This is the second part of the series "Collars". I suggest to read the first part in advance.

Yours sincerely

DutchDillan.

"Wine!" said Vanessa, raising her cup.

Catherine poured her another glass.

`Bitch' the slave girl thought to herself. She had not forgotten the humiliation of Vanessa's last visit.

Tiziana and her two guests, Vanessa and Sarah, had just laid down on their couches and started chatting.

"Well Tiziana, tell us, how are you doing?"

"Can't complain. Except one of my slaves ran away today. She was sent to the marketplace and hasn't come back yet. I'm having her looked for right now.

"Very annoying," said Vanessa. "We've had problems with that in our house, too. She must be caught, or the other slaves will see that there is a chance of escaping."

"Was she expensive?" asked Sarah.

"No, not worth five denarii. But pretty she is. But that's not my concern either. I don't want the whole city to get the impression that I'm incapable of retaining my slaves. Anyway, let's talk about something else."

"I've been thinking a lot lately," said Sarah. "You know, life can be so short... and I wanted to ask you what you think is the best way to spend your time in this world. What we're here for..."

"You want to know why I'm here?" asked Vanessa. "Well, to have fun. I want to drink wine and enjoy vacations on beaches and go to the hottest parties and flirt with men and let my husband buy me mansions and horses and furniture and slaves and clothes as much as I want. I want to see the games and the chariot races and the fights. What else is there to do?"

"And what will you do when you get old? Or get sick? Or you lose interest in these things?"

"Then I'll drink 'til I won't wake again..."

Sarah giggled.

"What do you want to do with your life?" Vanessa replied.

"I agree that one should enjoy life. I want to pursue the best in life, which is ultimately pleasure and enjoyment. But in my opinion, you can only do that if you find the right balance. Take this wine, for example: It's excellent and I enjoy every sip. But if I drank Tiziana's whole barrel now, she probably wouldn't be too pleased and I'd be lying in bed with a headache all day tomorrow. So I calculate my pleasure in such a way that I enjoy myself today and tomorrow too, and thus have maximum satisfaction..."

"Just so we're clear, you're welcome to drink my whole barrel, Sarah..." said Tiziana and everyone laughed.

"At the end of the day," Sarah continued, "I want to keep suffering at bay as much as possible, live contentedly and get the maximum amount of pleasure without going overboard and unbalancing my soul."

"And what about you, Tiziana?" asked Vanessa.

She grinned.

"I see things a little differently... You're both trying to avoid pain. I seek it out. It makes me stronger. Anything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger. As you know, I've been on the battlefield - and nowhere have I found greater satisfaction. Where nothing but your deeds have value. Where the strong prevail and the weak perish. Where there is nothing but the pure will to power. A game of highest stakes. Without compromise. The place where you overcome your enemy and yourself, which is the ultimate goal in life.

And I disagree with you if you want to remove everything bad from your life. For there to be mountains, there must also be valleys. I want to experience it all. Victories, defeats, love, hate, pain, lust, I want to weep with laughter and sorrow, I want to let it all flow into the lake of my soul and unite everything in me. And one day, when I meet my end on the battlefield, when I have finally found the one who overcomes me, I will look up to the sky with satisfaction and realize that my life was everything but mediocre..."

At that moment Mara, Tiziana's personal slave, stepped up to her mistress's couch, leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Really...? Very well. I'll take care of it later" she replied quietly.

Turning again to the two patricians: "I apologize, I didn't mean to be rude."

Vanessa and Sarah looked at her.

"Well, spill the beans, what's up?"

"Mara told me they caught the slave. I want to deal with her later."

"What are you going to do with her?" asked Vanessa.

"What do you think?"

Vanessa's face lit up.

"Oh please, let us watch."

"What are you talking about?" asked Sarah.

"Trust me, you won't regret it. Please Tiziana, please let us see."

"All right, all right. Mara, take the girl to the atrium. The mess won't be so bad on the marble floor."

The servant strode away.

Vanessa grinned at Sarah. Then the three ladies rose and strolled into the atrium. Catherine followed them with a tray in her hand on which she carried the drinks.

*****

The moon shone through the roof opening. Its light was reflected in the shallow pool of water set into the floor in the center of the large room.

Mara came in with the trembling slave. She had grabbed the girl tightly by the arm. Her hands were tied behind her back with a simple rope. She wore a white tunic, brown leather sandals and the red strap around her neck. Catherine's eyes widened. Her heart grew heavy as lead.

"Julia..." she whispered.

Her red hair was tied in a ponytail. The slave's freckled face was as white as a sheet. Mara made her kneel at the feet of the three aristocrats. Her sky-blue eyes bounced wildly back and forth between the patricians.

"Tell me, slave, why do you throw your life away so carelessly?" said Tiziana.

"Mistress, please forgive me! I will never do it again! I swear it!"

"I know you will never do it again. But you didn't answer my question. Why did you run?"

"I can't stand it any longer! This thing around my neck. Take it off me. I beg you, take it off me!"

Tiziana pulled out the white remote.

"No! No, please!"

Vanessa's eyes lit up.

"Let me do it. I want to do it!" she said.

Catherine's skin broke out in goose bumps.

Tears streamed down Julia's cheeks. Panic-stricken, she looked around. Only now did she recognize Catherine, who was standing behind the three patricians. She looked into her friend's face.

"Help me..." she breathed.

The girl's eyes pierced directly into Catherine's soul. She could not bear the sight. She lowered her gaze.

Julia realized that she was alone. Abandoned by everyone. Lost.

Tiziana grinned as she turned a small wheel on the white box and finally handed it to Vanessa.

She took it greedily.

"It's the button at the top right..."

"What's that?" asked Sarah.

"Oh, just wait and see..."

Vanessa approached the trembling girl and stroked her hair and smiled down at the bound bundle at her feet.

"Please mistress! Please! I'll do whatever you want! Anything! But let me live! Please! Let me go! Please..." she whimpered.

The grin on Vanessa's face continued to grow. She ran her fingers gently over Julia's neck and over her collar and finally took a step back and stood between Tiziana and Sarah again.

Catherine closed her eyes and turned away.

The three aristocrats stared at the slave's neck with growing excitement.

Julia's heart was almost bursting. Trembling and dry-mouthed, she had to await her fate at the feet of the young women before her.

Vanessa pressed the button.

Immediately the slave felt a rapid thrill rush through her abdomen and up her spine all the way up to her skull and she writhed and clenched her bound hands into fists as her legs began to tremble and all her blood rushed into her vagina and her heart thundered faster and faster and a wave of heavenly euphoria raced through her body, driving her higher and higher until finally, at the peak of the first orgasm of Julia's life, the collar snapped shut.

The slave's head fell from her trembling body, eyes and mouth open, and a red fountain shot out of her severed neck while the headless body remained twitching on its knees for a few more moments, ejaculating red jets until it finally collapsed next to the water basin and continued to tremble as the straps of the harness still stimulated it.

She didn't hear it. Didn't hear her neck being severed. How her arteries spurted her hot blood. How Sarah let out a sharp cry in shock. All she was aware of was how she slid weightlessly through the air while still riding her orgasm.

Muffled, she felt herself hit the ground and saw the world tumbling until she finally came to a halt in front of a pair of feet in leather sandals. She stared at the brown straps that wound from the toes to the ankles. She still felt her body, her bare knees on the cold marble, her wrists in the tight rope, the soft fabric of her tunic against her sweaty body and, more than anything, the divine feeling of the unending orgasm. She tried to spread her fingers. They did not move. The feeling didn't stop. She tried to move her tongue. It lay motionless in her mouth. The tickle between her legs almost drove her mad and yet it was the highest feeling she ever felt. Thinking about nothing but her phantom orgasm Julia left this world.

Vanessa looked down at the head at her feet. She had no idea what was going on in the slave's beautiful head as it slowly dozed off into the afterlife.

She could no longer control herself and grabbed her vagina. Wet. She was trembling with excitement.

Tiziana saw the white strings stretching between Vanessa's fingers as she pulled her hand forth again.

Then she looked at Sarah. She grinned when she saw that the patrician was holding her hands in front of her mouth in shock. At last, the three girls went back into the triclinium without a word.

Catherine stayed. She stared at Julia's decapitated body. It lay still.

Blood continued to trickle from her open neck and seep into the pool as red clouds formed in the water.