Maria awoke with a start as a glimmer of sunlight flashed through a high stained-glass window and reflected on the wall outside the confession box. She was slumped heavily on her bonds and instantly felt a terrible pain in her wrists. Her hands were swollen and red and she eased herself up a little to try and relieve some of the pain.
"I see you are awake my child."
Father Thomas was standing behind her with Caleb by his side.
She could only turn her head slightly, her neck was stiff and her shoulders were sore with the strain of hanging all night on the tight cords around her wrists.
"Cut her down Caleb."
Caleb jumped forward and jabbed his staff towards Maria. Her eyes widened with fear as he stabbed the staff forward and, one by one, sliced through the cords at her wrists. As the first one gave way she slumped to one side then, as the other one was sliced through by the point of the staff, she dropped to the floor of the confession box in a heap.
"Bring her!"
Caleb pulled at her shoulders, grabbing and pinching her aching flesh. She winced in pain but slowly allowed herself to be lifted. She clung to the back of the confession box, hardly able to stand. Her eyes were wide with terror as she cowered in the shadows. Her bra hung loosely below her breasts and her white panties were pulled up tightly around her cunt. Caleb pinched the soft skin of her arms and coaxed her out.
Father Thomas walked ahead as Caleb dragged Maria down the aisle of the church. When she stumbled and grasped the sides of a pew to keep from falling, Caleb pinched her arms and drove her on with his sharp staff. When they got nearer to the altar, Caleb ran forward and unhitched the heavy rope that hung loosely in front of it. He prodded Maria with his staff and drove her through into the altar chapel then clipped the rope back onto its brass hooks and ran up behind Father Thomas.
Maria stood limply in front of the altar, her white panties pulled up into the crack of her cunt.
"Here!" ordered Father Thomas pointing to his feet. "Here!"
Maria moved forward slightly but was uncertain what he meant. Caleb ran forward and started prodding the backs of her legs with his staff. He urged her forward then poked her stingingly in the shoulders and drove her down onto her knees.
She knelt obediently in front of Father Thomas and Caleb crouched by her side, looking quizzically into her eyes.
"I have thought long and hard about your sin, my child. Your punishment will be long and arduous, there is no easy remedy for your terrible sins, you will have to suffer much humiliation before you can be cleansed of your wretchedness. You will have to learn complete obedience before you can even think of being saved."
Maria thought she was going to faint, she felt so thirsty and she had not eaten for ages. She began to heave with nausea and felt panicky at the thought of being sick with her mouth gagged by the tape. She looked away from Caleb as he pushed his face close to hers.
"Look at him!" shouted Father Thomas. He stared intensely into her tearful eyes. Then he reached towards her, grabbed the loose end of the tape and pulled it roughly until it started to unwind. As he ripped it away from the back of her head it pulled her hair and made her moan.
"I will now introduce you to the first instrument of obedience, my child. Come."
Father Thomas smiled, reached down and took her hand gently, then led her towards the altar.
"Bend over the altar and we will begin."
He let go of her hand and she bent obediently across the front of the altar. There seemed so much suffering to relieve her awful sins. She pressed her bare breasts down against the white cloth on the altar and looked at the large candlesticks that stood around her with their candles already renewed, flickering and bright.
"This is what will remind you of your obedience my child."
Something smacked down in front of her face and her eyes snapped shut with shock and fear.
"Do not turn away my child, look at the instrument of obedience."
She opened her eyes slowly and looked at the bamboo cane that was tapping on the altar.
"See how it flexes, my child. Is it not a beautiful instrument? Not too thick that it bruises too easily, and not too thin that it cuts too quickly."
Father Thomas lifted it slowly then brought it down with another terrible smack on the white cloth. The candles wavered as the air swirled in turmoil around them.
"Spread out your arms!"
She reached her arms forward and stretched them as far as she could. She turned her head so that her cheek was pressed against the altar cloth. She could see Father Thomas smiling down at her, twitching and flexing the cane in his long bony hand.
"White panties! White panties! White panties!"
"Yes, my little servant, it is time now."
Caleb bounded up behind her and pressed his face against her bottom, sniffing at her white panties and pressing his stubby nose into the soft crease they formed across the crack of her buttocks.
"Naughty, naughty, panties stained and yellow. Not white for Caleb. Stained and dirty. Naughty! Naughty! Naughty!"
"Oh dear," said Father Thomas, "already you are in need of punishment. You have not even started to get rid of your existing sins before you commit more."
"Naughty, naughty, naughty! Dirty little panties. Should be white. Should be clean. Caleb likes white panties, not dirty ones, stained by naughty, naughty girls."
"Get them off!"
Caleb drew his face away from her bottom and grabbed each side of her panties. He wrenched them down in one go. They ripped and pulled down to halfway down her thighs and she tightened her buttocks so that he could not see in between them.
Smack!
She tightened her buttocks even more as Caleb's hand smacked across them.
"I want to see!" he chanted. "I want to see!"
Smack!
"Stand back Caleb, she needs a taste of the cane. She needs to learn how to be its servant. She needs much training but the cane will soon become her master." He drew the cane up behind her. "This will be your introduction to the delights of your new master, the cane. Are you ready my child?"
Maria felt so exhausted, but she knew he was offering her salvation, a chance of forgiveness, and she wanted to be freed of her evil so could only assent.
"Yes," she murmured.
"Yes? I cannot hear you, speak up! Speak up you fucking bitch!"
"Yes," she said, trying to clear her throat at the same time.
"Good!"
She heard the cane starting to move upwards through the air. Then a pause, then she saw the candles starting to flicker as the draught caused their flames to bend and break, she felt the silence of a moment's anticipation.
Thwack!
She screamed louder than she thought was possible. It filled her with terror as she listened to her own shrieking filling the church and echoing around its ponderous columns. Tears flooded her eyes instantly and she stretched her hands forward in agony, her bottom felt aflame, she felt as if she had been sliced with a dagger.
Then she heard the sound of it moving through the air again, she saw the flames flicker and bend, then there was the moment of stillness, then she braced herself against the altar and started to scream even before it hit her.
Thwack!
Her scream rent the church and she howled like an animal. She could not bear it again, she could not stand the cutting pain across her bottom, he could not do it again, she would die, she knew she would. Then the noise again, the sound of the air being rent by the flailing of the cane, then the candles flickering in fear as it came down towards them, then the silence, this time longer, this time more deathly, this time filled with an eternity of fear and degradation.
Thwack!
This time she could not even scream, she did not have the strength, she just gasped in a noisy, throaty roar. The air was torn from her lungs and spit shot out with her exploding breath. She collapsed in agony and the church fell silent as her eyes misted over with a red haze.
She could not see anything even though her eyes were wide open. Then she felt Caleb tugging at her arms, she could not stir, she could not resist, then he was slapping her face but still she could not react, then he slapped her face very hard and she returned from her faint.
"No…"
"No? No? What do you fucking mean 'No'? 'Yes', that is the answer, 'yes'. You will say 'yes' until your master is exhausted, and even then you will beg him for more. 'Yes', that is all there is to say."
"No… Please… No…"
"You will beg him for more. 'Yes, please punish me more, do not stop," you will plead."
"Please… No…"
A cool waft of air breathed against her hot cheeks. She felt the skin on her face tingle as the draft from the rising cane heralded the pain that it held. She winced against it and tightened her muscles as she reached forward and grabbed the candlesticks. She watched their flames flickering and stretched out as tight as she could. Then the silence again; that dreadful moment of anticipation and terror. She waited in fear and gripped the cold metal of the candlesticks. Then she felt it coming again, the cane was splitting the air as it whipped down towards her inflamed buttocks. The flames bent sideways, trembling and shrinking away in fear, as it flew down towards her.
Thwack!
Again she could not cry out. Instead, a gasp burst from her mouth as her lungs emptied their breath in one heavy, bursting eruption. Her stomach flattened against the top of the altar and the candlesticks rocked in her hands, their flickering flames spilling hot wax down their shiny stems.
"Yes?"
"Please… No… Please… No…"
"Again then. The cane will be your master but he must know that you want him. He must know that you demand him and then he will stop. Only then will he draw back from the punishment."
She felt her body shaking. The candlesticks flickered in her trembling grip as hot wax spilled down and ran eagerly towards her hands. She wanted saving, but the pain was too great. She could not imagine how she could plead for more, it was impossible, she could only resist, she could only deny and she would never be saved. She wept loudly.
"Please… No more. Please… No more. I can't stand it. Please… No…"
She felt Caleb pulling at her legs, opening them wide and exposing her cunt. Cool air passed across her outer labia and she felt a dribble of sweat trickling down the inside of her legs. Then the candles flickered again and she buried her face against the altar cloth, gripping it between her teeth.
Her legs were wide apart and she knew she could not stand any more. Her buttocks were stinging from the lashing of the cane and she could feel hot candle wax running down onto her hands. It burned her and she wanted to let go of the candlesticks, but she could not, she needed to grip them, she needed their safety and she tightened her grip as the hot wax poured down onto the tops of her hands then down their back and onto her wrists. She sensed the cane lifting, she felt the moment of silence as it paused at the top of its stroke.
She felt a scream brewing up inside her. It was so intense and deliberate. It was not born of the moment of pain but of the intensity of pain inside her. It came from her bottom and crept across the stinging red skin of her buttocks, it travelled up inside her, through her nerve racked stomach then into her gagging throat. It tightened her neck and for a moment she could not breathe at all. Her face reddened with the tension as it forced its way into her mouth and built up behind the material of the altar cloth that was filling her mouth. Her cheeks were puffed out with it, her mouth was plugged by it, but still the scream built up. Then the explosion broke through.
She spit the cloth from her mouth and the scream burst from her. She screamed enough to rock the columns of the empty church, so loud her body vibrated with its energy, so violently that she felt herself transported on its renting echoes. She screamed like a beast into the silence of the cavernous church and still the cane had not started its downward journey.
She squeezed the candlesticks and shook them. She shook the hot wax from them and ran it across her flesh. She stretched her buttocks higher and opened her legs, exposing her cunt to the gaping eyes of Caleb. She thrust it at him and a wetness of joy ran across the fleshy rim of her glistening cunt. She lifted her bottom higher as if the meet the cane, squirmed herself, lifted her buttocks more.
"Alright!" she cried out. "Alright! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Her buttocks went higher and the soft edges of her engorged cunt shone in the flickering light of the candles.
There was a momentary pause, then…
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Each one landed heavily across her upturned buttocks. They rained down on her but the more she had the more she screamed. Finally, the flickering of the candles dimmed as her eyes saw less and less, the sound of the cane became more distant and even her screams seemed far away. In the end, all went dark and silent. Occasionally she sensed the pain of the writhing cane but it did not seem part of her experience any more, it seemed part of another world, a world of unbelievable pain.
When Maria awoke she was lying on her back on a cold wooden trestle. She rolled onto her side and her bottom hurt terribly. She looked across the small room, it was some sort of antechapel. Around the walls, heavy, green curtains hung from brass curtain rails and her clothes were piled up on the floor. She looked down at herself, her bra was still hanging loose and her panties were twisted up around her knees, her wrists were red and her hands were still swollen. She started to sit up and winced as she felt her weight on her bottom. She went over to her clothes and started to pick amongst them absently. Then she turned as she heard someone draw back one of the green curtains.
It was Father Thomas!
"Come back this evening child, after you finish work, we will continue then. You have made a good start, you have been introduced to the cane and I am pleased with you. You may yet be saved but you will have to suffer much more. And remember, I will be watching you from now on, and don't forget your new master, the cane; it will be him and his friends who will be testing you and leading you to forgiveness. If you go astray again it will be them to whom you answer. This evening then, as soon as you finish work."
"Yes Father."
"Good."
Ten minutes later she ran from the church, sweating and breathing heavily. She had managed to dress herself fairly well but still looked dishevelled and distressed. She could not repair her bra and had thrown it in a dustbin together with her dirty panties. As she had tossed her underclothes into the overfilled bin she noticed a man looking at her. He looked like a tramp, he had a dirty red beard, his hair was tangled and matted and he wore a long brown overcoat. He watched her inquisitively and it made her feel disgusted and ashamed to think he had seen her dirty panties and torn bra, so she ran behind a wall near some derelict buildings and, gasping for breath, threw herself down amongst some rubble. When she realised that the man was not following her she relaxed. She sank down against the wall and squatted with her hands clasped together between her knees. The cool air blew up her tight skirt and she felt it fanning her naked cunt.
She stared down at a green, cider bottle that was lying on the ground in front of her. She had kicked it as she had hurried behind the wall and it was still rocking back and forth on the litter strewn ground. It tinkled rhythmically against a squashed can which lay alongside it; it reminded her of the swishing of the cane and the savage punishment she had just endured. She reached her hands down between her legs and ran them up the underneath of her thighs. She jerked back as she touched the swollen weals that laced her buttocks.
She rubbed the raised stripes gently and the stinging gradually faded. She kept rubbing them and sank into thinking about her punishment and the more she thought about it the more she realised that it was her only hope of salvation.
As she rubbed her bottom she found her fingers straying to her anus. She felt its edges and squatted down more as she felt its tingling pleasure at the touch of her fingertips. Almost without thinking she pressed the tip of her forefinger inside. The firm circular muscle gave way and her finger sank in easily. She squatted down more as it entered and she drew it inside.
The palm of her hand pressed against her fleshy cunt as her finger worked around the inside edges of her anus. She looked down between her legs and watched the flat of her hand massaging the soft flesh between her legs. Her finger went deeper and she gasped as it drove in up to the knuckle. She drew it back then pushed it in again even more deeply. As it drew back her muscles contracted and held it tight, making it throb under the pressure. As she pushed it back in her muscles relaxed to let it enter and sucked it up eagerly. She dropped her head and raised and lowered her squatting buttocks rhythmically. Her hair fell down across her face and she stared through its tangled strands at the green bottle.
She moved her finger up and down faster. She started panting as her anus pulsated around her finger, gripping it tightly then relaxing and sucking it in again. She stretched her finger as much as she could and plunged it in as deep as it would go, but it was not enough. Her body craved more penetration than her finger could provide and she reached forward with her other hand and grabbed the bottle. She turned it upright and planted it firmly on the ground then, lifting herself higher, she moved the bottle back between her legs, feeling its smooth edges as they glanced the insides of her thighs.
She drew her finger out and felt the dissipated ring of her anus throbbing for more. She placed the neck of the bottle directly beneath her demanding anus, lifted herself some more, then slowly dropped down until the ring of her hot anus touched the round top of the neck of the green bottle. She pushed herself down onto it, it went in smoothly and she gasped as she felt its coldness inside her.
She pressed down more and it slid in eagerly – first as far as her finger then, more satisfyingly, deeper. She opened her legs wide and sat down on it, and as it sank in, her anus opened to accommodate the widening neck. She took as much as it could offer and, as it plunged deeply inside, her eyes widened with the cold delight of its smooth penetration.
She plunged her hands between her legs and pulled her outer labia wide apart. Her clitoris hung down, throbbing and hot, and she tugged at it and massaged it. She thought of her punishment, of the cane and the pain that it had inflicted on her, of the red weals across her bottom, of her bestial screams and the feelings of humiliation.
Then she felt the pleasure of the bottle as she dropped even further onto it, she felt so degraded and delighted, and she sensed a feeling she had never had before, she was spinning relentlessly from dirtiness to purity and back again. As she bore down on the bottle she realised that her self-defilement would lead her back to punishment and, when she was punished, that would help cleanse her, but after her punishment she could defile herself again and once more enjoy its painful fruits.
It was an endless cycle from which she now knew she did not want to escape! The realisation rushed through her and she felt a deep delight as her anus gripped the neck of the bottle and her cunt dilated and ran with the moisture of her joy.
She plunged herself wildly onto the bottle and as she looked up she saw the tramp watching her, he had his hands deep inside his long coat and was moving them slowly at his groin. For a moment she was afraid, then, staring at him, she opened her legs wider and pulled at her clitoris until, still with the green bottle deeply inside her anus, she collapsed in a gasping orgasm of delight and humiliation.
An hour later she arrived at the agency. Lesley, her boss, was in her small office talking to a man, so Maria had to wait. The man had his back to Maria so she could not see his face but he had a shock of golden hair like the man who had beaten her as she had lain across the refrigerator earlier. The sight of the hair and the thought of her beating made her shiver.
Lesley seemed to be having a heated argument with the man she was calling Kirk, and Maria watched as she banged the table between them with her hand then shook her fist at him, shouting his name and swearing at him. Maria had seen Lesley's anger before – she was very dominant and, indeed, had been a prefect when they had both been at the same school and had beaten her. She was frightened when Lesley banged the table so hard some papers fell off the edge, which put her into even more of a rage. She pointed angrily to the door.
As Kirk left, his golden hair swirled across the side of his face and, as he turned, Maria saw that it was indeed the man who had beaten her. He sneered at her, then stamped out and went down the street.
Lesley came out of the office and drew back in surprise when she saw Maria leaning against her desk. Maria noticed a puzzling mixture of compassion and anger in Lesley's eyes as she asked her to come into the toilets to 'sort things out'.
Maria followed her like a lamb.
"You look terrible!" said Lesley as she helped Maria sit on a small stool which stood by a wash-hand basin in the back room. "What on earth has happened to you? Here, let me dry your face, you poor thing."
"I'm alright really, really I'm alright," Maria stuttered, still shocked by the sight of her attacker but not daring to ask what he had been doing there.
As she tried to sit down she winced and had to hold herself away from the chair.
"You don't seem alright at all. What's happened? Are you in pain?"
"Well, yes."
"Here, let me look… My God!"
Lesley hurried for a flannel and ran some cold water over it. She got Maria to bend over the small stool and gently dabbed the wet flannel across Maria's bruised bottom. Maria felt safe in Lesley's hands and let her put the flannel wherever she wanted. After a while, Lesley stepped back, rested against the basin and looked again at Maria's naked bottom.
"Now, what is all this?"
Maria was too ashamed. She just shook her head.
"Oh well." Lesley shook her head, "At least I'll go and find you some fresh panties – hand on, I answer the phone first."
The telephone call was a very angry one, with Lesley shouting and banging on the desk, but when it ended she came back and gave Maria a pair of skimpy red panties. They felt smooth as Maria pulled them up over her stinging buttocks.
As the day went on the stinging subsided, but the fear of what lay in store when she next visited Father Thomas caused Maria's stomach to ache with a pain that mixed terror with anxious excitement.
That evening, Maria stood with Lesley as she locked the door of the agency. Lesley put her arm around Maria's shoulder and gave her a squeeze.
"Where are you going now?"
"To the church near my flat."
"Why?"
"To confess."
Lesley smiled. "Make sure you go straight there then. We don't want you to get into more trouble do we?"
"I will. Oh, I will."