Robert Woods was sitting in a small cubicle, his eyes anxiously staring at a progress bar on his computer monitor. Sleep deprivation was showing on his face. Although he was in his early twenties, right now his countenance was that of a middle-aged man.

Robert’s cubicle was situated in a corner of a large hall with almost a hundred such cubicles. The whole hall was filled with darkness, only a single cubicle, Robert’s, was lit by the computer screen.

A “Ding“ signaled the progress bar completion. All the lights in the hall came back on. The Quantum Particle Accelerator used up all the power of the nearby nuclear reactor while running. The building’s electrical system was programmed to turn off the unneeded electronic equipment while the QPA was running. Robert heaved a sigh. Finally!

Robert was a protégé of Professor Stephen, one of the pioneers in the field of physics. Robert was currently interning at the QPA, the second largest particle accelerator in the world. It was only second to CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

He was waiting for the daily QPA experiments to get completed. After a month of helping out Stephen finishing his new book “Going smaller than quarks”, Robert had saved up a few minutes from Stephen’s quota of particle accelerator time.

The particle accelerator running time was limited, it could only be operated for a few hours each week. Naturally, the queue to get some running time was quite long. To get it you had to be a rather influential in science world with strong connections. Or you had to pay a hefty price and wait years before you got some time for running experiments.

The sound of Robert typing on his mechanical keyboard contrasted the stark silence of the hall. He typed in the command to start the experiment he had been programming for years. An experiment to create antimatter!

He felt his heartbeat rising, it was not every day that one got to play with a multi-billion dollar toy! And this “toy“ was the dream of all scientists interested in the field of physics.

He silently stared at the monitor for a moment before his index finger pressed the enter key.

Status messages started flooding the black terminal on his monitor. It looked like a waterfall of obscure computer code, the lights in the hall turned off again. Roberts cubicle was again the only lit place in the hall, like a lighthouse in an ocean of darkness.

A tube-like structure lit up. It was the neutron source of the reactor. A beam flashed out of the tube and started moving through the tunnel. It was bound by the magnetic field of the huge superconductor magnets surrounding it. The tunnel was in the shape of a ring with at least a kilometer in diameter.

After a few seconds, the beam shot through the tunnel. From the heavy load, the electromagnets that surround the tunnel started to make buzzing noises.

Robert’s computer was still showing the status messages, he had his fingers crossed. This was an unauthorized experiment. One which could make or break his career. Although he was skeptic about the existence of a higher power, he felt like praying.

A few seconds later the proton beam collided with another beam of protons, the minuscule particles exploded inside the tunnel. The near light speed of the accelerated protons had given the beam tremendous energy, the collision of two of these beams created an explosion that resembled the primordial big bang. This primordial big bang was said to have created the universe. Robert only hoped that the miniature big bang inside the tunnel would produce some antimatter.

Although as Robert knew, the chance of this happening was rather low, it happened. Sensors register the new particles and the supercomputer executed Robert’s instructions. The few newly formed antimatter particles were stored in a magnetic field container.

The status screen in front of Robert changed.

“It worked!“

Robert felt like screaming “Eureka!”, but he didn't want to wake up the floor security. "It actually worked!"

He cleared the system logs, then wiped the computer, only copying the final observations onto a memory device. He couldn't let anyone know that he did an unauthorized experiment here. While he ran to the elevator, Robert was already planning on how to reveal his discovery to the world.

Impatiently he pushed the elevator button a few times, the elevator took its time coming up. While he was going down Robert got a feeling as if he was being watched. There was a camera in the elevator, but it was usually not being monitored. But it somehow felt like a cold gaze was upon him when he looked up into the camera.

The elevator slowed to a halt at the underground entrance section to the QPA. He got out of the elevator and walked towards the inner part of the tunnel. Robert keyed in the password and the door slid open. A blast of cold air hit his face. It was not that cold but a chill ran down his spine. Something was not right, he was feeling it in his gut.

He rushed to the inner part of the tunnel. Although the cold air was blasting from the air vents, the temperature in the tunnel was still quite high.

Robert entered another password and opened the storage system. Inside was a glass cylinder with a metallic base and top, it had a screen which showed some stats. Although invisible to the naked eye this container was currently confining antimatter. These particles had been prophesied and theorized many times in scientific history, but its existence has never been proven.

He took the storage container and just as he was about to turn around, the sound of footsteps came from behind him.

Turning around he saw Stephen standing at the door with a gun pointed at him.

“Thanks for everything you've done, now leave the container and the memory device here, then you can walk away!” The scholar and scientific mind that Robert had revered his whole life. The one who spoke of using science for peaceful purpose alone in all the conferences, here he was, standing in front of Robert pointing a gun at him.

Robert’s thoughts were in a turmoil.“How the hell did he get here? Wasn't he supposed to be away from the premise today?!” Then Robert realized he was being watched the whole time.

“And who are you kidding?” Robert thought, “Even if I did all you ask now, it would mean nothing. You won't leave me alive.“

He saw a murderous aura around Stephen. This invention would change history. It could lead to the development of a new energy source. Or antimatter bombs, much more powerful than nuclear bombs. Either way meant billions or even trillions in royalties for the inventor. Not to speak about fame and recognition. No wonder Stephens coveted it.

But Robert didn't want to surrender to fate, instead, he wanted to create his own.

He took the final decision of his life.

With a slight smile, he threw the glass container to the ground.

“This is my life! My work! If I can’t have it no one else can!”

The container fell right between his feet. Matter and antimatter reacted. But instead of the explosion he expected, everything became nothing.

A void formed at his feet, his body became nothingness. While his consciousness was sucked into the void, his body disintegrated into energy, the energy exploded.

The last sight Robert had was Stephen disintegrating in the explosion.

“See you in hell, Stephen...”

He wanted to say that but couldn't, he wanted to think but he couldn't.

He was void,

he was nothingness,

only his consciousness remained,

without being able to feel anything,

without being able to think anything.

He was void,

he was nothingness.

He drifted into the endless abyss of space and time.

“Arrrgh...”

Riley took his last breath, he wanted to take another breath but his body wouldn't listen to him.

“If I have another life, you devil, I’ll kill you a thousand times over!”, he thought. Riley wanted to shout it out, but his tongue wouldn't move.His lungs felt like they were on fire. His heart beat one last time.

“Seems like I failed again,”An old man, who looked like he was just skin attached to a bony skeleton, said with a sigh.

His eyes were cold and lifeless, he didn't even have a strand of hair on his head or face. He was wearing a black cloak. In his hand, he held a silver needle. In front of him, a boy lay lifeless.

The boy’s arms and legs were strapped onto a bed, his body pierced with countless silver needles, he looked like a human silver porcupine. There was a pool of blood beneath him.

The old man tried for one last time to pour his energy into the boy, he was doing some experiment. But it was fruitless as always.

“This is the 97th time milord, should we look for another one?”, a man in his thirties with a well-built body asked the old man.

“I am too tired for another one Yugimi, plus we can’t stay here any longer”

Yugimi didn't understand why they had to leave now. He couldn't sense anyone near the old tattered house they were in.

“They are coming, must be looking for all the disappeared, we can’t risk revealing our identity.”

The old man took a look at the corpse of the young boy and let out another sigh.

“This time I was really close!”

He raised his arm and a blue stone with a bright core appeared in his hand. After pouring in some energy he tossed it towards the young boy's corpse. Then he turned around and walks out of the old tattered house, the man named Yugimi followed. Outside of the house, a giant raven was waiting for them. Climbing on this giant bird that radiated a dark aura, they took off into the sky.

The blue stone fell on top of the young boy's corpse and its energy flowed into the boy. Its violent energy seemed as if it wished to destroy the corpse of the boy into nothingness.