Cat still hadn’t made her mind up about August’s invitation by noon on Friday. She desperately wanted to go, and was desperately worried about what might happen if she actually went.

She entered the dean’s atrium and was greeted by the formal and immaculate receptionist. Cat noticed red welts around both of her wrists, but she was otherwise the picture of reception perfection. Cat wondered why she wasn’t at the desk full time. Clearly she made the best impression of everyone who Cat had encountered at the desk so far.

The two women didn’t even exchange words before the room turned red, the alarm sounded, and the doors opened to welcome Cat into the dean’s study. Cat went inside to learn what she might be quizzed on this week.

The exam table hadn’t been revealed. There was nothing on the wall. The dean was seated, studious, at his desk.

“Have a seat, Catherine,” he nodded towards the chair across from his desk, but didn’t acknowledge her otherwise. She sat down and folded her hands in her lap. Waited.

And waited.

And waited a full five minutes (she watched the time tick by on the wall) before the dean looked up to greet her.

“What did you decide for tomorrow, Catherine?” He asked without preamble.

“About the bonfire, sir?” She clarified.

“Your invitation from Mr. Rogers, yes,” the dean corrected. “Your decision?”

Her mouth dropped open, but she didn’t say a word. She didn’t want to stumble over her words, but she truly didn’t know. Her mind was still completely divided.

The dean sighed, “What did you study in psychology this week, Catherine?”

She shrugged, “I suppose our lessons were all about the conflicted mind and anxiety and indecisiveness, sir.”

She realized with sudden clarity what her “lesson” in physical education was this week. Her decision. Oh god. Was this a test?!?

“Well, at least it sounds like you were paying enough attention in class to retain some knowledge,” he said sardonically. Cat blanched. ”I’m not sure why such a kind and, I would think, appealing proposition from America’s most desirable young bachelor would put you in such a conundrum, Catherine.”

“I don’t want to get into trouble, sir,” she said, looking down at her hands. She might be embarrassed - even a little ashamed - to admit it, but it was the truth.

“Well, if it’s your desire to go, you know that we will take every precaution to ensure you do not end up in any trouble. I know your roommate, Maxine, is certainly hoping that you will accept Mr. Rogers invitation.”

She was?! Max hadn’t said a word about it to her all week, other than when they had initially left this study together a couple of days prior.

“What sort of precautions?” She dared to ask.

The dean smiled, “Well. The belt. Obviously. I already installed Maxine back in hers this morning.”

Cat was sure her roommate would be delighted with that. She had spent the past week free of it for reasons she wouldn’t divulge. She hadn’t seemed very happy about it, which confused and troubled Cat.

“Is that all, sir?” She asked. She supposed that she could wear the chastity belt for a weekend if it meant that she could potentially go out and have a little bit of fun. She was surprised it was an option considering how dramatically the dean had reacted when he took her out of the last one.

“Well, I will also need to communicate with St. Joseph’s to make sure that certain precautions are also taken with the young men who plan to attend. Again. If you do indeed choose to accept Mr. Rogers’ offer.”

Cat sat silent for the span of a minute weighing her options. She tried not to look directly at the dean as she did, since she couldn’t shake the unease from his very pointed and direct stare as her mind raced.

Finally, “Ok, I will accept.”

The dean clapped his hands together and smiled broadly. “Fantastic!” He stood up and went to the milky green wall sconce and pulled to transform the room. Cat willed her heart rate to stay even as the exam table turned into place. He was just going to put her back in the belt. Just the belt. She could handle that! She’d done it twice already (well, she had somehow slept through the first installment), it wasn’t like it caused her any pain. Other than that occasional sharp bite she’d gotten between her legs with the last one… Surely the dean had fixed that issue if he was offering to put her back in another one.

”Come on over,” he patted the table and she stood up to join him on the other side of the room.

She awkwardly stood in front of him, awaiting direction, and she watched as he reached into the drawer under the table and pulled out the chastity belt. He must have been expecting her to accept the invitation. She wondered what that might implicate.

“Panties off, Catherine,” he said cheerily as he arranged the belt in the drawer. “Hop on up.”

Wait. She had to get on the table? How would that work? Why wasn’t he just having her step into it like last time? She tentatively reached under her skirt and slipped the underwear down her legs. Sat up on the edge of the table nervously and crossed her legs together at the knee.

“Lay back and spread for me, please,” he said, just as cheerily as before. Fuck. No! She did not want another assessment!! She didn’t make any motion to move to her back and the dean quirked his brow at her, “Change your mind about accepting the invitation?”

She bit her lip, considering, and finally sighed dramatically and lay on her back. She bent her knees, placed her feet at either corner at the end of the table and spread her legs wide. Her heart thundered in her ears as she did so, but strangely, she didn’t feel as frightened by this as she had the last time she’d been ordered to do so. She was confident that the dean would only look. Probably.

As if reading her thoughts, she looked up to see him standing between her legs and he smiled as he looked at her most intimate areas in between and said, “Just a little touch, Catherine. To make sure I can allow you to attend.”

Wait. What?! No, no, no!! She barely flinched as she felt his touch against her vulva. Her breath caught in her throat as that touch got a little lower, a little closer to center, and she gasped as she felt his finger prodding - barely, delicately - at her vagina.

She visibly flinched as the pressure of his finger increased. Became painful. She quirked her hips to move away from the touch and in an instant his finger was gone and she felt a violent and sharp crack on her opposite knee. What the fuck?! Where had he retrieved the rod from?!?

“Have you been using tampons, Catherine?” He asked sternly.

“N…No, sir,” she squeaked. “I can’t figure out how to get them inside of me.”

“So you’ve attempted to use them?” He grilled.

”Sir… yes, sir. I’m… I’m sorry, sir?”

He sighed heavily and turned his back to her. Did something she couldn’t decipher or interpret, then turned back toward her again.

“I’d recommend you cease trying,” he said. “You can stand up, Catherine.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. She lifted herself back up and hopped off the table to stand in front of him again. The chastity belt was at her feet and she easily stepped into position. The dean lifted the belt up around her hips and locked it around her waist. Similar to the last time he’d adjusted and installed her belt, he allowed himself a slow and, frankly, lecherous, trailing of his hands down her front, down between her legs, and tried to push his fingers past the barrier.

“Impenetrable,” he said, satisfied. “You may return to the desk to write Mr. Rogers a letter in reply accepting his invitation. I will personally see that it’s delivered to St. Joseph’s this afternoon. I need to head upstairs to the laboratory to check on something. Wait until my return before you go.”

“Yes, sir.” She returned to his desk where pen and paper were sitting out, waiting for her. She hadn’t noticed it when she’d come in. Had it been there all along?

::::

Cat and Max stepped outside their house and walked up to the waiting patron and car out front. The dean insisted on the patron driving them to the bonfire. No exceptions. They hadn’t been allowed to dress in anything other than their standard uniform - much to Max’s chagrin. Neither of the girls had actually thought anyone would let them leave campus in their casual dorm-room-only clothes, but Max had hoped to re-wear the dress that she’d worn to the mixer. She had made a bizarre comment about wanting to actually wear it out. Hadn’t she worn it the night of the mixer?!

The girls piled into the backseat of the car and the doors automatically locked them in the vehicle as soon as they were closed. That was…suspicious.

The drive was longer than either of them had expected. They couldn’t imagine that St. Joseph’s was more than a mile away, and yet the route the road took them was winding, endless, and it took them a full half hour to make it from their front door to the gates of the men’s college.

Cat immediately noted that the men’s college, though gated and accessible only with a code, was not guarded by armed men. The campus and buildings rose invitingly over the gates and fence surrounding the perimeter. It didn’t quite seem like the impenetrable fortress that Cat now regarded St. Mary’s to be.

Their patron punched in a code next to the gate, it slowly opened, and they drove up the short drive to a circular courtyard buffeted by towering buildings and a clock tower that must have risen at least twenty stories into the sky. The men’s campus was as isolated and deserted as St. Mary’s. From a tunnel between the buildings to the south, a golf cart came out into the courtyard and stopped next to the vehicle the girls were in.

“Oh my god, the dean is here?!?” Cat gasped, horrified as she watched the man in the cart approach the car.

“That's the St. Joseph dean,” Max said nonchalant. “I think they're twins.”

Holy shit there were TWO of them?! Cat shrunk into her seat in the car wishing she'd made a different choice. Wishing she and Max were back in their room. How was Max so…chill?!?

The identical dean opened the back door closest to Cat and extended a hand into the vehicle in welcome. Cat shrunk back further, but Max clamored over her, took the man's hand and allowed him to pull her out onto the open air.

Cat was gobsmacked. But when the man extended his hand back into the car, she took it and allowed him to pull her out into the open courtyard as well. She figured if Max felt that it was safe, surely it must be?

“Ladies,” he sounded exactly like their dean. Cat could have easily believed they were cloned from one another. “Welcome to St. Joseph's. It's been a while since we've welcomed two St. Mary's ladies onto campus. I'm glad you could both make the trip over.”

He looked the same, sounded the same, but he seemed…friendlier? Maybe more affable and approachable? It confused Cat.

“Where we going?” Max asked, looking around curiously.

“Hop in the cart, I'll take you both out to the clearing. Most of the young men have already gathered,” he directed, kindly. The two girls stepped into the back of the cart and sat down. Cat felt uneasy as the other dean took his seat at the wheel and sped off at a pace that seemed way too fast for a golf cart.

They drove deep into a dark cover of trees, down a dirt trail. In a way it reminded Cat of fall hayrides, just, different. On the other hand, the woods were dark and creepy. A glow appeared ahead and as the cart slowed, the glow became a blazing inferno in the middle of a clearing. Max whooped loudly. Cat wanted to run away.

There had to have been at least thirty, maybe fifty?, young men gathered in the clearing. It was rowdy for not having alcohol. Max waved flirtatiously at a particularly athletic looking football player and he literally passed out on the spot. That was SO weird. There had to be alcohol here somewhere. There was a strange hum about the circle. It was the most men her age that Cat had been around, maybe ever.

August stepped out of the circle to greet the girls and…swoon. Cat actually swayed on her feet.

“Hey, glad you could make it,” he greeted cheerfully. His smile was dazzling.

“Hey. Yeah. Is this…are we…this is a lot more guys than I was expecting for some reason,” Max answered.

August laughed, “yeah. Word got out. I can't avoid my own celebrity which is pretty annoying.”

Cat considered this. She had to imagine it was true. She was recognized often enough by total strangers. Would she and Max have had amazing parties if they'd gone to a normal school?!

“You're totally safe, by the way, there's feds all over the woods right now. Not to mention a couple patrons. If they so much as see one of these guys touch one of you, they're getting whipped over the bonfire.” He swallowed hard. Lowered his voice. “That's what everyone keeps saying is going to happen and I kinda believe it.”

Cat immediately believed it. No question. She didn't rule out her or Max being included in the punishment. Max laughed and Cat looked at her incredulously. Max surveyed the crowd at the bonfire. Clearly zeroed in on at least three someones in the melee of the night.

“This should be fun,” she smirked. What was up with Max tonight?!

From somewhere on the opposite side of the inferno there was a screaming, loud, “MAXINE MARKS” and it was as if the entire scene froze for a moment. Cat heard ringing in her ears.

Max laughed. Again. Loudly. And screamed back, “JACKSON! FUCKER!” and the entire melee erupted into chaos.

“Who the…” Cat made to ask Max, but they were swept apart. August ducking to the left with Cat, Max getting swept up in a crush of male bodies to the right. Who was Jackson?!

August pulled Cat to the very outskirts of the circle. The two of them ducked under a cover of trees, large boughs of a nearby pine swaying overhead. August wrapped her in his arms. Cat melted into his embrace. Ugh. He smelled SO good. She wanted to sink her fists into his sexy wool sweater and just take a great big sniff of him. How come the boys looked so good in their uniforms?!

There was a loud whoop and cry of hysterical laughter from somewhere by the fire. It was definitely female. Could have only been Max. Who the hell was Jackson?!

As if reading her mind, or her confusion, August offered, “Jackson rode dressage the year Max won the gold.” Oh shit. They knew each other from the Olympics?! “Rumor had it that, well, Olympic village…”

Cat shrugged. What about the Olympic village?

“They fucked, Cat,” August laid it out plain and simple. Cat was aghast. Max was a virgin. She had to be. To comprehend otherwise was impossible. Had Max lied to her?!

“No way.”

“Well. That was the rumor. Who knows if it's true. The Olympics are crazy. You should go sometime. Do you get to do shit like that being…” he waved his hand around in front of her.

“I didn't think my dad would go for it,” Cat shrugged. “I'm not really into sports.”

August laughed, “Oh, Kitty Cat. I'll take you to the Olympics some day. Winter or summer. Your choice. We'll have a great time.”

She stared at him, agape. What…what was happening right now? Was August Rogers seriously INTO her?!

They both whipped towards the bonfire when they heard a blood curdling shriek. It didn’t sound like Max. A second scream followed. Also masculine. And then the sound of something heavy hitting flesh. Another followed. And another. And another.

“Max,” Cat gasped, torn whether she should turn around and flee into the woods or run into the melee to retrieve Max.

“Someone touched her,” August paled. The sounds of punches being thrown, another shriek. Another. Another punch.

Max’s voice rang through the air, “RUN!”

Cat didn't need to hear it twice. She tore off into the woods like a frightened bunny. Pine boughs whipped at her face. Thorny brambles tangled around her bare shins and knees as she stumbled through the thick brush trying to find a path.

She went as fast as she could, but she could only make it so far through the thick vegetation. A low hanging branch on a nearby tree sprang out from under her push as she passed and it whipped her, painfully, across the neck. She cried out and stopped. No one was following her. How could anyone be? She looked around her surroundings. She was lost. Completely. She looked up at the sky above, she knew a bit about constellations and the cardinal directions, but the sky was completely blocked by dense foliage.

She heard a whistle to her right. Far off, but carried on the wind. She knew that whistle. That was definitely Max. She whistled back. The whistle echoed hers twice.

Relief. Max was safe then. Probably. Or she needed help. But she was over there. Cat was over here. She tried to trudge in the direction she'd heard the whistle but she was stopped short by the massive trunk and branches of a fallen tree. She picked her way around the tree, she felt like she had basically backtracked to where she had started. She stepped up onto a boulder and her heart catapulted down into the ravine she suddenly found herself at the edge of. She shrieked in surprise and the sound echoed endlessly down the black cavern. Her heart pounded and her knees went weak under her. She heard a whistle. Max had heard her then. She whistled back to indicate she was ok. She hadn't accidentally fallen to her infinite death.

Where was Max? She sounded so much closer and there was no way that they could have covered enough distance to get that close to one other already. She heard another whistle echo down the ravine and the flash of a light, somewhere about ten feet down from the ledge. The route there though…impossible! How could Cat possibly traverse the edge of a ravine, in the dark of night, in the most oppressive forest she'd ever set foot in.

She tiptoed carefully around the ledge she was on and as she squinted in the direction that she'd heard the whistle, there was the faintest hint of a foot path, leading along the ledge and the trees that overhung the precipice. She took it carefully, but efficiently and whistled softly as she got to the ledge where she had seen the beam of light.

“Cat!” The whisper echoed in the dark.

“Max! Where are you!?” Cat whispered back blindly.

“You're going to have to drop, ok, Cat? It's not very far. I'll cushion your fall if you need, I promise.”

That didn't sound at all promising. She tiptoed until she thought she was above Max’s voice and dropped to the ground, crawling to the edge on her hands and knees.

“What the fuck, Max?” Cat hissed down at her friend. At least she’d pinpointed her location well enough.

“Trust me. Just please, please trust me, Cat,” Max pleaded. “There’s a tree to your left. There’s a branch there that’s already hanging down. You’re going to want to lower yourself down here using that. ONLY that branch, Cat…” Cat tentatively reached down for a thick, twisted branch of something that hung about five feet down the cliff face. “That one. Cat. It’s super scary, but I promise, just hold on tight, lower yourself using your feet for balance, I’m right here, ok?”

“Can’t we just go back…” Cat was already wrapping her legs around the branch, sliding down on her belly to ease herself over the edge of nothingness.

“Sorry Catty Cat, I think it was a test. I’m not sure I passed this one, kiddo, but it was really, really worth it,” Max said quietly. What had she done?!?

Cat’s stomach lurched as she let herself go and she felt nothing but weightlessness underneath her. Oh god. This was, without a doubt, the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life.

“I’m never leaving our dormitory again,” she said as she scaled down the side of the rock face.

Max laughed, the sound echoed, “Oh come on. August totally has a crush on you. He thinks you're a total doll.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” She dangled precariously in the air. She couldn’t feel any solid ground under her toes but she had descended the branch as far as she could. ”Max?!”

A pair of arms wrapped around Cat’s waist and she shrieked.

“Oh, relax, it’s just me,” Max said, “Let go. They’ve gotta be close.”

Who had to be close?! Cat let go of the branch and made contact with the rock under her feet. Max disappeared into total blackness behind her and she almost shrieked again.

“Max?!?” She hissed into nothingness.

“Walk forward, dummy, not off the cliff,” she heard from the black and she took a step into a vast, black tunnel that was cool and damp.

“What the fuck, Max, where are we?” Cat asked. It was cavernous. How could Max have ever known it was here?!

“Catty Cat,” her friend stopped and Cat realized that they were standing at a wall. No. A doorway. She was glad it was dark, because her face was nothing less than horrified astonishment. She couldn’t close her mouth.

“Max, what the…”

”I know. Ok. I… there’s too much to explain. We need to leave and this is our only way out. Trust me. You did not go along with this plan willingly. You fell off the cliff edge…” At this, Cat felt an incredible burst of pain flood the entire front of her body as her best friend… Did she fucking body check her into the rock wall?! Cat didn’t even know what she’d done or where or how she could possibly be that strong. The back of her head pounded, throbbed, and she tasted blood in her mouth.

“What the FUCK?!” The curse echoed in the darkness.

“CAT,” the way she said it made Cat want to curl up and die on the floor. “This is a test. For ME. Not for you. Maybe for you, but we’re not taking your test any more. I’m sorry. I’m about to take you someplace that I don’t think you’re supposed to see. Maybe ever.”

“Max?”

“Don’t ask questions. I won’t tell you anything anyway. I’m doing this for you, for me, for us. You cannot, ever, and I mean, EVER, mention a word about this to anyone.”

Cat swallowed hard. Max pulled a keyfob out from under her blouse - it was strung on a long, gold chain that just caught in the light that lit up as Max swung the fob in front of lock. Something clicked, buzzed, and a door began to retract, a thin beam of light shining out from somewhere deep within.

“Max?”

“Catty Cat,” she indicated Cat enter first, “welcome to the All Saints sub basement tunnel network.”