Oblivion Of The Heart

Chapter 56 - An Unknown Girl

Chapter 56

The Muerte Mansion.

Qing Lin floated back into Salvador's room and found him in his chair, still intently studying the book she saw him studying days back. She plopped down on the bed, exhausted. She stared at the ceiling, her favorite hobby of all time. Alexandre's face still lingered in her mind, and she had a feeling that she'd seen that face before, even before his picture was shown to her. As if a long time ago...

"How was the first day?" Salvador asked, his voice appearing very sudden to Qing Lin, whose mind was rather focused on her thoughts and the rustle of his flipping of pages. She opened her mouth, and paused, not knowing what to reply. She couldn't believe that she, who was supposed to be Esperanza's replacement, had such awful social skills.

"Alright. I entered his mansion, but couldn't find him in the main villa......" She recounted the events while Salvador still had his eyes fixed on the book, but he kept nodding along, and she felt he was more focused on her report than his book.

"An abandoned mansion?" He stroked the tiny bit of dust from his page and snapped his fingers to brush off the dust. "Never heard of that..." But then his eyebrows furrowed, "But wait... she did say something about that... long back..." He muttered.

Qing Lin couldn't exactly decipher his words, neither was she interested too. She laid back once again.

"You'll be going there every alternate day," Salvador mentioned to her, a point that caught her attention. She abruptly sat up and stared at him, raising her eyebrow while he gave her a 'What?' conveying expression.

"Why alternate days? Shouldn't I go every day, or how would it be efficient enough? I mean, I'm not interested if you miss out on any information, I'm just concerned that if anything goes wrong you might come up to me and blame me for not having done my duty efficiently enough by skipping days in between,"

"I assure you I won't," Salvador stood up, "I just wanted to fulfill your condition of letting you have two hours of your own every day. Being at his mansion on alternate days is mandatory, while if you wish you might as well go there every day too."

By then, a maid knocked and entered the room, informing him that he was expected for the dinner gathering. Salvador gave an exasperated sigh and left the room, while Qing Lin was in a stupor. She had forgotten about the condition she had placed! She sighed, exhausted. Honestly, she didn't want to leave the room; just be still in one place. But how long exactly could she keep going? Truth was, she was tempted; tempted by the bright colors of the world and life she saw in a day, but then, the fact she had never belonged to that place made her hesitant.

She laid back and spread her arms to her side, taking a big inhale but her arm struck something. She turned while lying, and noticed it to be a book. She sat up, and when she took a closer look, it was the book Salvador was particularly obsessed with, according to her. She was curious, as to what made someone like him to be obsessed with it. She tried to touch the book, but her hand passed through it.

She recalled that she hadn't entirely used up her two hours. Around half an hour was yet left. Maybe...

She looked at the necklace, and held it for a few seconds, then touched the book. She was able to lift it. She looked at the book but unfortunately couldn't decipher the title because the words were entirely foreign to her. She flipped through the pages of the book. The pages were yellowish, hard, and rough in texture, proving the book to be a very old one. As she flipped through the pages, a paper fell. She bent down to pick it up and realized it wasn't a paper, but an image.

A picture of a girl, probably thirteen or fourteen, with an effulgent smile who had chocolate hair and hazel eyes. An accurate imitation of the one she saw back at Alexandre's.