I couldn’t sleep all night, dark thoughts were hovering around my head when I felt my throat quenched with thirst. I got out of bed to take a sip of water, when I saw a book on the table by the room I passed by.

I went back to the room to grab the book as soon as I finished drinking water. It was named “The Riddle Book”, and the author was ‘Aaliyan Rizvi’ and beside this name was written: “Author of the bestseller — A Boxing Ring”.

I opened the book and started turning the dry and dusty pages when I felt some sort of invisible waves emit from the book, which caused my eyelids to become heavy and without knowing, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was in a strange room. There were two doors, one labelled Front Door and the other one Back Door. ‘The Riddle Room’ was carved on the wall. There was a shelf with books, some creepy pictures hanging off the wall, an old cupboard and a chair.

It felt like I was dreaming, but I couldn’t tell because it seemed so real to me. I was really confused and so scared that I started shaking.

The doors were locked and the room was really congested. I couldn’t have much air, so I had to get out quick. Then I felt something in my throat and I started coughing. I was about to vomit, but a piece of rolled up paper came out of my mouth instead.

There was writing on it. It said “By choosing the right door you shall be free. By solving the riddles, the door will be told to thee.”

So, apparently, I had to solve some sort of riddles to get out. These thoughts were trying to penetrate into my head when I felt another piece of paper fall on my feet.

It had writing on it too: “A fear of yours might you ask, bears the answer you wish to ask.”

Now I thought to myself, what’s the answer that I want? Just then a light bulb lit in my conscience, all I want to know is which door is the right one right now nothing else! So, one of my fears bears the answer, I started looking around and I noticed a picture of a spider. I felt fear looking at the picture and realised it was a clue.

I took off the picture and found a piece of paper taped to the back of it. It said: “Can you recall the last garment you wore. It bears the key that opens the right door.”

I couldn’t recall the last clothes I wore, so I searched for more clues. Waves of goose bumps flowed down my spine when I found all of my clothes in a dusty old cupboard in the room. Maybe it was a clue.

I instantly spotted the last shirt I wore when I saw it. I took it out and found another piece of paper and a key in the pocket. I got excited and attempted to open the doors without reading the message, then I realised that the key was too small for the door locks.

Then I turned to read the message written on the paper: “Keys cannot open any doors, this was your clue don’t ask for more.”

Now it was getting confusing, if the key cannot open any door, why was I given one? Then a drawer caught my eye and I thought to myself that doors can’t be opened, but drawers can. I inserted and twisted the key to find another piece of paper in it.

On it was written: “Don’t ignore the things you hate, that thing can open the desired gate.”

Now what did I hate the most in this room? I saw some books, but I didn’t hate books, but I saw my math course book which I definitely hated and found a piece of paper on page 241, and quite exactly, the chapter on that page was my least favourite, ‘trigonometry. ‘

This new paper had a new message: “Our questions are annoying you, isn’t it?, It’s getting pretty hot, isn’t it?”

My eyes went red reading this as I was now very angry.

“What kind of hint is that?” I yelled in the quiet room. There was no answer. Then I realised that it was getting too hot and when I looked above, there was a fan there, staring back silently at me. I switched it on, but a knife and another paper fell down from the propellers.

The paper said: “Our last request might blow your mind, spill your blood on the last paper you find.”

The moment I finished reading it, I felt like vomiting again and another paper came out of my mouth, with only an “R” written on it. The rest was blank.

I did what the previous riddle told me and I cut a little bit of my finger, causing it to bleed. Somehow, I didn’t feel pain. I then spread the blood on the blank paper.

After a while, a sentence appeared on the blank paper: “Riddles are over if you use your mind. You will get the answer when the pieces are combined.”

I collected all the pieces and started looking for more clues. Then when I looked at all the papers together, I found that the first words of all the riddles when combined make the word “Backdoor”.

I rushed towards the backdoor and opened it. It was now unlocked. I felt a lot of bright light surrounding me so I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was in the same room from where I had picked up the book.

“Oh! So, I opened the riddle book in a dream,” I said to myself, relieved. But then I look at my finger which was still bleeding and I screamed!

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 22nd, 2021