October Ghosts. Jenny Plumb

Seth agreed.

      Olivia wanted to say no, especially since her opinion was the one Paula wanted to change, but she knew Jessie would eventually talk her into it anyway, because he liked Paula. With a sigh, she nodded. "I guess."

      "Fantastic! I'll give you guys more information once we make reservations."

      Saturday afternoon, the bus dropped Olivia off two blocks away from Club Domino. She was looking forward to the 'Little's Munch and Play' that the club hosted on the first Saturday of every month. Later tonight, Jessie would be going to a very different party at Club Domino and meeting up with his regular Domme, Angie, for some bondage and impact play.

      Walking the two blocks to the club would have been enough time for most people to get into their Little mindsets, but Olivia's brain didn't seem to work that way. It always took her significantly longer to get into that mode than it seemed to take her friends. When she entered the bland, nondescript lobby, she was still twenty-year-old Olivia instead of eight-year-old Olivia.

      After paying her entrance fee, she stepped into the backroom and looked around at the decor to try pushing her Little side to the forefront. Normally, Club Domino had dim lights, loud music and, on kink night, equipment staged around the room. But for the Munch and Play, the lights were on, the music was low, and the equipment had been pushed to the side. For this party, there was a big conference room table on one side, filled with foods that children enjoyed, and another conference table in the middle of the room that held several coloring books and sets of crayons. In the corner of the room, they had a small television set playing old Scooby Doo cartoons, and there were beanbag chairs on the floor around it.

      Olivia frowned as she took in the orange and black streamers and balloons around the room and noticed that all the coloring books were Halloween themed. Even the five back bedrooms against the wall had streamers in them. It was only October third, so all of this seemed premature to her. The logical adult side of her brain knew this was an adult perspective and that eight-year-old Olivia would love to watch some cartoons and color a pumpkin, but her adult side wouldn't be pushed back.

      She'd arrived about ten minutes late, so there were already fifteen people in the room. She searched the faces for her friends and saw Faith, Juan, Beth, and Ian at the coloring table. Ian caught her eye and got up to greet her.

      "Hi, Liv, I'm glad you could make it," Ian said.

      "Hey, Ian."

      "Not 'Hey, Daddy Ian'?" he asked.

      She shook her head with a frown.

      "Not feeling it yet?"

      She shrugged.

      "How about we go to a bedroom and I'll help get you there?"

      "Okay," she answered softly. She didn't want help; she needed it. Letting Ian help would make the rest of the two hours much more enjoyable.

      He put an arm around her, and they walked to a back bedroom. He shut the door behind them and sat on the corner of the bed. He guided her over his lap, and she went where his hands directed without any verbal or nonverbal protests.

      "Safeword?" he prompted, resting his spanking hand on her back.

      "Red," she answered dutifully while rolling her eyes. They'd been playing together all summer, but he always made her acknowledge her safeword, even though she'd told him that he didn't need to.

      "Okay. How old are you, Liv?"

      "Twenty."

      "Let's see if we can fix that." His hand smacked down hard on her left ass cheek.

      She grunted and whined. "Not so hard."

      Another smack landed just as hard on the other cheek.

      "Ow," she complained.

      After ten swats, he paused and said, "How old are you, Olivia?"

      "Twenty!" she answered, kicking her foot on the ground.

      "Hmm." He started spanking again, harder and faster than before.

      "Ow! Ian, not so hard! Please."

      His only response was to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her against his torso as he continued to swat the seat of her jeans.

      "Owww!"

      After twenty whacks, he paused again. Her entire ass burned unpleasantly.

      "How old are you, Liv?"

      "I don't know," she whined. "Please stop."

      "That's not the way good girls ask, is it?"

      "I don't know." She squirmed and pushed to get up.

      He started spanking again.

      "Owww, Daddy!"

      "There's a good girl," he praised while his hand slapped down even harder.

      "Please stop, Daddy. I'll be good." She put a hand back to cover her bottom.

      He grasped her hand and moved it out of the way as he said, "You're always a good girl, Liv. Ten more."

      She shook her head, but his hand slapped down again and again while she squirmed, whined, and begged him to stop.

      He paused and said gently, "How old are you, Liv?"

      "Eight," she answered, sniffling and wiping her face with her free hand.

      "Are you my good girl?" he asked.

      "Yes, Daddy."

      "Okay, all done." He let go of her wrist and helped her stand. He opened his arms in invitation. "How about a snuggle before we go back out?"

      She sat on his lap and rested her head on his chest while he enveloped her in a hug. She hugged him back with one arm and put her free hand on her backside to rub out the sting. Ian was a great Daddy. He was a safe Daddy, because Ian had a wife. He'd made it clear before they'd ever played that there could never be anything sexual about their age-play, and that worked out perfectly for Olivia, because sex was for adult Olivia only.

      After a few moments of comfort, he said, "Do you want to go color with Beth?"

      She nodded against his chest. Beth was a better artist than Olivia, which sometimes made her jealous, but if they were doing coloring books instead of freehand drawing, that wouldn't be a problem.

      "Okay." He helped her to stand, and they went out to the table side by side to find a coloring book for her.

      Two hours later, after saying goodbye to her friends, twenty-year-old Olivia got on a bus back to campus. She looked out the window at the city going by and tried to assess her feelings. Usually after being Little for a couple of hours, she felt happy and relaxed, but today, happiness eluded her. She'd found out that her friend and fellow Little, Faith, was engaged to her Daddy, Juan. Olivia knew that she should be happy for them, and on some level she was. But mostly, she just felt sorry for herself, because she didn't know if she could ever trust someone to be her husband and her Daddy. That was way too much trust to put in one man.

      Two days later on Monday, Olivia scanned the faces of the women sitting in a circle with her as she said, "Hi, I'm Olivia, and I'm a survivor,"

      "Hello, Olivia," the group murmured in unison.

      "Thank you all for coming tonight," she said. "I see some new faces in the circle, so I'm going to quickly go over a couple of things before we start. This group is for people identifying as female who have had some kind of sexual assault in their past. If that doesn't apply to you, I would respectfully ask that you leave before we start. There is an all-gender inclusive meeting on campus on Sundays, and I'm happy to give you that information if you'd rather go to that one."

      She paused to see if anyone wanted to leave and then nodded. "This group is also confidential.