Voyeur By Firelight By Shadow Gehring

It was a cloudy, cold night. The air still dripped of the rain that had recently passed through, but the sun's rays peaked through the clouds at Her last glimpse of Atlanta for the day. I found myself at a place I didn't know, with no expectations for an event that I had never seen. Not really.

Yet here I was.

Earlier in the day I had first met the people of the group at a Biker Bar in Austell. It's dingy low lighting with the distinct scent of cigarettes made me uncomfortable. I was out of my zone, out of my element. A trend that would continue.

The munch had gone well, or so I thought, with vibrant discussion still ringing in my mind I made my way to the private farm. Here, was a haven that was built for a daily life for those who had a dark side, and my first ever play party.

They said it was okay to sit back and watch, and so I decided I would. It wasn't long before several scenes started up, but one of them in particular still sticks out to me.

It was later on in the evening, around 11 or so. I had gone into the house to converse a bit with a couple other kinksters, though I didn't say much, again, mostly listened. I decided to head back out. The layout outside consisted of the house. Out of the front door, a small barn held the upper dungeon, and farther down the driveway, there was a larger barn that was called the lower dungeon.

The upper was much warmer, lit by both the light and heat of a propane heater, I opened the door and went inside. Instantly my ears were graced by the sound of a pained scream. My eyes were drawn to the back of the dungeon where a Miss and male sub were engaged in a scene upon piece of equipment. It looked similar to a vertical rope wall, about 8 and a half feet high, 5 and a half wide or so. Instead of ropes, it was lined with thick leather straps, deep red in color attached to a wooden frame. Tied to it, a male, naked from head to toe, save for the chain collar around his neck. I recognized him from earlier in the evening. With him, a Miss. I never spoke to Her one on one, and I never caught Her name. She was confident in her mannerisms, much so in a way that demanded respect and submission.

It was enough to make me squirm, shiver and shy away, but no, I forced myself to watch.

I came in late to the start. She was already on him. In her hand, a tool I wasn't familiar with. I later learned it was a dragontail. It's handle shined in Her hand as the single strap lashed against his skin. I couldn't really tell what he responded with. His body tensed at each hit, a moan or a groan, even a scream escaping with the harder hits. She was quick to switch to something else, change the feeling of what was hitting him. Next up came a cane. Thin, black, unyielding to his back. She quickly tapped him, each hit getting steadily harder, louder to the rest of the room.

I shivered, imagining how It might feel to be underneath that cane, but imagination failed me. It was unable to register how that felt. Before I knew it, she had a wooden paddle out. It was solid oak, inch and a half thick. No give. Captivated, I watched how his entire body jerked at it's impact. She swung hard and fast, with an expert hand that guided the end right to the very spot She desired. Words were uttered, though their definition and meaning held nothing but gibberish to those outside of the scene. She went back to her bag, beginning to rummage through it before She pulled out a black paddle. This was much different than the first. It was smaller, black, but leather. And it had a nasty surprise waiting on its end.

She pulled him off the rope wall. I realized that he had only been hanging on to the rope wall via his hands. Onto his hands and knees he went, and immediately She sat upon his back, facing backwards as she brought the paddle down. The glint of pyramid shaped metal ends flashed through the firelight room, followed by a smack and a scream as they slammed into bare skin upon his ass. I shivered, nearly closing my eyes, but I was enraptured. I found some part of me, some dark voice deep inside, that simply said, "Don't you wish you were under such care? Don't you wish you were there?" He was quickly approaching sub space, and a few more slaps with the leather - metal studded paddle put him in a place where She felt it necessary to stop and begin after care. It consisted of little more than putting up her things and leaving him a mess upon the floor while covering him in a black sheet.

It felt like it had been nearly an hour, but only about 30 minutes had passed. I didn't get into any scenes... nor did I really want to after that. It wasn't that I was alarmed by it, not totally. It did however make me consider if this was a path I wanted to go down. It made me realize just how little I knew, and how much more there is out there. And this was only the start.

I left a little after 12:30. My mind a haze of wandering thoughts and memories of what I had witnessed that night. My first play party was over, and the only play I had engaged in was voyeurism. Somehow I think that was the only play I needed to engage in that night.

~Shadow.