Church of Chains by Sean O'Kane Page A

get up. But two lashes in quick succession, which made them judder, had her helplessly folding her arms under her to protect them. Too late she realised that this left her haunches raised and once again the whip cracked down between her legs. Instantly her anus and the entrance at her belly were engulfed in fire. She curled herself into a ball and squeezed her thighs tight shut but still the whip found its way between her buttocks and she stretched out in agony. But Harris obviously knew just how much to inflict and coiling the whip he hauled her up by her hair this time. Pain and exhaustion made her slow to focus her eyes on his face. He left her for a few minutes. She was shaking and crying and it took some time before she was ready to face any more. Once she had got her breath back, she tried begging him for mercy, but he just smiled and put his heels to his horse again.
    Father Burton and Brother Davis stood at the window of the Father’s office and looked down into the courtyard. Paula’s group were being herded in at the end of their run. The naked girls either collapsing or standing bent over with hands on knees while they recovered enough to be led away to the showers.
    Brother Davis’s brow creased. “There’s only nine Father.”
    “I know,” Father Burton replied and then paused for a second. “Brother, you have done your usual fine job with the new intake, but I am concerned about Number Three. I have watched her carefully, and from the very first she has held herself differently from the usual sluts. While the Church has been running this programme I have come to know how sullen and defiant they can be to start with. And how they slouch until they are trained not to. But this one is different.”
    “I know what you mean Father. She has pride.”
    “Exactly. And whoever heard of a street whore with pride? But what’s worse is that she still has it. And as you know, they must be stripped of all traces of their previous selves before the Church can construct their new characters. This is what the Patriarch teaches us.”
    “She is very obedient Father.”
    “Hmm. Have you ever before seen a slut go through her purification without at least one thorough chastisement? Have you ever known one avoid being displayed in the pillory, or never having had to wear the training harness?”
    “I think Father... I think she takes pride in her obedience.”
    “That cannot be tolerated. I have given orders that she will have a special regime between now and the end of the month. She is to be pushed to her limits.”
    “She can take it Father. In her own way she’s as hot a little slut as any of them.”
    “She’ll have to be Brother. I have been told that the Patriarch himself is to visit us soon. And I will have nothing go amiss.”
    “No Father.”
    At that moment Brother
    Harris rode in beneath them. The horse was walking now. At the end of the leading rein Paula was being dragged full length through the dirt. She was streaked with mud and grass stains but even through the dirt the livid welts left by Brother Harris’s whip could clearly be seen.
    Father Burton smiled bleakly, “It has begun.”
    Paula had crawled on hands and knees to the shower and let the water cascade over her. Brother Harris watched her silently and all too soon made her dry herself and go to prayers with the others. For the first time in weeks taking the four strokes of the crop before supper was a major ordeal. The horsewhip had been applied, she realised, with just this in mind. Sister Lavinia made her spread her legs a little wider so that the tender skin on the insides of her buttocks which bore the marks of that earlier beating, could get the full force of the cuts. She yelped and cried at each lash, wriggling so much that Sister threatened her with extra ones if she didn’t keep still.
    She wasn’t exercised with the others. Instead she was put in the pillory and left there until all the others were chained for the night. She