Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Michael was married to Clarisse for five wonderful years until that fateful weekend when she sat him down and told him that she wanted a divorce.  He never saw it coming.  Clarisse was smart, beautiful and sexy, everything a man could want.  Their sex life was good, or at least, he thought it was, although the longer they were married, the more sporadic sex had become.  Michael didn’t think that was a bad thing because each time they made love it was as if it was the first time, and he always made sure that Clarisse was satisfied, even if he had to use his hand or mouth to give her the pleasure she deserved.  He was a considerate and gentle lover.

He never got a satisfactory answer from Clarisse as to what was wrong with their marriage.  It was always she wanted something new and different that she couldn’t get from Michael.  She used the time-honored answer, “it’s not you, it’s me.”  He tried to get her to go to counseling, but she refused.  She was adamant with her decision, she moved out in a month, and they were divorced within a year.

It was two months after the divorce when Michael found it.  He got rid of most of their shared memories.  He found it in a closet on the top shelf where he’d forgotten all about it.  It was Clarisse’s computer, her personal one, not her work one.  She used it for searches, to store recipes and other things around the house.  He rarely used it while they were married as Michael had his own.  He plugged the laptop in and waited as it started up.  He’d clean the hard drive and then donate it to the local high school.  It would take a couple of hours, but the computer wasn’t that outdated, especially for the local high school.

He began to look through the directories to see if there was anything important that he should save when he saw it.  The directory had a strange name, and he almost passed it by.  Submission.  Clarisse had done some writing in college, and he thought that maybe she continued while they were married and this directory was stories that she submitted for publication.  He thought he knew everything about her, but when she asked for a divorce, he obviously didn’t know enough to stop the most important thing from falling apart.  Out of curiosity, he opened the folder.  He should’ve looked at the size of the folder.  There were a dozen subfolders, and each was split between pictures, movies and other.  The subfolders were more telling.  Male domination, Femdom, bondage, S&M, age play, spanking, anal, oral, multiple partners, non-consensual sex and water sports.  This shocked him, but that didn’t stop him from beginning to go through the folders.

He started with bondage, not sure why, but it caught his attention.  He looked through the pictures section, and it was filled with what had to be a thousand pictures of just about every variation of bondage that he never saw before.  He grabbed a beer and got more comfortable in the chair as he started to go through each picture.  Clarisse must have spent a lot of time collecting the pictures.  They were actual pictures, anime, artwork and even gifs.  Most were of women, naked, spread and bound in the most revealing pictures.  Nothing was able to escape the camera.  Every intimate detail of the women’s bodies was exposed.  The women were posed in the most provocative positions and bound stringently.  Michael never saw a woman exposed in such a manner.  What they were bound to was just as erotic.  There were all kinds of furniture if you could even call it that.  Bound standing up or lying down, with legs spread, face up or face down, limbs were spread so wide that it had to be painful.  He couldn’t even get through all of the pictures before he had to go to the videos.  His cock was rock hard, and he knew he wouldn’t last much longer without getting satisfaction, but he knew that he’d be hard once again with ease.

The videos were much more than just bondage.  There were men and women in the videos, but the men weren’t the ones that were bound but the ones that lorded over the bound in threatening ways.  Many of them had whips and paddles in their hands, and it didn’t take long before their victims were subjected to the harsh treatment.  The sounds of instruments hitting soft, supple flesh rang out with the cries of despair from the victims.  The men that used the instruments had cocks that were big and rock hard, and the more they took to the flesh with their instruments, the harder and bigger they became.

He spent three hours racing from one video to another, fast forwarding through them as he began to stroke his cock.  He came when he couldn’t stop the orgasm from racing through his body as he watched a young woman bound face up on a giant wooden X of a frame.  Her legs were spread wide, so wide that her pink inner lips of her pussy were exposed.  Something beneath the small of her back forced her firm, young breasts to push up with nipples that were teased hard by the riding crop in the man’s hand.  Her head was unsupported, so it hung down, and the man pushed his crotch into her unprotected face as he lashed her body with the riding crop.  Michael couldn’t see her face very well, but the sound of her frantic cries as she mumbled was a sure sign that the man’s giant erection was forced into her mouth to breach her throat.  The riding crop visited the tender flesh between her legs, but Michael was surprised to see how wet she’d become.  Could she enjoy this harsh treatment at the hands of the unmerciful man?  He came just as the man did, imagining it was he that was in her hot mouth that demanded pleasure from her.

After seeing what was in the folder marked bondage, his imagination was sparked as to what was in the folder marked S&M.  He knew what that was, but if what he saw was only bondage, then S&M must be something beyond his comprehension.  As he opened up the folder, he found it to be true.  He went to the pictures first.  The movies took too long to see too many of them in a short time, yet they were too good to fast forward.  The pictures showed men and women bound in obscene positions, but they were also subjected to much more.  Breasts were bound and nipples pinched with metal clamps.  Firm, young breasts were misshapen by the tight bondage.  Pussies were subjected to the same—clamps lined the lips of a pussy to drag them open, and even the clitoris was trapped in the unyielding jaws of metal clamps.  Every orifice of a body was subjected to abuse.  Mouths were bound, gagged and stretched with strange devices, many shaped to resemble large cocks.  Noses were plugged or stretched open.  Pussies were stuffed with every manner of objects, from small to humongous-sized objects.  Some were shaped like cocks, but many had large bumps and ridges to stretch the elastic walls while others were oddly shaped to force the insides to stretch unnaturally.  But, Michael was intrigued when he saw what was done anally to the bound women.  Tiny anuses were stretched so far that Michael couldn’t understand how it could take such abuse without tearing.  Large objects and fake cocks were inserted, some over a foot long and thick as a soda can.  By the time he got to the videos, he’d cum once again, but he was still hard.  It was as if he was insatiable.

Michael was mesmerized by what he saw for eight hours before he finally put the computer away, but it would never see the inside of a high school.  Michael would open it too often.  As he looked further on the computer, he went through the favorites on the browser.  There he found hundreds of sites where Clarisse had downloaded the videos, pictures and information.  Over the next six months, Michael learned a lot, and it opened up a new world for him.  It didn’t take him long to figure out why Clarisse had divorced him for a new, exciting sex life.  He was too plain vanilla for her desires.  He was kind and gentle, but that wasn’t what she was looking for, and she probably feared that she couldn’t make him into someone that would do to her what she desired.

It was too late for him with Clarisse, but she was wrong on one fact.  He could change, and he wanted to.  She opened up the same world for him, but he’d be the one that dominated.  He hoped that he’d have the opportunity to test out all that he’d seen and read with the next women he met.  He wasn’t sure how exactly to do it though.  Much of what he saw required a consenting woman, but how do you broach the subject without doing it first and risking being branded a pervert?  That was his dilemma that he needed to solve.

* * * *

It was a year after he divorced that Michael took a flight from Portland, Oregon to Auckland, New Zealand that was long and boring, but Michael was excited nonetheless.  As soon as he landed, he’d board a ship for a two-week cruise in the South Pacific.  It was late January, and he wouldn’t miss the winter in Portland.  He’d have two weeks of balmy, sunny weather in the tropics.  He knew the ship wouldn’t be like the massive cruise ships that sailed around the world with thousands of people on board and every convenience available, always for a price.  His ship was the Skeffington, a small freighter fitted for island hopping.  Total number of passengers would be thirty.  It’d saved him thousands of dollars and kept him away from the large tourist islands.  He’d get to see small islands and mingle with the people that lived there.  It was his first vacation since he was divorced a year ago, and he intended to enjoy his freedom.

The Skeffington was everything Michael expected and less.  It looked like a World War II relic and was held together with rust.  The paint was chipped, but the wood railings looked as though they were polished the day before.  In spite of its disrepair, it looked like a luxury liner compared to the small, old container ships that dotted the dock.  But, he wouldn’t be brought down by this minor setback.  The weather was gorgeous, and it would only get better.  They wouldn’t spend much time on the ship, more time on the islands and their beaches.  He marched up the gangplank with his luggage and was met at the top by the steward.

“You must be Michael.  Permission to come aboard granted,” he said cheerfully.  It was his job to make sure that the customers were happy, and he was good at it.  It took a bit at the beginning of each cruise when they first saw the ship, but once they got underway and landed on the first island, it grew much easier and enjoyable.  “I’m Stuart, the steward,” he always joked.  “Anything you want or need, talk to me.”

The ship looked a bit more presentable once he got onboard.  At least it was clean.  Stuart took him below deck to his cabin.  He wasn’t surprised that it was small, but it had everything a person could want, at least for the bare necessities.  It had its own bathroom if you could call it that.  It was so small that a person could touch all four walls at the same time.  He gave Stuart a tip to make sure that he’d help him if he needed anything.

“We get under way at three.  Dinner is served punctually at six.  Snacks are available on the main deck.  Enjoy your cruise.”  Stuart slipped the twenty in his pocket.  He was a good tipper, so he’d have to make sure Michael got what he wanted.

Michael quickly unpacked his bag or what he could.  The dresser was smaller than his bag.  He went back up on deck where he wouldn’t feel so claustrophobic.  It would take a few days to get used to his cabin.  He watched as the other passengers got on board and took in the sight of the harbor the rest of the time.  He loved the sun shining down on him.  It was an eclectic bunch of passengers of all ages.  There was one couple that had to be over eighty, yet they got up the plank with little trouble.  Half of the passengers were couples, but the rest were singles or doubles of the same gender, although they might also be couples.  He hoped that they were all friendly.  Cruise-ship tourists tended to be outgoing, that is why they crowded onto ships.

Mary and Leah boarded the ship, but it was Mary that said a prayer before she got on board.  “It’s not so bad, Mary.”  Leah was the adventurous one of the pair.  They were best friends since the beginning of college and stayed friends after graduation.  They both worked in Phoenix for small companies in their accounting office.  This was their vacation of the lifetime.  After the heat of the Phoenix summer, they set out for the South Pacific.  While the temperatures in Phoenix were manageable this time of the year, they would be on the ocean and beaches for two weeks, something that Phoenix would never have.

Michael looked at the two women.  They looked so different.  One was shorter than the other by at least six inches if not seven or eight.  Both were attractive, but Michael’s eyes were drawn to the smaller one.  She had a lovely body but not overly big for her slim frame.  Her tits were perky and her ass tight.  Michael could tell she was the introvert of the two.  The other woman talked incessantly to Stuart, while the smaller one’s head hung down as if she didn’t want to look up at him.  The taller one had blonde hair with long legs that were highlighted by the shorts she wore.  Michael wondered if they were a couple.

Michael had to hold back a laugh when he saw the next couple get onboard.  She was definitely the boss of the marriage.  He brought up the rear, carrying the baggage, and he was always ten steps behind her.  They were in their thirties.  The wife was a gorgeous woman, and she knew it, although her husband was also handsome.  It was as though she had all the confidence and he had none.  Or there might be something more to it than that.

“Hurry up, Maurice.”  Samantha was already talking to Stuart by the time Maurice got up the gangplank.  “We’re here for relaxation.  I work hard and need some time off.  I don’t like large cruise ships where they try to manage your time and experience,” she told the steward.  She was a CEO of a small company and liked being in charge.  Maurice was her CFO and husband of ten years.  He knew his place at work and at home.  That was what made their marriage work.  His ambitions were limited to what she allowed.

“Do you need some help?”  Stuart asked Maurice.

“No, I got it.”  He followed up the rear as the steward took them to their cabin.  It wasn’t much, but it was the largest one the ship had.  It was confining, but Samantha liked Maurice confined in more than one way.

Michael enjoyed watching the people that got onboard.  He never went back to his cabin, content to stay on deck and breathe the salt air.  It was finally time for the ship to depart.  The engines started and huffed out black smoke initially.  The gangplank was pulled back and the ropes untied from the moorings.  A tugboat began to pull the ship away from the dock and into the channel.  It was only a few minutes before he could feel the vibrations on the railings as the propellers began to turn.  The ship shuddered for a few moments, and then, it slowly began to pick up speed.  The tugboat pulled away as the ship began to push out a small wake.  The smell of diesel fuel filled the air until they picked up enough speed to leave the exhaust behind.  It wasn’t long before they cleared the channel and the ship was in the open ocean.  The rhythmic sound of the ship made him feel more comfortable as if it began to get in harmony with the ocean.

Michael went below to find the galley.  It wasn’t a large room, but it had four tables to fit all of the guests.  Many of them were already there, and the rest of them joined him as he went below.  The seating was assigned, so he found his name place card and sat down.  He was glad that it was the two young women that he saw board that was next to him.  They might prove interesting.  He sat down and turned to the taller one and noticed her name place card.  “I’m, Michael, Leah.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Michael.  This is Mary.”  Leah looked at him.  He was handsome in an older man sort of way.  He had to be forty, although she wouldn’t ask.  His brown hair was long and thin, but it was plentiful.  He had a strong face about him along with sexy blue eyes and an infectious smile.  He looked like he was in good shape.  She looked down, saw no ring on his finger, and he looked as though he traveled alone.  There was an older woman on the other side, and he didn’t introduce her to them, so he didn’t know her.

He began to talk to them as they served dinner.  He was surprised the food was so good, not what he expected, but he was grateful.  He learned that the two of them were roommates and nothing more as far as he could tell.  Leah did most of the talking, and it took Michael to draw Mary into the conversation.  Leah was exhausting to talk to, and he was glad for the chance to talk to Mary.

* * * *

The cruise was more than Michael expected.  They didn’t go to the large islands where the massive cruise ships stopped, so they missed the large crowds.  They stopped at small islands where canoes rowed out to the anchored ship and took the people ashore.  The towns were quaint and laid-back, but they enjoyed fine local food and friendly service at bargain prices.  They never spent more than two days on one island, with most of them only one.  Some were so small that they could almost see the whole island in one day.

A lot of the time was spent lying on the beach in the warm sun, swimming, snorkeling or scuba diving in the warm, crystal-clear water.  Many of the people on the cruise were couples, male and female couples, so Michael found himself in the company of Leah and Mary.  They didn’t seem to mind, and he suspected that Leah encouraged it when she saw the way Mary seemed to open up to him, although he didn’t see it the way Leah did.  Mary was still shy, and it took two days before Michael could even absently touch her arm without making her jump.  Mary got a rise out of him when he saw her lovely body in a bikini.  He was sure that Leah made her buy it, but Michael was glad.  It had been a long time that a woman had made him hard like this, a year since his wife divorced him.

It was the seventh day of the cruise that it happened unexpectedly.  The water was calm as the ship cut through it like a knife through butter.  It was smooth sailing to their next destination.  It was to one of the furthest islands before the ship would turn around and head back to different islands before it berthed in Auckland.

Samantha and Maurice were in their cabin early that night for a special reason.  It was time for Maurice to give Samantha her pleasure.  It started off as usual.  Samantha wore a sexy negligee, naked beneath it, but the transparent garment did little to hide her assets.  Maurice stood in the center of the room still dressed as he waited for permission.  Samantha had her trusty riding crop in her hand and her small bag of toys and restraints nearby.  “Tease me, Maurice.  Undress,” she encouraged him.

Their relationship would be strange to many but not to him.  He got as much enjoyment out of it as she did, sometimes more.  It was something that he couldn’t explain or he would try to explain.  He slowly took his clothes off, and as he drew his shorts down, he stroked his erection.  At her command, he spread his legs, and it wasn’t long before he felt the riding crop visit his cock and balls, each time with more severity.  When he was rock hard, Samantha tied him up as she always did.  First, it was his balls.  She captured them in the tightest space with the rawhide until they were swollen and compressed, vulnerable to the slightest touch of her hand or the crop.  Then, his cock was bound as the rawhide captured it beneath the thick head until the red head swelled up until it almost turned purple.  He was ready as she took off her negligee and lay on the bed with her legs spread wide.

With the two pieces of rawhide in her hand to guide Maurice, his mouth and hands were between her legs.  He went to work on her, and she kept him hard and wanting by yanking the rawhide to make his cock and balls dance for her.  He took his time with her as she liked.  It was over a half hour before she came explosively and the riding crop worked over his cock and balls to inspire her lust.  Only when she was satisfied completely did he get his pleasure from her.  She took the rawhide off his cock and balls, but it was her hands that took possession of him sternly.  Her fingers chased his testicles until she had them trapped and then squeezed them unmercifully, but her other hand stroked his cock.  She made sure that her long, pointed fingernails drew blood from his cock as she stroked him, and she paid special to the smooth head of his cock and the tender flesh beneath the ridge.

His balls ached from denial for so long as she worked over his cock and balls.  She knew how to take him from pleasure to pain without losing his arousal.  Over the years it only increased his arousal, yet he never knew what she might do next, his cock and balls always at her whim to torment or pleasure.  Finally, he was allowed the privilege of cumming as he stroked his cock to his final ejaculation.  Samantha used the riding crop to inspire his lust, and not even when she struck his swollen balls could dull the pleasure or his final outcome.  He shot his cum far across the small room five times before his balls were drained.

She kissed him as he got into bed, but she put a robe on.  “I’m going on the deck.  I’ll be back soon.”  She didn’t ask him to come with her.  She wanted to be alone.  She always did after they both got their pleasure.  She was alone on the deck as she gazed out into the moonlit water.  It wasn’t too rough.

Mary managed to squeeze out of the small bunk without waking Leah.  They never felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same bed, they’d done it on and off for over six years now.  Mary couldn’t sleep, not sure why as she usually did.  She put on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt to go on deck.  She saw the other woman in the front of the ship, so Mary went to the other side.  It was Samantha, a very pushy woman, not only to Mary, but also to her husband.  She had no desire to have a conversation with her now or ever.  Mary loved looking out at the water, a sight that wasn’t found in the desert of Phoenix.

Michael woke up with a start.  Something made him uneasy, although he couldn’t figure out what it was.  He never felt this way before, and it scared him.  It wasn’t as though the sea was rough and the ship rocked.  It was like any other day or night.  He got dressed, not sure why, but since he was up, he’d go up to the deck.  Maybe that would calm his nerves.  He just made his way to the deck when the world below his feet seemed surreal.  If you were ever in an earthquake, you find the ground moving beneath your feet very unnerving, to put it mildly.  All of your sound judgment that the earth beneath your feet was sturdy and invincible was suddenly thrown from rational thought.  Michael felt the same way as it felt as though the ship was turning completely on its side.  When he looked at the water, he found out that it wasn’t untruthful.  He could see the other side of the ship, and it was the deck that was almost over his head now.  He got one glimpse of the water being sucked up from beneath the ship for no apparent reason.  That is when he lost his balance as the ship came crashing down on top of him.  Nothing could stop his fall.  He cried out, but the sound of the ship coming apart made it indiscernible to anything else.  He hit the water with such force that it knocked the air from his lungs, but that was the least of his problems.  His body was tossed around like a rag doll, the current so powerful that he could do nothing but go with it and hope he’d survive.  It was as if his body was a surfboard that rode the water, Michael doing everything to keep his head above water.  The moon was bright, but everything around him was in such disarray that nothing seemed rational.  He looked back for a second and saw the ship upside down, the propeller still turning, but it cut through the air now.  Ahead of him, he saw a giant wave pass that had to be hundreds of feet high.  He didn’t know how he missed it or survived it, but his arms were busy flailing at the water to try to stay afloat.  It was only minutes later that the wave was out of sight and the water was calm.  When he looked behind him, the ship was gone, but the water was littered with the remains of the ship.  He swam frantically to something large that floated nearby.  He grabbed onto it, not strong enough to pull him up on it.  His lungs still struggled to replace the air that was pushed out.  He was thankful the water was warm as he gripped the object hard to keep him afloat.

The captain saw it on radar, but it took a while for him to contemplate its consequences.  He was in too much of shock after seeing the huge mushroom fireball break the horizon in the distance.  By the time he figured it was a rogue wave, he could only turn the ship so much before the wave hit.  It still hit it broadside.  The steering cabin was crushed beneath the power of the wave in seconds, and he felt nothing.

Samantha felt the ship listing as it tried to turn, but it was the blackness on the horizon that mesmerized her until it was almost too late.  It was strange because just seconds before a giant ball of fire rose up from the horizon until it was swallowed up by the strange blackness.  She was thrown to the other side of the ship as it began to grow upended.  She could hear the humongous wave suck up all the water in front of it as well as the ship.  She was tossed into the water, and somehow the ship cushioned her from the wave for the briefest of seconds, but that was all that was needed for the fast-moving wave.  Luckily, she’s a good swimmer as her arms plunged into the water.  She swallowed a gallon of water before she could get her head above water, and she swam desperately away from the ship that was now upside down but sinking quickly into the water.  She knew enough from the horror movies of sinking ships that it could suck her down into the water unless she could get away from it.  She used all her energy to do it.  She soon found the water calm once again, but it was littered with floating debris.  She swam to a large piece of wood and clung to it as she struggled to find reason in all that had happened.

Mary saw the fireball in the sky, and she’d seen enough films of the atomic bomb tests in Nevada and New Mexico to know what it was.  They also tested them in the Pacific, but she thought they’d been banned since then.  She ran over to the railing to grab it, but she never thought of a tsunami wave until it was on her.  She began a prayer, but it was cut short as she was tossed into the ocean like a doll.  Little did she know that the ship was on its side, so she only fell two feet before she hit the water, but she was instantly sucked beneath the water.  Her arms fought to swim under the water as she held her breath as long as she could.  Her eardrums were assaulted with the sounds of ripping steel as the ship was torn apart.  She finally bobbed to the surface as she spit up all the water she’d drunk.  She looked around, but the ship was gone, but the water was covered in broken parts of the ship.  She feared that she’d see floating dead bodies, especially Leah’s.  She couldn’t have survived the ship going down so fast.  Mary found a large section of the ship and clung to it as she tried to comprehend her situation.

It was the longest night Michael ever lived through.  His spirits brightened when the sun finally came up over the horizon and gradually lit up the water around him.  The water was depressing with parts of the ships still floating around, but his hopes that others might have survived were bolstered by the lack of bodies.  He climbed on the floating piece of wreckage, something made of wood.  He could feel the sun begin to beat down on him.  He looked far into the distance, and he hoped it wasn’t a mirage.  It looked like land, although not very big.  It was covered in green vegetation with a small ridge on the top of it.  He could see the water breaking on the rocks before the beach.  It was treacherous enough that it could throw him hard against a rock and kill him.  He’d have to jump off the raft he was on and swim for the shore if he was to survive.  It had taken almost an hour before he was close enough.  Just before the waves started to crash onto the rocks, he jumped into the water.  He kept his head above water as he swam uncontrollably for the waiting white sands.

He crawled the last couple of yards to reach the beach, his body exhausted, but he’d survived.  The wreckage of the ship started to wash ashore, but most of it was battered by the rocks.  He lay there as he tried to get his strength back.

A thousand yards down the beach from where Michael came ashore, Mary struggled to hold onto the wreckage as she managed to go through the rocks.  She wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to do it by herself, but she kicked with her feet as she held the wooden platform to try to steer it around the massive rocks that littered the water.  The waves were big as she was propelled urgently toward the rocks and beach.  The platform crashed on the rocks, but Mary pushed aside in the nick of time.  Luckily, she was close enough to the sand as she struggled to swim the last of the ordeal.  She finally felt the sand beneath her body, and she crawled to the dry sand.

Samantha was the last one to hit the beach, but she saw no one else.  As she climbed onto the sand, she saw footprints that went to the edge of the beach and into the jungle.  At least someone had made it besides her.  She didn’t have much hope that Maurice made it.  She only made it by sheer luck.  If she weren't on the deck when the wave hit, she would’ve gone down with the ship.  It was like a tomb, swallowing up all that were in the bowels of the ship when it went over and sank within minutes.  No one could’ve escaped.  She never saw anyone else on the deck, but they’d be the only ones that had a chance.  At least she wouldn’t be alone.