~ Third Person's POV

The sky was busy mixing the magical hues of teal, blue and green while the widely paved road was determined to lead them all towards a valley surrounded with monstrously huge peaks which looked like a giant who had fallen asleep centuries ago, only to wake up on the dooms day.

The silver plated river Kunhar gushed alongside the road, turning and twisting like a python after continuous intervals.

The soothing melody of this river was peaceful enough to submit anybody to a deep slumber, but the excitement of watching the true jewels and overflowing treasures of the North of Pakistan was something which had already kept all the eyes awake, except for a few.

"Haya...Haya wake up! Look outside! No doubt, this is heaven!"

Vaneeza shook her sister wildly while her eyes never let that shine, which announced extreme delight, escape.

The girls were allotted back and middle seats of the coaster while the boys were busy playing cards on the front seats as they simultaneously gossiped with the driver who continued to narrate charming stories related to every breathtaking landscape passing by.

Although she had grown up in the valley surrounded by Mountains, Abbottabad, but these places were new for her.

She was going to the further North for the very first time and each and every minute detail of this scenic route was making her heart feel bedazzled.

"Isn't it just beautiful?"

Remarked Kinza as she pointed out towards a lovely waterfall which cascaded down the snowy peak which was perhaps depicting that Naran was near.

"Aahhh... I can literally make myself fall asleep to this beautiful sound of waterfall plus the sonorous melody of this river passing by along with the tiny tickles of this heavenly drizzle!"

Chuckled Vaneeza, as she spread both of her arms wide, outside the window of the coaster.

"This is mind blowing!"

Shouted Aman, with exuberance as all of them peeked their heads out of the window while the coaster sped off across the glaciers, blessing all of them with a huge welcome of bone chilling breeze.

"It feels like we are driving through a refrigerator!!"

Added one of them, to which everyone agreed.

"Let's stop here guys and enjoy some corns!"

Suggested Umar, to which everyone happily started jumping out of the coaster, except for Vaneeza.

She was already too terrified to go somewhere where Umar was, although she crazily loved corns.

Fifteen minutes later, Aman and Alyna finally came inside to call her.

"Hey Vani, come on dude! You need to check this out! The corns are amazingly delicious!"

"Nah, thank you very much but I'm already shivering due to the weather outside. Besides, I don't even like corns!"

She lied while adjusting herself more cozily, in the back seat, wrapping herself with another blanket, resting her head against the window.

"Isn't this life too short to lie Vaneeza?"

Came a voice she least wanted to listen right now, from the window beside her, on which she was resting her head a second ago.

He was just an inch away from her but luckily, he was standing outside!

One of his arm was resting on the window pane of the vehicle inside which Vaneeza was sitting.

"I'm Sorry?"

She was clueless, as always.

"Come on girl! You used to snatch mine back in the childhood!"

Umar laughed adorably as he brought one perfectly roasted and spicy corn and passed it to her through the window.

"Well, to be honest, I don't remember anything like that!"

She rolled her eyes away from him.

"Will surely make you remember each and everything, Vaneeza!"

He smirked as his deep, handsome gaze penetrated into her terrified ones, but she immediately averted them and turned to her left, thus ignoring his words and his corn.

"Once, you become mine!"

A low and a very feeble whisper escaped his mouth, which was meant to be left unnoticed, but unfortunately, she had already listened.

"WHAT?"

She was now amazingly glaring right into his large eyes, making him chuckle on her bravery.

Perhaps it was a beautiful sight for him, because he had never seen a lovely deer stare back at a ferocious lion with so much fury before!

"Nothing! Eat, my princess!"

He forcefully placed the corn on her lap and rolled his eyes away from her, leaving her all alone in the van, making her blood boil with lava, once again.

"I hate you..."

She mumbled to herself as she let the corn stay where it was kept, and watched the beautiful landscape through her window which helped a lot in calming down her nerves.

x-x-x-x-x

Three hours later, the coaster had stopped right outside the premises of the hotel which was famous in the valley for its excellent view from the balconies of each room, plus its luxurious accommodation.

Everyone had been gathered in Aman's room where who was going to share his room with whom, was being discussed.

"Ahhh.... Now no one can stop me from throwing myself onto this comfortable bed and take a much needed relaxing nap!"

Announced Aman, as he stretched his arms happily and within two seconds, he was all sprawled over the mattress.

"Yuck Aman, atleast take a shower first. It was such a long journey. Even your shoes are stinking AF!"

Came in his sister's disgusted voice as she covered her nose with her dupatta.

"Boys and girls, please collect your keys from me!"

"Room no. 201 Hassan and Daniyal...!"

Shehryar threw the bedroom's key towards Hassan.

"Room no. 202 Aman and unfortunately me!"

Shehryar sighed with grief as Aman threw a flying kiss towards him.

"Room no. 4, and that's upstairs, Alyna, Sana and Haya!"

"Thank you so much Shehryar for the keys, or else I would have died due to this horrible smell. I can peacefully leave for my room now. C'mon Haya!"

Sighed Alyna with relief as she grabbed Haya's arm and left for her room.

"Okay so now we are left with Kinza, Vaneeza and the kids so here's the key for Room no. 306 for ya'all!"

"Thanks looser!"

Kinza catched the keys while sticking out her tongue at her brother.

"But why are the kids staying with them?"

Asked Aman.

"'Cuz I'm sure Vaneeza will take good care of them!"

Shehryar smiled at her to which she nodded politely.

There was understanding in those eyes.

"And here's the key for room no. 307, Umar! And you are sharing your room with......"

As he threw the keys towards Umar, he continued to look for anyone else remaining until his search was brought to a halt.

"No one!"

And that authoritative voice belonged to none other than the boss of all.

"What? That's not fair!"

Shehryar was clearly annoyed by learning this.

"Yeah, but he doesn't share his room with anyone!"

Aman defended his brother, almost immediately to which Umar winked at him.

"Woah really? Then may God have Mercy on his bride!"

Shehryar was always quick to respond, thus leading everyone in the room to burst into laughter except for that hot-headed guy who was still looking at his princess who had no idea that indeed, she was going to be his bride.

And with this bride, he was totally ready to not just share his room, but his whole damn soul too!

"But the third floor needs to be completely boy-proof! It's an all-girls floor!"

Protested Vaneeza, for the first time in a while.

"Yeah, but one of the guys need to be upstairs with you all, for your safety! All types of people are paying visits here so you never know!"

Explained Hassan, to which Umar smirked and passed a victorious glance at Vaneeza, making her feel afraid all of a sudden.

"You all are our responsibility and your safety is our first priority, your highness!"

Smiled Shehryar as he tried to make her understand, to which she was partially satisfied.

"Meet you all at the dinner tonight!"

The meeting was concluded by Shehryar as everybody left for their respective rooms.

...

Transparent lilac colored drapes had beautifully enveloped the huge window with their grace while the tiny flames of the scented candles flickered elegantly, thus spreading a tranquil atmosphere in every direction.

The girls were having a lot of fun while ridiculing the awful taste of the dinner though Vaneeza had already thrown herself on the bed and remained silent as she helplessly stared the ceiling with her eyes wide open, struggling hard to sleep despite of all the noise in her room.

She was continuously questioning her patience while her roommate continued to rant about the dinner like a spoiled kid.

"Like who on Earth puts elaichi (cardamon) in Biryani? And what the hell was that? It was not even Biryani maynnn!"

Kinza marched across the room angrily.

"Come on Kins... We'll order something good for the breakfast tomorrow, don't worry."

Interrupted Alyna and some more girls as they tried to calm her down.

All the girls were gathered in Vaneeza's room and were busy laughing at the comments made by Kinza and Haya, on the dinner served by the hotel, an hour ago.

"It was pathetic. The meat was uncooked, the rice were not properly boiled and the potatoes were so hard that for a second I thought that I had swallowed one of my teeth along with it! Oh God! I wanted to vomit right there."

Added Haya, this time, to which Vaneeza groaned from under the pillow (which she had plastered over her face in order to sleep) and politely kicked her sister who was sitting at the corner of the king sized bed,

"HAYA!"

"I'm stating the facts Api...!"

Haya tried to defend herself.

"Whatever Haya. It's food, and we should never be disrespectful towards it. Think about all those who are deprived of this blessing!"

She mumbled under her pillow, indirectly trying to teach manners to everyone, although she herself was really upset due to the bad taste of the food despite of having an extremely hungry stomach before the dinner.

"Dear Vani, if we ever tried to give this type of food to those poor souls, do you know what will they say?"

Asked Sana, thus gathering a lot of attention.

"What?"

Came a tired voice from under the pillow.

" Baji hum sey acha khana ley lo, pr khuda ka wasta isy ley jao!"

(Sister, here's some good food for you, but for God's sake please take away the food which you brought!)

Once again, everyone burst into laughter.

"Shhhh... Please don't laugh so loudly! My brother's just sleeping in the room right beside ours and he's going to be so angry on us for staying up this late. It's already 2 a.m!"

Alyna requested innocently.

"Yeah ofcourse, the hot-headed boss of all!"

Came in Vaneeza's half-sleepy voice almost spontaneously, to which the girls couldn't stop themselves from laughing again, except for Alyna.

She was a bit disappointed.

She was not expecting a true gem like Vaneeza to say such thing about her brother.

The brother who was more than anything for Alyna.

Her beloved Umar bhayi.

And the reason for being disappointed was obvious.

She knew how madly and deeply her brother was in love with Vaneeza and that too, since more than a decade, but still he had to be rewarded with such a disrespectful attitude from the girl he loved more than his life?

"He's neither bossy, nor hot-headed, Vaneeza! He's just considerate but in his own way!"

There were unwanted tears in Alyna's eyes because she knew how much crazy Umar was for Vaneeza.

He didn't deserve so much hatred.

She noticed it before as well that Vaneeza had been passing rude remarks regarding him, continuously.

"Well, if dominating others and being so arrogant is his 'own way' to show his considerate personality, then I am quite amazed!"

Vaneeza removed the pillow from her face as she got up and laughed at the innocent girl who was just defending her brother.

"Yeah! I mean look at Shehryar Bhai, he's so nice and cool! His friendly nature keeps all of us energetic. But whenever Umar Bhai is around, we have to act like a robot. Quiet, mature and sensible!"

Kinza and Sana continued to defend Vaneeza.

Haya was silently observing the arguement as surprisingly, she had a good opinion for Umar.

"I guess I'll just go to my room now and sleep. Have to get up early tomorrow!"

Alyna smiled painfully and got up to leave while the argument was still incomplete.

"Hey, why you leaving so early? We have to do some more gossips!"

Asked Sana, with amazement.

"Nothing, just dozing off already!"

She whispered goodnight to all and left without wasting another second, but little did she know that Vaneeza had already noticed the change in her mood.

And she was slowly realising that whatever she had said about Umar, she shouldn't have, atleast not infront of his sister.

She was never so harsh.

Don't know what made her say all of that!

Few minutes later, the room had been evacuated by all the girls as they had left for their respective ones.

"Goodnight Kinss... Please don't snore in my ears!"

Requested Vaneeza, as Kinza adjusted herself on the bed.

"Goodnight darling! And get yourself some cotton for your ears, 'cause I surely will!"

Kinza smirked mischievously as Vaneeza groaned with annoyance and switched off the lamps in order to submit herself to a deep, much needed slumber.

A few minutes later, there was pin drop silence in the room which was echoing with laughter of all the girls, moments ago.

The only sound which could be heard in the room was of the crickets chirping outside the window and of the soft, feminine snores coming from the freshly slept Kinza's mouth.

As the clock ticked creepily, a soft sound of footsteps coming from outside interrupted the freshly brewed silence in the room, but both the girls were sleeping like a corpse hence none of them noticed.

A few seconds later, the sound of the footsteps started getting louder which finally stopped just outside their door, which was followed by a gentle knock.

One of the girls fidgeted a little but didn't wake up until the knock on the door started getting louder.

Harsh from gentle.

"Kinza... go check ... there's someone outside."

Vaneeza mumbled in her sleep.

The knocking continued to get louder, and faster which ended up in not being a knock anymore, but a thunderous sound which depicted that someone was banging the door with their fist.

Just on the fourth bang, Vaneeza jolted and woke up from her deep slumber while her heart pumped faster than ever.

She quickly removed the blanket from her body and tried to wake Kinza but she didn't move an inch.

The kids were also sleeping peacefully which made her get up quickly so that they won't wake up only to end up crying.

She nervously walked towards the door and recited few prayers before opening it.

Her heart was beating fast and her forehead was beaded with sweat.

She was scared as hell, but the banging wasn't stopping at all.

What if any of her cousins were standing outside, knocking for some sort of help?

Or what if there was someone else?

She decided to believe the first one and gradually opened the door only to find her worst nightmare standing infront of her.

It was an unfamiliar guy dressed in a leather jacket and torn jeans, holding a beer bottle in one of his hands, mumbling something which was extremely difficult to understand.

Perhaps he was speaking another language.

"This ... my room, get out, let me in!"

He slurred like a maniac, making her heart sink in with horror, immediately.

"Let me in.... This...my room!"

He literally pushed her back in the room, trying his best to get inside but she shouted at him asking him to leave immediately!

"KINZAA... KINZA help!"

She shouted and tried to push that drunk freak away, but he was determined to get in at any cost.

As she struggled courageously, he held her arm tightly in order to remove her from his way so that he could enter inside while he tried to strangle her at the same time.

She cried for help but that freak continued to dig his fingers in her throat, wildly.

Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she coughed but that man had encircled her neck with both of his hands with such a tight grip that she could breath her last any second, but perhaps, Allah had written life for her at this moment, instead of death as someone grabbed the man by his jacket from behind and pulled him out of the room and started punching him mercilessly.

"Umar ..!"

She coughed and cried in between as the man whom she had been mocking a few hours ago, continued to beat the sh*t out of that freak who was apparently gasping for breath.

"How dare you ... hit me??.....!"

The drunk man managed to get up from the floor and gritted his teeth with fury as he punched Umar's face which consequently made his nose and lower lip bleed mercilessly.

Amidst the fight, he still cared to finish drinking his beer first.

As soon as he came forward to hit his head with the bottle, Umar grabbed his arm and twisted it barbarically to which the man screamed with pain and swore loudly in his native language.

"Dial 544.... FASTTT!"

Umar shouted at her as he managed to not let him go easily.

As her mind tried to process each and everything which was happening infront of her, she finally decided to ignore her trembling body and with a speed of thunderbolt, she ran towards the intercom and dialed the receptionist's number and within a few seconds, he had arrived along with three security guards.

In no time, the drunk man was caught and arrested on the spot and taken to the police station by the hotel management.

It was revealed by the police that he was a dangerous pshyco criminal who had escaped from the prison of Balakot , just two days ago, and was hiding in this hotel of Naran since two nights, disguised as a decent business man.

But fortunately, after consuming too much alcohol, he ended up outside Vaneeza's room considering it to be his own and due to his hangover and her resistance, he decided to do the same crime again, for which he had been imprisoned before, another MURDER!

And regarding this information of the culprit, the hotel management was totally unaware, otherwise they would have never let him in at first place.

Few minutes later there was complete silence in the corridor outside her room. She was weeping silently as she waited for Umar to return who had went downstairs to pour out the lava boiling in his head on the management of the hotel.

Despite of their continuous apologises and justifications for not knowing that they were actually accomodating a culprit, he didn't let them go easily.

Her body was still trembling with immense fear as she stood outside her room, not aware of the upcoming wrath of her saviour.

"Didn't I order you to not to open the door at night?"

A polite question in a grave voice tensed the silent corridor across which two souls, one terrified and one angry, were busy trying to comprehend whatever happened a while ago.

She remained silent as embarrassment secretly crawled inside her petrified heart.

Watching her stand silently, not answering his damn question infuriated him even more, to which he angrily banged both of his hands against the wall behind her, thus trapping her between both of his arms, leaving just an inch between himself and her.

"DIDN'T I ORDER YOU TO NOT TO OPEN THE DOOR AT NIGHT?"

He repeated his question, but this time it was far from being gentle anymore.

There was extreme anger in his eyes which were turning red as he breathed faster.

"I'm sorry!"

She closed her eyes and sobbed innocently as she felt his warm breath on her skin. She had never seen a man this close to her before.

It was extremely terrifying for her.

"I'm sorry Umar. I'm really sorry!"

She continued to apologize as she realised how wrong she was about him. Had she listened to him before, she wouldn't have experienced such a traumatizing event tonight.

"Why don't you just listen to me? Is that how much you hate me?"

She continued to cry harder as he asked the question he hated to ask.

"No Umar, I'm sorry for not listening to you. I'm really sorry!"

She wept like a baby which was now more than enough to melt his heart which was already molten due to the love he possessed for her.

He wiped her tears with one of his hands and removed few strands of hair from her tear stained face.

This gesture was not at all normal for her.

She was shivering badly.

No man had ever touched her like this before, but it was comforting.

Very much comforting and very much needed at that moment.

She was vulnerable and she needed someone to calm her down, but she never knew that the comfort she so badly wanted right now, would come from the man whom she had started hating already.

"Umar, please...don't be..mad at me!"

She stammered and cried like a kid to which he smiled adorably, as he knew that he could never be mad at her and his anger couldn't last longer specially when his lady love was so close to him.

He stared at her with sympathy as no one deserved to be treated like this.

Watching her weep like an innocent baby was making his heart overflow with pain.

He gently lifted her chin with his finger so that she could face him, but what he saw next was enough to tear his flesh apart.

Her delicate neck was marked with reddish prints of fingers of that barbaric, drunk psychopath.

He winced as he traced the back of his hand against the skin of her soft neck.

"Does it hurt?"

Some unwanted tears had already made their way into his now tired eyes.

"Hmm..!"

A feeble voice escaped her lips as she nodded to which he immediately swore under his breath with anger.

"It will be okay, it won't hurt anymore!"

He tried to soothe her pain which made her question each and every bad word which she had uttered for Umar.

She was feeling extremely ashamed of herself.

"I'm sorry...!"

Was all that she could say.

"Shhhh...!"

He placed his index finger on her soft and moist lips which were still quivering.

"Don't be! It's okay"

He smiled as he wiped her tears again.

"Just know one thing Vaneeza! I'm not authoritative. I'm not dominating. All I want and all I have ever wanted is your happiness and will always want it for you!"

He whispered so politely that she could feel goosebumps raise over her arms.

"But ...why...?"

She was so confused, so terrified that all he wanted was to hug her tightly, right away, but he couldn't and didn't want to scare the poor soul further.

"You'll know the answer soon, Vaneeza!"

There was pain hidden in his orbs as he stared at his beloved with so much intensity that she had to lower her own.

"Just go and sleep now, and there's no need to discuss anything with anyone. They just love to create jokes out of every serious scenario!"

He rolled his eyes in annoyance to which she finally giggled making him fall in love with her even harder at that moment.

"We'll leave this place tomorrow morning, I promise! Shabash, go to sleep now, you are a brave girl!"

He patted her cheek making her smile with gratitude.

She was so much thankful to him right now but couldn't find the right words to acknowledge it.

As she turned to open the door and get inside her room, he grabbed her arm softly and whispered in her ear something which was enough to send a shiver down her spine, immediately, making goosebumps rise all over her neck as she felt the warmth of his breath on it.

"Vaneeza, please take care of yourself. I can't afford to lose you!"

And with that, he left without wasting a single second, leaving her confused and curious to know that why didn't he want to lose her?

Why did he want her to be happy?

What did he want to make her recall in the van?

And most importantly,

Why did he save her life, risking his own?

What was he? And what was he doing to her?

She couldn't understand him at all.

He was unpredictable.

He was a difficult mystery, she was not ready to solve so soon.. !