Thousand Years

CHAPTER 11 - The Accident

Present, Los Angeles

Adrian shuddered at the memory. He thought first he would start from there. He instructed Dominic to drive to the place where the Italian restaurant was, all those years ago. He was not sure if it would still be there. Dominic was able to find the place thanks to Adrian's precise instructions. 

Adrian got down from the car and stood in the same place he had stood twenty-four years ago. He crossed the street and went into the restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant but it was very different from the one that was there in 1996. 

As he went and sat down in a table, a waiter came towards him. Adrian ordered a drink and a salad. And he asked the waiter, "How long has this restaurant been here?"

"This started around thirty-years ago sir, had a different name back then", the waiter replied.

"I see" replied Adrian and the waiter rushed back to bring the food. 

Adrian waited for a while until he came back with the food. "Anything else sir?"

"Do you by any chance happen to know anyone who worked here about twenty years ago?"

"Yes Sir. Our manager is the owner's son. He had been here from the beginning.", the waiter replied. 

Adrian saw that his name was Andrea. "Thank you, Andrea, will it be possible for me to meet the manager then?"

 "Yes sir, I will let him know. Enjoy your meal. I will be right back."

Andrea came to Adrian's table with a middle-aged man. He was wearing a black suit and he had a tattoo on his neck that was barely visible. He was tanned and looked a bit annoyed. Nevertheless, he asked Adrain, "Hello Sir how may I help you?".

"I am Adrian Cleary. Nice to meet you." 

"Alec Giovanni. The pleasure is all mine" , and they shook hands. 

"Please take a seat," said Adrian motioning to the seat in front of him.

"It is such a nice restaurant. Do you own this?"

"Thank you. This was my father's and soon it will be mine. I am working as the manager as well." 

"I see. My father has mentioned this restaurant. He said this was his favourite Italian restaurant in Los Angeles and so I decided to come and find it".

At Adrian's carefully crafted lie, Giovanni seemed interested. He smiled proudly. 

"Are you from around here Sir?" asked Giovanni.

"Oh no. I am from New York.  I am here on business. My father even mentioned he had witnessed a gruesome accident once, while he was dining here. You probably don't remember, I mean that was around 1996", continued Adrian while sipping on his drink.

"Let me think, a lot of accidents don't happen around here. You are probably talking about when a woman was hit by a truck. I would not have remembered if I wasn't here that night. It was truly horrible, she was such a beautiful young woman." said Giovanni. 

Adrian wanted to know more. After all, that is why he is here in the first place. But he did not want to arouse any unnecessary suspicion by questioning about an accident that took place twenty-four years back. 

"You must have been very young then. What caused the accident?" asked Adrian.

"Yes. I was about twelve years old. They investigated the truck driver on the accident. He was not drunk. He had not fallen asleep. He simply did not remember driving on this road. He was shocked when he saw the woman on the road, he said he did not remember hitting her. But the police thought all of that was lies. There were pointless rumours going around saying the driver was possessed as well." he said with a small laugh. 

"Anyway the driver ended up in prison for manslaughter. He probably was there for at least six years. I wouldn't know."

Adrian realised this was all he could get from around here. He wondered why he hadn't bothered to come here before he met her. Then again, he was traumatized by this place. He swore he wouldn't step in the city when he left. 

But now he had a reason to. He had put all his time and effort into finding a Dareanna look-alike only to have suddenly met Lora in the same city as he was. He knew he needed to protect her this time. He needed to understand why this was happening.

He chatted for five more minutes with Giovanni before he left. Dominic came to pick him up. Adrian asked him to drive straight to the hotel.

Adrian called Ms Kim to his room once he had freshened up. He had to talk to the driver. 

Adrian explained to Ms Kim about the accident. He gave them time, location and also the name of the restaurant. It would only be a matter of time until Ms Kim found out the name of the driver and where he was living now. 

Of course, Adrian had enough skills to find that out himself but he kept only the most discrete ones to himself. He trusted Ms Kim and she never questioned him. He knew Ms Kim just had to dig through some old newspapers and hack into a police database to get the information.

He had not seen Ms Kim hack into anything nor has she mentioned hacking. But he knew that to find the information the way she did, she needed to have some crazy skills or she outsourced her work. He never asked.

Now that Ms Kim had left to do his work, he was all alone in his room. His mind wandered back to last night.  

Lora had fallen asleep on his couch after chatting with him for hours. He guessed she had no recollection of her past lives. He wondered if she felt the same pull he felt towards her.

She was tired and she did not wake up when he had called her name. He had even tried shaking her gently but she only stirred. So he had to carry her to bed. He liked how she had snuggled to his chest when he carried her to bed. 

 He wanted to sleep there, in his bed, right next to her, with arms around her. But being the person he was, he went to the room right next to his.

He wanted to call her and see how she was doing. But it had only been a day since they had properly met. And being the egoistic person he was he thought against calling. He just wanted to know how she was doing. It was past 11 pm, he wondered if she was sleeping. 

He had gotten her number from the document Ms Kim had sent before she even met her properly. He thought of dropping her a message.

Adrian: "Hey! Are you sleeping?"

Lora: "Who is this?"

 Adrian: "Someone who you met yesterday. :)"

Adrian cringed at how ridiculous he sounded. He never did this. 

Lora: "Hi Adrian"

Adrian: "Am I the only one who you met yesterday?"

He waited, but she did not reply. 

Adrian: "Are you sleeping?"

Lora: "Yes.."

Adrian wanted to ask how she replied to him if she was sleeping. But he didn't. He did not want to sound clingy so instead, he replied saying Good Night to which Lora immediately replied with a good night.