The Quest of Time
Chapter -1
The evening took its turn from bad to worse, as Lizzie drove through heavy rain in a busy highway. The storm was getting stronger; she saw another lightning strike a tree in the fields through her peripheral vision, it made her shiver. She was running late so she drove faster than usual to make up for the lost time but the heavy rain was making it harder for her to look through the road.
She cursed the slow driver ahead her "Come on, learn to drive first then step on the highway, buddy!" Immediately she heard Jane's voice in her head asking her to be kinder to the other driver, he was being cautious driving in the terrible weather, she should be too. Lizzie laughed at herself, she was spending way too much time with Jane if her subconscious was using her sister's voice to lecture her.
"Sorry sis, I am in a hurry, I'll be better tomorrow." Lizzie said to herself and changed the lane so she could overtake the slower cars.
She hated slow drivers. Speed always thrilled her and she enjoyed driving fast on the long and less busy roads. She got this fascination of speed from her father. He always used to take her to school and everywhere on his motorcycle, and he was definitely a fast and reckless driver according to her mother. Lizzie liked the feeling of freedom while driving fast in the motorcycle, wind blowing on her face, it was like flying.
Lizzie looked at the time, she was very late, her boss won't be pleased but she knew she could use the terrible weather as an excuse and will be scot free. Her job mostly required her to work in the comfort of an office but she volunteered for this work to deliver and deploy the technical equipments to Scotland. She always loved travelling to far and unusual places, meet and work with new people from different fields and this job gave her the perfect opportunity to do so. She told herself, next time she will check the weather before she volunteered for any field work.
She pressed the accelerator harder, hoping to reach her destination before midnight, looking forward to the warm bed and hot tea with biscuits. She cleaned the mist covering inside of the windshield to get a clear view of the road. Suddenly her cell phone rang and she annoyingly picked it up thinking it's her boss checking up on her. But as soon as she heard the voice on the other side, all her irritation vanished.
"Hello. Lizzie, are you there?"
"I'm here Chris, I am so glad to hear your voice 'cause I'm really having a bad road trip."
"What happened? Why didn't you call me? You said you will call me as soon as you reach there, I was so worried and"
She interrupted Chris in the middle, "I didn't call you because I am not there yet. I am still on my way."
Chris sounded concerned "Why, what happed, did you have any trouble on the way. I knew it, your car is not worth a long trip. I told you to take my car instead but you never listen to me."
She sighed, "No, there was no trouble with my car and thank you very much for the offer, but I love my own car. It is more environmental friendly than yours." she snickered. She always adored when Chris was caring and protective but right then he was just getting on already bad nerve.
"So, what happened? You should have been there like an hour ago."
"I got distracted on my way"
"Distracted by what?"
"A cute guy", she joked and could tell by Chris's angry grunt that he didn't like the joke. Before he would get angry she continued "Actually, I took a pit stop to stretch my legs in a small village and there was a beautiful tower near a very old and mesmerizing church that I went to see it. Oh Chris, it was so beautiful and the view from top of the tower was so breath taking. I couldn't resist such a good photo opportunity. I could see the whole village, hills, and fields and lakes from there. I had to capture that view with my camera."
"What? Are you crazy? You are late because you went up to a tower to take pictures? Really, you have some glitch in your brain" Chris finally laughed.
She rolled her eyes, "You already know I am crazy. But you have to be there to see how perfect and beautiful it was. And before I came to my senses, I was already three hours late. So, I am hurrying now."
"Oh Lizzie, this is what you do without me," Chris said in I-told-you-so way "always gets distracted by the next shiny thing."
Lizzie laughed "You know me so well."
Chris asked "How long will it take you to be there?"
"Couple of hours or maybe more. It's really bad weather. It is raining so hard, like a tropical storm here. I'll call you as soon as I reach there. "
"Don't drive so fast in the storm then. You know how easily accidents can happen. Drive carefully. Just reach there in one piece and call me." Chris reminded her.
Lizzie laughed, "Alright Mommy, I will. Don't worry. I'll be fine. The evening couldn't get any worse than this, I am sure. You just take care of yourself. I'll talk to you later because I can't concentrate on my driving if I am talking on the phone. Which, I should add could cause an accident."
"Ok, ok. Talk to you later. Bye and I love you and miss you." He said lovingly.
"Already, I thought you'll enjoy few days away from me. As you always say, I drive you crazy." She was amused.
"Yeah you do, but you are going for two weeks and just thinking of staying away from you for so long makes me miss you even more."
"You are such a baby, don't worry, I'll be there with you even before you know and start to miss me for real."
"Yeah, I know and call me as soon as you reach there. I love you"
"I will and I love you more." She added and finished the call.
Lizzie was consumed in her thoughts about Chris, how happy she was to have him in her life. She didn't focus on the road and suddenly she saw a bright light ahead of her which came out of nowhere. She hit the break scared that the lightning hit the road ahead of her and might even hit her car. But her car was too fast to stop. It felt like the lightning hit the car too, Lizzie felt a shock ran through her body. The car came off the road losing all the control and skid downhill into the forest