Dragos Falls

by Carl Hamlin

  As she approached the building, Marlene saw her coming through the window, then stepped outside and ushered Aubrey inside. She guided Aubrey into the hallway where no one else could listen. “Honey…what are you doing here? Mike’s going to give a paddling in a few minutes, remember?”

  Tears began to form in Aubrey’s eyes. “Is there any chance I can talk to him…for just a minute?”

  Marlene took Aubrey by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. “No… I’m sorry…and I have to get in there now. I knew something was wrong when I saw you earlier.” Marlene looked around for a second. “You come with me, and I’ll have you sit out in the office lobby and wait for us until this is over. Then we’ll find out just what’s going on with you.”

  Aubrey’s knees were so weak she could hardly walk as she followed Marlene into the lobby of the principal’s office. The inner door to the room where the paddling would take place was standing open, and she could see that Mike was already inside, looking away and nervously tapping his foot on the floor.

  The attorney turned to see who had come in with Marlene. “I’ll bet you remember what that paddle feels like, don’t you?”

  Aubrey attempted to act like nothing was wrong. “You can say that again.”

  Marlene turned to the fetching attorney who was dressed in shorts and a striped top. “Do you need to be gagged or tied this time?”

  The attorney closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, and let’s forget shoving my panties into the crack of my ass. Let’s just lower everything and I’ll lean across the desk and take it. And please…forget the sheet. He knows whose ass it is.”

  Marlene appeared to be having a hard time keeping a straight face. “As you wish. Let’s go.”

  After they went through the door, Marlene turned, shook her head, rolled her eyes and pulled the door closed. Aubrey began pacing the floor just as she had at home, for she knew that when Sally’s paddling was done, she was going to come clean with Mike about the theft of the bracelet.

  Just as she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, a loud CRACK and a high-pitched yelp came from the other room. A few seconds later, there was another equally loud CRACK and another squeal of pain. Five seconds later, the third sound of the paddle striking bare flesh with great force was heard, and a louder cry followed.

  Listening to someone else receive what she also deserved and would likely soon receive was totally unnerving to Aubrey. There was nothing erotic or sexy about what she was hearing, and there would be no such qualities when it would be her receiving it later. This was nothing but pain and chastisement, even though she kept telling herself that Mike would be doing it to her out of love and concern.

  As she listened to the fourth and fifth loud landings of the paddle and resulting cries of pain, she felt much worse about not having told Mike everything. He had expressed his acceptance of her under all circumstances, and she had betrayed that pledge of love and acceptance.

  Another loud CRACK echoed in the adjoining room, then another, and another, and yet another in rapid order. The sounds of the crying attorney were haunting to her, even as two more sharp smacks followed.

  Aubrey held her breath as she listened to the voices on the other side of the door, and while she could not make out what was being said, she could hear that the attorney was trying to talk through her sobs. The next thing that happened was that Aubrey was startled to hear still two more loud applications of the paddle against the woman’s bare bottom.

  Now she heard voices again, and the crying was even louder. As she realized that the voices were approaching the door, she quickly darted to the other side of the waiting room and sat down on a bench and attempted to act as if she had not been totally absorbed in the sounds coming from the other room.

  Finally, the door opened and the attorney walked out, still crying with little control and furiously rubbing her bottom. She refused to look at Aubrey, and pulled a handful of tissues from her pocket and walked out the door.

  Aubrey looked up and saw Marlene and Mike standing in the door staring at her with obvious concern. She burst into tears, and Mike rushed over and sat down on the bench next to her and put his arm around her. Just as she took a deep breath and began to tell them what she had done, and even more, what she felt she deserved, there was a knock on the door to the lobby, and the constable walked into the room. There behind him was Lorraine Adamson, the retired lady who was the owner of the bracelet hidden away in Aubrey’s bedside stand.

  The constable had an uncomfortable expression on his face as Lorraine walked past him and knelt down in front of Aubrey. She had not heard the words directly from Aubrey, but one of the many people she had told about her problem with compulsive theft had shared the details with her.

  “Aubrey…do you have my bracelet? I know it was right next to the clothes you picked up to mend. I just want it back. My daughter gave it to me for my birthday several years ago, and it means a lot to me. Okay? I just want it back. There will be no hard feelings. I think you are a really sweet girl. But my daughter gave it to me…”

  Aubrey looked to Mike, who sat there with a combination of confusion and fear on his face. She took a deep breath and turned back to the older woman. “It’s in a drawer in my bedside stand…I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I did it. I mean…I really… really don’t know why I did it.”

  The constable nodded to everyone, then walked away. Mike found it difficult to speak at first, then looked up at the bracelet’ s owner. “Aubrey will bring it back to your home later this afternoon.”

  The woman leaned forward and gave Aubrey a hug. “That will be fine…I’ll see you then.”

  The woman stood and began to walk away, but Aubrey reached out and took her hand. “I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t sit down when I come over.” The older woman managed a meek smile and nodded her head as she left.

  Aubrey, Mike and Marlene remained silent for a moment. Mike appeared to be near tears as he finally spoke. “I thought you were going to steal from me if you felt the urge.”

  Aubrey began to shake her head and looked down and began to cry harder. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to be married to me anymore.”

  Mike shook his head and he became visibly angry. “I may just give you an extra paddling for saying that. I love you…nothing about this changes that. I meant everything I said to you.” He leaned forward and brushed some hair from in front of her eyes that was almost plastered to her face by her tears. “The bad news is, Mrs. Aubrey Powell…I meant everything I said to you. Understand?”

  Aubrey looked at each of them and tried to smile apologetically. “I wish I could have a set of ice packs waiting. I heard what Sally got.”

  She looked at Marlene, who shook her head. “Of course, my role here is just to see that justice is done on behalf of the residents. You understand?”

  Aubrey nodded. “Yes…and I can only imagine…when he’s done with me here for the official butt whooping…that once we get back to the house…ouch.”

  Mike slowly nodded his head. “Okay, Marlene…”

  Marlene had tears forming in her eyes. “Sorry, sweetheart. This is hard for me to, because since you joined us three weeks ago, you have quickly become almost like the daughter I never had. But what has to be, has to be. It has to be a dozen this time.”

  Aubrey slowly nodded in agreement. “And like with our attorney friend…I’ll just drop ‘em and get it over with. You are my husband, after all.”

  All three stood up and turned toward the inner door. Aubrey walked slowly to the desk, the pillow still in place for her to bend over, next to where the paddle was waiting.

  Mike picked up the paddle and stepped back, as Aubrey began to slowly unbuckle her jeans. That was when Mike spoke again: “As for when we get home…” Aubrey decided it was time for her to offer her own idea about what should happen at home, but just as she was about to speak as she lowered her zipper, Mike continued: “Marlene…that fl
ogging whip that Aubrey made for Mr. Watson…” Hearing those words, Aubrey felt her blood turn cold as she listened for her husband to finish his train of thought. She tried to regain her composure and continued to slowly unzip the jeans. “That would work on a bare bottom, as well as on someone’s back, wouldn’t it?”

  Marlene visibly gulped. “Yes…I guess it would. And…it was cleaned with alcohol… after it was used.”

  Mike looked at Aubrey with a glance of steely seriousness. “We’re taking that home. It won’t take many strokes of that whip to provide some needed, additional reinforcement.”

  Aubrey closed her eyes, then pushed her jeans down, and reached inside the waistband of her panties and pushed them down to her knees. She took a deep breath, then bent over the pillow and waited.

  Mike offered no warnings or preliminary statements. He pulled the paddle back and brought it rushing forward with a loud POW! Aubrey clenched her teeth in response to the incredible sting, and the one that followed right after took her breath away, before the third landed with an echoing CRACK!

  Aubrey maintained her composure through the fourth and fifth swats, but when the sixth one landed, she began to cry and squeal. The seventh one sounded as if a gunshot had echoed in the room, and Aubrey cried out and began to sob. Mike landed the eighth and ninth swats in rapid succession, and Aubrey had to summon every bit of willpower she had to not spring from the desk and run.

  She could not see the tears running down Mike’s face as the paddle made its loud and fiery contact for the tenth and eleventh times. And as the paddle struck for the twelfth and final time, she did not see that Marlene had turned away, unable to watch her young friend subjected to such punishment.

  Not realizing at first that her ordeal was over, Aubrey remained bent across the desk. Finally coming back to her senses, she stepped away from the desk, bent down and pulled up her panties. Then she gingerly brought her jeans up, and she grimaced as they made contact with her bottom.

  She was crying so hard that she was almost heaving in her sobs. Finally, she turned around, right into the arms of her waiting husband who was crying steadily himself. She nearly collapsed into his arms, and then Marlene walked out of the room so that they could be alone.

  Aubrey sobbed until she seemed to have no tears remaining. Mike held her tightly, allowing his shirt to be soaked through. When she was finally able to breathe normally, Mike took out his handkerchief and began wiping her face.

  Neither had said anything after the paddling had ended. Finally, Aubrey wiped her hand across her face one more time, then took a deep breath and looked up at her husband. “Flogging or no flogging…I just want to be back in our house.”

  Mike put his arm around the still crying Aubrey, and when they walked into the principal’s office lobby, Mike noticed a paper sack resting on the bench. He picked the bag up and looked inside, then guided Aubrey out the door of the lobby and to the front of the school.

  They walked out the front door, and when they reached the sidewalk they encountered a handful of residents. As they passed, Aubrey slowed her gait, looked at them and forced her hoarse voice to say, “I’m so sorry.” She managed to look at them with a meek smile, and then continued. “I would show you how sorry I am, but since there are a couple of gentlemen present…” The women present managed to smile as they walked away. However, one of the older women walked up to Aubrey and put her arm around her and whispered, “If you ever need anyone to talk to…” Aubrey hugged the woman in return, and then she and Mike crossed the street and walked down the alley toward their house.

  Once inside the house, Aubrey took a deep breath and turned to her husband. “I’m not trying to put this off, but I’m going to take a cold shower while you…get everything…ready.”

  Her head once again rested against Mike’s chest, and then he leaned down and kissed her and hugged her tightly. She stepped away, began stripping off her clothes and walked into the bathroom. As she walked away, Mike felt nearly dizzy seeing the crimson shade of her bottom.

  As Aubrey stood beneath the cold streams of water, she felt a deep sense of fright at the thought of the flogging whip lashing her freshly paddled bottom. She was also conflicted by her disappointment at her own behavior and reaction to it, and at least at that moment, her self – recriminations overpowered her fear of more punishment.

  She felt that she needed to get on with the proceedings, but found it difficult to remove her burning backside from the cool water. Then she reminded herself, that the only way she had suffered a paddling so stoically was to constantly remind herself of how much she had deserved it. She turned off the water, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the tub.

  She grabbed a towel and began drying herself, but spent only a few seconds doing so. She decided to simply stay naked, so she stepped outside the bathroom and walked around the corner to the bedroom.

  The bedroom door was open, and Mike was leaning against the door jam waiting for her. She turned her attention from his troubled expression to the bed. It was prepared similarly to when she had received her most recent playful paddling. Once again, there were two blankets in the center of the bed, with three pillows stacked on top. This time however, she noticed that there were two more blankets resting at the foot of the bed, and the flogging whip was resting at the head of the bed.

  She walked up to Mike, and then they wrapped their arms around each other and held tightly. Mike began to softly stroke her back. “You could have told me. I told you that I love you, and nothing will change that. I will never send you away. You have to believe that.”

  Aubrey began to sob once again. “I don’t know why I did it.”

  Mike spoke again, but this time his voice seemed a tad harsher. “I told you, that’s not the point. I understand that you don’t know why you did that. But you needed to come clean with me. You made the situation much worse than it would have been, if you had just called out for me to help you first. Or if you had just acted out by pilfering something from me, like we talked about, so you could have safely acted out on this.

  “Aubrey…I want to drive this home. You always come to me first. We deal with it together, so it doesn’t become a village problem again.” He pointed to the flogging whip resting on the bed. “That’s what this is all about. Understand?”

  Aubrey did not give a verbal response. She simply stepped away and took a deep breath, then glanced toward the whip. She walked over and picked it up, then handed it to Mike. Then she walked over to the bed, crawled onto it, and then placed herself bent over the pillows.

  She did not know what the extra blankets were for until Mike placed one of the still folded covers across the small of her back, and then tucked the ends beneath her waist. He then took the other blanket, and shielded her thighs, so that all that could be struck by the tails of the whip would be her buttocks.

  Feeling the preparations taking place made Aubrey tremble even more, and then when she saw that the whip had been picked up, she closed her eyes and held her breath. She waited, but felt and heard nothing, then cautiously turned her head and opened her eyes and looked up at Mike. He was standing there holding the whip but seemed to be paralyzed in indecision.

  He sat down next to where her upper torso barely rested upon the bed. “The only reason I’m going to use this…”

  Aubrey finished his sentence: “… is because I deserve it, and because I need for this to be really serious so that I don’t do it again.”

  He simply nodded at first, then began to rub her arm. “That’s right. But still, it’s not easy…I mean, when you love somebody like I love you…”

  “Mike…I’m really scared right now. I’m scared of the whip, and after all, I made it. But what I’m really scared of…I’m afraid of the same thing happening again that happened today. I’m more afraid of that than I am of that paddle and this whip combined. I have to tell you something. When I found out you were planning to use this whip…I wondered if you had read my mind. All day, I kept thinking a
bout how that whip needed to be part of my punishment. I even considered offering to have Mr. Watson give me a flogging like that Lawson fellow got. I mean, I need for everybody to know how sorry I am. But most of all, this means the most to you…and me. So…” Aubrey turned her head to face straight ahead once again, then closed her eyes and pressed her head down upon her crossed forearms.

  Mike stood up and walked over to the side of the bed. He took the whip in his left hand, raised it in the air and brought it down on her bottom with a loud CRACK. Aubrey did not know whether the whip across her bare bottom was more or less painful than the paddle, but she did know that it was a different type of pain, one in which tendrils of sting branched out across her entire backside. And that backside had just been subjected to twelve very hard swats of the paddle less than an hour before.

  The whip came down across her bottom again, and she cried out as the little leather knots she had tied at the end of each tail bit into her tender flesh; and as the leather strips cracked across her bottom for the third and last time, she squealed from the fiery pain.

  She was once again sobbing uncontrollably, and Mike tossed the tentacled whip to the floor and began to run his fingers through her dark red hair to try and calm her. He helped her to sit up and kneel, then removed the pillows and blankets so that she could lie flat on the bed. He feared that she might feel hatred for him, but when he laid down next to her, she reached out and took his hand and held it to her cheek as she cried.

  She continued to cry hard for some time, but when the hardest sobbing had subsided, Mike went to the bathroom and grabbed a hand towel, and then soaked it in cold water. He wrung it out only slightly, then returned to the bed and placed the cold wet towel across the red stripes and welts, and the several small cuts. When the towel was placed there, Aubrey sucked in her breath and let out a cry, then lowered her head and began to feel a soothing effect.