Chastening Day

This story is a work of fiction. Do not copy anything in the story.

CHASTENING DAY   Act I:   A BOY’S LUCK, A PRIEST’S CALLING

© smack magnet

Ch 3: Pavel's invention

It was Pavel's turn. And, the priest hoped sincerely, Anja Salidef’s. The small crowd stood watching the two remaining boys (for Joseph Brozemann, though adjudged a damp squib by those present, was not yet the abject failure that the saintly departed Marco had been.) With the elders also gone, the priest addressed Pavel.

“Son,” he said, “you were marked by your deeds the most virtuous boy. And the girl in your charge is the shrillest Shrew. You must decide. How will she be chastened?”

Pavel's girl Anja was not showing fear. She looked down her nose at the awkward boy. He, for his part, rubbed his sweating hands on his trousers. He peered at the rough men and gritted his teeth. Though his voice caught as he spoke, he said, “I would shame her by removing her under things.”

Men murmured. One made to comment, “Good luck stripping off that one, boy.”

Pavel looked to the priest, but the priest remained impassive.

“I… may do so?” Pavel asked.

“You are her Chastener,” said the priest.

Pavel made a sign to Gunter Horst, who, to his surprise, had not been stopped from following to the heath. Gunter was Pavel's one real ally, the friend with whom he had openly shared his misogyny.

Gunter, with a tentative look to the priest, stepped up to take Anja's arm. And when she made to struggle, the priest bid Joseph take her other arm. He, with Misha gone, felt less embarrassment. He gripped Anja’s elbow and held it firmly.

Pavel looked to the crowd, who murmured their approval.  Stepping close, he began to strip the girl, tugging at the bow at the join of blouse and skirt. As it loosened, Anja screeched, swore, and began to kick. Her heel caught Pavel in the shoulder.

The men laughed. The priest’s face remained impassive: he had taught himself well to disguise his inner thoughts.

The crowd, entertained, egged Pavel on. He tugged at Anja’s skirt next. “Hold her up!” he told the other young men. And Joseph and Gunter lifted her feet up clear of the ground.

Pavel seized her ankle and pulled off a shoe. She kicked him in his ribs, but with her foot unshod, his hurt was not great. Anja cursed. She spat. She swore. Pavel tugged at her skirt again. A voice from the crowd called, “Go on, boy, see if you can tame the bitch!”

The priest said with a gesture, as if quoting a verse, “Pray, turn the young lady towards those who witness.”

Those men watched raptly. Laughs came, and guffaws, aimed not just at Pavel but at Anja now too. Pavel held her shod leg up and tugged the skirt down from her hips. She landed a blow with the unshod heel. He staggered back, but the skirt went with him. Anja's naked legs could now be seen.

“Go on, boy!” a fellow rumbled.

Another said, “Let's see between her legs, boy!”

Eyes turned at that to watch the priest’s face, but Dominic retained his impassive mask. Pavel, though his blood was up, felt shock, tinged with joy.

“Go on, boy! You give us a real show.” When Sturmer Breul rumbled, the priest met his eyes.

“I swear he twitched a smile at that,” the man said after.

Pavel’s heart was racing. He was not being sanctioned! The miserable elders had crept away. The crowd spurred him on. The priest had made him Chastener.

He would strip her naked! As Pavel came close to reach for her underclothes, Anja bucked, kicking out. Legs flying in the air, she tried to catch his crotch. He caught her still-shod foot with his arm, then grabbed for the gusset of her undergarments. She kicked him with her free leg: he lost his grip.

He reached in again. Her kicks had hurt!

“She's a wild one, ain’t she boy?” a fat man laughed.

Pavel’s lust and hatred flushed his face. He grabbed for Anja's underclothes, but grabbed too far and got more than just cloth. He could swear his fingers had slipped a little inwards.

She screamed blue murder and kicked him in the head with her still-shod heel.

“The boy’ll never tame her!” laughed a face in the crowd.

Another giggled, “Pavel Panchun was a failure in waiting!”

Pavel looked to the priest once more. In the space when he looked, the flat of Anja's other foot slapped up around his head.

He tried to reach in and she kicked him once more. The men laughed louder. They were getting a show!

Joseph's grip seemed suddenly to weaken. It was Gunter’s strength that held Anja back.

Pavel ordered, “Grab up her legs!”

First Gunter, then Joseph did as they were bid. Joseph got her under her arm, and he reached for her knee. Between them, they lifted her up off the heath, knees apart, crotch to the fore.

The priest stepped forward and held up his arm. He said, “All of the devils of hell are in that girl! She surely must be tamed, Pavel, not least for the blows that she has landed on your head! If she is not tamed, her husband will suffer! If she is not tamed, she may lead the other women!”

“How?” Pavel asked. “How must I tame her?”

“How?” the priest asked. “How do you tame a hellcat? You are the Chastener!”

The rough men of the parish stared at the priest with attention as rapt as they'd shown for the fight.

Pavel ducked back. He clenched his teeth. He looked to the ground. Then he grabbed in hard at the fighting girl's crotch.

She spat at him. Her spit hit his eye. The men laughed at his predicament. One said, “Three of them and they still can't top her!”

In a fury borne of shame, with his breath coming hard, Pavel rent Anja's underclothes.

With a sudden pang of guilt, he looked back to the priest, but no word of sanction came from that quarter. Emboldened, he turned and ripped them wider, exposing her hidden parts to the crowd.

Gunter and Joseph held her knees to her shoulders. The garment could not come off that way. So to hoots from the men, Pavel put his head in close, to tear at the edges of the cloth with his teeth.

They ripped, at last, and Pavel held them up in his hand, to mocking cheers from the gathered men.

Behind him, Joseph's grip failed once more. Anja's leg got free. Her heel thumped Pavel in his back. He went staggering and fell.

He sucked air between his teeth. His hand had hit an old dry clump of gorse. He got to his knees and looked at his shaking palm. Ten, perhaps twenty small gorse needles had detached and were stuck there piercing his skin. Pavel swore below his breath. He started pulling the needles out and tiny pricks of blood welled up.

The men were laughing. Anja was naked from the waist to her feet. She should be shamed, but she was still, despite all, resisting him.

Pavel asked of the priest, “Father, what must I do to tame her?”

The priest shook his head. “You do not need my advice here, Pavel.”

Face flushed, heart racing, Pavel asked, “I may do what I wish?”

“You are the Chastener!” roared the priest. “You need ask me nothing!”

Pavel went close to Gunter’s ear. “Stand her over a gorse bush,” he hissed.

Gunter nodded. He led Joseph in manoeuvring the struggling girl.

“Put her feet down.”

When they dropped the girl's legs, her shod heel alone touched gorse, and she was ignorant. Pavel stood in front. She kicked out at him with that still-enclosed foot, but he caught her leg and wrested off the shoe. She pulled the leg back and her heel hit gorse. She squealed in anguish.

“Which man has a rope?” Pavel asked of the crowd.

There was laughter, there were comments. The fat man with the big pot belly offered, "You may use my belt, boy, though my breeches may fall!”

Sturmer Breul growled, “Nice touch, Arnath.”

The fat man slipped it out and tossed it over. Pavel bade Gunter move forward, and stood between Anja and the spiky bush. He wrapped the belt around her upper arms, pulling elbows close, so tight that one touched the other near her spine.

Even so, her fingers caught his crotch. She dug in as hard as she could with her nails.

Squealing like a girl, Pavel strove to prize her fingers off. When free at last, he stood prone to hold his balls. The pointing men laughed and mocked him cruelly, bent near double. Even the priest could not cover his laugh.

Pavel finished tightening the belt when he could bear to, standing awkward with his crotch held out of Anja's reach. He made sure to leave no corner of the thing protruding.

“Now walk her back!” he hissed to Gunter.

The crowd had managed to right themselves, but still they laughed. One called to Pavel, “Stick your arse out for her foot, boy! That’s the way to tame her!”

Pavel, shamed, turned to the man. “You think I can’t tame her?” He motioned his friends to let her go. Gunter did so when Pavel frowned, fierce. Joseph copied, though he knew not why.

She was shocked enough to be released that she hesitated for a single second, cautious as she was for her injured foot. She glanced at the bright yellow flowers below. They adorned the tip of the low, brittle bush. It was tall enough that this tip was a foot, no more, below her naked crotch.

Pavel swept Anja's legs out from under. She screamed and fell, hips dropping like a stone.

Then her scream became a screech.