"Hoist her up I said!"
Caleb stopped prancing and threw down his staff; it crashed on the floor and bounced against the wall. He took hold of one end of the rope which hung from the hook in the ceiling and pulled it around Maria's waist. She gasped for breath as he tightened it. It bit into her skin and she contorted with pain but did not dare cry out. Caleb pulled the rope tighter then fixed a knot in it. Maria could hardly breathe. Then Caleb grabbed hold of the other end of the rope and looped it through the knot at her waist. He jumped up on the bench and reached as high up the rope as he could, held it tightly, then swung out and jumped back down onto the floor.
Maria felt a terrible pain around her waist as the rope snatched her upwards under the weight of Caleb's body. He dragged it back through the hook in the ceiling and her waist was drawn up until she was bent over and suspended by the pinching rope. Tears fell from her eyes, she felt captured and humiliated and hung her head low so that Father Thomas could not see her shame. Caleb tied off the end of the rope and ran to Father Thomas's side.
"Panties Caleb?"
"Panties! Panties! White panties! White panties!" Caleb cried out wildly.
He ran to Maria's side and lifted her dress slowly. As it lifted he saw her red panties and shrieked.
"Red panties! Red panties! Horrid! Horrid! Hateful red panties!"
"Disgusting!" said Father Thomas. "Shameful! Get them off! Pull them off the harlot! Shameless child! Pull them off my servant, as quickly as you can. Pull the vile, red panties off the shameless bitch! Bitch! Bitch! Shameless bitch!"
Caleb grabbed the red panties and angrily tore them down, ripping them and dragging them down to just above her knees. As the material tightened against her thighs Maria flinched and wriggled anxiously, but Caleb gave her a heavy smack across the bottom to make her stop. Then he grabbed the loose ends of cord at her calves, tied them tightly underneath the bench and pulled them with all his strength until they dug deeply into the flesh of her calves. She could not move them at all; she could only feel the tingling of the blood trying to run through her constricted veins.
"We'll soon stop her wriggling, eh Caleb?"
Caleb jumped around the bench, circling and prancing.
"Stop her wriggling. Stop her wriggling."
Maria hung like an animal on the rope, her forearms and calves secured painfully to the bench and her waist bowed under the upward strain of the rope from the ceiling. Her buttocks were bare and exposed and the red panties which Lesley had found for her were pulled in shreds around her knees. She began to cry.
"Oh, my child," said Father Thomas softly, "do not cry yet, you are a long way from being saved, it is too soon to cry, wait until you really suffer before you cry. It is a good thing that you came to me when you did. It is a good thing that I have the whip to bring you to obedience. Are you ready to begin the punishment?"
"Please Father. I don't think I can stand any more!"
"Still! Be still! The whip will be your master. When he has had his way with you, when he has striped your buttocks with his marks, then you will plead for more, not less!… is she bound tight enough Caleb?"
Caleb nodded excitedly.
"Good! It is time and we will begin. This time you will taste the unfathomable pleasures of the greatest inflictor of pain there is, the whip. Oh yes, the whip is a vicious master, but it brings obedience like no other, even the cane shrinks back in fear of its power. But, I have to warn you, the whip is its own master and it punishes its victims in the ways that it chooses. Though I can wield it, or try to direct it, I cannot control it, the whip itself will inflict whatever pain it decides you must suffer. I cannot prevent it or hold it back for I am its victim as much as the body which stretches out before it. We begin!"
Maria hung on her bonds terrified. Her buttocks were stretched tight and the flesh of her cunt was exposed between her tied legs. Her hard nipples rubbed sorely against the inside her dress. She felt petrified but she could only submit. Then it started.
Whack!
The whip came down with such ferocity that Maria lurched forward on her bonds and screamed out.
Whack!
Another painful slash across her buttocks and she screamed again.
Whack!
This time it burned deep into her skin and she cried out fiendishly.
Whack!
She felt slashed by the scorching whip as she roared like a savage monster and the cavernous church echoed with her pain.
Whack!
She felt herself going giddy, she screamed again and again and tried to pull away, but her bonds held her completely fast.
Whack!
Another scream, another deep cut and her eyes went blurred, she felt herself losing consciousness, she could not bear any more.
Whack!
This time she could not scream and just hung limply on the rope that suspended her by the waist. The pain was so great, and she could not bear it, but she could not escape it; somehow her body would not let her fall unconscious. She felt totally hopeless as she realised she would have to suffer whatever the whip decided.
Whack!
Another scream but this time fainter, it was so weak it was hardly a scream at all, more a pathetic, begging whimper.
Whack!
No scream this time, she only blubbered, she wanted to beg but words were no longer hers.
Whack!
She could not speak, nor scream nor blubber, she wanted to beg for forgiveness but she could not find the strength or will to beg. She could not move, she could not even wince under the flailing of the whip, and now she could not even hope. She hung loosely and the rope around her waist dug in deeply as it pulled against her weight.
Whack!
There was nothing left to do but suffer, she could not lose consciousness, she could not plead for it to stop, she could only absorb the terror that the whip was dealing out. The pain was so great it ran through her in huge, uncontrollable waves and her tortured body rose and fell against its bonds as if caught helplessly in a mighty tide.
Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!
They were coming so fast now. Somehow she realised that Father Thomas had lost control, she knew that the whip was in command and she was suffering the pain that only the whip knew she deserved. One after the other the whacks from the whip struck her buttocks, the terrible pains from each stroke merging into the next as she writhed in a paroxysm of continual agony. Spit dribbled freely from her mouth and ran disgustingly down her chin as she hung like a tormented animal under the frenzied punishment of the uncontrollable whip.
But through this feeling of disgust, beyond this sensation of relentless torture, she sensed something different. Through the blurring intensity of her suffering she realised something other than just the feelings of disgust and hurt, it was something deeper even than the cuts that were being inflicted by the uncontrolled flailing of the whip. She sensed a glimmer of her salvation. It was as though, beyond all the pain, there was a radiance of purification. She pressed her buttocks to the whip, wanting the flogging to continue forever so that she could approach closer to the light that promised to cleanse her of her sinfulness. Then suddenly it stopped.
Maria sensed it was all over and she sagged desperately on the rope. She felt as if she was being burned all over and her bottom felt as if it was on fire; pain filled her whole body. She gasped and spit bubbled messily from her mouth then she gasped again and started to come back to the realisation of what was happening to her. Then she felt the rope around her waist and let out a terrifying scream. It was not a scream in response to direct pain but a scream born of all the pain that had gone before. She thought she would not be able to stop. She knew she had to take a breath before she could scream again, but when it came, it was only enough breath to continue the frightening scream that burst from her like steam from an engine. She could not stop, she thought she would die before it would end, she felt her whole life would be eaten up by her terrible all-consuming scream.