Adeline laughed as she shook her head.
“Yes, my name is coming back in style,” she said happily. “It’s in the top one-hundred now for baby names.”
“Lucky,” said Ingrid. “I don’t think mine’s ever coming back, but I’m keeping it. The man I’m with now calls me “Eenggy” as a nickname. It’s very irritating.”
“My man tells me on a daily basis that I act like an old woman,” chuckled Harriet. “You just get used to it.”
“Does he call you ‘Harry’?” snorted Alice.
Everyone laughed, and even Michelle cracked a smile.
The ‘older’ woman was nervous; Adeline could tell, so some encouragement was in order.
“All right, ladies,” grinned Adeline. “All right. Let’s give our new member the chair…First off…Welcome, welcome to the Dewdrop Society, Michelle. It’s nice to have another Gen-Xer with us.”
“Oh…uhhhh…thank you,” said the woman in a quiet voice.
They were all sitting in the back of this limousine, a long black vehicle so stereotypical for these types of functions, but tonight was a special night, so some “specialness” was actually in order.
Adeline was sitting directly across from the guest of the evening, Chastity, Michelle’s twenty-one-year-old daughter, but that girl wasn’t going to say anything any time soon. Adeline sat between Ingrid and Harriet on the driver’s end of the car, Ingrid on her right, Harriet on her left, while Alice, Chastity, and Michelle sat across from them at the back end of the long vehicle, Alice on the left from Adeline’s point of view, Chastity in the middle, and Chastity’s mother, Michelle, on Adeline’s right.
All of them were white, ‘young,’ and gorgeous, as fate had meant them to be. Adeline was a beautiful blonde with ocean-blue eyes, Ingrid was the adorable brunette with deeply-passionate brown eyes, Harriet was the hot red head with shining green eyes, and Alice was the other brunette, stunning in the face, rare grey eyes set in that stunning face. They were the upper echelon of society, and now they were going to induct a new member, someone deserving, someone at her own wit’s end, and that was all that mattered.
They were all in matching red dresses, beautiful regalia where the hems where frilled with cloth rose petals, a match of color, status, and most importantly, symbol. They all wore their red heels on their perfect feet, symbol upon symbol for the event at hand.
Michelle was a single middle-aged mother with a very fertile young thing of a daughter, though her daughter had been nothing but a handful for the poor woman. Michelle had divorced her worthless husband years ago, so she had raised Chastity on her own, though the naming of her daughter had turned out to be a cosmic joke. The troubled young lady had a toddler daughter of her own, but thanks to her “indiscretions,” the boyfriend had custody of that child.
It was all a giant mess for Michelle, but that mess would soon be cleaned up, and it would be cleaned up in one giant fantastic spectacle of both practicality and justice…Of this, Adeline was certain.
Yes, Michelle was a worn-out single mom with a bleak future, but soon she’d be a rising rose to rival them all. The ‘older’ woman had long curly black hair with streaks of grey in it, and she was out of place by clothing alone, her dress consisting of a simple burgundy top and black slacks, but all of that would soon be worked out. She’d see.
Chastity…What a mess. The young thing who sat across from Adeline had clearly wasted her short life, so a little ‘tough love’ was in order. The girl had gone through repeated, consecutive, insane hairstyles for months now, each one getting weirder and worse, with more dye than a manufacturing plant could muster, but now the mentally-unstable girl had simply settled on “bald,” right along with a tattoo of an eight-ball on the top of her now bald head…
Taking out the facial piercings had been especially tough, because the girl’s face was the best part of her. My goodness, taking out all of the piercings had been tough in general, especially the nether ones. There was no point in wrecking anything down there.
Who does that anyway?…It was bad enough the young thing had so many tattoos that she could be in an art display, but the nether piercings?…Ugh…But this was all beside the point. Adeline needed to address her middle-aged guest, not the woman’s mentally-disturbed daughter.
“You have no idea how fortunate you are to be here, Michelle,” said Adeline. “I hope you understand the opportunity we are presenting you. This is both an induction and an intervention.”
“I-I do,” stammered Michelle. “It’s just…I-I’m not sure…”
“She’ll be fine,” grinned Adeline. “You’re having second thoughts, cold feet, but that’s normal. You can’t push forward in life and attain your dreams without a little sacrifice. All of us have done this, and look at us now…We’re all living the dream.”
“But…is this really real?” asked Michelle. “You’re all so young…You’re my daughter’s age…This isn’t…some weird prank or game?”
“Oh, honey, you have no idea what you’re in for,” grinned Harriet. “You just wait and see. Times were tough in the past because of the risk of exposure, especially during McCarthy’s commie hunt, but with today’s technology and AI deepfakes…everything’s become a lot easier to hide.”
“It’s not that,” said Michelle with a shake of her head. “It’s just…you’re so young. I feel like…like this is all BS. I feel like I’m in danger.”
“You’re in no danger whatsoever,” soothed Ingrid. “We’re going straight to the Induction Hall, and once we get there, and once we present your daughter, you’ll see. Your eyes will open, and you’ll see.”
“I don’t feel right about this,” frowned Michelle. “I don’t feel right about handing over Chastity. I know she’s nothing but trouble, but…”
There were tears forming in the ‘older’ woman’s eyes.
“It’s okay,” said Adeline in a soft tone. “Everything’s going to be fine…You’re not losing her. You can come and see her any time you like.”
“Yes,” said Alice gently. “They’re all with each other. They’re all together…You’ll see.”
Michelle was clearly distressed over this whole thing, so Adeline decided to intervene yet again.
“Do you know why we’re called the Dewdrop Society?” asked Adeline.
“N-No,” stammered Michelle.
“The drops of dew on the femininity of the rose represent fertility,” explained Adeline. “Do you understand the image, or do I have to explain it further? Some women don’t quite get it without a…‘cruder’…explanation.”
“No, I…I get it,” said Michelle.
“No, you don’t,” explained Alice. “You’ll get it when your eyes are opened and you see for the first time. You’ll understand once you commune with the Venus Rose.”
“What is the Venus Rose?” asked Michelle. “You make it sound magical.”
“Not magical,” said Harriet, “No, it’s not magical…but it is ancient. You’ll get it once we’re there and you see it for the first time.”
“I…I just…I don’t understand,” said Michelle.
“You don’t need to,” said Ingrid firmly. “You’ll understand once your eyes are opened.”
“You only have to understand one thing,” said Adeline. “Women are judged by their beauty and their fertility. That is all you need to understand.”
“I thought it was money that—” began Michelle.
“That’s men, honey,” replied Ingrid with a shake of her head. “Men are judged by their financial success and status. Men don’t give two shakes of a dog’s tail about a woman’s career or bank account.”
“But, it’s 2026—” started Michelle.
“Doesn’t mean a thing,” said Adeline. “Social trends blow away like loose petals in the wind. People are people, and nothing really changes. You’ll see that in a couple of decades.”
“I…uhhh…Okay,” said Michelle nervously.
“Now, we’re almost there,” nodded Adeline. “We’re almost there, so I want you to take one last good look at your daughter. You need to see her for what she truly is.”
Michelle turned and carefully lowered the white hood from over Chastity’s head, revealing the young woman’s face and baldness. Chastity was in a white robe with gold filigree along the hems, so seeing her true face exposed had to be a shock for Michelle.
The young and mentally-unstable bald woman named “Chastity” was drooling and glazy-eyed, so the tranquilizer was definitely doing its work.
It had been a real nightmare holding her down and injecting her with it. It had taken all of them to do it, but it had been Adeline who’d gotten the hypodermic needle into Chastity’s left butt-cheek. The girl had been a riotous pain in the ass, both literally and figuratively.
Taking out the piercings, though? That had been the actual tough part.
“Look at her face, Michelle,” said Adeline. “Look at the holes those piercings have left in her…in her nose, her lips, the bottom of her chin. Had you even known about the piercings in her femalia?”
“Femalia?” asked Michelle. “What’s that?”
“Female genitalia,” explained Alice. “‘Femalia’ is our verbal resurrection of the word. We find ‘femalia’ to be a more tasteful description than the other, cruder words for our sacred organs…Did you know about her piercings there?”
“No, I didn’t know about those until tonight,” frowned Michelle. “She never tells me anything until the police show up at our door.”
“Well, all of that’s going to change, and so are you,” said Adeline. “We’re pulling into the parking garage now, so everything is about to become clear.”
“Your eyes will open,” nodded Alice. “You’ll see.”
Their chauffeur pulled into the garage, drove the limo up two floors, and then parked said limo in the reserved Guest-of-Honor’s parking spot. The man was a personal employee of Adeline’s, but the soundproof partition between the cab and the front of the limo prevented any curious ears.
This was necessary. She liked Andrew, and she did not want to have to orchestrate a permanent disappearance of him if he learned too much.
“All right, Michelle,” said Adeline with a wry grin. “You’re the guest of honor and our new inductee, and you’ve brought the perfect girl for our needs, one close and special to you, so let’s head in. The ceremony is about to begin.”
“O-Okay,” said Michelle nervously.
“Follow us,” said Adeline. “I mean myself and Harriet. Ingrid and Alice will be escorting young Chastity to the Terrarium. Come on…Don’t be shy.”
Adeline nodded once toward Ingrid as all of them save Andrew exited the vehicle. The young man who was their chauffeur had been instructed to wait until their return, no questions asked, and he was very good at this, which was why the Society paid him well.
Adeline gave a wry smirk as Michelle watched her daughter stumble away with both Harriet and Alice, each of the ‘younger’ women helping the poor girl on her way.
“Come on,” motioned Adeline.
She needed to get Michelle moving.
They walked to the upper elevator of the parking garage. The doors opened, Adeline waved in Michelle, and then Adeline produced her red key. She inserted the key into the special lock below the elevator panel, turned it, and waited for the elevator to start its descent, no floor button necessary.
“Going down,” she smiled.
They traveled several floors down, down into the depths below the city they so lovingly haunted like a family crypt. The doors opened, Adeline nodded once toward Harriet, and they gently escorted Michelle forward, arm-in-arm-in arm, Adeline and Harriet on each side of the ‘older’ woman…They couldn’t have her getting cold feet.
“Come,” ordered Adeline.
They led Michelle down a white hall with scarlet carpeting, Adeline pushed open the double white doors that led to the Auditorium that faced the Terrarium, and then they entered said Auditorium, Adeline and Harriet eagerly awaiting what was coming next.
Everyone in the society was there, seventy ‘young’ and gorgeous white women of varying heights and hair color, all waiting for the promised renewal, and this number included Adeline, Ingrid, Harriet, and Alice. Soon that number would be seventy-one.
Adeline and Harriet led Michelle to the front of the Auditorium to take their place of honor before the Terrarium stage.
The talking of seventy women ceased, dying down to nothing as Adeline and Harriet guided Michelle through the crowd. The crowd parted and let them through, each of the ‘young’ women eyeing Michelle with special and dedicated interest.
“It’s all right,” whispered Adeline. “Let’s go.”
The Auditorium was a dark-wood monstrosity of enormous proportions, huge walls that sloped upwards a good sixty feet to an arched ceiling, but it had to be in order to house the Terrarium.
The huge red curtains on the monstrous stage opened as the Terrarium was revealed, a gigantic glass-paned box that led into darkness. The crumbly black soil within that box was clearly visible upfront, but its contents were not. That box was embedded into the stage, that box leading down several feet below the Auditorium itself.
From stage left entered Ingrid and Alice, both ‘helping’ the stumbling hooded and robed figure of Chastity forward toward the towering glass-paned box. They unlocked a door that was not visible from the front, a side door unlocked by a large red key, and then they pulled the drug-addled Chastity’s robe from her, shoving the girl forward into the gigantic glass terrarium.
Adeline watched as the now naked young bald woman stumbled forward on black soil. Ingrid and Alice locked the hidden door and walked away after that, walking down from the stage via some short stairs to join Adeline, Harriet, and Michelle.
Ingrid and Alice walked up to them and quietly but firmly held Michelle’s arms in place. Adeline kept a firm grip on the ‘older’ woman too, and she knew Harriet had that same grip as well.
“What are you doing!” said Michelle in alarm.
“Hush now, young one,” ordered Adeline. “Everything’s going to be all right, you’ll see.”
The nude young lady who went by the ironic name of “Chastity” stumbled forward to the glass panes that made up the front of the giant terrarium. She placed her hands on the glass and stared out at the crowd of women staring back at her. The lights in this massive room were dimmed to cinema-showing levels, but the Terrarium itself was blackened out beyond the naked girl, a void of darkness for the moment.
Adeline could see the young thing staring down at her own mother. Michelle trembled within Adeline’s grip, but this was to be expected. This was always the hardest part.
The entirety of the Auditorium went deathly silent as dim lighting switched on and shone down from within the giant glass box.
“The Venus Rose,” said Adeline in reverent admiration.
“The Venus Rose,” repeated the crowd of seventy women.
Adeline turned to view Michelle’s expression. The middle-aged woman’s face was now a mural of shock, awe, and horror at the sight of the master.
Adeline turned her attention back upon the giant glass terrarium.
Within the glass box, under the dim lighting, was the Venus Rose, its towering form dwarfing anything Adeline could think of save a redwood tree. Its massive stalk was forty-feet high and ten-feet around, and from here, one could see large bumps or boils upon that stalk, light-green circles that stood out against the dark-green of the stalk. At the top of the gargantuan plant was the rose itself, the petals fully opened, very-light pink petals, almost white, each petal the size of a chair, the flower itself huge in diameter.
“The scent of her is in the Terrarium,” said Adeline quietly. “Chastity’s pheromones are released because of her proximity to the Venus Rose. It won’t be long now before she’s detected.”
“Wh-what do you mean!” stammered Michelle. “What’s going to happen to my daughter!”
Adeline didn’t need to answer her. The Venus Rose would do that.
The young naked woman in the glass box, the young Chastity, turned and then backed against the thick glass of the Terrarium at the sight of the Venus Rose, her bare bottom, back, and legs visible to everyone.
The young bald woman visibly shook in terror and then cried out once.
“Maaaahhhhhm!” screeched the young woman.
The stalk of the great plant swiftly bent, folding in on itself, and then the massive rose plummeted like a meteor. Chastity screamed a high-pitched wail, the huge rose opened its glorious orifice within the center of its moist blooming, and then the young girl was gone, swallowed whole without hesitation.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” screamed Michelle.
The middle-aged woman struggled against all four of them, but there was no way she could escape their iron grips, not with their enhanced strength.
The ‘older’ woman broke down into piteous sobs as the inevitability of it all settled in.
The rose straightened upright, towering high, towering majestically once more above them all. The light-pink petals slowly deepened in color to a sanguine red, the yearly sacrifice complete, the rose satisfied in its annual hunger.
They had to drag Michelle to the short flight of stairs that led up onto the stage. It was a struggle to get the middle-aged woman to the side glass door of the huge terrarium, but they managed it. Ingrid unlocked the glass door, and then they pulled Michelle inside.
Michelle screamed and kicked and wailed as they dragged her before the mighty plant. Up close, now within visible range, the details that were once obscured by dim-lighting and darkness now came to bear, and this stifled the middle-aged woman’s terrible grief due to sheer shock and horror.
The “boils” on the enormous stem were not boils at all…
They were faces.
They were the faces of seventy young women, light-green faces that stood out from the dark-green of the stalk, those faces now seventy-one, as a new rapidly-forming face made its appearance at the topmost line of faces.
“There,” pointed Adeline. “There she is. She’s not gone. This is her new home now.”
Michelle’s hazel eyes were wide, her mouth dropping open in pure visible horror. Chastity’s face was indeed visible now, the young woman’s mouth opening and closing in silent speech as if she were desperately trying to say something. She was staring down at her mother, the lips moving, the tongue moving, the teeth opening and closing, but there was no sound from her.
In fact, all of the faces were speaking, but Adeline knew Michelle could not hear them, not like she could, not like the whole of the Society could, but that little deafness issue was about to be fixed.
“It’s time to become one of us, Michelle,” said Adeline. “It’s time to join your new community. We are all your sisters now.”
A large white root poked up through the soil and snaked its way toward them. It was as thick around as a branch, but white, a tendril not unlike a mung-bean sprout, but as long and as thick as an anaconda.
The huge tendril snaked upwards in the air like a cobra. There was a large hole at the tip of it, that hole dripping with white fluid, a strange phallic symbol of nature’s own flora.
The tendril struck and shoved its way into Michelle’s mouth. The middle-aged woman gagged as anyone would, and she struggled in a fierce thrashing to be released from her four captors’ iron grips as the floral snake forced its way down her esophagus, but this was to no avail.
It was over within seconds. The tendril pulled out from Michelle’s throat and mouth, Adeline gave the signal to release her, and the four women let go in unison.
Michelle dropped to her hands and knees on the soil and tried to vomit out white liquid, but she could only dry wretch. The woman closed her eyes, grimaced, and then grit her teeth as she cried out in strange pain.
The grey in her hair vanished as that hair blackened to a glorious sheen, the wrinkles in her face washed away with the turning of the clock, and then she was gorgeous, young and fertile and gorgeous, twenty-one again, the years gone, erased, her body ready once more to bear the fruit of her loins.
The now young-again middle-aged woman looked up at Adeline as a strange smile crept across her tearstained face.
“You can hear me now,” thought Adeline.
“I…I can…” came back Michelle’s thoughts.
“You can hear us all now, and you can hear her; you can hear your daughter,” thought Adeline.
“Yes, I can hear her,” came back Michelle’s thoughts. “She’s confused…scared…”
“She’s with the others now,” thought Adeline. “All of us gave away our beloved ‘problems’ for a greater purpose, even me. My beautiful daughter is at the bottom of the stalk, as she has been for seventy years, ever since the Venus Rose appeared on my family farm after a meteor shower.
“Since then, our community has grown, and you will grow with it, much like your new master, our benefactor of youth and beauty, the Venus Rose. She keeps us together, united…forever.
“Welcome to the Dewdrop Society, Michelle.”
Adeline took hold of the strange white root tendril of the Venus Rose and brought it up to her lips. The others would be joining her soon for their renewal, but she was the founder, so it was only fair she took the first sip.
BONUS STORY…THE SEED
Adeline walked into the new terrarium and took in a deep breath. It had been three weeks since Marjorie had been born anew, and the new terrarium was complete, so now was the time to complete the process.
“We’re almost there, sweetheart,” whispered Adeline. “Almost there. Hang on just a little longer. I know it hurts, but just hang on. Almost there.”
She clutched the large mystery object she was holding as she stood firm upon the dark soil of the massive terrarium while looking up at her surroundings. The glass box she was in was built of pristine glass panes joined together by black metal bars, and those panes reached a grand height of sixty feet into the darkness above her, the box itself more than wide enough to house the next generation with ease.
It had been difficult to build a new underground facility to house this massive terrarium, but it had been more than worth it. That construction had undergone years ago just for this contingency. For months now, the master had been hitting the Society with wave after wave of birthing pains, but now that birth was done, Marjorie was born anew, and now the next stage was necessary.
Adeline nodded toward Michelle, and the younger woman began to dig with the shovel she had brought with her.
“We’re in Ohio now,” said Adeline quietly. “This is where you grew up before…you know. Now we’re back where we started. I knew you’d want your new home to be here, here where your old home was.”
Michelle shook her head and dug faster.
“She’s getting worse,” winced the younger woman. “I’m feeling her pain all over. It’s hitting me harder and harder.”
“We all are,” nodded Adeline. “Just hurry…please.”
“I am,” breathed out Michelle.
The woman dug as Adeline grimaced. Marjorie’s pain was becoming nightmarishly strong.
“Hold on, honey,” said Adeline. “Just hold on. Michelle’s almost done.”
Adeline was blonde, blue-eyed, and gorgeous, and she looked very young, around twenty-one, but she was much, much older than that. Michelle also looked very young, with her long, silky, curly black hair and hazel eyes, but the new inductee to the Society was actually in her mid-forties, because she had also drunk from the master’s life-giving ambrosia, and this was why, why of all times, the accusations were coming, and they were coming faster and stronger with each psychic wave.
“I know, I know,” winced Adeline. “I know what I did to you, my sweet, sweet daughter. I gave you to the master, but now…now you’ll be the new master, here, here in a garden of your own.”
It had been seventy years since Adeline had fed her daughter to the master, and that towering alien rose had no limit to its appetite. Marjorie had been a part of the Venus Rose for those seventy long years, a face without agency on the master’s stalk, but now…now Marjorie was finally free, born anew as a conscious reproductive organ.
“You’re going to be a master now, my beautiful daughter,” whispered Adeline. “You’ll be the master, and you’ll get to eat new daughters of your own, take them in, make them part of you, make your own ambrosia for us struggling mothers. You’ll be giving us our youth and beauty and fertility now…Isn’t that wonderful?”
She cradled the huge, tan, rose seed in her arms and stared down at her daughter’s gorgeous face. That face was embedded within the seed, the lips moving without audible speech, the blue eyes blinking in turn, her protests and accusations beaming directly into Adeline’s mind.
The Venus Rose Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
The Seed Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI and modified courtesy of Canva.com.
