(Shreya's POV)

Huma woke up with a start while I was reading a book, and started looking around in trepidation. Her pupils were dilated to the full extent, she was sweating profusely, and was still in a state where she could remember fragments of her nightmare making her believe she was still inside that dream.

"Calm down Huma, it was just a bad dream. You are all safe and sound in here,"
I reassured her from my seat.

We were currently aboard on the train that was going to take us to a hill station named Shimla in Himachal Pradesh. I am actually a Professor of Forensic Psychology in Mumbai and so have a hard time getting a proper month off of work. This year, when our head announced that we will no longer be needed to work at least for a month, I thought it to be the greatest miracle in history.

I am also extremely adventurous and inquisitive. I have a burning desire to acquire new knowledge, to explore new places and to just, know and study a person, thing or situation in general.

The reason why I am like that is to firstly quench my thirst or desire to know everything and secondly, to be able to provide all kinds of knowledge to my children. I am not a boring teacher who just goes to class, finishes her duty by doing the bare minimum, and comes back home. I want to give all my knowledge to my students and make sure that they are well prepared for whatever life throws at them. As a professor of psychology, it is a must that I not only analyse  people, but also their situations and circumstances, so that I don't miss even one character trait about them.

But my best friend Huma loathes that. She is the exact opposite of me and loves to stay inside and away from the people and the drama they bring along with them. This time too, she was too reluctant to embark on this trip for twelve days and did everything she could to stop me but where fate wants us to go, we can't keep ourselves away from that place, I guess. I don't really believe in things like God and fate and such, but if I knew right now, the catastrophe that was about to strike us, I would have definitely believed in all these things - and that too, readily.

I looked over to Huma once again to check if she is really alright and found her gradually becoming aware of her surroundings.          

Even though she was a bit better than before, I could still catch a hint of dread in her eyes. Just how bad was her nightmare? She looked at me and said something as if she was in a trance,

"I know Shreya. I know that I'm safe here but still, that dream felt so real to me, it felt as if those were the last moments of my life. It felt like....oh never mind. I can't talk or even think about it any further."
She stopped speaking after murmuring things to herself.

"Why? Did you dream about me?"
I asked her jokingly but apparently, she just wasn't in the mood.

"Its not funny Shreya. I'm feeling awfully apprehensive about this trip. I don't have a good feeling."

"Really Huma? Even though I know that you hate going somewhere but how can you be so fearful? That place is innocuous, its not going to eat you. Just calm down and brush it aside, okay? We are going there to have fun, and fun is what we shall have."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I will make sure to forget about it."

We spent the rest of our time talking and bickering about random things and time passed away quickly. Thankfully, Huma seemed to have forgotten all about her nightmare and was smiling and laughing like her usual self.

Very soon, we reached the Shimla Railway Station. There was absolute chaos everywhere as soon as we reached. Everyone was in a hurry to get off the train, some were pushing each other to get on the train and secure their respective seats, and here, Huma and I were struggling with our luggage. Just then, a porter came on the train and helped carry our luggage.

As we finally got out of the crowded station, we could finally feel the cold breeze flowing throughout Shimla. I felt so refreshed after coming here from Mumbai because all you can feel in the big city is pollution up your nose and all you can hear is the incessant pandemonium of vehicles and office-goers.

"I am going to love this place,  you know?"
I told Huma.

"It does seem to be a peaceful place. Hopefully, we won't be doing a lot of sightseeing and will just stay in the hotel."

"No, nope, not happening. Come on Huma, you know why I am here. We will roam around as much as we can."

"Whatever. Let's just go to the hotel now."
She was annoyed but I will make sure that she will fall in love with Shimla and vacationing too.

On our way to the hotel, we passed myriad of mountains, little waterfalls and so many trees. The aura of this hill station was so calming yet so captivating. The tortuous narrow roads were giving me a feeling of contentment and the foggy evening sky splashed with light red and orange colours indicating the departure of the sun was making me feel as if I was the luckiest human on earth to be witnessing such a spectacle.

Because of mine and Huma's love for nature, I booked a hotel which was not in the popular market area where we would have to hear constant noises from outside and have no privacy of our own. Instead, the hotel I booked was a luxurious one, and it was situated in a more desolate place, away from the crowds that my precious best friend hates so much. I was sure she is going to love this hotel too much.

When we were just going to reach there, I told Huma,

"See, this is where our hotel is. Its beautiful, isn't it?"

"Wow, you really are considerate huh? Well, I am actually really happy that you chose this place and now, I am kind of excited for this trip too! It finally feels like we are going to have a good time."
She said that, excitement dripping from her brown orbs and from my black ones too.

The cab then stopped in front of the most magnificent and royal building I had ever seen. The hotel for our trip in this place - Black Clouds Hotel. It was made in a castle style and was surrounded by many small cliffs and had a small forest on its left side which gave the hotel such an old, vintage charm.

The building wasn't as tall, but it was wide and spread out on a large piece of land. The walls were of cream white colour while the roof tops were in blue, giving it a very classy edge. There was a common outer balcony too, where a lot of people could sit and enjoy the nature together. I made a mental note to check that place out later on.

"So, do you like it? It looks like a palace right?"

"Yeah, this is so dreamy! If only it had a super handsome and young owner too, that would just be icing on the cake. Wait, do you know who the owner of this place is?"

"What is wrong with you Huma?"
I started laughing,
"We haven't come here to seduce the owner, and besides, I don't even know who he is so why bother?"

"But it would be so nice if I could have a fairytale type romance in here, but I know my luck - nothing of that sort is going to happen."
She whined again, making me shake my head at her.

"That is why you should stop reading those moronic dreamy romance books. Start improving your mental abilities and read mystery books. Solve those puzzles and increase your mental strength. There is nothing good about daydreaming all the time."

"Oh please. I'm already so done listening to you discussing your favorite mystery and characters from each book you read. Don't you run out of new books to read? I mean, how can every author be completely original in just one boring genre?"
She shot back.

"Hmm, nice sarcasm, but it won't work on me. There are infinite possibilities all the time and therefore, there is always a new book with original ideas in this genre."

Just then, a man in his late forties came up to us and said,
"Welcome to Black Clouds Hotel ma'am. I am the manager of this hotel, Ashish Sharma. I hope you enjoy your stay here."

After he said that, he led us inside the royal palace called Black Clouds.

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