ll make sure I take down these lovely stockings first.” Emily appreciated that, she supposed; but she wasn’t quite up to thanking her.

Whick! Emily gasped as the first blow from the switch sliced down across her bottom, striking right in the fattest part of her cheeks and wrapping around to dig into the tender flesh on the side of her bottom. She grunted. It was different than the cane or the strap, both of which dug into the muscle beneath and left her with an ache she’d feel the rest of the day, this was stingy, burning, but only on the surface of her skin. Whick! The second stroke landed, making Emily hiss and squeeze her eyes shut. Sonya seemed to be taking it slower with her than she had with her own daughter, letting her adjust to what was a nearly-new experience for her.

Whick! The third stroke landed nearly on top of the second, but wrapped further around, nearly halfway to her hip. Emily, due to her may years of oft-questionable behaviour had a reasonable pain tolerance in her backside, but out toward the edges it was virgin territory and it stung.

Whick! The fourth stroke landed quite low, barely above the tops of her stockings, and the fifth only a hair above. Emily squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from flowing, and balled her fists into the bedspread. Whick! Whick Whick! Sonya picked up the pace, scourging Emily’s bottom at the same pace she had Madison’s. Emily whimpered and cried out as the switch struck in rapid succession.

After the eighth blow, Sonya paused and carefully brushed Emily’s bottom with her hand. “Slivers aren’t part of the punishment dear. I’m just cleaning you up.” It was far from a comforting caress, it was a rough, businesslike swipe that did nothing to make Emily feel any better, and then it was back to the switch.

Emily’s switch didn’t last quite as long as Madison’s had, and on the seventeenth stroke she both felt and heard it snap. “A good first effort, Emily. A quality switch, but maybe a touch thin.” Sonya remarked. Emily flopped forward onto the bed gratefully as she heard her ruined switch land on the carpet and Madison dutifully pushed up onto her knees. Emily hated watching her friend punished, but it was worlds better than being punished herself.

Madison’s second switch lasted more than a full two dozen strokes. It was only on the twenty-fifth, long after Madison had lost her composure and begun crying in earnest that the stubborn branch finally gave up the ghost with a dry snap. Madison collapsed onto the bed and buried her face in both hands, sobbing. Emily risked a look back and saw that Madison’s bottom was covered in narrow crimson lines that turned purple where the tip of the switch had concluded its awful journey. It looked awful.

“Forty four.” Sonya intoned. “And I think that’s enough. I won’t make you get back in position for just four more, sweetheart. You’re done. You just rest until we’re done with Emily’s whipping, and then it’s lights out.”

“T-thank you, mom!” Madison managed through the tears. Emily forced herself into position. Bottom raised high, knees together, cage tucked in front of her thighs out of harm’s way, and she waited.

The second switch lasted only eleven strokes before snapping, just as Emily’s composure was starting to break. The break was lovely, but as Sonya brushed the small splinters of wood from her searing cheeks Emily worried that she only had one switch left. If her switch didn’t make it the full forty eight... would she have to go back outside? Would she use the ‘spare’ Madison had made? Would her whipping start all over when she got back from cutting a new one? Heavy thoughts for a young woman being well and thoroughly switched; her cheeks ablaze, tears prickling, then trickling, and finally flowing with abandon as Sonya set back to her work.

She was crying by the thirty fifth stroke. There was no shame in that. Clearly she had a higher pain tolerance than Madison, but the switch was new and it was terrible. It felt like she was being flayed alive; every nerve ending in her backside was absolutely howling with pain, and the thin, whippy switch showed no mercy as Sonya painted her entire posterior a nearly uniform red. The ache in her cage was forgotten, the lingerie was irrelevant, she just wanted the switching to end.

It was a cruel twist that her final switch was apparently her best. All twenty of her remaining strokes landed on her searing skin as she sniffled, apologized, and begged for her punishment to end. She wasn’t in the same state as Madison; the switching hadn’t completely broken her even after the forty-eighth stroke; the hairbrush, the strap, even her father’s hand if she had seriously messed up were worse than the switch, but her skin burned as though she had been scalded and Emily whimpered and keened as the tears flowed freely.

When it was done, Sonya brushed her bottom one last time, far more tenderly and thoroughly. She took the care to make sure that Emily’s skin; while welted and excruciatingly painful, wasn’t broken. It felt... caring as she carefully tended to her bottom, brushing away errant scraps of wood and ensuring that no real harm had been done.

“All right, I’m going to get back to the party.” Sonya told them at last. “Hugs first though, for my brave girls.” Emily and Madison stood on wobbly legs and Sonya wrapped up each of them in one of her arms. The hug went on for nearly a full minute while both Emily and Madison carefully tried to rub away the inferno in their bottoms and sniffled into Sonya’s shoulders.

Finally, Sonya released them and stepped back. Her voice was much softer. “Okay girls, go brush your teeth and wash your faces. You have fifteen minutes to cool off before I want you both in your own beds. I will be checking back.”

Emily and Madison returned to the bed as Sonya left the room, leaving the door open. Both girls eased themselves onto the bed, lying on their stomachs side-by-side, well-striped backsides in the air. They didn’t say anything for a long time. Both were in a private world of pain, self-pity, and private promises to do whatever it took to avoid another switching.

Finally, after nearly five minutes, Madison spoke. “I’m sorry, Emmy. Did... did you buy that outfit today?”

Emily sniffed. The tears were done, and while she would most certainly be sleeping on her stomach, she didn’t think she’d really even feel the switching tomorrow. “I did... do you... do you like it?”

Madison smiled, her face still puffy and her eyes still red from crying. She reached back, very carefully, and stroked Emily’s perineum, one eye fixed on the open door. “Oh I do... I most certainly do. I’ll show you later tonight....” She looked back at Emily, and suddenly her confidence was back. “After all, they have to sleep sometime.”

Artwork by VoidNosferatu