Of shared submission

“Are you awake, little Cherub?” The pet name Mother hadn’t used for her in years pulling Chastity back from the edge of falling asleep once more. In reply, she couldn’t help but snuggle up closer to the woman, resting her head upon a collarbone and trying to hide from the dark differences of this place. She felt an arm wrap back around her and squeeze… letting them stay in silence for just a minute or so like that: parent and child together against the world. Once again, for all her fears… the teen was unsure whether she had ever felt so close to this being which birthed her. Naked together in the cold and the dark, with unknown assailants apparently always about to crawl out of the woodwork… it made the warmth that emanated from within the chest she lay against seem so much more poignant.

After awhile… the questions that needed asking bubbled up beyond restraint. “Are we really going to stay here… like this? Forever now, Ma?”

The Ma in question ran tender fingertips up and down the bumps of her daughter’s spine, landing another light kiss upon her forehead. “Yes, Honey… They need us… and we need them… You’ll understand when you’ve been here a bit longer. Father explains it a lot better than me… We are the answers to each other’s salvation! We’ll be doing the Lord’s work here... More than we could do anywhere else.”

Chastity let those words sink in… as yet unconvinced. But she’d already known that once her mother had taken so great a step as to bring them here… that the decision was final. There were just so many more mysteries about this place and the activities that went on though… everything seemed so contrary to what she’d been taught up till now.

“But, who are they?” She asked, determined to win at least something from this late night exchange. “...And why do they all wear those strange masks?”

Her mother’s smile was just about visible in what thin moonlight filtered in from above. “They are our Brothers, Cherub. Lost souls who found the teachings of Father, like we did… They come from miles around to stay here. Maybe for just a night or two… To learn and pray and bathe in the holiness of this place! The masks are for their protection, because there are many misguided people who renounce Father’s teachings… but they could be men from all walks of life: policemen, senators, farmers or tramps. All are equal here, beneath those masks. Isn’t that wonderful?!”

Chastity could read the devotion behind those words. Palpably feel how much her parent believed them. So, as always, she desperately wanted to believe in them too… However, the obvious gap in that gracious view of equality was not invisible to her. She could not help but bring it up.

"Why are there no other women here, though Ma? Why are we the only ones not allowed to wear clothes?"

If there was a falter in her mother's answer, it was far too momentary to properly pick out. That smile shone out and over, smothering with its honesty. Chastity realised, even in the darkness, that it was the exact same one that 'Father' wore.

"Oh there are, silly. You just haven't been introduced to them yet… I guess many other ladies might just be a bit more timid in devoting themselves as fully as we have. It was a little… difficult for me at first, too…"

She seemed to fully comprehend the nakedness of her own daughter, lying upon her breast, for the first time. Her eyes wandering slightly and a brief blush rising. Her voice hurried to catch up with itself to smooth over this admission though, reinstating its own zeal.

"But it's the only way we can be pure! I've warned you before about how the modern world asks us to fetishise and defile ourselves before other's eyes. It was only Father who showed me how the honest answer to that was to leave ourselves bared in the manner that we were made! Don't you feel how much closer He feels… when you hide nothing from His gaze?"

Chastity was not quite sure whether she meant God… or the ever-smiling priest. It worried her that Mother might not make much distinction either. Yet, it was true. The slight breeze that danced across her skin. The cold that was not so cold. The movement of her mother's fingertips and the sound of her subtle heartbeat. All of them seemed so much… louder, here. There was something special about right now, in this place, or in her current slightly-stained form… which made her feel more alive than she ever had before. That was what her mother was trying to get at. That was what she had brought her only child here to find. Chastity understood well enough. She would trust to that judgement, just as she always had. Reaching up to kiss her parent's cheek, before settling back down to slumber.