Suburban Dungeon

Olivia stopped dead in her tracks in front of her house. She'd parked in the driveway and had barely taken three steps towards the front door when she saw it. A black envelope was taped to the door, almost perfectly level with her eyes. That could only mean one thing: a trip to the dungeon.

Olivia hurried to the door and took down the envelope. The house was far enough back from the street that it was unlikely any of her neighbors had noticed it, not that any of them understood what it meant. But Olivia's face was burning as though the whole neighborhood knew what was in store for her.

As she stepped inside her home, Olivia opened the black envelope. Inside, she found her credit card bill, with several expensive purchases circled in red ink. She almost winced when she looked at the prices. They hadn't seen so expensive when she had impulsively bought them. At the bottom of the bill, she found "7:00" written in that same red ink. Instinctively, she checked her watch. A little over an hour until the appointed time. Olivia hated when he made her wait.

Of course, that was the point. The black envelope left on the front door for all to see. The long wait while she thought about what she had done and dreaded what was coming to her. It was all part of her punishment.

Olivia methodically went to work taking care of everything she needed to do before 7:00. Partially it was to keep her mind occupied so as not to think about her fate, and partially because there wouldn't be any chance to take care of things afterwards. She changed out of her work clothes into more comfortable clothing, and fixed herself an early dinner. The house was ominously silent the whole while.

At 6:55, Olivia finished washing the dishes and made one last trip to the bathroom. Knowing that being even a minute late would only make her punishment worse, she opened the door to the basement and began her descent. The basement was bathed in crimson light, as all the normal lightbulbs had been replaced with bulbs tinted red, making it seem like she really was walking into the mouth of hell.

Olivia walked slowly towards the farthest corner of the basement. There, a small room had been constructed shortly after they had moved in. Above the door, Olivia could make out the wood-burned sign:

"ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE!"

The first time she had seen it, Olivia couldn't help but laugh. I guess this is what happens when you marry a literary major, she had thought. It had only taken that first trip of the dungeon to change Olivia's mind, and now she viewed the sign with the dread it had been intended to inspire. She stopped at the door and took a deep breath before she knocked tentatively.

No voice commanded her to enter, but she reached for the knob and turned it, pushing the door inwards. The dungeon was filled with the same red light as the rest of the basement. As she timidly stepped inside, Olivia finally saw him.

A figure was seated in a high-backed wooden chair in the center of the room, clad from head-to-toe in black clothing. Over his head, he wore a black executioner's mask. Olivia could just barely make out his eyes through the tiny eyeholes, the only part of his body that was left exposed. It was very easy for her to forget that her husband was the man behind the mask.

Again, this was all a deliberate choice on his part. When her extravagant spending habits first started to put a strain on their marriage, Olivia had been the one to suggest corporal punishment as a way of keeping her in budget. Her husband had been hesitant to accept the offer, unwilling to cause his beloved wife any physical harm, even at her own insistence. But she was adamant that he did something to keep her in check, so he came up with an unconventional solution. Since he couldn't punish her, he created an alter ego who could. And soon after, he had constructed this dungeon in their basement, a place distinctly separate from their happy home, but always ready when punishment was in order.

Much like the sign above the door, Olivia had initially found the whole thing a little weird, if not downright goofy. But she couldn't argue with the results: one trip to the dungeon could curb her impulses for months. The one thing her husband hadn't bothered with was a name for this persona. Though she'd never said the name out loud, Olivia had decided on calling him the Phantom.

Olivia shut the door behind her. The room was eerily silent. Sound dampening foam panels lined the walls of the room, serving the dual-purpose of creating the illusion of being trapped in a real dungeon deep underground while preventing the neighbors from hearing what went on within its walls.

The Phantom never spoke, but by now she didn't need to be told what to do. She stood in front of him with her arms held loosely at her side. He lifted her shirt over her head and then forcibly spun her around, unbuckling her bra and pulling it off. Olivia felt his fingers reach inside the waistband of her pajama pants, sliding them down along with her panties in one swift motion. One at a time, he lifted her feet out of each leg hole, stripping off her socks as he did so.

Now naked in the blood-red light, Olivia shivered. She always forgot how chilly the Phantom kept the dungeon. He grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to face him again, then dragged her across his lap. The Phantom took his time shifting her into the proper position. Olivia's ass was the highest point of her body, with her facing staring at the floor of the dungeon. The seat of the Phantom's chair was high enough so that Olivia's bare toes barely touched the floor. Like everything else, it had been carefully calculated to make her feel as helpless as possible.

She placed her right hand on the small of her back, feeling the Phantom's iron grip around her wrist a few seconds later. Now there was nothing left for her to do but wait for the proverbial axe to fall. The Phantom loved to make her wait just a little longer, building the anticipation to a boiling point.

SLAP! Olivia inhaled sharply through clenched teeth as she felt the pain shoot through her right ass cheek. A few seconds later, a second blow landed on her left cheek. SLAP! The Phantom liked to start slow, allowing a moment's pause between spanks. This was to slowly build a fire in Olivia's ass, drawing out her punishment by allowing her a brief pause to brace herself for the next impact rather than overwhelming her with a barrage of blows.

SLAP! SLAP!

Olivia struggled to stay still as the next few spanks found their mark. She always tried to take her punishments with as little resistance as possible. Maybe it was her pride, an act of foolish defiance refusing to show any signs of regret or remorse for her actions until the pain forced it out of her. Or maybe it was her guilt, accepting the penalty for her transgressions with as much stoic reservation as she could muster. It didn't really matter. Sooner or later, she would break from the pain.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

The Phantom was steadily increasing his tempo, each spank coming in faster and harder now. Despite her best efforts, Olivia found herself involuntarily gasping with each blow. Soon after that, her body squirmed against her will, straining to free herself and get out of the way of the Phantom's rough hand.

SLAP!

"AAGH!" Olivia let out a small cry of pain as the Phantom landed a particularly nasty strike right to her sit spot. As if spurred on by this first outburst, he quickly landed a second strike on the other side. Again, Olivia made her pain audibly known. He let her have a half-dozen more blows before he paused.

Olivia took several deep breaths, trying to regain her composure. She wasn't crying yet, but she could feel the tears starting to form at the corner of her eyes. This momentary break in the proceedings could only mean one thing, and sure enough, she heard the familiar sound of wood sliding against wood. The Phantom was drawing a small wooden paddle from a specially-built bracket on the side of the chair.

Olivia shuddered as she felt the cool touch of the paddle on her warm backside. She would have found the sensation pleasing if she didn't know what was coming next. Then she felt the paddle lifted away from her backside and she braced herself as best she could.

CRACK! The impact of the paddle sounded even louder in the unnatural quiet of the dungeon. Pain exploded at the spot where it struck, and Olivia cried out in pain. CRACK! A second blow landed on the opposite cheek.

Olivia couldn't even try to hold back her screams now. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes, obscuring her vision. CRACK! CRACK! As the paddle found its mark two more times, she finally relented, letting the tears stream down her face.

If the Phantom noticed her tears, he seemed not to care. He just continued to paddle Olivia's ass an ever-deeper shade of red.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Olivia's screams had given way to a low, continuous moan of pain as the Phantom continued his barrage. She squirmed and struggled against his powerful grip, desperately seeking any refuge from the harsh paddle. But her efforts were futile and she knew it. Her punishment was only going to end when the Phantom decided to end it.

Gradually, her resistance grew feebler until she went limp across his lap, sobbing uncontrollably. This was what the Phantom had been waiting for: complete and total submission. He gave her a dozen more swats before he set down the paddle and released his grip on her wrist.

Olivia felt the Phantom raising his hips as if to stand, urging her up off his lap. She pushed off his thighs, struggling to get to her feet. Without a word, she hobbled to the far corner of the dungeon while the Phantom silently stepped out through the door into the basement. This was the last stage of her punishment: nose to the corner, hands on the back of her head until she was done crying.

Even after the spanking had ended, the burning pain would continue to build for a long time afterwards. Though she longed to rub her aching backside, Olivia didn't dare to do so. He Phantom had installed a camera above the door facing the corner in which she stood, allowing him to monitor her without having to be in the room. If he caught her trying to relieve the pain before her punishment was up, she would find herself back across his knee for a second spanking. Nothing she could do now except wait it out.

Olivia shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trying to ease the pain as best she could. Tears continued to stream down her face, though she was starting to get her sobbing under control. Based on her past experiences, it usually took about 15 to 20 minutes before the tears finally stopped and her punishment was over, but it felt like hours. And that gave her plenty of time to think about what brought her to this place.

Her mind drifted back to the credit card bill, the reckless and impulsive purchases that had been circled in red ink. Olivia and her husband weren't struggling to make ends meet by any means, but they weren't that well off that she could be throwing money around so carelessly.

Gradually, the stream of tears slowed to a trickle, and before long they stopped all together. Though her punishment was now over, she always waited a few extra minutes before leaving the corner, just to be on the safe side. Finally, Olivia stepped away from the corner and hobbled across the room, her ass stinging with every step.

She gathered her clothes from the floor and stepped out of the dungeon into the blood-red light of the basement, depositing her clothes into the washing machine before heading upstairs. This part of the punishment ritual had been her idea. She knew that she had deserved her spanking and had no right to conceal it. Olivia had always been extremely shy, and even in the privacy of her own home, she felt exposed and vulnerable. Just the idea of someone catching a glimpse of her naked body as she made the long walk from the basement to the bedroom was mortifying.

At long last, Olivia stepped into the bedroom, her punishment at its end. She found her husband in bed, watching television as though it was any other night. Without a word, she climbed into the bed and snuggled up to him, the tenderness of his caress a perfect contrast to the harsh punishment she'd suffered at the hands of the Phantom.