"So if everything is clear, I would like your verbal agreement to follow the rules laid out."
The Reverend's voice was much softer than it was when he was speaking in front of a crowd; Almost a whisper as though he wasn't used to talking at all. But there was still a quiet confidence to his cadence - as if he knew that he didn't need to yell to demand the respect of others.
He was sitting on Eris' couch inside of Eris' living room inside of Eris' house - though it hardly felt like her own home right now as there were padlocks on many of the doors and most of her refrigerator had been emptied out as its contents were deemed 'temptations'; Things ranging from beer to leftover takeout to basically anything that wasn't a staple. She watched as the head of the Neighborhood Watch and the younger of the town's two police officers, Leo, worked together to make sure it was satisfactory to the Reverend's liking. As they worked, Eris was made to kneel on the floor in the middle of the house while they stared at her with each passing trip - carrying boxes of clothes, towels, blankets, and food out to be either thrown away or hidden in a location she was not allowed to know.
They even took down the curtains and the quilts - her bed had only a single white sheet on it and her bathroom had one towel that was kept in a locked box on the counter - the key to be given to her when she was told to shower. Eris was left with nothing to cover herself with as she knelt naked on the floor in front of the Reverend, a sheet of paper on the floor that he had just finished reading aloud.
"I would have you sign the contract to make it official, but given that you might be a witch I don't want to take the risk of having proof that I've entered a contract with you. I hope you understand why a verbal agreement is needed."
Eris was compelled to strip during a church meeting - the logic being that she was a witch and that nudity would reveal her magic to the whole town. But even after having to masturbate to prove her innocence, there was still ample suspicion around her presence there, and the only way anybody would believe she was innocent was if she continued to remain naked until everybody was satisfied that their theory was disproved. How long that would take though still remained to be seen.
"Yes, sir." Eris responded. She knew better to disagree with what the Reverend said - one of the first rules she was taught after her humiliating sentence began.
"Excellent," The Reverend smiled and slid the paper closer to her. "I will permit you to keep this for your own reference. You can hang it up somewhere or ask another person to carry it for you if you want to reference the rules later."
She picked up the sheet and read over it one more time, her hands shaking as she gripped it by the edges. It read:
"The accused Witch -name here- does hereby understand and agree to the following rules for the duration of her sentence, to be served until such time as the Church's leadership agrees she is no longer a threat to her surroundings.
Rule 1) The Witch is always to obey her escort's direct demands. Obedience shall be done to the best of the Witch's ability and a failure to react in a punctual manner will be considered an incursion to be punished at the Escort's discretion.
Rule 2) The Witch must be escorted by a morally upstanding person(s) at all hours. If no such person is available or the designated Escort is currently indisposed, the Witch is expected to find an alternative Escort and request to be monitored of her own volition.
Rule 3) The Witch is not permitted to wear clothing or any other body covering unless otherwise told to. This includes articles of a makeshift nature including covering with her hands. Anything she is ordered to wear must be worn until it is ordered to be removed or forcibly removed by her Escort.
Rule 4) The Witch may not circumvent the above rules in any way, such as intentionally deafening herself to avoid hearing commands, attempting to deceive the escort to leave her alone, attempting to avoid nudity by hiding herself, et cetera.
Rule 5) The Witch is expected to behave in a respectful way to non-escort citizens. This rule must be observed even in moments of provocation. Should the Witch be molested during her sentence, she must confer with her Escort to diffuse the problem and is not permitted to take matters into her own hands.
These above rules are binding in descendant order. That is to say, the topmost rules override rules beneath them. For example - the Witch may wear clothing if her escort orders her to do so. She may be left alone at the discretion of her escort. She may act disobediently to non-escort citizens if it means maintaining her nudity."
"Ordinarily, we would have to keep you under surveillance inside your house at all times to ensure that you do not pose a threat to Fairhaven." The Reverend gave her some time to finish re-reading before he began to speak again. "But given that we are still unsure that you are guilty, I've decided to allow you to continue to lead a regular life to ensure that this sentence does not impede your ordinary ambitions."
"You mean? I'll be allowed to leave my house?" Eris asked. "To see my friends? To enjoy myself?"
"By all means, yes." The Reverend smiled. "I hope you didn't think we'd be treating you like some sort of prisoner! After all, you are technically innocent until proven guilty. The entire point of this exercise was to test your guilt, and it would be hard to compare your lifestyle changes if we kept you cooped up all day. In fact, this entire trial only makes sense if you go about your business as normal.
"Of course, the rules will still apply..."
"Wait, you mean..." Eris shuddered. "I still need to stay naked?"
"Naturally." The Reverend smiled.
Eris shuddered as the reality of her situation sank in. She would not only have to spend the next several days naked, but she was expected to continue to live her usual life that way - to go to work, to meet with friends, to visit all of her earlier obligations. And she'd have an escort making sure she went through with it.
Part of her wanted to raise her voice; To complain or ask for better conditions or even to refuse to comply outright. But The Reverend had made sure she knew the alternative - he was an expert at rousing people into anger and he would make sure that that anger would be directed her way.
"Excuse me," A head poked around the corner and began to speak before she could linger on that thought any longer, Officer Leo's - who was still struggling not to stare too obviously at the naked girl on the ground. "We're all done here, s-sir."
"Very well." The Reverend stood up and walked towards the door. "I have other things to do, but don't worry, you can stay in your own home today.
"Ms. Crumfeld has already volunteered to be your first Escort for the sentencing. She will serve the role that I have been serving thus far until such time that we can get a more stable list of volunteers."
The two men left, leaving the scowling, bitter crone alone with the naked Eris before she even had the chance to consider what he meant by 'volunteers'.
She heard the door shut in the distance - then, the sound of something locking. Did they have a copy of her house key? She wasn't able to ponder this question, either before Crumfeld snapped her fingers to get Eris' attention.
"Get up." She spoke, a slight gravel-y noise in her voice. "You're going to bed."
Eris stood up, her gaze fixed on the corner of the room as she still found it hard to maintain eye-contact with anybody in her current state of undress.
"You can use the blanket in there, but don't try anything funny." Crumfeld pointed down the hallway. "I'll be watching."
"I'm sure you will..." Eris thought. She didn't speak, though, merely nodding before heading down the hallway.
As she made her way to her bedroom, she took the chance to look at what they'd done to her home - her family's home. The hallway that she'd grown up in was now full of barricaded doors - padlocks on everything as the Reverend didn't want to increase the amount of hiding space she had available. She thought about what her parents might think if they could see the home today - but they were long gone on some long-term retirement vacation, leaving an unsold house behind as they believed their only daughter would eventually need it when she failed to make it on her own in the city. She hated that they were right.
Her bedroom was in the middle of the hallway and she noticed that there was a new lock attached to the frame on the outside. No doubt it was meant to keep her inside when she couldn't be monitored, there was no way to unlock something like that from within. The Reverend had said she was not a prisoner, but it didn't feel that way.
Before she got into her bed, she was told to stay just to the side of it as the head of the Watch flipped the sheets about, as if to inspect them for certain arbitrary parameters. When she didn't find anything wrong with the small white sheet, she scowled and walked over to the adjoined bathroom - which Eris just now noticed had no door.
Eris crawled beneath the covers, still a bit cold underneath the thin sheet but at least content to have some sort of covering for her body at last. She heard the lights click off as the room switched to darkness, the only illumination coming from the scant reflections of distant streetlights that shone in through the curtain-less windows. She was thankful her bedroom's only windows were blocked by overgrown hedges to prevent a nosy neighbor from seeing her like this - her lack of interest in yard maintenance was paying off.
And then, when she heard the door click shut, she finally had a moment's reprieve - the first time there wasn't a pair of eyes on her naked body for hours. Likely one of the last times for the indeterminate future.
Eris wasn't in Fairhaven by choice. She'd hated this small town since she was old enough to realize there was a world outside of it. But her parents enjoyed the 'cozy' vibes of the religious community here and didn't seem to find any fault with their only daughter being denied the exploration and fun of a more active social life. She never had many friends growing up, merely hanging around the girls her age out of necessity but not growing too attached to any of them aside from Shelby - and even she had grown distant in the last few days.
The same week she graduated from high school, she moved away. She wasn't entirely sure where and had wound up selecting an apartment she'd never even seen, purely on the word of a woman she'd only ever known over the phone. That first apartment was surrounded by noisy neighbors, located next to a busy intersection, and regularly had rodents scampering through it. And she'd loved it.
Eris moved from odd job to odd job, meeting plenty of new people but never getting especially close to any of them either as her chaotic new life never seemed to grant her the time to socialize. After a few months of being overwhelmed with work, she finally had to move in with her boyfriend - a guy she'd only known for a few weeks - just to get by after exhausting her savings.
