Rhonda Moore checked her make up in the rear view mirror and was excited at her first day of her new promotion. Center Chemical’s new chief of R&D Rhoda Jacobson. She was happy to be in this position and had done everything to earn it. That everything meant everything! She was stuck on a problem and she had spied someone else working on a similar problem but from the different end. She stole the note off of that persons desk and made the very incredible breakthrough.

The coating she developed would mix with paint of oil tankers and formed a rubberized coating. The coating would react with any high concentration of oil and expand to fill the gap. There was a limit to how much of a crack it could seal. But once it reached saturation point a carbon dioxide bubble would form. The oil soaked sponge would drift to the surface and be picked up. Then a dissolving agent would break it down again. There was a ten-percent oil loss but the environmental impact would out weigh the loss. The idea of a ruptured oil tanker becoming its own oil absorbing sponge had oil shippers and insurance companies drooling. It had no trade name and was a complicated process but preliminary tests where looking good. She called it Petrolox for lack of a better name. Good enough to put her in the top dog position.

Months had pass and Rhonda was settling into her job nicely and loved to push her subordinates around. She had an assistant, Julie Proctor, from her old work place. She had a grasp of what Petrolox was and its applications. The company did not have a better name to come up with it either. Most of the good trade names were taken anyway.

The company was going to farm out some samples and run sea trails to test on Petrolox. It meant that she’d have to travel to some rather exotic location not found easily on the map. But on her next trip she planned on taking a side trip for vacation. She was going to have to go to some onsite tests to make sure everything worked okay. Rhonda was signing forms and doing a dozen other things that had very little to do with her projects development. It was like a child she gave birth and now she was having to watch it grow from afar. But her value to the company was increasing and she was cashing in on it. Hoping to find the means to go one more step up the rung. They did develop a counter agent for Petrolox. It was easier to make than the actual product.

Rhonda finished packing for a north seas trip. Other trips to test Petrolox had been successful. But she did value actual lab and real time experiments. Petrolox was on the fast track. No Titanic’s where going to be happening here. Her assistant had done a fair job of looking after things when she was gone. But Rhonda hated sharing the spotlight and minimized any role in her creation. She planed a vacation in France after this round of tests. She was going to be ‘listed out of communication’ during the testing and vacation. So no one would bother her unless it was an emergency. In fact Petrolox development was going to be on hold until her return. That was how much pull she was having with the company.

It was late when she heard the bell and knocking at the door. Rhoda opened it. It was Julie.

Julie never called her or even came to her house. Whatever it was. It had to be an emergency.
“Ms. Moore. This has been an incident at the lab. The computer got me and I figure you might be still listed as out of communication.”

“What happened?”

“I do not know I just got a message saying that I was to report to work immediately.”

“If security fell down I am going to have that idiot Harvey boiled in oil.”

“Can I get a ride? My car broke down a few block from here.”

Rhoda nodded and quickly dressed.

They were at a stop light and the weather was getting cloudy. Julie had not said anything else since leaving the house. Fine by her. She planned on firing the little bitch after she got back anyway. There was something about her that she did not like. Then there was a drowsy feeling. Like someone was pulling a sheet over her.

“All you all right Ms. Moore?”

“Nooo.” She slurred.

Then she felt the jab of a needle into her arm. She looked at Julie and saw her pulling a needle out of her.

Her body did not move. There was a warm creeping feeling up and down her spine.

Then a sinking feeling and then back up like she was bobbing in the water.

An odd familiar smell was the first thing that she recognized.

Rhonda’s eyes finally obeyed. They closed.

She saw herself suspend above a vat of what she could recognize by its sickly red color and smell, it was Petrolox. Moreover her body was bound at ankle, Knee and both arm bound to the side of her waist and chest. Some harness criss-crossed her torso. A large weight pulled down her legs and she had been dipped in Petrolox. More than once. She could feel it harden and contract.

It was like being dipped into hard chocolate layer after layer. She could imagine herself being a wick dipped in wax. But these layers would harden like cement within minutes on the outside and expand and compress on the inside. The more layers the more compression. Her body was in harness and it was being used to raise and lower her into the Petrolox. Her hair was shaven because she could feel a draft atop her head. The Petrolox dipping had only gone up to the neck.

“Awake.” Said a voice.

“What in the hell?” said Rhonda. She managed to see Julie walking to her.

“Julie what is going on? Help me out of here.”

“Let’s cut the crap. I put a toxin on the steering wheel to make you weak and sleepy. It absorbed through the skin. Then when you were whoosy. I knocked you out with the hypo. You stole Petrolox from me but I was going to have it absorb water like a sponge for water tight ships and sewers. Blood clotting bandages. The uses where I was within a day of my presentation when you pushed your way in and I saw my equations.”

“To be sure I got hold of Harvey. He let me see the surveillance tapes. I saw you loiter near my desk. I bet you did not even know it was me you stole your idea from.”

“You are a bitch.”

“And your going to be sorry forever. Harvey has taken your bags you packed out and your car will be found near the airport. I bet you did not know that we are engaged. My discovery of Aqualox would have set us up for life. You ruined two lives. So there you cunt!”

Rhonda struggled but was encased in a hard cocoon she could not even wiggle a finger.

“You can’t keep me like this?”

“Fuck you. “ said Julie. “ I had to put up with your shit for nearly a year and that director job should have been mine. Now you’re going to suffer for a year. You don’t have many friends and I don’t think there will be any tears when they find you have embezzled funds from the company and selling Petrolox compounds to competitors.”

“I did not.”

“That what they are going to find. I planned this for months.”

Rhonda was not going to give in to Julie yet.
“If I am going to be like this for a year. Petrolox will break down in the exposed air and I do have to take a shit and piss. I bet you did not think of that bitch.”

“I did not say you where being dipped in Petrolox. It’s Aqualox. It’s going to slowly leech the water from your skin. So the Aqualox will slowly expand and contract against you. Slowly squeezing you and making escape harder. And to make things interesting I put a vibrator in your slit, cunt. I am going to turn you on an off like a fucking whore.”

“Aqualox starts to turn acidic when it runs out of water forming a hardening inner wall until it gets wet again. I bet the light acid will burn and itch like hell. If you can stand that for a few days then it stabilizes as long as you’re dry. But the body is over ninety percent water. I bet you will suck dick and cunt within a month to get any moisture at all.”

“You are out of your mind.” Rhonda said. Still refusing to give in to her situation.

“Oh. I have dreams and plans. You stepped on every one. I used to envy you and your position until I found out what you really are.”

“And I coated the vibrator with the counter agent and a butt plug too. But eventually they will wear out if I do not feed you enough water to keep the Aqualox at bay. If I don’t give you a drink of water. Or keep you sufficiently hydrated. The Aqualox will slowly expand up your ass and cunt and kill you. Sucking the water right out of your bloodstream. I imagine it will be painful.”

“Anytime you sweat, shit, piss or even have wet dream. You’re only trapping yourself tighter within your own prison. You’re going to beg. Plead. And do anything just for an ounce of water. I might even get a confession or two. But that will come later. Then when I am done with you. I know a few Asians that will take you. I might even rent you out. You’re going to be a bitch on a stick. A sucking fucking dress up doll I can do anything with. I will control your life and your death.”

Rhonda was stunned. Then her body was being lowered into the vat of Aqualox. Her fate now was slowly sinking in.

“I hope you like a freshing dip.” Said Julie. “Because this is the last thing you going to feel for a very long time. Not that you ever felt anything before.”