Arrival

She can finally see the island in the distance. The island that has been in her thoughts for so long now. She had learnt of this island by pure coincidence, until then she hadn't been aware of its existence at all. It sounded too good - or too crazy - to be true. A small island in the Pacific, with an extremely hierarchical society, divided in Masters/Mistresses and slaves, based on dominance and consensual non-consent.

She is almost there now. The small boat is approaching land surprisingly fast. She can see the dock now and some low buildings.

Suddenly she feels very nervous. Her distant dream is about to become reality. She surely hopes that she has made the right choice. She is at the point of no return now.

The agency had informed her about the island, its society and lifestyle, as well as the selection criteria. She had been through a very thorough selection process and fulfilled all criteria. She had agreed to the quite demanding conditions of participation and fulfilled them all, even though it had been really hard to sell her flat and other possessions, quit her job, say goodbye to family and friends without being able to tell them where she was going and when (or if) she would return. In short, she had left her former life. Still, she had been so sure she was doing the right thing back then, it felt like an inner calling she simply had to follow.

Now, however, she feels suddenly nervous and a bit insecure after all. Despite the information she had received before departure, there is a lot she doesn't know. So she really doesn't know what to expect. Except that she is about to become a slave, of course. The slave she has felt for so long that she is destined to be.

She has learnt that she is one of five who have been selected this month. There are only five candidates accepted to the island every month, always on the first Monday. This time there are three women and two men who have been selected.

The boat has now reached the dock. She can see the concrete buildings surrounding the dock now. They seem much bigger from here. She can see that some of the houses have windows with bars, like a prison. This makes her even more nervous. She can also see some people leaving through a kind of portal surrounded by high walls in front of some of the buildings and approaching the dock.

The crew on the boat ask her and the four others to disembark. She and the other four newcomers - or slave candidates, which is the correct term - leave the boat. The small group of people she had seen from the boat is obviously waiting for them. They are all dressed in elegant or lavish clothes, in quite different styles. She can see that some of them are holding metal chains, collars and cuffs. They must be for her and the other four candidates! Scary!

A heavily built man in his fifties with quite rough features and grey hair at the temples, moves forward. He looks like a kind of leader. Without any greeting to the newly arrived candidates, he orders them to place their limited luggage on a hand trolley, including purses etc with phones, wallets and passports, and then get in line. They all obey instantly. She is in the middle of the line, between the two men.

The Leader then orders them to undress and leave all their clothes on the trolley as well. She hesitates for an instant. They had been informed that slaves were not allowed any personal property on the island, not even their own clothes, but she was not prepared to undress right away, here on the dock, in front of others! Obviously, the others were just as unprepared, for two of them exclaim almost simultaneously, obviously shocked: " Right here?!"

The Leader does not look please, he is obviously used to be obeyed. He answers in a strict manner: "Yes, right here. Everybody on the Island is subject to the Island Society's own Laws, and since you have chosen to come here, you are now property of the Island. You are now slaves, which you all have chosen to become. You will be given suitable clothing very soon. With that exception, you have no right to any property as long as you stay on the Island, unless your future Masters or Mistresses chose to grant you the permission to own a few things."

He then smiles a strange, cold smile and says, with obvious sarcasm: "I suppose you all look forward to the big Auction at the Sunday Market, given your reactions to undressing in front of just a few people."

She swallows hard and her face is burning with shame, but she obeys. She undresses swiftly and places her clothes together with her other belongings on the trolley. The other four also undress, some rather slowly and hesitantly, others so quickly, it seems they can't undress fast enough. Finally all five stand in line, all naked, with some distance between them. The people from the island, who seem to be members of the Committee of Dominants, which is in charge of the Island, if she remembers correctly, divide into pairs and approach each candidate. They carry the chains, iron collars and metal cuffs she noticed earlier. Each candidate gets an iron collar around his or her neck, metal ankle cuffs with chains between them and metal wrist cuffs. She can hear a sharp "click" when the iron collar is locked around her neck. It feels quite heavy. What a strange feeling. Surreal.

She can feel the weight of the chains and they make a sound at the slightest move she makes, so she tries to stand as still as she possibly can.

Now all the candidates are collared and in chains and cuffs. Their iron collars are now connected with chains so that they all are linked together like a chain gang.

One of the members of the Committee grabs the chain of the woman first in line, and they all move slowly toward the buildings. The rattling of the chains make a strange sound. She has never heard anything like it.

The members of the Committee, with the Leader in front, and the newly arrived slave candidates move slowly through the big portal in front of the courtyard between the buildings.