(Viera begins to dismantle the system. Piece by piece. Person by person. And the fallout is explosive.)
Viera (Monday Morning)
There's a silence before storms.
That held breath, that knowing something is coming but not knowing what.
She walked through the front doors of school like it was any other day.
Hair tied up. Hoodie borrowed (stolen) from Kade. Eyes sharp.
No one spoke to her.
Everyone was watching.
Waiting.
Because by now, they'd felt the ripple.
The beginning of something wrong.
But no one knew where it was coming from.
They just knew—someone was about to fall.
Target One: Maya Wilkes.
Queen Bee.
Cheer co-captain.
Chronic backstabber.
Viera waited until a college scout was visiting the school for early athletic reviews.
Then, she anonymously forwarded the following:
Screenshots of Maya mocking disabled classmates in DMs.
Photos of her blacking out drunk in her cheer uniform.
A clip—barely a second long—of her breaking into the admin office with someone's stolen key to change her GPA on the school system.
Maya lost her cheer scholarship in 36 hours.
The scout never even spoke to her.
Her parents pulled her from school the next week.
Gone.
Target Two: Coach Teller.
The one who knew what Logan did to Kade.
And looked the other way.
Viera timed it perfectly.
At 3:17pm on a Wednesday, he received an email from the school board containing:
The full audio clip of him saying, "Boys will be boys. Just keep it quiet."
Financial documents proving he redirected funding from the art department to cover athlete bribes.
Screenshots of him threatening students who complained about locker room harassment.
By Friday, he was fired.
By Sunday, his teaching license was revoked.
By Monday, his wife filed for divorce.
One week.
Three moves ahead.
Target Three: Logan.
This was personal.
But personal didn't mean messy.
She kept it clean.
First, she exposed his cheating ring.
Airdropped mid-class.
Then she leaked private group chats from his burner Instagram accounts—the ones where he'd made jokes about Kade's assault.
He denied it.
Until the video surfaced.
Grainy. Dark. But clear enough to see his face.
His voice.
He was expelled.
Arrested for assault two days later.
His father, a lawyer, lost two clients in the fallout.
His little sister had to change schools.
The Holloway name was never attached.
But everyone knew.
Target Four: The Gossip Hive
The nobodies who thought cruelty was currency.
She didn't crush them.
She erased them.
Systematically exposed each secret they'd hidden—one by one.
Prescription pill abuse.
Sleeping with a married teacher.
Hacking student records.
Sexual harassment complaints swept under the rug.
Viera didn't stop until each of them was isolated.
Publicly shamed.
Privately wrecked.
One moved cities.
One dropped out.
Two were hospitalized for "stress-related conditions."
Not one of them ever figured out who had started it.
Not even when the last message came through on a dead account:
"You made the wrong boy bleed."
Kade (Unaware)
Meanwhile, he was… happy.
No. Not just happy.
Light.
He woke up to sunlight on his sheets.
To Viera tickling the soles of his feet until he screamed into his pillow.
"STOP—VIERA—OH MY GOD—"
Only for her to grin and whisper:
"Say my name one more time and maybe I'll spare you."
He laughed until he couldn't breathe.
She kissed the tip of his nose and said, "You laugh so much better now."
She took him to the bookstore.
To coffee shops.
Made him go on walks—long ones, under golden trees—and every time he tried to be quiet, she nudged him until he started talking again.
He thought the school felt calmer.
He thought maybe people were… learning.
He had no idea they were being destroyed.
Because every time he turned his head, Viera was already there—pulling him back into the moment.
Tickling his ribs when he got too serious.
Whispering compliments into his ear just to watch him blush.
Throwing M&M's at his face in the library when he studied too hard.
"You're different," he said one night.
They were on his roof. A blanket beneath them. Her fingers tracing nonsense into the back of his hand.
"How?"
"You're… dangerous."
She smiled slowly. "I always was."
"You used to be shiny-dangerous. Like—popular-girl-you-hope-likes-you kind of dangerous."
"And now?"
He turned to face her.
Eyes serious.
"You're the kind of dangerous that makes people disappear."
She kissed his forehead.
Then tickled his side until he shrieked and fell off the blanket.
"Don't be dramatic," she said sweetly.
Viera (Later That Night)
She watched him sleep.
Curled on his side.
Arm wrapped around a pillow.
Mouth slightly open.
The boy who used to flinch when someone touched him now snored beside her.
She'd broken every rule.
Pulled every thread.
Burned people who once ruled her world.
And for what?
This.
This.
A boy breathing softly.
Peacefully.
Unaware.
Safe.
Because she'd made it that way.
Because she'd never let him suffer again.
End of Chapter 13
Next: Chapter 14 – When Fire Meets Water