I stared at the papers in front of me. There were so many! I loved riddles, but this was insane! With my mind so tired, I would never work them all out. I crawled over to the other end of the room where another small metal door sat, trapped in the wall. It was locked, but I could see a keypad next to it. Taped to the keypad a piece of paper. I sat down with my back against a wall and began to read the note on the paper.

Dear Contestant,

Congratulations on making it this far! You have 24 hours to solve all these riddles on the walls. Each code that you type in will take you to a different place. Only one code will not lead you to death. A bell will ring every hour. Good luck, and here's the first riddle:

You came from the blue,

And the green as well,

The yellow's above you,

But, neg oar, the path will tell.

Beware the contents of red envelopes.

It made no sense! None of it! Groaning, I leaned my head back against the wall, ready to sleep, waiting for the first bell.

I was jolted awake rudely by a loud clanging and a male voice that announced "One hour, passed."

I was still exhausted. I had to sleep for another hour.

I woke again, to the same scenario. I had 22 hours left. I could probably sleep for a third hour. I let myself drift off.

In my dream, I was stumbling through a blue and red forest. A green volcano exploded, and I giggled, catching the water and food it spewed into the air. The sky was yellow, and I danced around in a red field. More people came, dancing with me. I knew it wouldn't last. Someone stepped out of the dancing. He had a painted face and hurled a disc at a girl dancing next to me. The disc was sharp and cut her head off. Another disc flew. I ran. A girl tackled a younger boy and bit his neck, eating him alive.

I woke up, screaming. Why had it felt so real? My stomach heaved as I recalled the blood and carnage that lay on the field as, one by one, the people started killing each other. The bell rang and I screamed again, the bell having startled me. "Four hours, passed."

I leapt to my feet. I had only meant to sleep for three! I grabbed the note that I had read earlier. 

Some of it seemed to make sense now. The blue was the ocean, and the green was the forest. I had just come from those! The yellow had to be the volcano, it was above me. But neg oar? What was that? Obviously it gave me the right code, but how? I peered at the keypad. The buttons were letters! Would neg oar work? I hesitated, afraid to punch it in. Seconds later, I was glad I hadn't. There was space for 7 letters, and "neg oar" only had six. I threw my paper down in disgust. I would just start with the ones on the wall.

I went back to the one I started on. The orange letters stared back at me. I already knew the answer, but I scrutinized the sheet, willing it to give me every last detail. All I could see was the riddle and a little number on the bottom. Wait. Wait. A little number! This must be the... the 5th letter. I laughed wildly until I saw the next sheet with blue writing. It also had a five. I quickly solved that riddle. Letter Z. It didn't work!

I grumbled and pulled out another sheet. These letters were green. Orange letters, blue letters, green letters, suddenly it fit together. I whooped and grabbed the note. If I entered the code from the green letters, I would die in the forest. If I entered the blue letters, I would die in the ocean. And orange... Then I saw it. Neg oar was simply Orange mixed up! I didn't have to solve all the riddles after all! Only the orange ones. 

I dashed around the room, suddenly full of energy. Snatching all the papers with orange writing, I sat down and began to solve.

The first paper I grabbed had the number 3. I sifted through the stack until I found number 1.

Once in a minute,

Twice in a moment,

But never in a thousand years.

I knew this one too! The letter M!

Number 2's riddle was slightly harder.

I'm a word, and also a letter,

When you blink, I get wetter.

I thought about it. The bell interrupted my thoughts and sent the papers scattering with my jump of surprise. "Hour five, passed."

Not knowing where else to start, I took out the contraction "I'm." It now read "I am a word, and also a letter." Surprised, I realized what part of it meant. It must be a one letter word. There are only two, so it's either a or i. I stared at the second part. Blinking signaled to an eye, but how did that tie in with the rest of the riddle? I grinned. An eye! The old eye for an I trick! Eye and I are pronounced the same way, so often people switch them in for one another. I couldn't believe I didn't see that earlier.

Number 3 made no sense.

Slither, snake, so someone sees seven seagulls sitting.

Soon, suns set, something slides, first.

Muttering to myself, I tried scrambling the words, switching their order, anything. I couldn't do it. It made no sense! I kept coming back to the word "first", not knowing why it stood out. Finally I tried taking the first letter of every word: S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, F. "F" stood out. F stood for first and the first letter of all other words was S. The answer had to be S!

As I wrote out the letters I had so far, the bell rang again. "Hour six, passed." I had four more riddles and 18 more hours. I had time.

I read number 4 and instantly felt that I knew what it was, but couldn't place it.

It is in the rock, but not in the stone,

It is in the marrow, but not in the bone,

It is in the bolster, but not in the bed,

Neither in the living, nor the dead.

I thought back to the other riddles. Number 1 might be set up the same way. I looked at the first line. Three letters worked: R, C, and K. In the second line, there were four: M, A, R, W. The third line had five letters: O, L, S, T, R. I wished I had something to write with. I thought about every line. Only one letter was repeated: R.

I mentally put together what the code was so far: MISR, plus the fifth letter, E. Misre. It wasn't misery, but it was pretty close. I bit my lip. Number 6.

I live in a novel, logic, and light,

But not in a book, brain, or bright.

Without me, you could still weep,

But couldn't love, live or sleep.

If three problems had already used words with the letter in it, I figured this one might too. In "a novel, logic, and light," only one letter was repeated throughout: L. And  "L" wasn't in "a book, brain, or bright." Or "weep" for that matter. "L" was also in "love, live, and sleep."

Doggedly I worked on, exhausted, weary.

Number 7. Almost there.

I have infinite answers,

Yet only one letter to ask.

Great. Another short one. I had almost mastered the ones with the letter inside words. Infinite answers. It must be a question. But only one letter? What one letter question is there? I thought for a second. Who, what, where, when, why, how. Nope, none of them. Wait. "Y" could also be used as "Why."

"I did it!" I shouted. My voice echoed around the small room, just as the bell rang. The resulting din hurt my head. "Hour seven, passed." I could have laughed. I had 17 hours to sleep. And sleep I did. I woke every hour to the bell. Finally, when the twenty-third hour had passed, I got up, feeling refreshed and happy. I made my way to the keypad where I began to type in the code.

"M, I, S, R, E, L, Y. Misrely." I chewed on my lip as I looked at the code. Misrely meant to rely wrongly. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pushed ENTER on the keypad.

A/N Sorry if this chapter was so long! :I I wrote all the riddles except for numbers 1 and 4. Hope you enjoyed them!