This short story is an entry in the 2002 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments
Category: Adult
Proof
By
Albert Terego <albertterego@yahoo.com>
They didn't believe her and so she was going to be beaten. M's heart pounded as she repeated the thought over and over. It was as simple as that, there was no point in denying it. If she could show them proof -- that damnable receipt! -- it would change everything, but she'd looked everywhere already. It was gone. She was doomed. The waiting was unbearable.
She had never been beaten before, but she knew all too well what to expect. She had been made to watch -- to participate, actually -- when they punished J last year. That was for a comparatively trivial offense. M knew she would be treated even more harshly.
M remembered that beating as if it had been her own. J had been so scared when they brought her in, and the pleading and shame in her eyes had made M want to trade places with her (although that altruism quickly disappeared once the beating began in earnest). J wore only her nightdress, which they pinned up to expose her backside before they bent her over the hassock.
M couldn't remember who actually administered the beating. Her eyes had been fixed on J's throughout the whole ordeal, trying to offer what comfort she could but held just as much by a guilty fascination. M had been enlisted to hold J's wrists with a stern warning not to let go, and she remembers holding on as if her own life depended on not letting the poor girl get free. M wondered who would hold her. Probably J. Poetic justice.
She remembered how long it took between the first crack of the strap and J's awful reaction. First she pulled back, not as hard as M expected, and then that scream. No one could fake or embellish such a scream, it was pure, honest agony. They took their time before hitting her again, but the contortions on J's face spoke eloquently of a slowly reverberating pain that seemed to reach its peak just as the next stroke landed.
M remembers feeling some pride, and at least as much horror, at having done her duty and not let go, even through J's increasingly desperate begging. M knew there was no point in trying to be strong. She'd beg and plead and become incoherent, and nothing she could say would make it stop. She had to find that receipt!
As if possessed, she searched her room with a new clarity. Under the bed, under the rug, behind the dresser, it was nowhere. Finally, there it was - crumpled, but plain as day on the top of the hamper. M was overcome, crying with joy -- she was saved!
Her panic returned as she heard the footsteps approach. She knew what she had to do but she wasn't sure there'd be time. In a frenzy she ripped the paper into tiny pieces, hoping that by the time the door opened there would be nothing left to betray her innocence.
The End
© Copyright Summer, 2002
Reviews
Abrat4you <abrat4you(at)aol(dot)com>
I really like the twist at the end...I was pleased to be surprised...I liked the store line...and it was easy to follow...and picture both girls...and the punishment past...and the punishment expected...the only think I didn't like personally is the initials...I would have like them to have names...not just initials.
Pablo Stubbs <Pablo.Stubbs(at)newsguy(dot)com>
I like the absence of context here - it works well for the story that the setting feels like some nameless, faceless, authoritarian dystopia. That's followed through nicely in the prose style too. The twist almost works, though I'm not sure it's motivated quite well enough. The switch from panicked search for the receipt to panicked rush to dispose of it is a little too easy perhaps.
Anne <Ladyanne60(at)aol(dot)com>
Interesting look into a memory of someone' else's chastisement, as M is contemplating her own. It was bold how the author has us believing M is in fear and horror of her own beating. Her desperate search to find that saving bit of evidence only to destroy it. This story had the classic edgy twist. M is horrified yet mesmerized by her friend's punishment that she is willing to do the same.
Mary Catherine <marycatherine(at)saintfrancis-sfg(dot)net>
This was one of those stories that really betrayed its short length. It was very fine and well-paced, with a surprise ending. There was a nice sense of dread and anticipation in this piece and I particularly liked M's flashback of J's punishment.