Glimpse

Our next 'Story of the Week' is Glimpse by Spanking Theatre, which has been recommended by LSF member, ordalie:

"The story starts as a fairy tale: someone (man, boy, girl, woman? We'll never know) going home through a wood where "autumn's touch had ignited a silent forest fire" happens to come upon a very beautiful house hidden in the woods. Looking through a window he has a glimpse of a fair maiden with her hair in golden plaits but her bare bottom with a cane wedged between her lower cheeks.

"Of course, the day after he goes back to the house again in order to rescue the fair maid. So far, so good. But then the story changes into a gripping and frightening tale, as scaring as Lord Dunsany's "Book of Wonders" for those who have read it. This is a ghost story, dark and forbidding which made my hair stand on end. It's well worth reading."

Synopsis:
A man peers into a strange house where there is a girl bent over with a cane between the cheeks of her bottom. Afraid of being discovered he flees, but after a night of nightmares he goes back to the house again. Thus he is drawn into a trap from which there is no escape.

Thank you, Ordalie!

Of all the stories I've written, Glimpse is still one of my favourites. I've always loved darkly gothic ghost stories, the kind M.R James and Poe used to write. Those familiar with the Gothic style will recognise the tropes, the pained reminiscences of a narrator, (whose gender is unspecified), haunted by visions and tormented by their own desires. The forbidding woods, an island of unreality seemingly isolated from the outside world, and at its heart a place where the very experience of time seems corrupted.

It might not necessarily turn you on, but I've always believed erotic stories should aim to be more than just recipes to arouse their reader. And what better setting for a spanking than a tale of temptation and punishment, one as dark and disturbing as a bottomless pit.

I hope you'll enjoy it.

It was a nice story. Well written.

Many thanks for the recommendation, Ordalie - it's impressively written and chilling. 'Nice', Goodgulf? Not sure that's quite the adjective I'd choose....

Nice has many meanings...

To quote a dictionary:
1
obsolete a : wanton, dissoluteb : coy, reticent

2
a : showing fastidious or finicky tastes : particular <too nice a palate to enjoy junk food>
b : exacting in requirements or standards : punctilious <a nice code of honor>

3
: possessing, marked by, or demanding great or excessive precision (see 1precision 2a) and delicacy <nice measurements> <a nice distinction between these two words>

4
obsolete : trivial

5
a : pleasing, agreeable <a nice time> <a nice person>
b : well-executed <nice shot>
c : appropriate, fitting <not a nice word for a formal occasion> <She always wears nice clothes.>

6
a : socially acceptable : well-bred <from a nice family>b : virtuous, respectable <was taught that nice girls don't do that>

7
: polite, kind <that's nice of you to say>

It definitely fits meaning 3 (possessing, marked by, or demanding great or excessive precision) and 5b ( well-executed) - and it might also fit 5c (appropriate, fitting).

"Nice" is a word that I've enjoyed using ever since I read a certain book written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - if only for the reactions of people who expect it only to mean 5a (pleasing, agreeable).

True, it used to mean all those other things. In current usage, it's been reduced down to 'pleasing, agreeable', like a lot of words that have shifted in meaning over the years. After all, if you said a girl was wearing a 'sleazy dress', I doubt she'd be mollified by you pointing out that it could mean 'light, gossamer'....

Well, I'd venture that meanings #5 (a & b), #6 and #7, which are somewhat interrelated, are still commonly used and accepted in modern society; #3 would likely be represented by "neat" in that sense today.

However, strictly in the #5b aspect of "nice," meaning "well-executed," certainly "Glimpse" would qualify for that description, since it's quite well written.

In the sense that the story includes spanking activity on a spanking-oriented website, the #5c meaning of "nice" as "appropriate" could be argued as applicable, although I'm uncertain about how much of that usage actually exists today. (Seeing a prostitute wearing slutty-looking attire while flaunting herself on the street, how many people would claim that she's wearing "nice clothes," even though they're "fitting" to the activity she's engaged in?)

Semantic issues aside, "Glimpse" certainly is a darkly compelling story--there's a valid reason that people avoid those spooky-looking houses in the middle of scary, off-the-beaten-track wooded areas, isn't there...??

--C.K.

Wow. Just wow. That was a very beautifully written and chilling horror story, that also happens to feature spanking. I'm very grateful to Ordalie for recommending it.