Chapter Ten
by Nelson
Warnings: Some spectral activity at the end but nothing to warn you about. No gore or stuff like that.
Colin walked in the door to a silent house, surprised at not finding his lover stretched out on the living room sofa.
"Riley?"
The lack of any answer left him perplexed. Maybe he had laid down for another afternoon nap. Colin shook his head. He knew that was probably what was keeping Riley so restless. Too much sleep during the day left him needing far less at night. Probably added to the nightmares, too, since he was likely not sleeping very soundly.
Colin took the few groceries he picked up for dinner into the kitchen, stopping immediately when he entered the room. He knew where Riley was as soon as he saw the open Ouija box even before he saw the gaping basement door.
"Damn it," he uttered in irritation as he thrust the grocery bag on the table.
He put the chicken breasts in the refrigerator and went straight downstairs then paused in wonder as the basement came into view.
Riley stood in the center of the room, pick swinging into the dirt, small piles of earth surrounding him. The shovel lay tossed aside out of his way as he chipped away at the packed dirt, making minimal progress.
"What the *hell* do you think you're doing?" Colin asked sharply with his hands on his hips.
Riley looked up at Colin as the pick struck the floor with a thud and he stood frozen in place.
"Colin." His eyes danced over the mess around him, small holes etched in the floor where he had started and stopped in different places. His lips curled up in a nervous half-smile in the face of his angry lover. "It's not what it looks like."
"No?" Colin's arms crisscrossed over his chest. "Why don't you tell me what it is then, because it looks exactly like you're digging holes in the basement. The basement I told you not to spend all day in."
Riley straightened up from his hunchbacked position. "I can explain."
"Can you? Can you really?" Colin asked incredulously.
"Yes, I can."
"While you're at it," Colin said with a sharp nod toward the discarded Ouija board, "you can tell me what that's doing down here after I specifically told you not to use it until I told you to."
"I didn't do it on purpose," Riley explained. "It's not my fault!"
"Riley, if you even *begin* to blame this on a ghost…" Colin said through gritted teeth.
"It was! I didn't *find* the Ouija board, it was just *there*!"
Colin stepped aside and pointed up the stairs. "Upstairs. Right now."
"But Colin!"
"Now!"
Riley clamped his mouth closed and searched Colin's angry eyes for understanding but found only stern determination. He felt the expected connection of Colin's hand with his butt as he passed by, ascending the staircase on heavy feet - feet covered in dust from the stirred up dirt floor.
"You have to listen to me, Colin," Riley said anxiously as he climbed the stairs, keenly aware of Colin's presence behind him.
"I'll listen, but not until I've had some time. Go straight to the office and stand in the corner."
Riley stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to face Colin. "The corner! Colin, come on!"
"You heard me," came the unwavering reply.
Damn it! Riley knew Colin wasn't going to be happy, but remanding him to the corner screamed just how unhappy he was. Riley knew from experience that corner time was more for Colin than for Riley. He used the time whenever he needed to calm down before he doled out punishment. It was one of the reasons Riley trusted Colin with discipline; he never disciplined out of anger. Knowing the purpose of staring at the dreary juncture of two walls didn't make the prospect any more appealing.
Riley huffed audibly and turned on his heel. "I'm going," he grumbled.
"You are in far too much trouble to be copping an attitude right now," Colin warned.
Riley didn't respond to the reprimand, but walked steadfastly to the office where Colin told him to go. There was no way Colin would understand until Riley had a chance to explain himself. Why was he home early anyway! Riley had planned to be back upstairs on the sofa by the time Colin came in, having every intention of rationally explaining the current events to him. That opportunity was lost forever.
Riley stomped over to the corner and checked the clock on the wall. It was barely 1:15. How long would it take him to calm down? Not long, he hoped on one hand. On the other, he knew what it meant for Colin to come to the office. The plaster wall was unexciting. Standing in the corner, Riley's tired muscles began to relax, his arms heavy from swinging the pick most of the day. By the time Colin joined him, Riley's legs were complaining almost as bitterly as his arms from standing in one place for twenty minutes.
He straightened up tall when he heard Colin's feet on the carpet of the office.
"Come here," Colin uttered the two-word command.
Riley turned from the corner and saw clarity in the formerly angry eyes. "I'm sorry, Colin," Riley apologized on the difficult path to the small loveseat where Colin waited.
Riley sat beside him and Colin said, "I'm ready to hear your explanation."
Riley did his best to maintain eye contact as he relayed what happened. "I was going out to work on the kitchen cabinet doors and I saw the Ouija game in the kitchen on the table."
"It was just there. You didn't find it and put it there?"
"No! I've been trying to tell you someone's in this house. Well, that someone is Samuel and he apparently wanted me to have the Ouija board more than you wanted me not to." Riley saw the disbelief in his partner's eyes. "Colin, I swear."
Colin could hear the sincerity in Riley's voice. Thoughts warred within him. He could see he had no more than three choices, none of which were appealing. Either their house had an unliving occupant, his partner was outright lying to him after six years together, or Riley was losing it. Every option pained him.
"Keep going."
"So the game was on the table, then the basement door opened on its own. I had nothing to do with that, either."
Colin shook his head. Their world was getting turned upside down, shaken with uncertainty and things they couldn't explain. He needed answers but there were none. Colin's mind peeled away the ambiguity and focused on what he knew, what had worked for them for six years. Regardless of how the Ouija board came out of hiding or how Riley ended up in the basement, the simple fact was he had chosen to disobey. Twice. Colin focused his attention on the facts he understood, the things he could deal with.
"But you had something to do with going to the basement after I told you not to. With getting the board out of the box and taking it with you. Correct?" Colin asked blatantly.
Riley's shoulders slumped. There it was. Plain and simple. "Yes."
"You went to the basement with the Ouija board after I told you to leave it alone. Went to the basement I told you to stay out of."
Riley swallowed hard at the two counts of misdeeds Colin deftly laid out. "Yes," Riley answered quietly.
"Do you see a problem with that?"
That was a loaded question! Riley's eyes appealed to Colin. "Colin…"
"Do you? Yes or no."
Riley hesitated then gave Colin a short nod in the affirmative.
"An answer, please," Colin prompted.
Riley's voice was quiet. "Yes."
Colin allowed a few seconds for Riley's response to make his point for him. Riley shifted uncomfortably on the sofa as the message slid home. "Ok. Then what happened?"
Did it matter? Riley knew he could only dig himself in deeper from this point. It seemed he had been doing a lot of digging that day. His thoughts turned to why he was digging in the first place. The board. It actually worked! A thrill tickled his spine, chasing away his discomfort for the moment, as he reflected on feeling the platform moving on its own while it slid across the letters on the board.
"I tried the board again. It worked this time, Colin," Riley said, his eyes bright with excitement even in light of the punishment he faced.
"What happened?"
"It moved," he said with a smile. "It said he was S – that's Samuel – and that he was alone. He said he needed help."
Colin took in what Riley was saying but wasn't impressed with a self-motivated planchette. There was no way it moved on its own. Riley had clearly been moving it unaware, the answers driven by an overactive imagination and boredom.
"Is that when you decided to go for the pick and shovel?"
"No! They were already in the basement! I didn't put them there and neither did you, I'm guessing."
"No, I didn't."
"Well, when I saw them down there, you *know* I had to dig. That was the message. To help. And when I saw the tools, I felt like I had to dig to help," Riley explained passionately. "I knew you were going to be mad, but I had to do it!"
"No, that's where you're wrong," Colin stated firmly. "You most certainly didn't *have* to do anything. You chose to. What else could you have done?"
"I…" Riley paused in thought. He knew what he should have done, but he couldn't wait!
"Answer me, Riley," Colin ordered sharply.
"I could have…" he started, his voice dropping to a near whisper, "I guess I could have waited for you."
Colin nodded. "Yes, you could have. *Should* have," Colin stressed. "Why didn't you? You didn't even bother to call me with all these things going on."
Riley exhaled wearily and looked at the ceiling. "I didn't want to," he answered honestly.
"I'm sure you didn't," Colin confirmed. "Because if you called me, you ran the risk of being told 'no digging in the basement'. Not to mention the fact you would have had to tell me how you ended up down there. You knew that wouldn't go over well and you knew I'd remind you to stay out of the basement."
"You would have!" Riley exploded. "I didn't want to wait, and I didn't want to ignore what was happening until the preacher could come over!"
Colin's calm demeanor counter-balanced Riley's distress. "Instead, you chose to disobey me and add to the list by digging up our basement. Was that the right decision?"
"Doesn't seem like it now," Riley mumbled, deflating as he glanced at the chair in the center of the room.
"I don't suppose it does." Colin got up and held his hand out to Riley.
Riley's heart began to thud hard against his chest, his stomach fluttering in dread of what was coming.
"How can you spank me after all that?" Riley implored.
"You don't know?" Colin replied as he took a seat and led Riley to his right side.
Looking into Colin's eyes, Riley couldn't deny he knew why he was being punished. "I couldn't wait, Colin. There was too much going on. I was just going with it."
"I need to trust you not to break the rules when I'm not around." Colin's litany gained momentum as he listed the wrongs of the day. "You could have left the Ouija board alone just like you did the key the other day, but you chose not to. You could have stayed out of the basement like I told you to, but you chose not to. You could have called me and told me what was going on before you decided to dig up our basement, but again, you chose not to. Do you see a pattern here?"
Riley dropped his head. "I'm sorry. Don't, Colin."
"Do you have anything to add?"
"Just that I'm sorry," Riley said, his stomach clenching automatically as he contemplated lying across his partner's lap. "And that I wish you could understand."
"I'm not punishing you for the parts I don't understand," Colin said firmly. "You're being spanked for the decisions you made today, not for what led you to them. Do you understand that?"
Riley nodded mutely. His eyes began to burn when Colin reached out and tugged his sweats to his knees. Cool air crossed his buttocks when Colin's fingers hooked his briefs and slid them down to meet the lowered sweats. The t-shirt falling softly over his bare behind did little to make him feel covered, the thin layer of cotton almost leaving him feeling more exposed. Colin pulled him down across his thighs and pushed up the tail of the t-shirt, the act throwing an emotional switch that turned his breathing suddenly quick and shallow.
Riley gripped hard on the rungs of the chair, bracing himself for the first smack, knowing even as he did it that no preparation was ever enough.
Colin ran his hand over the soft white mounds across his lap then let it rest in the center. He hated having to do this! But he had little choice. With the shifting sands they traversed lately, Colin knew they needed stability; solid ground they were familiar with. He would be just as out of line as Riley if he made the wrong choice and ignored such blatant disobedience. It would threaten the very foundation their relationship was built on: the simple black and white of broken rules and consequences. No, if he ignored it, the shifting sand would turn to sinking sand, and he would never let them sink. Never.
His resolve firmly fixed, Colin said, "Whatever is going on here, it doesn't change the fact that you made choices today that you knew were wrong. You're responsible for your actions, and if you make the wrong decisions, I'm responsible for making sure you think twice before repeating the errors."
Riley tried to listen while Colin talked, but his mind was focused on his position more than the reason he was in it. As soon as Colin finished his sentence, his hand lifted and Riley reflexively tensed his butt in the only defensive move he could muster with Colin's left arm anchoring Riley where he was. It was going to be a long one, Riley realized even as his brain began to register the slow sharp spanks landing on his backside.
Riley crossed his ankles and his body tensed as he tried to stoically accept his punishment, futilely trying to block out the pain as sting morphed into burn. A sob escaped his throat as Colin tightened his grip and picked up the pace.
"Colin!" Riley choked out around a tight throat. "Please don't! I won't do it again."
Colin's determination was unyielding, and he purposefully continued to spank as he compartmentalized the emotions stirred by his partner's cries and pleas. He had to do it, not just for Riley but for them. He turned a deaf ear to the promises and swatted Riley's reddening cheeks rapidly, resolved to make sure his partner learned from the experience.
Riley felt the tears slip from his eyes as he squeezed his lids closed against the pain in his backside. He instinctively writhed against the grip around his waist, his legs flexing and extending, though offering no relief at all. As the burning built in his behind, his emotions over-spilled and he cried out unashamedly, breaking down in unrestrained tears.
"I'm sorry, Colin," he choked around his sobs. "Please, stop. Please…"
Colin recognized the near surrender in the tear-filled voice and knew he was close to finishing the punishment. A rumble beneath his feet stopped him in mid-swing. The trembling was growing, becoming more insistent and angry, shaking the very foundation of the house. Windows rattled vehemently in their encasements and the floor continued to vibrate insistently under Colin's feet. Colin had never experienced an earthquake before, but that had to be it. Riley looked over his shoulder at Colin, his reddened face quizzical.
"Do you feel that?" Colin asked.
Riley felt nothing but the fire in his backside. He shook his head, too broken to try to speak around his tightened throat.
"I think we're having an earth—"
Colin's words were swallowed by an enormous bang as the closed office door swung open and slammed closed. Again it opened and crashed closed, leaving Colin bewildered and slack-jawed.
Colin had no time to make sense of what he was experiencing before books began to whiz off the shelf one at a time behind him. His left shoulder burst into pain as one of the books pounded into his shoulder blade.
"Ow!" Colin exclaimed.
"Colin?" Riley managed, looking back once again.
Colin braced himself to take more hits but it didn't protect him from being struck again, this time in the middle of his back. Colin snapped into action and he instinctively curled his body over Riley's to protect them both from flying literature and whatever else might happen. Before he could cover Riley, his partner was thrust from his lap into the floor. Riley looked up at Colin, baffled at the littered carpet and the storm contained in their office.
"Riley!" Colin yelled, instinctively jumping from the chair and reaching for his partner.
Unseen hands shoved him roughly back into his seat and panic gripped him as he was held fast, helpless to get to his lover. Riley's wide eyes sought Colin's amid the noise of the repeatedly banging door and windows rattling in their frames.
"Colin!" Riley exclaimed.
Colin used all the strength he had to free himself from the prison of the chair, and he struggled futilely against hands he could feel yet not see.
Riley watched in fascination as Colin was pinned to the chair, battling an opponent he neither understood nor was prepared to deal with. Papers on the desk were suddenly caught up in a vortex that sent them spiraling through the room, rustling and twisting while being kept afloat by an invisible force. Riley ducked another book jettisoned from the shelf but it never reached him, blocked by Colin's body, which took another hit.
"My God, Colin!" Riley shouted.
"Riley!" Colin shouted again desperately.
Riley sprang to his feet when he saw a hint of fear replace the surprise in his lover's eyes. He struggled to get his sweatpants pulled up so he could go to Colin, ignoring the reignited burn as the fabric slid over his punished buttocks. Colin groaned against invisible tethers, straining to reach out for Riley, as he threw himself against his disembodied captor.
Riley watched in horror as Colin's head snapped sharply to the left with enough force that it rebounded to center. A bright red handprint blossomed to life on the right sight of Colin's face and Colin touched his cheek in bemused amazement, his eyes filled with shocked wonder and his mouth open in surprise.
Instinctively, Riley shouted into the fray, hands balled into fists at his side. "Stop it!! Stop it, Samuel! STOP!!"
TBC
