It took Carmen longer than usual to get out of bed in the morning of her fifth day. It was unclear to her exactly why, was it the heavy air in her suddenly stuffy apartment, or the fogginess which had come to situate itself inside her head. It was like a hangover but without the ache, a dull sense of lethargy and a difficulty recalling the particulars of the night before. In fact, just how long had she even been asleep for? The sheets were in a state.

Carmen sat up and tried to get her bearings, but the shift had revealed another puzzle piece to the addled intern. Her underwear was different, unfamiliar... expensive. Had Mrs. Grew bought lingerie for her as some kind of reward? That seemed wildly inappropriate, so much so that Carmen had no chance of forgetting such an event. Still half asleep, she rationalised and bartered with her mind, conjuring up a more digestible explanation that she could almost believe. After the morning workout, Carmen must have showered and changed into a pair of her boss's spare panties. The story had more holes than Camp Green Lake, but for some reason it just stuck. It was as though all the inconsistencies and alarm bells rattling Carmen's mind were being overwritten in real time, with each and every breath of her oppressive apartment air. The scent of Mrs. Grew's commanding redolence had reached Carmen's last sanctuary and the occupant was already too enervated to realise. 

Sitting down before her mirror and make-up drawer, Carmen's eyes traced over the smooth leather collar clasped around her neck and the metal hoop which dangled from it, failing to even consciously recognise it's existence without express permission. It seemed that the conditioning that she had been subjected to had already taken root, corrupting her senses and awareness. Of course, Carmen was not aware of this, by design, but she was smart enough to notice the change. And yet, the smeared lipstick gracing her tinted cheeks had passed by undetected in the customary mirror-check, because Mrs. Grew told her not to see it. 

A small, fighting part of her was screaming to figure out what was so out of place. Telling her to find somebody she trusts, or call the authorities, at the very least just avoid returning to work until she was sure she'd be safe from Rose's... effects. Like a rubber band, her thoughts always snapped back into place whenever she would start thinking along those lines. Forgetting herself mid thought process, wondering what she had been so worked up about, or simply letting a tiny giggle pass through her loose lips and expelling the problematic defiance. 

This invisible, unconscious battle played out over the proceeding half hour as Carmen struggled to ready herself for work, by the time she had mustered up the will remember the kiss goodnight, she was already sitting in the subway with a docile stare. A co-worker noticed the intern sitting alone during her commute and soon they made a pair. The slightly older woman was in her mid twenties and had a blonde bob which tickled Carmen's shoulder when she leaned in close. 

Wordlessly, the woman's nose brushed the crook of Carmen's neck as she used it to breathe in deep. Carmen was so startled that she snapped out of her own reverie, sliding across the seat to give her some distance from her colleagues unbound intimacy. The pretty blonde looked up, but her eyes never quite met Carmen's. She gave the panicked intern a soft, congratulatory smile, knowing that Carmen would indeed be getting a new job role today. While hard to say whether she would be receiving a promotion or a demotion, it was enough to know that Carmen carried the scent of a week in Grew's office. 

"I'm Bethany. Nice to meet you! May I walk you to the office? We're on the same floor."

Her voice was pretty too, Carmen almost felt paralysed by it. "Uhm, s-sure." Was it strange, the way her co-worker had worded that offer? No, no, Carmen was simply being paranoid now. It was a perfectly innocuous, friendly proposal to keep one another company during the two minute walk to their building and subsequent journey through it. 

"Great!" Without skipping a beat Bethany had leaned over to clip her leash onto the ring on Carmen's collar, the short black stretch of glossy leather an inch or two off taut as it swayed from the blonde's firm grip. "You're so lucky, Chestnut, I'm allllmost jealous." Bethany began speaking while she corrected the other's posture, the train slowly screeching to a halt at their stop. "If you're assigned to the corporate sector you should totally aim to become a handler too, it's so much fun." The blonde guided Carmen out of the subway like a lamb to slaughter, with a beaming grin on her friendly face the entire way. "But like, I hear that you're being chosen for homelife, which is real impressive. I mean, at first I was so resistant to being told what to think all the time that I almost got on a train to god knows where... to be young and foolish!" 

Carmen plodded along behind Bethany and tried her best to follow the one sided conversation, but she talked so quickly it was disorienting. The growing sense of wrongness only built, but it almost seemed like it would have been impossible to do anything but follow if she had tried. Just what was her guide saying anyway? 

"To think, you've never even been to the training room and you're already ahead of me. I really need to work on my obedience... how do you do it?" Bethany spun on her heels and pulled Carmen close by the leash, her eyes expecting an answer to the question she had just thrown out. The eyes were not harsh nor demanding, rather they were desperate, pleading. A little pathetic. 

"Oh uhm... I uhh..." It was like asking a calculator how it does math. Carmen couldn't compute. "I... I just do whatever Mrs. Grew asks, because it's my uh, job."

Bethany's eyes fluttered like she had just been granted the wisdom of a sage, pulling Carmen into a deep embrace in another display of impulsive intimacy. Her voice was as low as a whisper, reverent in tone. "Good girls do their jobs for Mistress Grew. I do what I'm told because I'm a good girl. I'm a good girl because I do what I'm told." 

The mantra made Carmen shiver, despite the exact phrasing being unfamiliar to her, the sentiment had a nostalgic ring to it. It made her feel owned. "B-bethany... I... I don't think we-"

"Come, we're going to be late!" The leash was pulled taut and Carmen's protestations snapped from the strain, her mind and body too focused on keeping up with the energetic blonde. Once more she found herself in the building's pristine lobby, this time dragged along at a daunting pace.  Passing through here at this time in the past few days had been a somewhat solitary venture up towards the mind altering scents that awaited her on the office floor above, but not this time. Not only was she hitting it off with her colleague, so to speak, the waiting area was also occupied by several young women who all seemed just as nervous as Carmen albeit for a different reason. 

Before Carmen could figure out what was happening, or remember that she was trying to figure something out at all, she was whisked over to the elevator as the metal doors slid open invitingly. Inviting her to something seductive and dangerous, another day in Rose Grew's company. 

"Mmwah!" A plush set of lips pecked the intern's cheek at the top of their journey and Bethany held both her hands, staring at her with an eager expression. Was she waiting for something from Carmen? The silence was palpable for the next few seconds, though Bethany's smile never waned and Carmen was sure she hadn't even blinked. 

"O-oh uhm, right." Carmen mumbled, before stiffly leaning over to plant a clumsy kiss onto hew colleagues cheek to return the gesture. 

The blonde blushed, but was far from the shade of red that her new workmate had taken on. "Hehe, are you going to be a good girl for Mistress Grew today Carmen?" She asked, still holding Carmen's hands in the office floor hallway. 

It felt impossible to say no to the bubbly, animated office worker before her. Carmen could already catch scent of her boss's overwhelming essence from down the hall, interrupting her uncompromised thoughts as they attempted to form. Leaving the only response she could think of, the only words that she was able to muster. 

"Good girls do their jobs for Mistress Grew... I do what I'm told because I'm a good girl... and uh, I'm a good girl because I do what I'm told." She spoke nonchalantly, with just a little haste. Thinking was like wading through a thick fog by now, so the words she had spoke only registered half way through Bethany's reply. The embarrassment and shock were cut short in just the same fashion, as two sensations seized all of Carmen's attention. They were so magnetic in their pull, that Carmen missed her new friend being suddenly whisked away by her manager.

The first sensation was the aroma of Mistress Grew gradually intensifying, before it wrapped around her like a miasma of arousal and a motherly embrace all at once. The next was a finger hooking around the leash hanging from her collar, pulling it upwards and twirling Carmen around on her toes to face Mistress Grew herself. 

"There you are, doll. Wandering around outside my office like a little lost lamb... seriously, are you trying to get yourself fired?" 

Something in Carmen's heart sank and she suddenly perked up, practically clinging to Rose as she stared up at the woman's smug indifference with pleading eyes. "No no please, I'm sorry Ma'am I promise I'll be good!" 

Wait, that seemed wrong... didn't it? Carmen exhaled and tried to understand why she was suddenly so desperate and obedient... was she not trying to avoid coming back here, before she randomly decided to take the subway in an absent minded blunder? Panic flooded her mind and she knew she had to act fast, before being called 'doll' by her boss felt normal again. 

Carmen inhaled. Her tense shoulders slackened as she slowly remembered her place, heating up at the way Mistress held her up on her toes by the leash, making her lean against the redolent Rose Grew, who made her knees weaker than her will to resist. 

Another exhale. It was a losing battle, but Carmen tried to shake free from the cobwebs catching all her normal thoughts. Sticky white hot pleasurable cobwebs, melting all the reminders that all of this was wrong. They told her that she only got more turned on by how wrong it felt, that obeying was a fetish, that she needed to breathe in deep. 

Inhale. Placated, Carmen was happily led into Mistress's office, the place feeling more like a second home to her these days. She noted that Rose was wearing her workout clothes for their usual morning gym session, but was told that she only had to watch today. As stated before, Carmen was weak, far too weak to keep up with Mistress Grew's exercises. 

Exhale. It was an uphill battle to steer her own body now, her muscles seemed to dance to Rose's tune more than her own. It felt like she had been conquered and was being forced to bend the knee for her ruler. Right on cue, Mrs. Grew directed the intern to kneel on the foam pads of her personal gym. In this fleeting moment of lucidity, Carmen was far too distracted by the sheen of the sleek black exercise bike in front of her to muster up any plans of escape. It was so shiny... 

Inhale. Carmen's kneeling legs parted in anticipation, the thick air was filling her mind up with overflowing warmth. It was taking all of her willpower to resist slipping a hand down south, but Mistress had not permitted her doll to masturbate... 

Exhale. Why was she so horny? How could Carmen try to get out of this fucked up situation when her entire mental state was compromised by an unnatural wave of arousal? It wasn't fair... it was taking all of her dwindling willpower to resist slipping a hand down south, but she knew there would be no turning back if she indulged that urge. 

Inhale. A weight shifted onto the bike and Carmen's eyes peered up to discover a faceful of Mistress Grew's lycra-bound ass suddenly filling her vision. The thin black material, lightly strained, was transparent enough that the enamoured intern could see that her Mistress was wearing nothing underneath. The cheeks rested atop the shaped bike seat symmetrically, but soon began to bounce rhythmically in alternation as her pedalling legs rose and fell respectively. The sight was utterly hypnotic and Carmen completely entranced. 

Exhale. The sight of Mrs. Grew's scarcely covered rump shocked Carmen when her senses came rolling back, instinctively the intern jerked back from the unknown object in her face, but soon found that the leash that had pulled her in here was now tethered to the same bike her knees were brushing and her boss was straddling. At best she could free the corners of her vision from the imposing rear, but not all at the same time. Her entire body felt like it had been bound in rope, but Carmen knew that she could physically walk out of the office at any time. It was those inexplicable pheromones which had infiltrated her mind and reduced her to a dizzy doll, at her mistress's beck and call. Bethany must have felt this too, does that mean the entire floor had been indoctrinated like this? The building? How far did it go... and... if they were unable to fight it, what hope did Carmen have?

Inhale. Carmen put a stop to her rambling inner monologue, mistress was speaking! Her words were mostly confusing, but they were soothing to the doll's ears. Something about 'fractionation', that every time she went in and out of trance her mind became more receptive to dropping. That after a few more inhales and exhales, Carmen would be sufficiently conditioned. It sounded... complicated. 

Exhale. Rose's ass kept bouncing up and down, side to side, it was so distracting... so distracting... Carmen was struggling to remember why staring at it was such a bad thing. It was nice to watch and breathe in. It was easier than fighting a losing battle, at the very least. Every inch of the intern's body seemed to tingle and radiate heat, she was surprised that her clothes had not started melting. 

Inhale. Mistress tugged at the leash and pulled Carmen closer, not physically but with a simple command. Mistress's orders were incontestable, she was authority. It was Carmen's job to do exactly as she was told. Happily, the fractionating intern got as close as she could, her legs either side of the bike's back end while burying her face into Rose's backside. 

Exhale. Carmen gasped, but the sound was as muffled as her thoughts. The cheeks of Rose's ass were warm, rocking in steady sway against Carmen's face. It was as though she had become part of the seat. The thought of becoming furniture for Rose, another object in her office, made the intern's legs clamp tight. 

Inhale. Breathing in Mistress Grew's scent, Carmen let her eyes flutter and roll back. Eagerly, the doll pressed her face deep into the woman's ass and lost herself in the other's workout. The command to masturbate came and the intern's fingers were already deep inside, rocking her hips as her face fully replaced the bike seat. She was much better than a lousy object! Or was she? That was for mistress to say, she was only a doll herself. 

Fully fractionated, completely conditioned. Rose licked her lips in satisfaction as the last stand came to a whimpering end, as her doll's breathy exhales no longer came packaged with a side of pathetic, half hearted resistance. Carmen was hers, for now and forever. Which meant one thing: It was time for some interviews!

The rest of the workday went smoothly. Similar to how Carmen had first entered this office for the interview that would ultimately spell her undoing, young women of a similar age would file in and out of Mrs. Grew's heady den of depravity which she disguised expertly as a corporate office, interviewing for the personal assistant internship. A position which Carmen had thrown herself head first into only a working week prior, but now her position was firmly at her owner's feet. 

Quite literally, Carmen was bound beneath Rose Grew's desk at that very moment, while the smug woman above teased her latest interviewee. The former intern turned intoxicated plaything was dragging her nose up the woman's nylon covered thigh, her head buried deep into the woman's flared skirt. The metal loop in the floor kept her in place, but she was a greedy girl who wanted as much of Mistress Grew as she could her mouth on. The words above meant little to her, Carmen's mind had wandered off hours ago, she just kept quiet like a good doll and in exchange had free reign of whatever her restrained body could reach. 

Mistress was benevolent like that, binding Carmen's hands behind her back but not before filling her dripping honeypot with a veritable slab of silicone. It even buzzed when she earned it. Carmen sat on her calves and felt the beads of arousal roll down her tightly packaged thighs, drops of saliva falling from the gag in her mouth and her slutty chin, making a mess that she was more than keen to clean up for her Mistress in time. 

The legs rose up past her, way above her head and onto the desk below. It was disappointing, and yet, the sight was mouth-watering. Rose had kicked her legs up onto the desk, just as she had in their own interview. Was she going to drop her shoe again? Did she like this one? Carmen wondered if Mistress had found her next doll, her heart racing. She was already excited, she could do for this one what Bethany had done for her! Oh but, wait... Bethany had mentioned something about Carmen being taken home. To live with Rose? Was... was she worthy? If she was moving, she should call her moms, her sisters... she... no, that sounds like something the old her would think... dolls don't worry about that stuff, right? Carmen stopped herself and giggled, climaxing against the vibrator kissing her womb. 

The sound of the door being closed rang out through the office like angel bells and shortly after, the legs were back! Along with the rest of Mistress Grew, who leaned in close to unfasten the gag and loosen the bindings around Carmen's arms. Obediently, the doll left her mouth hanging open and didn't utter a word, staring up with reverence at the source of the soporific pheromones which had her brain on indefinite pause. 

"You know I had your predecessor kneeling right there too, the day you were first up here. She had quite the mouth on her, in more ways than one." Rose smirked and cupped Carmen's chin, closing her jaw gently. "Now, let's discuss you, my dear. How would you feel about becoming my adoring house pet? I have need for something to spruce up my new apartment and I believe you are just the thing!" 

Thing. Carmen's eyes focused in on Rose's curled lips, her elegance was overflowing. While Carmen, she was a thing. Rose's thing. It made her feel warm as more compromised air polluted her lungs without letting up. "I..." The thing new that she was asked a rhetorical question, but something still lingered, an unfinished thought that needed closure. "I n-need to call my parents, or they won't know where to uh, reach me..." 

"Say that again, would you honey?" Rose muttered in a frighteningly strict tone, snapping her fingers and causing a chill to roll down Carmen's spine. The doll sat up straight and let the words play on her lips, before mumbling back.

"I... need to tell my parents where I'm living... right?"

"Again." Another sonorous snap, Rose wasn't making sense but Carmen seemed to be confusing herself just as much. Was she being unreasonable? She must be saying something wrong if Rose was displeased. 

"I uhm... uhm... I'm not sure I... oh yeah, I should call to say-"

"Call who, sweetie?" Mistress Grew snapped her fingers directly in front of Carmen's face, the perplexed brunette's eyes crossing for a split second. 

"M-my... what am I...? Did I... didn't I need to do something?" 

Rose leaned down and slipped one of her heels off, rubbing a comforting hand over the lost little lamb's shoulder. "You need to relax and remember who's in charge. Here, how's this?" Before Carmen could react the heeled shoe was slipped under her nose and she breathed in deep. The tension she didn't even notice she was carrying suddenly dissipated and her body slackened. A hand brushed through her hair before she had even realised she was cradling the heel herself now, her nose dipping in to press against the worn padded sole and sniff. 

"Listen close, Carmen dear. In a moment I am going to open two drawers in my desk, one at a time. The first is a drawer just for Carmen, together we'll safely place everything that makes Carmen herself into that drawer for safekeeping. Her thoughts, her loved ones, her dreams and desires. I'll even let you hold the key, but it needs to stay here in my office you see. Only I can be trusted with something so precious, isn't that right?" 

"Hhhnn... that seems... right, yeah." Carmen was placated by the heel, willingly to agree to just about anything so long as she can keep enjoying herself like this. 

"Good Girl, now the second drawer is for my obedient, pretty dolly. A well trained house pet that is only capable of thinking and doing what she is told to think and do, by me of course. Actually, you'll find that all the other drawers are for this express purpose, but the one I feel like opening today is what I like to call... the 'slut drawer'." 

"Slut..." Carmen nodded, wiggling her hips around the silicone vibrator while huffing the last remnants sweat from the toe of Rose's shoe. 

Click! The first drawer slid open and Carmen placed her personal effects into it. Goodbye, phone. Sayonara, petty cash. Farewell Rio, Harmony, Sophie, Clara... even the name Carmen was locked inside, she would no longer respond to it while the drawer was locked. And locked it was, with another loud... click!

The doll stared blankly at the drawer, unaware of the shoe in her hands or the toy stuffed inside of her, she just waited obediently for that second drawer to click open, breathing steadily. 

"This..." Mistress traced a well manicured finger over the glossy oak drawer, a key already resting in the lock. "...is the slut drawer. You know what a slut is, don't you doll?"

"Yes." The entranced doll sounded calmer than before, less unsure. 

"That's not how you address me. Try again."

A small pause filled the heavy air, before the doll replied. "Yes Mistress Grew." 

"That's better, your manners will improve with time, you're a good professional after all. Now, I can tell that Carmen is far from resembling anything you would consider slutty, but you my doll are a blank canvas. You know what a slut is, how a slut acts, what being slutty entails. Wanton lust, zero inhibitions, willing to be a sex object, just happy to go with the flow. When I open this drawer, you'll embody these traits like the professional you are, like the good doll I know you long to be. You'll not only become a slut, you'll be my slut. Say it, dear." And those overpowering fingers once again snap to reaffirm her words.

"I'll be your slut, Mistress Grew." If Carmen could see herself now, she would be barely recognisable. In a moment, a total stranger.

Click!

"Well now, would you look at the time? I'm not in the mood for overtime this evening so why don't you go ahead and hop in the shower, I just changed the seats in my car." 

The brunette between Rose's legs pulled her face away and giggled like an airhead, giving her Mistress a sultry smile. Glossy pink lips curled into a knowing smirk, traces of the very same pink colour decorating her boss's thighs down to her feet. The very same pink which spelled out "Grew's Slut" across the pet's naked chest. The slut rose to her feet and stepped across the room in her fishnet stockings and long-sleeved gloves, all precious items from the same drawer Carmen got her brand new personality from. She was just disappointed the cute heart shaped studs would have to stay in there until Mistress took her to get her pretty pink nipples pierced. "O-kay Mistress! I can't promise that I won't like, cum a liiiittle on the ride home though."

And so ended Carmen Green's internship.

Some time later...

"Fuck... this place is gonna eat me alive isn't it?" 

"Oh quit being such a drama queen, you'll be fine."

Clara gulped. Those were the last three words she had wanted to hear. In every movie, tv show, comic book and game the 25 year old shut in had ever came across, the phrase 'You'll be fine' was never an indication that she would in fact be fine. More often than not, it meant she was plainly fucked. Her friend Maria had no way of sensing her current dread, however, as she had not confided in her the exact nature of this little job hunting venture of theirs.

Her moms wanted her to move on from this, to stop dedicating her time to 'unhealthy activities', but even they couldn't argue against her starting a new job. Even if it was only an internship and even if it was only to investigate. They preferred this to the alternative, which was a year of amateur detective work that Clara had tried to imitate from fiction. At 25, she was becoming a true embarrassment to her parents, which was saying a lot when one of her sisters was a professional stage magician and they think the other ran away after city life got to her too much. 

Evidently, Clara felt differently. It was why she found herself on the steps of her sister's last known place of work, applying for the same internship that she had gone missing only five days into. 

"Maria... you've got my back, right? I don't want to be eaten alive."

The other woman, Clara's best friend since childhood,  rolled her eyes and scoffed. 

"Sure, but only one us is getting that job and I haven't had any good food in so long... so fucking long."

Clara took a deep breath in, taking in the fresh air of a lovely summer's day. "Okay well, if I get it, I'll take you somewhere nice. My treat."

"You damn well bet--"

"Hey there, are you two here for the internship? Mrs. Grew only has time for two more so you better get your butts in there quick!" An overly friendly blonde beamed in their direction as she escorted the two women inside the building.

Infiltration successful... now, time to find out what the hell happened to my sister. 

Redolent Rose - End