Dortmund, Germany
August 20, 2057

Eria eagerly swished down a glass of scotch. It was her third that night, and she exhaled when the glass was empty. Resting her shoulder on the table, the barstool she sat on creaked as she moved. She motioned for the bartender, ready to demand her fouth glass. The bartender, a balding fat man with hair almost completely covering his rugged pink face, gave Eria a stern squint of disapproval.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" he questioned. "You've got that kid to take care of, after all."

He directed his gaze to the seat next to Eria, where Eva sat. Having patiently waited for her godmother to conclude her business at the bar, she rested her her head on the table and slept.

Eria sighed, reminded of her responsibility. "Right, right. Sorry Moritz, there's just been so much on my mind lately. I'll run along home now."

Waking Eva, the two groggily headed out of the bar. Slightly drunk, Eria signaled for a taxi, and then stared back at the bar behind her. It was an old German pub, the likes of which she frequented back in her younger days. She always half-expected to see Claude sitting at the bar, just like when the two had been together.
-----------------------------------
Eria bid her farewell to the taxi and looked upon her house. It was remarkably late, and Eva was once again asleep. Slowly, Eria carried her back to her bed, carefully coordinating her drunken movements to avoid dropping her.

Eria looked on the sleeping Eva, who trembled and seemed to wince in pain as she slept. She recently had been plagued by frequent nightmares, often recreating the bloodied scene where she had lost her parents. Eria ran her hand gently through Eva's soft brown hair.

She felt the child's profound despair, and she quietly retreated to her basement. She flicked on the single light bulb hanging above her and looked on the machine, constructed in the frame of an old Volkswagen, that she had worked on for over a decade.

Despite the pain and rejection sustained for the sake of her research, Eria was proud of the progress she made. This, she thought, would be the mechanism to undo Eva's despair. That was now her primary motivation, the drive that willed her to fiercely pursue her dream.

She picked her blueprints up from the floor, deciding to make some last adjustments to it before retreating to bed. Intoxicated, her focus on her work was astonishing, and she worked all through the night.
-----------------------------------
Eria clapped the grime from her hands, heading back upstairs where the morning sun gracefully established its presence. She turned around to look back on the time machine. There was a sudden allure to the machine, despite having spent her entire night with it. Eria stood there admiring it, attempting to fight her urge to test it. She wanted to test just once, and then she would quickly go to sleep. Just once.

Caving in to her whim, Eria, bitter with defeat, threw open the door of the Volkswagen. She hopped in the driver's seat and started the engine. It clattered loudly, and a multitude of tiny mechanisms within the machine all came to life. There was a loud barking, likely Schneider's response to the noise.

Eria floored the gas pedal, pumping it feverishly to make her invention work. Just then, the emptiness in front of her seemed to open up to the size of a fist, revealing a multitude of colors spiraling infinitely into the tiny tear in the fabric of reality. It was blindingly brilliant, and a wind kicked up in Eria's basement, sending foam cups, papers, and various other utensils into the air in a swirling motion around the vortex. One by one, Eria's things were devoured by the growing vortex, and she stopped and stared in awe. This was the face of her success, and there were no words to be uttered at the moment. She instead let her mouth gape open.

A dog yelped loudly. Eria, who had been entranced as she stared Time in the face, took delayed notice of Schneider, who ran down the stairs and now struggled against the vortex's pull. Eria widened her eyes and gritted her teeth, frantically slamming the brake pedal.

"No no no! Why won't this fucking thing stop!?"

Schneider howled loudly as the vortex swallowed him. And with that, the vortex immediately shrank itself shut, having claimed the unfortunate old dog. Eria stopped the machine completely and sat in the driver's seat in a state of shock. She buried her face in her hands and began to weep. The machine that would turn back the cruel hands of time for Eva instead stole away her best friend.

Eria's guilty heart sank. Her ambitions, so far, had only brought her pain.