Father Augustine jumped as the lighter flicked into life, illuminating the room for just a moment before being plunged back into darkness. His chest heaved, bare skin in the open air as the flame found the candle at last.

“I cleanse this body of sin...” The priest steadies himself, looking into the flame and back to his book, reading passages as he waits for the wax to melt. He knew the words better than most, but still lingered at every printed letter in the gloom, reciting passages he could recollect at a moment’s notice.

“I cleanse this body of- Ngh...” The man jumped as the first glob of wax hit his skin, the overwhelming warmth cutting through the cold, bare room he spent his evenings. “I- cleanse this body of sin, through the pain of what our Father has given...”

Another drop lands; his once wince of pain becoming something else. He shifts where he reclined, book still firmly in his hand. He had to focus, focus on what’s real, what has been given to him, ground himself. Father Augustine tips the candle further, the flame moving up the candle and spilling even more, large and painful wax spilling across his chest and belly. He moans, stifled this time, his body reacting to the mix of discomfort and pleasure he wasn’t expecting. The warmth on his body felt like the gentle prick of fingers, and then hands running across his form. He moaned again, reclining further against the wall, letting more of the wax spill across his chest as he became louder and louder.

Is this what it felt like? To be touched like this? Scriptures and passages fled from his mind as the imaginings of touch invaded him, making him writhe and close his eyes, his focus long gone as his thighs pumped upward, cock springing to attention and humping the air at nothing. His hands let go of the holy book, grasping at himself, mindlessly and awkwardly gripping his nipples and the contours of his body.

Father Augustine looked down at himself, the mess on his body, and the erection raging and barely contained in his underwear. He’d failed again and sighed. Tomorrow would be another day of fasting and intense study.