Neutralized
    
After all these years, she had finally done it. She had sacrificed everything for this. Her job, her passions, her family’s love. Those once-big issues seemed like tiny specks on the horizon now compared to what she had created. What had once been an innocent Erlenmeyer flask now held a powder that, if combined with water, would destroy every living thing on the planet. The very liquid that was the basis of all life could now destroy it.
    
She began to pace the room. She had made herself immune to the serum’s effects long before she had even begun to experiment and was now mystified about why she was so worried. Humans are empathetic creatures, she thought, as she drifted back and forth in the small cubicle she had called home for over a decade. Her shoes squeaked against the clean, white floor, sounding like the rats she had tested with a diluted version of her concoction. They were all dead now. Of course you feel bad that every single thing in the world is going to die.
    
She sucked in a deep breath as she went over to the sink and filled a sterilized beaker with water. Then she paused. Why was she doing this? She knew she had started because she was angry because someone she loved had hurt her. She had assumed that all of humanity was the same way, so she had plotted to get rid of them.

But now, she wasn’t angry anymore. The lack of contact with the outside world had made her an empty shell, and she had no feeling at all.

Her fingers trembled as she lifted the beaker to the flask. This is it.

She then had an epiphany. Maybe the rest of humanity was naturally bad, but she could choose to be good. She let the beaker slip out of her hands and watched it shatter against the ground, and the sound interrupted the cold silence. She then reached for tincture of iodine, which would neutralize the powder. She poured it into the flask in one swift motion.