Atonement Ch 5
Distractions. That was the problem. I hadn't found Libby yet, and I had
committed to helping Mary Beth and Celeste escape a second painful whipping
scheduled only 48 hours from now. I thought about calling Henry but decided to
see first if I could confirm that Libby was indeed with the Church of Atonement,
at, I suspected, its compound outside of Goshen. I got directions from the desk
sergeant.
"You head out of town past the old courthouse--just keep going 'til the hard
road runs out near the old Lambeth place. You'll see the gate to the compound."
I drove as he directed. The road dead-ended at a guardhouse of sorts up in what
the natives call a "holler", a cove backed up against foothills. A road appeared
to run straight up the creek up the mountain. Barbed wire was stung on both
sides of the road. As I drove up, two men in paramilitary clothes were casually
stationed next to a small hut. They didn't look particularly friendly. The whole
thing was strange. Why did a religious compound need guards like this?
Conversation with the guards turned out to be fruitless. They wouldn't let me
in, give out any information, or call up anyone. I was at an impasse. I realized
that what I needed to do was to secure a writ from the Federal Court in Elkins
and have it served by US Marshals. Although I knew that threatening these guys
with legal process was a useless exercise, I couldn't resist a parting shot as I
drove away.
"I'll be back guys--next time with a US marshal." One of them stared blankly.
The other went into the hut and picked up a phone.
I pulled over in a dirt pullout and called Henry's number on my cell phone. I
got Jessica. Jessica filled me in on the latest development. "Henry got a call
from Corpun's president, Al Laroche. He wants to deal. He said that they could
have their lawyers contact the Church of Atonement and see if they can help.
Henry was desperate. He said he'd sign anything if they could help him get Libby
back safely. Laroche hinted that he could do that. Henry is on his way to DC."
This whole thing stunk of fraud. "Look, Jessica, can you get in touch with
Henry?"
"He always calls in when he gets where he's going. He's not going to meet
Laroche until tomorrow."
"We need to call him and tell him not to sign anything. This whole thing is a
setup. Someone set out to frame those girls on this stupid phoney solicitation
charge and separate Libby from them, then use her as leverage. I'm sure of it.
What I don't know is how or why this wacko church is involved. I also have these
two other girls to worry about, which may have been part of the plan, a
distraction to make everyone spin their wheels. I need to find the nearest
Federal court. I know it sits in Elkins, and I'll get a Habeus writ for all
three of them. Don't worry, I'll get them out. But Henry needs to sit tight. I
believe Libby is safe."
Jessica agreed. "But we need to hurry, Rollin. He's frantic."
"That's what they want, Jessica."
As I hung up the phone I was startled by a frantic hammering at my passenger
side window. A young, attractive brunette clad in what looked like an old timey
frock motioned to me. I rolled down the window.
"PLease, you've got to help me. They will be coming soon. Let me in!"
She looked like a refugee from Little House on the Prairie, except that her hair
was matted and her skin was scratched up. She'd been bushwhacking through the
brush, it looked like. I opened the door and she climbed in.
"Go! Drive, please," she entreated, looking wildly over her shoulder behind us.
I put it in gear and peeled out. When we hit the hard road she seemed to relax a
little. She said her name was Christy Connor and she had been living in the
commune of the Church of Atonement. She had run away, she said because she was
to be punished and she was afraid. "I was ordered to go to the Punishment Hut.
That's where they hand out the real punishments, not the light, ritual cleansing
we all go through, but the real thing, for disobedience or disrespect."
I wanted her to tell me more but decided to wait until she settled down and got
herself cleaned up. I told her my problem and the time constraints on it. She
said she'd gladly accompany me as far as Elkins--she just wanted to get as far
from Goshen as possible.
We stopped at a country store and I got her some jeans and a shirt to replace
the dress. Then I spotted a motel and paid for a room so she could clean up and
use the shower. The girl that emerged from the motel looked completely different
from the scared, ragged fugitive who had pounded on my window. She was a slender
girl and looked very fetching in tight jeans. She had long chestnut hair that
hung well below her shoulders. Christy had a youthful face and large brown eyes
that gave her this wild-eyed innocent look. She was a very pretty girl. And she
wanted to talk.
We got back on the road. I drove and listened to her story. "I thought the
Church was what I needed. I went to a sermon given by the founder. Have you
heard of him? Father Noah?" I shook my head. I'd never heard of this guy.
"He is so moving, so charismatic... afterwards I just knew that he could provide
direction to my life. I felt like I lacked direction and I just had these
lingering guilt feelings about the way I was living my life, and he said we
could all purge these feelings and be really happy and accepted for who we were.
So I just thought, you know, I'd go to one of their centers and see. And they
were so loving and forgiving--I mean even when I had confessed to all this bad
stuff it was ok because I was going to atone and then it would leave forever. Do
you see?"
I didn't, but I nodded anyway and she went on.
"I went through a few days of sessions with a counselor then in a group with
others, and then they said I should join them at the commune. That it would be a
new way of life. So I did. I wanted to live there--with them--like a family."
"Well, what happened?" I said.
"When I got there, everyone was real nice. I was put in a cabin with the
novices. It was like summer camp. There were 6 other girls in my cabin and we
had a leader, a woman named Betty who was sort of a housemother. We were in this
group and there were 4 cabins in all built in a rectangular sort of arrangement
with a little courtyard in the middle. That was the first thing I noticed--what
was in the middle of the courtyard--it was a pair of old fashioned stocks, you
know, like they put the Pilgrims in. It looked kind of scary but I didn't say
anything. Betty explained to us that they believed very strongly in corporal
punishment here--that it was all part of the 'penance', and that we as a cabin
had to hold up our end of work details and such or we could get put in the
pillory, as she called it, and get swats. Well that gave me a shock. But she
also said that the punishments were not so bad--more embarrassing than anything
else, sort of like a sorority initiation. She explained that as novices we were
to be like children and that we would be seeking our 'inner child'. An important
part of cleansing was to reconnect with that child and atone for the past.
"Did you know that physical correction was going to be part of this experience?"
I asked.
"Yeah...I mean, I didn't know for sure, but it was hinted at. Reverend Noah
talked about it in all of his talks. Like how we all were sinners and needed to
experience actual physical correction to be properly cleansed. He also said
nature had provided humans with the perfect place to experience punishment
without any lasting harm and how it was just and proper for us to be treated
like the children we were. So I knew, I guess, although they never really came
out and said, that spankings were a part of it." I nodded. Christy continued.
"There were four cabins with a girls' and a boys' section in each one. Everyone
was young. We all seemed to be in our 20's or late teens. I found out later some
of the novices were people who had been in jail and had agreed to come to the
commune for counseling instead of being in jail. The other thing was that
everyone seemed to be, well, attractive. I mean it was odd--like they had
allowed only attractive people to be there.
"I was there for nine weeks. It was sort of like a commune and bible camp. Girls
wore these long dresses. Boys wore trousers or shorts and a white cotton shirt
with a striped tie. The costume marked us as novices. At first all we did was
hold group discussions. They had our files from before so they knew all about
us. This was in between bible study and work chores. Two Counselors, a man and a
woman, came in and conducted these 'sessions' I guess you'd call them. Their
names were Stan and Lorna. They were older than us, in their 40's. Lorna was a
very prim, somewhat large woman. She dressed like a schoolteacher or a
librarian, you know, flowered dresses and sensible shoes. Stan was handsome,
with sort of greying hair. Real down-to earth. He looked like he'd worked
outdoors like a cowboy or a dock worker. The first week we just talked. The
second week, wow, things got interesting."
I interrupted her story. "Did you get to meet anyone named Libby, Libby Mason?"
She shook her head. "I knew everybody in my part of the compound. Unless she
used a false name..." she shrugged. Then she continued.
"We sat around in a room and confessed to things we'd done and were never caught
at or punished for. See, Rev Noah says that we aren't aware of it but there is
all this horrid guilt and sin and it must be purged. So first we had to get it
out--tell somebody--then make amends for our sinfulness.
"That second week at the camp they stated going one by one and assigning
penance. This girl named Shelly was first. She had admitted that when she was 11
she had set fire to her little brother's baseball card collection out of spite.
She always felt bad about it. No one ever knew she did it. He kept it in this
outdoor clubhouse. He thought one of the other kids had done it. Her parents
were really mad and her dad said that whoever had done it should have had his
pants pulled down for a good belt whipping. So Stan suggested that someone
should play the role of her father and give her the belting she should have had
way back then. The place got real quiet all of a sudden and we all looked at
each other like, 'did we hear that right? Is Shelly going to get a spanking?'
Then came the next surprise. Lorna asked us all how many belt licks did we think
Shelly should get for burning her brother's collection. We were all shocked that
the group was being asked to discuss this--I mean we were all shocked anyway
that this was going to happen right in front of us, but we talked about it and
decided that 15 good licks was what Shelly deserved. From Stan.
"Then Stan and Lorna made Shelly come up front while Stan sat on this padded
bench. He asked her if she was ready to atone. She was nervous and sort of
stammered out a weak 'yes'. Then Lorna got this strap from a closet. It was
about a foot long and 3" wide and had a wood handle. Stan guided Shelly over his
lap face down and pulled up her dress in the back. We all had on nothing but
sheer panties under the dresses. She screeched at having her panties exposed in
front of everyone, but he just held her there, wriggling, her butt bouncing over
his knee. But that was not all. Our eyes popped out at what came next. Stan said
the belt licking had to be given on the bare. Shelly went stiff when she heard
this and screamed 'no!' Then before she knew it, Stan rucked her panties down to
her knees.
So there she was, bare bottomed over Stan's lap, kicking and screaming. Then
Lorna handed Stan the strap. He smacked her 15 times with that strap. I'll never
forget the sight of her fanny jiggling each time it landed. It didn't look like
he was hitting her hard, just enough to make it sting a little. She wriggled
when he smacked her, and toward the end she kind of drummed her feet on the
bench. She said later that at first it tingled, then it stung a bit but that
when it was over her ass was hot and it actually felt good. She was embarrassed
though--putting her big bare hiney on display like that. He even made her stand
in the corner with her red ass showing while we talked about her punishment.
"Sounds embarrassing," I said. "You say they didn't spank her very hard?"
"No, and here is the strange part," she said, lowering her voice, "she told some
of us later that it actually turned her on, like the heat in her seat made her
horny. I'm not kidding...and it happened to the rest of us too.
We all had our turn. David got a bare bottom spanking over Lorna's knee for
telling lies. She spanked him with her hand for two or three minutes solid,
smacking him real fast, but again the smacks weren't hard. But David's penis got
hard. I saw it when he got up off her lap.
"Let's see. Then Ann got a bare fanny switching--that's what she said her mother
would have done if she'd known that it was Ann who broke her glass tabletop when
she was 9. Another girl, Carrie, played the part of her mother and this time Ann
confessed. We voted that Ann should get the switching so Lorna went out for a
moment and came back in with a skinned very thin switch. In the meantime Ann had
to take her pants off and get in the corner to wait--hind end on display. When
Lorna came back in she made Ann stand in front of Carrie and go through the
whole thing. She had to admit to breaking the table and even ask Carrie to give
her the switching she deserved. She bent over Carrie's knee and Carrie slid her
panties down. Then, at Lorna's direction, she switched Ann's bare butt with
little rapid flicks till Ann was going Ow! Ow! and pleading she was sorry.
"You said this made some people horny. Why did you mention that? Did they make
you have sex?"
" They didn't make us. In fact, at first you could be punished even for...ah..."
"Masturbating?"
She blushed, then nodded. "Yes. In fact Carrie herself got a spanking from Betty
for...masturbating. Each cabin had a housemother like Betty who took care of us,
but who had authority to punish, too. There was this padded low seat like an
ottoman or something that was bolted like a fixture in the middle of the cabin.
It was in this common area between the boys' and girls' sides. It was real
solid. Betty told us it was the Seat of Atonement and that she would use it to
correct us if we were naughty. So when she caught Carrie frigging herself she
gathered us all together and made Carrie take her pants down and get across her
knee. She gave her a good brisk spanking on her bare seat. It went on for a
couple of minutes, and while she was spanking she scolded Carrie for rubbing
herself that way. Carrie's bottom got pretty red and she was kicking and
squirming. She said it was harder than what we got from Stan and Lorna. One of
the boys, James got put across her knee when she found his, ah, jism on the
bedsheets. He lied and tried to deny it at first but then he admitted it. She
lectured him about then took his pants down and spanked him pretty hard for
lying. "
"So how did sexual activity figure into this?"
"Yeah--that was the strange thing. I mean first they tell you you can't, then
they tell you it is part of the forgiveness process that follows 'cleansing'.
With these ritual punishments going on, everybody was getting pretty aroused
watching, and being involved even. So basically they built up the tension over a
couple of weeks. Then they would assign someone to 'comfort' you. If you got
punished as part of atoning for something, they would give you a private room
and send in someone they chose to comfort you. You could have them rub cold
cream on your bottom or other things like that--or touching--or even sex.
"What about this pillory thing? Did they use that?"
"Yes, they did. That was different. It started out with weekly cleanliness
inspections. There was a competition to see who had the cleanest cabin. They
said that the losing cabin out of the four would have to choose two members who
would take swats for all of them. Those two would be locked into the pillories
and be spanked with a paddle ten times by two chosen from the winning cabin. We
got it twice, and the last time we drew lots to see who got chosen to take the
punishment, I got chosen.
"Did it hurt?"
"Whew! It sure did! A boy from cabin 3 gave me my 10 swats and he did not hold
back. Let me tell you, 10 swats on your bare behind from a pinewood paddle is no
joke--worse than a spanking from Betty, and a lot worse than the penance
punishments from Stan and Lorna. Everybody came out and stood in a circle around
the stocks. We had to put our hands and heads in these holes then they lowered
the upper board and locked it. The stocks were about 4 feet high so we were bent
over sticking our bottoms out. Then someone pinned my dress back. The boy who
got to paddle me also got to lower my panties. Wow! now that was embarrassing!
They smacked us both at the same time, with a long wait between licks, really
drawing it out. I was stamping my feet and yelling bloody murder--that paddle
stung like crazy."
"Is that why you ran? Fear of more punishment?"
"Y-yes." Suddenly she was crying. "I know I should have stayed. I mean I loved
my cabin mates and Betty, but I was afraid. I was told that I had been chosen as
a Handmaiden to escort a Confessor to an initiation ceremony and I refused."
"So what? Why did you refuse? What is a Confessor?"
"I heard things about it, like how you might have to have sex with a Confessor
and they could punish you at any time or hand you over to the Lictors if you
don't obey. We were taught that Confessors are very high spiritual beings who
have achieved 'cleansing' and must be obeyed."
"Whoa. Wait. Who are Lictors?"
"They are like enforcers. They wear these, like, military uniforms and
administer punishment in the Punishment Hut for serious crimes like disobedience
and disrespect. When I said I wouldn't go, Betty told me I'd been ordered to the
Punishment Hut. I was going, but on the way there I got really frightened and
ran into the woods instead. I kept heading down the creek until I saw the road
then I saw your car. I-I don't know...maybe I should go back. I deserve to be
punished. The Confessors know what is best for us."
What a crock. This girl had obviously been brainwashed into thinking these
"Confessors", whoever the hell they were, were high priests with a direct link
to The Almighty.
"Look, Christy, you have to think this over. I'm not sure these people have your
best interests at heart. Why don't you come as far as Elkins with me then call
your friends or parents or somebody?"
She nodded her assent, then tired from her ordeal, fell asleep.
