Chapter 4: Massacre

"All losses in this world are due to a lack of ability. If you want to curse something, curse your weakness." said the white-haired Lyra to her black-haired counterpart. She walked towards the bounded individual and held her by the throat. "Good night Lyra," she said as she squeezed her victim's throat.

Lyra awoke in a hospital room at the crack of dawn, she stood up and walked towards the window. As she looked over the sunrise she muttered with a strong conviction, "I am done dreaming,".

Lyra was discharged rather quickly as there was nothing wrong with her, she had been unconscious for one day due to high stress. As Lyra saw her reflection in the mirror of the elevator she saw many strands of snow-white hair, she smirked and walked out of the elevator with a sinister smile.

She was going to ruin Valentino's life, piece by piece she would deconstruct everything that meant something to him. And so began her research into his life, a wife and two children were the clear targets that came up. Multiple sexual allegations were placed against him by ex-employees, and it seemed ruining him would be far easier than she thought.

"It seems I don't have much time, the corporate meeting is the perfect time to finish him," she said to herself. Lyra got in contact with all of the women who placed allegations against Valentino and demanded they post the story she gave them on the specified date.

"I don't want to lie, I want to tell my truth." said one of the victims.

"You either do as I say and get your revenge or I destroy your life along with his," said Lyra with zero hesitation. "Imagine what your family would do if the world found out you had a consensual affair with Valentino?" said Lyra even though she knew that was completely false.

"I can forge the evidence to narrate ANY story I want, make your choice now," she said in a bone-chilling voice.

"...I will post the story," said the victim as she sobbed into the phone.

"Good girl, now enjoy your vengeance," said Lyra as she cut the call. Some of the victims readily agreed while some required convincing but in the end, everyone was on board now.

"Now the final step is getting back in the lab," with that said Lyra was able to enter the lab quite easily as it seemed Valentino had not taken any precautions, foolish as ever.

Finding CCTV footage of her outburst in Valentino's office was not difficult at all, and the final step was gaining remote access to Valentino's laptop. That was child's play as it seemed the man was truly as stupid as he seemed.

"His password is password, I can't believe this retard fooled you Lyra," she sighed in disbelief.

With everything set up, all she had to do was wait for two more days, and she would have her revenge.

Two days later, at the corporate meeting where Valentino was the star commenced, Lyra tapped into his computer's webcam and microphone and so was able to see and hear everything. As Valentino was preaching about hard work and dedication to science, Lyra smirked as she played CCTV footage of that fateful day for everyone to see.

While everyone in the meeting was shocked by what they were seeing, social media was in an uproar because of all the allegations and evidence against Valentino Chavez. It painted him as a sexual predator who robbed the credit of his victims. The truth was he had discovered everything on his resume other than nuclear fusion. Lyra had successfully painted Valentino as a talentless failure who preyed on others.

The next day Lyra was watching the news, the breaking story was Valentino Chavez being found dead in his house by his wife. The man had hung himself in shame and despair.

"There truly is something satisfying in forcing someone to end themselves, Lyra I hope these methods are more acceptable," said Lyra out loud without any remorse, she instead seemed very amused by what she saw on television.

"It sure is good to be back in Chicago," said Lyra as she got out of the airport, the fallout of the Valentino situation was rather chaotic, but in the end, she was promoted to head of the nuclear department. "I will rise to the top, no other position is worthy of me, " said Lyra to herself as she caught a taxi. As she arrived at the headquarters she was very much looking forward to seeing Jay Peterson, after all, she now outranked him.

As Lyra exited the elevator on the seventh floor she found Jay, just like the first day she walked into this office.

"Ah yes hello Mr Peterson," said Lyra with a sinister grin as Jay's face went deathly pale.

"Good morning Ms Bale," muttered Jay as he was truly terrified of the events to come.

"Meet me in my office in 5 minutes, every minute that you are late increases your workload by 10%," said Lyra in a sing-song tone as she walked away towards the large office with the board "TECHNICAL HEAD OF NUCLEAR DEPARTMENT".

The events that occurred in that office were eerily similar to Lyra's first day, with the roles reversed comically. Lyra sent Jay away as she started to plot her next move to climb further up the corporate ladder. As she started to get working, she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," said Lyra.

The one who walked in was not someone Lyra was expecting, Sid Brandon.

"Well I can't say I'm surprised you discovered something world-changing Granger," said Sid with pride in his voice. "The technical heads of both the nuclear and electrical departments being lifetime rivals is the hottest gossip in the office now ya know?" said Sid cheekily as it greatly pleased him for everyone to know his rival is someone incredibly competent.

"Can't say I'm surprised you're the technical head as well," said Lyra with a smile that simply did not reach her hollow eyes.

"Let's grab a drink after work, I need to vent about Liz," said Sid as he turned around to leave. "You sure as hell need the rest, your eyes look dead," said Sid with concern tinted in his voice as he left.

The weeks that followed had Sid and Lyra going out regularly after work, quite often back to Sid's house. Lyra quite enjoyed her time with Sid and his wife Liz, she most definitely enjoyed perfecting her act of caring more though.

Lyra found herself genuinely caring about this family of two, but was quick to see this as defiance from the remnants of Lyra.

At work Lyra was able to drastically improve the productivity of the nuclear department, causing the higher-ups to take notice, in particular Richard Saber. He was the majority shareowner of Saber Industries and he was a highly respected and influential man in society.

"Ms Bale and Mr Brandon truly have been a breath of fresh air for the scientific community rey," said Richard, he always had that unique tick at the end of each sentence. " Saber Industries will be led to the future by these two bright individuals rey," said Richard in an interview.

Lyra was able to see what was happening here, it was evident in every meeting they had with Mr Saber. He was hellbent on making either Lyra or Sid the new CEO of Saber Industries, it was a publicity stunt of having the youngest CEO in America. There was most definitely also some degree of trust he had in both of his most cherished human resources.

It was evident that Sid was the frontrunner for the position, Lyra was not sure if it was because he was a man or not. It did not matter tho, because she would win by any means necessary.