Old Einstein was crazy enough to believe us. The first time around the crazy git was sceptical but once we explained what happens to him in the future (and also some details we got from a previous Loop that weren’t on his Wikipedia page) he believed us.

Soon he got to working on a time capsule that would presumably get us back to our original time. Every time we looped back, Amy and I would memorise the details of the time machine from a previous Loop and give it to him in the next. Slowly but surely in each Loop, getting him to believe us was much easier and work on the Time Machine was much faster. All we had to do was give it one more Loop and then we’d be back in our original years.

As Lief got working on the machine, Amy and I stood on the walkway staring down at him as he made some touches on the machine (a shiny white capsule shaped like an egg). Lief refused to work with other people, saying the scientific community would make a huge scandal about it. He got his funding from Amy and I memorising lottery numbers making him able to work on the machine in peace.

“Do you think we’ll finally go home?” I asked. “Do you think I’ll finally be able to see my parents, my friends?”

Amy shrugged. “Well, we never know until we try.”

 “But what if we don’t go back to the right times?” I asked. “You told me I’d been missing for four years? What happens when I’m in 2024 and you’re in 28? I won’t be talking to the same Amy I know now.”

Amy chuckled. “Oh wow, it almost sounds like you’ll miss me.”

I stared into her eyes. “I will.”

 “You have a girlfriend,” Amy said bluntly. “God you really are an asshole.”

I realised I had forgotten about Sarah. “Shit,” I said, face-palming. “Yeah I am so sorry about that. God I made things awkward.”

We sat there in silence. “But I am worried about you. Didn’t you tell me you were in a hospital? What happens when we return and…”

“It’ll be fine,” Amy said though she didn’t sound too sure. “Anything beats having to live in this endless hell where we can’t move forward.”

“Yeah that’s true,” I said. I felt a smile form on my face. “But it was fun, wasn’t it?”

Amy chuckled. “Yeah, tell me about it. Bank heists, winning lotteries. It was nice doing those things without worrying about the consequences. It was… freeing. It was great. I felt like I was living life at it’s fullest.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “We were making the most out of a shitty situation.”

It was quiet for a while.

“What if we’re stuck here forever?” Amy asked. “What if it doesn’t work. What if we’re really stuck…”

I held her hand. “Don’t worry. Things will work. I hope they will otherwise well…”

I smiled. “We’ll make the most out of the things like we’ve always been doing.”