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.