Revenge Upon the World Pt. 03

A horde of at least a dozen customers poured into the store as the front door was unlocked; opening time. Despite not being a chain and being a relatively unknown store, it was incredibly popular with the locals, those who lived nearby in particular. At peak hours it had up to twenty or so customers in the store at any given time.

The four employees that were working cheerfully greeted each customer as they entered, doing a great job at hiding their discontent with the job they held. It wasn't that the job was particularly bad, rather their boss, Steven, seemed to go out of their way to make the work miserable. This was a common sentiment shared by all employees at the store.

Typically, Steven wasn't too worried when those peak hours would arrive. He'd have enough staff on hand to handle it, with it barely costing him due to the unfairly low pay he offered. Today however, things were different. One of his employees hadn't turned up. This was as good as a crime in his books. Disobedience from employees was not to be tolerated.

This employee was none other than Lyra, by far his favourite employee to abuse. She simply didn't know how to stand up for herself, meaning he was able to walk all over her with ease. Not only had she not shown up, but she had also disobeyed the night before, leaving early despite him telling her to stay behind later than usual. He was looking forward to giving her a piece of his mind, but now that she hadn't turned up his anger was only building.

He saw no alternative. She would have to be handed the pink slip, along with a proper verbal beating to remind her of her place. It was a shame, but after the clear lack of respect for authority she had put on display, it had to be done.

Lyra can easily be replaced, Steven thought. There were countless people desperate for work in this city alone, it wouldn't be difficult. Hundreds of teens fresh out of school searching for a job, or perhaps a single parent who'd recently been made redundant? Neither would speak up against his treatment of them out of fear for losing their job, a much better fit than Lyra.

"Where the hell does this go?"

The voice came from an aisle not far ahead of him on the way to his office. Funnily enough, he was heading there anyway, so figured he might as well see what was happening. As he marched down the aisle, he saw a recently hired member of staff frantically searching the shelf for the proper location of a can of beans.

"What are you doing wasting time like this?" he demanded, standing not far from the young man. He towered over them, a menacing presence that none should ever hope to oppose. "You think I pay you to stand here like a bumbling idiot?"

"I-I'm sorry, sir. It's just I can't find-"

"Perhaps if you used your eyes you'd have an easier time." he interrupted in a demeaning manner. "What the hell are you even doing here? You're supposed to be on the checkout."

"N-No, actually. I'm on stock." he replied in a weak attempt at defending himself.

Steven's eyes widened at the slight show of defiance, "Excuse me? You are Peter, yes?"

"My name is Mark, sir."

"Yeah, yeah, same thing. You're on the checkout, got it?"

"O-Ok, sir, I'll get on the checkout right away."

"Good. If you question me like that again, you're out of here. Am I clear?" The young man nodded his head with terror. He couldn't afford to lose this job at all, let alone for something as meaningless as this. Steven snorted as he scurried of towards the other end of the aisle where the checkouts were located. There wasn't a Peter working at the store, he had just forgotten his name. He had much more important things to attend to than remembering his employee's names. Things such as filing the paperwork for Lyra's dismissal, which he was going to take care of immediately.

Eager to rid his store of another pest, he marched into his office and slumped down onto his office chair. Scanning through each of the drawers on his desk, he quickly searched through files upon files of paperwork until he eventually found the empty forms for employee termination. The fresh paper flapped in the air as he placed it down on the desk, pen in hand. He couldn't wait to see the look of despair on her face when he handed it to her.

He was going to ensure that Lyra would never be able to find a job again. Not in this industry, nor any other. The life that she had once lived would be destroyed by his hands, reforged into one of poverty and joblessness. Benches on the side of the street would become her new home, whilst another poor fool desperate for a little cash took her place. None will stand against his authority and get away with it.

The pen lowered down to the empty form, the ink weaving along the top left of the page to form her name: Lyra.

She was on her way to work right now, not long after she had her body and feet worshipped by a few street thugs she had somehow brought under her thrall. It was the best feeling ever. She didn't intend on working however. Instead, she wanted to feel that sensation again. Curious as to how she had enslaved another person without any effort, she wanted to see if she could replicate it, and her chosen target was Steven.

With staggering confidence, she strode through the automatic doors of her workplace with a slight sway in her hips. Other employees gave her a glare of discontentment, a scorn for leaving them to manage the extra work alone, however she didn't care for their hostile stares. Despite not entirely knowing what she was doing, she was fully confident in herself. She knew that this attitude in combination with her staggering good looks would twist any situation into whatever she desired it to be.

Pity washed over her as she watched her former work partners slave away for a man who cared nothing for them. To think that she once accepted that as her role in life made her sick. After all this time, she really was deserving of this gift she had received. The world more than owed her.

With a strange sense of nostalgia seeping into her, she made her way through the storefront, passing multiple aisles on the way to Steven's office. It had only been a day since she had last been here, but her experience in the alleyway completely altered how she viewed the world. Once upon a time, Lyra viewed this store akin to a sweatshop, a place where the higher-ups controlled and commanded everything whilst the weaker ones, people like her, were forced to do all the manual labour. Now, she still saw it this way. What had changed was how she saw herself.

No longer was she a worker forced to perform whatever tasks were demanded of her. Instead, she was to climb the ladder of authority and replace the one in command. He would be forced down to the level she was once at, forced to perform any and all menial tasks that she ordered of him, all the whilst she sat in a throne with complete dominion over him.

In summary, where Lyra once saw herself as weak and unable to make change, she now saw herself as someone strong enough to take the position of one in command. She wanted to take Steven's place, but that wasn't all. She wanted to see him beg for his position. She wanted him to grovel at her feet, slowly but surely being driven to absolute worship. He would never get his position back of course. Instead, he would be forced to watch as Lyra slowly extended her control across the store he once owned, her perfect socked foot slowly sliding between his lips as he finally accepts his place beneath her.

Already she knew that the look on his face as his resistance crumbled would be to die for. To see a man with such pride and arrogance submit completely to a girl who was once a mere tool to him, forced to worship and revere her angelic feet and body. To be honest, Lyra had her doubts that this was even possible, but as she had seen previously, the control she held was undeniable. With her confidence as it was right now, she would get whatever she wanted.

With her eyes firmly set on the prize that lay before her, she marched into the office were her ex-employer sat, filling in the forms for her dismissal. At the sound of his door being swung open, Steven immediately looked up from his work with an agitated expression.

"What the hell do you think you're doing barging..." he barked, pausing when he saw just who it was that had stormed into his office, "You have some real nerve showing up here after what happened yesterday. Half an hour late, need I mention."

"I arrive when I want to." Lyra replied matter-of-factly.

Steven was stunned. Lyra had been working here for quite a while now, and not once had she made any attempt at defending herself from his verbal abuse. Clearly something had changed about her, but he wouldn't let it deter him. The paperwork was nearing completion; only a few small details remained until her life would be over.

"Is that so?" A small grin was on his face. It was almost pitiful than he thought he was in control of the situation, "Then that gives me the right to remove employees from my workplace whenever I feel the need to, correct?"

"You wanna fire me?" Steven nodded his head. "Any reason why?"

"Leaving early, arriving late, not to mention the clear insubordination you're showing right now."

Lyra couldn't help but let out a faint chuckle. He talks about insubordination as a form of disrespect, but the level of disrespect he showed his own employees was astonishing. "You really are a scumbag, aren't you?"

"You can think what you want, doesn't matter to me." Steven explained, turning his focus back to his work, pen in hand. "You're gonna be on the streets pretty soon anyway."

This entire situation was incredibly amusing to Lyra. Here he thought he held her life in his hands, when in reality it was closer to the other way around. If she could find out how she took control of those thugs, Steven would be at her mercy. His entire life would be hers to manipulate.

"I want you to stop filling in that form." Lyra commanded.

Perhaps unintentionally, he did what she asked. That smug grin returned to his face as he looked her dead in the eye, clicking his pen impatiently. No words were said for a few seconds, before he finally gave a response.

"Is this a joke?" he replied, bluntly. The words felt like Lyra had been punched in the gut, but unlike with her father, she wasn't going to let it stop her. "Be a good girl and wait patiently would you? I'm almost done."

"I won't tell you again. Put down the pen and rip up the form."

He didn't put the pen down.

"Right. Get out my office."

This time his words felt like a knife to her soul. Twice now he had disobeyed. Perhaps she really couldn't control others like she had thought? If that was the case, then her life was truly in danger here. If Steven got his way, she would never be able to find employment again. The web of lies he would be able to spin would permanently stain her resume forever.

"No."

"Get out now, or I'll drag you out."

Panic began to set in, but it felt strange. It wasn't the typical laboured breathing and dizziness that came with panic, but rather an intense splitting pain in her head. Not only that, but it seemed to be growing in severity. Lyra let out a groan, holding her forehead in her hands. Any other person would have instinctively jumped into action to see what was wrong, but Steven simply sat there watching.

Searing pain scorched her entire body as it spread through her from head to toe. Nobody would be able to withstand such pain in silence, as she let out a scream of agony, desperately clutching her head for some relief. Then, when it had started to become unbearable, it stopped.

Just like that, it simply stopped.

Along with the pain, the world around her seemed to have vanished too, replaced by a empty black void. She knew she hadn't passed out as she could still feel herself standing up, but she quite clearly wasn't in Steven's office.

Footsteps echoed from behind her, causing her to instinctively spin around to face the sound. There stood her dark doppelganger, slowly approaching her with an almost evil smirk on her face. Unlike in the real world where shadows appeared as black, her shadow appeared entirely white and stretched in multiple different directions. They almost seemed to glow, providing some faint light in the void.

"Do you want this?" it asked, gazing into Lyra's eyes.

Confused and a little afraid, she nodded. The decision had been made long ago. She would give anything for power; anything to not be the underdog anymore.

Her dark clone giggled, amused and impressed by her choice. It raised a single hand in front of its body, opening up her palm so that it face the sky, causing an impossible shadow to rise from it. Soon the shadow had stretched high into the sky, its energy pulsing and converging until it became an orb. The doppelganger clicked its fingers, sending the orb flying into Lyra's chest. Strangely, the sensation of the orb becoming one with her felt good, like a new power was flowing into every part of her body. As if to confirm this, the countless white shadows of the clone vanished, now appearing beneath Lyra.

"It's yours now."

As if on instinct, she opened her palm to see if she could summon the same shadow orbs as her other self, but before she had any chance of doing so, the void began to glow brighter and brighter, the endless boundaries of darkness drawing in close. It wasn't long until she found herself stood back in Steven's office exactly where she had been.

Stunned by the sudden shift in location and unsure if it was even real, she looked around blankly, even reaching out to touch the wall as a form of reality check.

"I don't know what the hells wrong with you. Take the form and get the hell out." Steven ordered, snapping her out of her stupor. He'd risen from his desk, standing in front of her whilst waving the termination form in her face. It was as if he was saying 'it's all over for you' whilst simultaneously rubbing salt in the wound.

Despite the obnoxiousness of his actions however, Lyra wasn't paying him any attention. Curiosity was running rampant in her head, and she wanted to set it free. With extreme trepidation, she cautiously rose her hand to her side and opened up her palm. Right now, her sole intent was to enslave Steven. Her one and only desire was to watch him fall to his knees and surrender.

She gasped as a pitch black shadow rose from her palm, briefly hovering in the air as an opaque mist before materialising as a floating orb just like she seen in the void. The orb had black flames emanating from its top, giving it the appearance of a fireball.

"Sweet mother of god!" Steven yelled, stumbling back against the office wall. The termination form fell from his hand and floated gently down to the ground, settling on the carpet.

Confidence returned to Lyra once again. This was how she had turned those thugs into her own personal puppets, and now she'd do the same thing to him. She smirked just as her evil doppelganger had done as the orb shot forward, circling Steven a few times before flying into him. He let out a scream of defiance, but it was no use. He didn't know it yet, but he was now a mere extension of Lyra's will. Already she had fastened the collar around his neck with no hope of escape.

"What'd you do?" he screamed, a horrified mess on the floor. His hands were held up in defence of his face as if he were being attacked by a deadly predator. Unliked with the thugs who had lost all semblance of will immediately, Steven had been left with a small sliver of resistance. Lyra didn't simply want him as a puppet, she wanted to watch him melt before her.

"So..." she began, "Are you gonna do as I say now?"

"Fine." he murmured in response, crawling to his feet and timidly walking over to the termination form that lay on the ground. Trembling, he picked it up and began tearing until it was in pieces. "Happy?"

"Mmm, no. Not at all." She placed a hand on her hip and confidently strutted over to the other side of the desk. Steven didn't dare offer any objections as fear and an unusual urge to submit overcame him, watching helplessly as she elegantly lowered into his chair, "In fact, I think I deserve a promotion." Her shoes fell to the ground as she quickly kicked them off before placing her socked feet on the desk, toes pointing upwards towards the ceiling.

"W-What? A promotion?" His voice was trembling. Clearly offering a promotion to someone showing such a clear lack of respect bothered him.

"Yeah. We can start with a foot massage." Lyra commanded, a hint of lust in her eyes as she stared at him expectantly. Surprisingly, he showed much less resistance than she had expected, offering a simple sigh before reluctantly obeying.

A small giggle escaped her lips as his wrapped around her black cotton socks, gently kneading each foot. Her toes wiggled with delight as she leaned back in the chair that once belonged to the man who was now servicing her; it was her chair now. Soon his hands moved to the arch of her foot, gently massaging her soles to perfection through the soft material. Her eyes closed as she let out an audible sigh, with every touch simulating heaven.

"Good boy." she murmured quietly between sighs. Without the guts to say anything back, he simply doubled his efforts and continued. A few hours ago, he would've lost his cool over such a patronising comment, but hearing it from Lyra only egged him on. He felt inexplicably compelled to please her, to ensure she felt like absolute royalty as if she were a queen.

Sensing Steven's shift in attitude, she let out another giggle. One of her hands moved to her thigh, gently caressing the grey nylon as a familiar ache began to develop between her legs. As desperate as she was to feel that godlike release once more, she managed to stop herself, lifting her feet from the desk.

"Mistress?" Steven asked in response to her sudden movement. That was when he gasped, holding his hand to his mouth in shock. He couldn't believe he had just said that. Mistress? His own employee? Never should such a thing happen, but it just felt so right. Tending to her feet like that felt so unbelievably right, like it was always meant to be. Perhaps it was destiny that he was to serve her, a simple footslave in the presence of a goddess.

Lyra's confident smirk grew wider than it ever had before, almost to a degree of cockiness. She'd gotten what she wanted, now to claim the prize. With a hungry lust in her eyes, she clicked her fingers, pointing at the floor next to her as the chair swivelled around. Immediately, he scurried over and dropped to his knees like an obedient dog. She gazed down at his pathetic form with a mixture of pity for him and pride for herself. She owned him. He belonged to her.

Crossing her legs, a single socked foot hung in the air just inches away from his face. She leaned her head on her hand, curling her toes expectantly. Any man would have already surrendered at the feet of such a girl, but to her amusement he still held on. "N-No..." he groaned weakly in one final display of resistance, but it wasn't enough for her next move. Lyra moved her foot only slightly forward so her sock-covered sole was pressed against his face. Every breath he took came with the intoxicating scent of perfumed cotton and sweat, combining to form an aroma that could truly dominate senses.

"You're breathing the scent of your new owner. Be honoured." Lyra explained to him smugly. The ache between her thighs was becoming unbearable; she couldn't resist much longer. Her panties were soaked at the sight of her former boss being ensnared in a web of control.

"Y-Yes, mistress. I am honoured to breathe the scent of your perfection."

He puckered his lips and began planting kisses on her sole, not even attempting to struggle or move away. The glorious aroma of his new queen's feet was impossible to resist, shrouding his mind in a fog that controlled his every action. He wanted to shower her foot in kisses and make her feel like the goddess she was. How could he have been so blind? Lyra was a beautiful goddess, but he was just a man. How could he ever have thought he was superior to her. No, she was superior in every way. He was just dirt under her feet.