New to Quest Five?
The stories are best enjoyed when read in order beginning with May 1, 2009.

Welcome To Quest Five
Allison Beaumont is having trouble finding a job after college until one day the wealthy and powerful Joseph Candle offers her a job at his rather unusual corporation, where mistakes can lead to bare bottomed spankings. Adopting the alias of Virginia West, she joins four highly skilled colleagues, racing around the globe in search of mysterious treasures, but wherever she goes, trouble is sure to follow.
Note: Some stories contain scenes of a sexual nature, corporal punishment, non-consensual corporal punishment, and strong language which some reader's may find offensive. If you feel this material might be inappropriate for you please move on to another blog by clicking the next blog link at the top of the page.

December 1, 2009

Spanking & Chastening: Wallflower

I stood staring at the entrance from the gardens surrounding Quondam Tower. The sunlight warmed my back in the cool morning air and helped relax my tense muscles as I steeled myself to go inside and face the remaining consequence for disregarding corporate policy. It had happened almost a month ago and yet the memories of the immediate consequences, taking place just inside the lobby, were still fresh in my mind, heightened by the fact I had not entered the lobby since. Having to wait while knowing this day was coming had been a punishment of its own, but no one could dispute the time was necessary for me to recover from the incident in Chile.

A quick glance at my wrist told me I could delay no longer without risking being late for my appointment in Human Resources and that was definitely not something worth considering. Ready or not, I strolled inside and forced a professional smile onto my face. Cathy was at her station as usual despite the early hour, making me wonder if she ever left her post at all. As I neared her, she stepped out from behind the counter and greeted me with a sympathetic smile.

"Good morning," I said, with the unwelcome memory of our last encounter flooding my memory and cheeks with a warm glow of shame.

Cathy said, "Good morning. You'll have to take one of the regular elevators. HR has restricted your access already."

"Of course," I said, pausing only briefly before changing my direction to the bank of elevators on the other side of the room. Difficult as it was, I tried to tell myself that losing my privileged elevator access was a mild disciplinary measure and nowhere near the humiliation I suffered on my last visit to the lobby. Embarrassment warmed my skin regardless, which was no doubt the entire purpose behind the decision in the first place.

I stepped out of the elevator onto a nearly desolate fourth floor. The only person in sight was a young man, at least a couple years younger than myself, sitting behind a reception desk. He looked up as I walked into the hallway and wondered which way to proceed, having never been to the normal entrance of the HR department before. I walked toward him hoping it was the right direction and by the expectant look on his face I was reasonably certain.

"Good morning," I said, coming to a stop in front of his desk.

"Miss Virginia West I presume?" He said, glancing at his watch and then typing the time into the computer.

"Yes, I have an appointment this morning," I said.

"With Mrs. Anderson, yes." He said, still looking at his screen.

"Should I go in?" I asked, shifting my weight from side to side as my stomach tightened in knots.

"Mrs. Anderson will call for you when she is ready," He said, looking up at me. "You are aware you are here for a disciplinary action in relation to a violation of company policy?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Do you wish to contest anything?" He asked.

"No," I said, feeling like I was pleading guilty.

"You may wait against the wall," He said, nodding in the direction of a small stretch of wall parallel to his desk, leading to a set of double door which obviously served as the entrance to the main HR offices.

I looked from him to the wall in question and back again. His attention was already refocused on his computer screen though so I shrugged and walked over to the wall. I leaned back against hoping the wait would not be too long, but at the same time being in no hurry for Mrs. Anderson to call for me. If only there had been a chair to sit on I would not have felt so conspicuous.

"Facing the wall Miss West," The young man said, interrupting my thoughts and making me blink like I had been splashed in the face. I turned around to face the wall without question even though every part of me wanted to scream out about the ridiculous instruction.

I felt myself blushing once more in a morning already filled with blushing. It was still early but my mind wandered to the possibility of being seen by the dozens of employees who worked in the HR department as they made their way in to their desks for the day. I had expected to be inside of the Mrs. Anderson's office and gone long before the typical work day began, but the longer I stood waiting, the more I realized I really had no idea what to expect. Rather than worrying about the things I could not change, my thoughts drifted back to Virginia's living room and the conversation Tom and I had the morning after our return from Chile.

Tom turned on his side, burying his face in the back of Virginia's couch as I crept passed
on my way to the kitchen. Outside the sun was just beginning to rise on the horizon and
although I should have been sound asleep, like Tom, I was wide awake. The unfamiliar
surroundings and the echoes of discouraging conversations with both Jack Barker and
Joseph Candle had left me tossing and turning in Virginia's bed until the clock finally
gave me a reprieve in the form of an hour not too early to be called morning.

Stifling a yawn, I quietly searched the cupboards of Virginia's kitchen for coffee and
anything else I might need to make a stab at breakfast. The unfamiliar organization
served as one more blatant reminder that I had put off coming to this place for far too
long. I only hoped Tom had failed to notice my lack of familiarity as we had searched the
house for possible intruders and unwanted surveillance equipment, upon entering the
night before. If only Jack and Tom worried a little less, I could have gone home to my
own place and rested a lot more peacefully.

The muffled snores coming from the couch came to an abrupt stop as the coffee pot
gurgled its last spurts into a full pot. Tom sat up and yawned and I poured a full cup and
then as an afterthought, a second cup for Tom. I delivered the cup with a smile and
hoped he drank it black because I had no idea where Virginia kept her cream or sugar or
if she had any at all.

"Good morning," I said, sitting down in a matching armchair across from the sofa.

Tom sipped from his steaming cup and peered at me through curious eyes. He said,
"And here I had you pegged for a late sleeper."

"I didn't mean to wake you," I said, coming just short of apologizing. When I started the
coffee pot I had not given any thought to whether or not it would disturb Tom's sleep,
but in hindsight it seemed a little rude.

"Well at least you had the good sense to bring me a decent cup of coffee," Tom said,
smirking as he sipped a little more. "Reminds me of Joe's brew actually. Don't tell me
you use the same brand?"

"It's news to me if I do," I said, wondering if someone had been dumb enough to stock
Virginia's kitchen with brands easily associated with Quondam's standard purchases. I
was definitely going to have to mention it to Cathy the next time I saw her.

"Got any plans for your time off?" Tom asked.

"Not really. I still can't believe I'm getting a vacation when we obviously have a lot of
work to do if we having any hope of catching up with our competition," I said.

"It's not like the rest of us are going to be sitting on our hands waiting for you to get
back," Tom said. "Besides, can you really call mandatory leave a vacation?"

"Maybe not, but you have to admit it sounds better that way," I said. "I know you guys
will still get things done without me, but I feel like I should be helping. It's at least
partially my fault we're behind in the first place and I'd rather be making that right than
sitting around twiddling my thumbs while a few bruises heal."

Tom leaned forward and sat his cup down on the coffee table between us and looked at
me as if he was trying to decide whether or not to say the things he was thinking. I
allowed my lips to curl upward in a smile I hoped conveyed my willingness to hear
whatever he had to say. Understanding my intention, he nodded and rested his elbows
on his knees.

He said, "I hear you, but nothing that happened down there was your fault. If Jack had
listened to you from the start, we would have beat Stratford to that cave quite handily
and you would never have been captured at all. As far as I'm concerned your
contributions to this team have easily outweighed any complications or mistakes you've
made."

"No one else seems to agree with that interpretation," I said, recalling the scathing
words of Mr. Candle on the cliff's edge at Rapa Nui.

"What about you?" Tom asked.

"What about me?"

Tom said, "You know damn well what I mean. You aren't the type to sit around second
guessing yourself. There's no arguing we came in second best down there, but you know
you had it right from the start. I can't figure you'd be blaming yourself because you
violated a totally unrelated corporate policy."

"That's the frustrating part," I said. " I agree with you. It's stupid to disregard someone's
knowledge just because they broke a rule, but at the same time I understand Jack's
dilemma. He can't shrug it off without giving the appearance he doesn't care about
policy and giving my opinion more weight than that of Dr. Michaels', who does follow all
the rules, would give that wrong impression."

"You definitely need to be a little more careful when it comes to following policy and
rules, but in the short time I've known you, I've figured out you have a knack for noticing
things the rest of us don't," Tom said.

"So I should get mad, throw a temper tantrum until Jack figures out he should listen to
me?" I said.

"No, I think you've managed to get yourself in enough trouble as it is, unless you like
having a red ass," Tom said and I blushed. "What you need to do is decide what it is you
really want."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," I said.

"You can't walk on the edge and think you're never going to fall," Tom said. "Either you
give yourself to the team and Quondam or you get out."

"So now you're saying everything is my fault?" I said.

Tom said, "I'm saying we're pretty foolish not to make use of your skills while we have
them and it's pretty obvious that won't be forever unless something changes on your
end. You're still holding onto the life you had before and if it's worth it, Q5 is the last
place you should be."

"What do you know about the life I had before?" I asked, wondering if he knew anything
real or merely suspected something more than Mr. Candle's cover story.

"I know it's not this," Tom said. "Have you ever even been here before last night?"

My eyes widened with surprise. I had thought or rather hoped, I had hid my
unfamiliarity with the condo from Tom. In retrospect it was silly of me to think all the
minor missteps and wrong turns would go unnoticed, but what bothered me the most
was the possibility he had figured it out before we had ever set foot in Virginia's condo.

"I'm not going to tell anyone and you did a pretty good job of faking it, but this place
looks like a corporate rental for an executive and nobody lives that way by choice," Tom
said. "Not to mention, I've seen your office and there is no way you'd keep a house this
neat."

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do," I said.

Tom said, "You can change your name, your appearance, the place you live, but in the end you can't really change who you are. Trust me, I know."

"And who am I?" I asked.

"Only you can answer that question," Tom said.

I snorted half laughter and half disgust while I shook my head. Tom was a good man, but like everyone else in Q5, he had an annoying penchant for almost answering questions. The laughter bouncing in his eyes told me he knew what I was thinking and had probably been in my position sometime in his past. It was not all that surprising, but I had hard time imagining him being called anything other than Tom which made me wonder if the rest of them saw me in the same light. Was I a better Virginia or Allison?

"You think you'll be going away anywhere while I'm out?" I asked.

Tom said, "I doubt it. We've not had anywhere near our normal downtime since you joined. Gene is weeks behind in analysis of what we have found and I've got a similar backlog on Quondam's defense projects. Unless something comes up, it's a pretty safe bet we'll be catching up on our more mundane responsibilities."

"At least I won't miss out on anything," I said.

"Quite the opposite, I think. You'll be exploring some new territory while the rest of us sit around and wait," Tom said.

"Let me guess, nobody on the team has ever got in this kind of trouble with HR before?" I said.

"I won't say that, but it's been awhile. I imagine you'll figure out why long before they're done with you," Tom said.

"That bad eh? I don't suppose you'd like to give me a clue as to what I can expect?" I said.

"You know what Quondam's main disciplinary tool is," Tom said. "The rest is a little different for each person, but it boils down to doing jobs that give your situation a high profile. The theory is it serves to warn others about the consequences and gives the culprit an additional set of reasons to correct themselves."

"Sounds like fun," I said, taking a deep breath and wondering if I was truly prepared to go through with the whole thing.

"If you are going to leave anyway, there is no point going through it," Tom said.

"You think I should?"

"No, I rather hope you decide to stick around, but I completely understand if you don't," Tom said.

"Does it get any easier?" I asked.

"That's really up to you," Tom said.

"You know, you really aren't much help," I said.

"I could be more helpful, but you and I both know you wouldn't listen," Tom said.

"And if I promised to listen?" I said.

"Enjoy your time off and when you go up before HR, just be sure you are prepared to see everything through to the end," Tom said.

He was right and it was of course the biggest question in my head. The little girl still needs my help and it does seem I am the only one capable of truly helping her, but the path toward that end is shrouded in mystery and half truths told by the people I need to trust. Am I really willing to subject myself to the humiliation of corporate discipline just to save a girl I barely know from a danger I cannot even begin to understand or is there another reason? Maybe I am not running away because I am not willing to give up being Virginia—

"—West, Mrs. Anderson will see you now," The young man said, interrupting my thoughts for the second time of the morning.

5 comments:

  1. Ashley, an introspective episode, I suspect that V will be punished hard.
    I believe she also needs to be rewarded and encouraged, not always disciplined hard.
    Warm hugs,
    Paul.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ash,

    excellent post I like how you told the story mainly from Virginia thoughts very well done. be interesting to see what is in store for Virginia after she has seen Mrs Anderson.
    Al

    ReplyDelete
  3. All my dreams are coming true. Great work.

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  4. Waiting for the next chapter feels like waiting for Christmas. I have some really high hopes for this whole HR thing.

    Nice to see you commenting here too Mdare, I know you must appreciate the office setting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi,

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    Thanks,
    Kelly

    ReplyDelete