The first few weeks on Chile had been hard for Dalia. She had learned how to speak Spanish from an early age, but she'd been out of practice for a while. The language was the first hardship she'd faced in the country. But after a while she'd gotten the hang of it. Then was the fact that she was always on edge. Every time someone would stare at her, she would panic and leave.
Two month after her arrival she would still check the news every few hours to see if anything new had come to light. The first month was the hardest to her in that area. Her mother kept pleading. Even Christopher had been on the news a few times, asking whomever had 'taken' her to return her. Then, on the day it marked a month, they started offering a reward for any information on her whereabouts.
The whole country had stopped altogether to look for her. It was as if with her disappearance everything was put on hold. France had offered its support, like she knew they would. Then Germany followed suit. Soon after, every single European country, with the exception of a few of them, was supporting Aurum, which gave her a sense of relief she clearly needed.
On the third month she started looking for a job. She had enough money in cash to last her for a few years, and enough money on a bank account under a fake name to last her a decade. But she was going crazy not doing anything. Summer was just around the corner and she found herself enjoying the fact that she could wear whatever she wanted without being reminded of protocols and what people would say.
On November, after three months and a half, she was at museum when she heard the familiar click of a camera. When she turned around she saw a teenager snapping a photo of her. That's when she decided it was time for a change. She packed her bags and after some research, she bought the tickets to a small island in the Chiloé peninsula.
When she arrived at Dalcahue she felt as if she had travelled in time. At first sight, it looked like a small town forgotten in time. She'd gotten a lease on a small beach cottage in the municipality of Quetalco. The thing she liked the most about that place was that it only had around 1.200 habitants.
"How long are you planning on staying here?" The old lady that received her on the house asked her in spanish. The now-blonde girl smiled at her.
"For now, a year. But maybe more" Dalia answered in Spanish as well. The house was full of dust, but had everything she needed. "Do you know where I could buy groceries and a bike?" She asked the woman in her language. The woman gave her the directions she needed for the store and told her there was a bike in the garage, before helping her with the smallest pieces of her luggage, which now consisted of an assortment of different sized bags.
After the woman was gone, she turned on her computer. She had searched for the photo the kid had taken of her at the museum a few times, but she never found it. That night, she went over every single video of her mother after she disappeared. It was a ritual she had taken after the first few weeks. The first month it made her cry, now it just made her sad, but no tears came anymore. When her phone started ringing, she jumped a little. It was a habit of her, always on edge.
"Hey gorgeous" She looked at her brown-eyed friend that was on her phone screen. "How are you liking the middle of nowhere?" Susanna asked with a knowing smile.
"It's really beautiful here. And there's like zero people around me" Dalia said, showing her the main room, where her luggage rested unpacked.
"If you wanted to live like a hermit you could've asked me. We have a ton of cities like that here" Susanna made her best effort to sound hurt, but she had gotten over the issue pretty quickly. Now she just used it as an excuse to guilt trip her friend. "So, I have some news. Promise you won't over react and do something crazy" that got Dalia's attention, who turned to look at her friend, who was still waiting for her to promise.
"Ok, I promise. What is it?" She pressed, a hint of worry on her voice.
"There was this super hot dude at my house looking for you" Susanna said as fast as she could, hoping Dalia wouldn't hear it. But she did.
"Dark skin, tall, short hair?" She was hoping it was Christopher.
"Not your super hot fiancé, no." The answer made Dalia's stomach drop. But she was still waiting for more details "Wavy light brown hair, a beard, face sculpted by the gods" she stopped, waiting for Dalia to recognise the person, but that was half the people she knew, minus the 'sculpted by the gods' face. "Weird triangle tattoo on the right hand middle finger" with that Dalia's face paled as if she'd see a ghost.
She hadn't spent a lot of time with the guy, but she had seen that tattoo driving her around Paris for three days, so she knew whom her friend was talking about. The last thing she needed was someone who knew her to be in the same continent as her.
"...I just told him I hadn't heard from you in months, but he didn't seem convinced" Susanna was still taking, but Dalia hadn't heard a single word she was saying. She was in the middle of a panic attack. She felt her chest tighten and it was getting harder for her to breath.
"I'll talk to you later" Dalia hung up before Susanna said anything and put her phone on airplane mode, so her friend couldn't call her again.
The woman tried to reason with herself for a while. There was no way Susanna could've said something that would let him know where she was. In addition, even if he figured out she was in Chile, he couldn't know she was on an almost deserted island where nothing ever happened.
After a while she calmed herself. Sure, Emmanuel was looking for her, but he was running out of leads, he had already gone to the only person in the world who knew where she was, and got nothing. The woman gathered some her stuff on a purse and walked out the door, went inside the garage, where she found the bike the woman told her about. It was no the safest thing, but it had to do. Following the directions she had been given. Even if summer was just a few weeks away, it was raining.
When she arrived at the store she let out a scoff, but entered anyway. It was a rundown market, but it had everything she needed, with the exception the bike. She bought the basic things she needed, toiletries and food for a few days, before going out again. There was a newsstand, so she bought a paper, her job hunting had to resume at some point.
When she turned on the data on her phone again, she saw she had half a dozen calls from her friend and several text messages asking what was going on, if she was Ok, but she didn't want to deal with it in that moment, she just wanted to have a normal life, even if it was on a secluded island in the middle of nowhere, like her friend had said.
YOU ARE READING
72 Hours
Romance"That was so corny" That was Dalia's response. He took the bracelet and locked it in her wrist "And we've been engaged since I was 5" "Yes, I know. My parents felt the need to wait until I was in love and off age to tell me" he retorted. "See. I hav...
