Chapter 3
Day 189, 190, 191 -- Friday 5th, Saturday 6th, Sunday 7th February 2016
It was Izabela who came for me at 6am on the following morning to take me up to the yard for the start of my three days of hard labour. My bottom was extremely painful after the bruising really came out overnight and with every step I took, I was reminded of the severe caning I'd received. She didn't say much to me during the five minutes she spent, after my shower, putting antiseptic cream on my buttocks. She gave me the clothes I'd used before; a long fur lined overcoat, a woollen hat, woollen gloves and shoes to protect me from the freezing weather, for which I was extremely thankful.
It was very icy on the surface of the yard, and being so early on a January morning, it was still dark. Only a few wall lights, and the three electric fires gave any light. It was cold, miserable and depressing, but it was where I'd be spending the next three days. As soon as I was out of the door, she gave me the order to begin.
"Like Christmas Day, you will not have guards with you in the yard all the time; it is too long a day to waste our time and it is too cold to stand or sit and watch. No cheating; only one brick at a time, remember, the cameras watch you always. If you touch yourself or cheat, you know what happens."
I was left in the yard all alone to carry out the mind numbingly boring task of moving the one hundred set of bricks from one end of the yard to the other. I had that to do four times before being allowed back to my cell which would probably be around midnight. That was to be followed by two more days of the same. With nothing else to take my mind off it, all I could think of was Becky with her new friend, Josh. She'd be flying home to see him this morning to spend a short holiday in a warm, luxury, country hotel in a picturesque winter setting; the total opposite of what I was enduring here. She'd already told me how horny she was after watching me being caned and how she was saving herself for Josh to relieve her pent up sexual arousal.
It was an hour before I saw anyone; it was Izabela who brought me a bottle of water. She sat on a garden chair with her fur coat buttoned up to the collar, a scarf wrapped around her neck and a fur hat on her head. She stayed there for no more than ten minutes before leaving me with the comment: "It is too cold and boring." How did she think I felt?
They seemed to know when I was approaching my water breaks, which was when I'd completed each layer of twenty five bricks, proving they must have been watching me on the cameras, because there was always someone waiting with the bottle. They were keen to get me working again as quickly as possible because they didn't want to have to monitor me too late into the night. I wanted to move as fast as possible also, to keep warm, and to finish early to get myself back inside my cell. The work was soul destroying and, in some ways, worse than being caned. They certainly knew how to dish out punishment in this prison.
Lunch time came and went, the afternoon dragged as I expected it would, and even the brightest time of the day didn't do much to raise the temperature or my spirits. As she'd already told me, Becky didn't show up to say 'goodbye', which didn't help my depressed mood; she was too intent on getting home to Josh. After my third meal break and after I was half way through my final hundred bricks of the day, I was surprised to see Elena come out to check on me. It was dark and cold and every muscle in my body ached.
"Hello, David," she said walking slowly alongside me as I struggled on.
I looked at her and nodded my head. I hoped she was going to tell me I'd done enough and she was going to take me back to my cell. I don't know why I still thought there was mercy in their cruel hearts, especially Elena, who had shown her true nature in getting me this punishment.
"I'm guarding you from 10pm each night up to the end of your work period." She was dressed in a thick fur coat with matching hat. I also noticed she wore long boots which disappeared beneath her coat around knee level. She had a scarf wrapped around her neck and thick gloves. Despite being so well clothed, she put her arms around herself and rubbed herself to keep warm. "It's freezing. Are those clothes keeping you warm enough in this temperature?"
"Not really, Madam Elena," I answered. "They only just keep me from freezing to death."
"The winters in Siskovia can be quite brutal," she replied, offering little to help me. "It'll be like this until the end of March, at least."
That didn't bode well. Even when not being given extra punishments, I still had to do two hundred bricks every five days, and my sentence wouldn't finish until the end of April.
"Oh, you haven't got so many left to do tonight, you've worked quite well. How's your sore bottom?"
"It was really bad this morning, but it's gone a bit numb now with the cold."
"I'm not surprised. So, I suppose having this hard work to do is a blessing." She laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry; only teasing."
I didn't bother replying.
Elena got me so muddled in my head; in many ways she was worse than all the other guards because she was so friendly. She didn't beat me and she didn't speak nastily to me, but she still caused me very severe sexual frustration, especially when she had made me give her oral sex on more than one occasion. She had studied psychology at university and I was quite sure she used that to cause me, and probably other prisoners, mental suffering. She offered me her ear to listen to my problems, and shared her own with me, making me feel a little more like a human being. And yet she'd reported me, quite unjustly, resulting in me having to suffer this punishment. I didn't want to show too much anger towards her, because I didn't want to lose that contact I had with her. I hoped she was still a link to the outside world and Cassie, the girl from back home who I shared the occasional email. But, with Elena's psychology training, she was probably fully aware of that. She was 'good cop, bad cop' all wrapped up in one person.
"I'm not sure I can stay out here with you until you finish, I'm just too damn cold. I've been inside in the warmth since two this afternoon studying the footage over the last few days of the cells; there's three of you in the basement at the moment. I might have spotted one of the others having a sly wank lying on his stomach. It'd be his first caning if I decide to report him and he's only been here three weeks. Do you think I should be lenient and turn a blind eye?"
"You didn't turn a blind eye to me even though I ... you know what I do for you ... and you knew I was innocent," I replied, riskily. "But you still reported me, and look at what I'm doing now."
"You're different."
What did she mean by that? I looked at her.
"I told you why I reported you. You said you'd still sexually gratify me even if I did report you for a caning. You turned me on when you said that, and I had to find out if it was true. It all fitted in so nicely with me having to do something unfair to a prisoner to prove myself to Madam Popescu."
It wasn't exactly what I'd said, or at least I didn't mean it to sound like that, but it was no use arguing the point. "It's up to you how you feel about him, and if you want to get him caned or not."
"He's an older guy, and similar to you, he couldn't pay off his debt to Madam Popescu. He only came to Casavana last week."
"How long has he got here?" I asked, interested to compare his sentence with mine.
"Six months, I think."
"I don't suppose you know what he owes Madam Popescu?"
"About twenty thousand Euros."
"And he only got six months? I owe less than half that, much less if you count from when I tried to 'double or quits' it back, and I got nine months. And I've had two canings."
