I stumbled through the door and grabbed the first thing I could find. Which was a blunt fork. Nevertheless, I turned and stabbed the first person I met in the...well, let's just say that it was the most painful place imaginable. He fell to the floor, screaming in agony. I ran to the door, past the many people desperately trying to tie me up, where Drake was standing there, his mouth hanging wide open.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here," I said roughly, tugging on his arm. At last, he allowed me to pull him out of the "death" doorway. As we turned, a huge, tall, muscular woman shouldered past us and into the doorway.

"Wait! Don't go in there! You'll get hurt!" I croaked. She spun around to face me quickly, and she smiled.

Her face suddenly changed from the tan, weathered look and took on a more...creepy look. Her face became haggard and her skin drooped. Her mouth unhinged and dark blue smoke unfurled from it. A raspy, hissing voice whispered:

A room to share, but never leave
A clue to find, but never keep
A key that hides, but never lost
Open the door, and you have been tossed
Go down the hall, to the left
A door awaits you, big and bold
Filled with the finest treasure told
Take one sip, and only one
Then find the curse that must be undone

She took a breath and returned back to normal. Her eyes twinkled and she gave us a knowing smile before turning and walking through the doors. Her face seemed to have snapped Drake from his stupor, and he turned to me with urgency etched in his face.

We ran all the way back to his dormitory. He quickly grabbed a paper and began violently scribbling on it. He glanced up at me, and showed me what he had written down. It was the riddle.

"Now, let's unearth the meaning of these lines," he mumbled to himself.

"Well, I already know some of them."

"Which?"

"The first line says, 'never leave', which means that the room we are being put in is going to be locked. 'A key that hides, but never lost' means that we are going to have to solve clues to find it. 'Open the door', 'Go down the hall, to the left', and 'A door awaits you, big and bold' are all directions. So, that leaves 'Filled with the finest treasure told', which is a liquid because it says 'take one sip and only one', but other than that, I am lost. Oh, and there is the second line, 'A clue to find, but never keep'. With that, maybe the clue vanishes or it is an animal or maybe self-destructing paper. That is all for me, now what do you think?"

"I believe that all of your theories are correct, except I think the 'finest treasure told' is knowledge because it is the finest treasure told, so...you know. Anyway,  I think that it is like the Fountain of Knowledge. So--"

"What's the Fountain of Knowledge?" I interrupted.

"You mean, you don't know the tale?" he whispered incredulously. I shook my head and he gasped.

"Well, I don't know the exact, but I have it here somewhere." He strolled up to what looked like a light switch and flicked it on. Instead of light flooding my eyes, the room transformed. Once the transformation was complete, a library stood before me. Books upon books lined the musty shelves.

"You see, I try to act tough, but really, I'm just a bookworm," he said sheepishly.

He walked up to the shelves and scoured every inch of them. At last, with a triumphant shout, he had found what he was looking for. An old leather book was in his hand. He slammed it on the counter in the center of the room and began to flip through the worn pages. Finally, he stopped on a page titled, "The Knowledge Thief." I waited, sure that this was not the story.

His voice rang out, "Once upon a time, there was an old farmer. The man had retired out of old age, so it was only natural that the old farmer craved, more than anything, to be young once more. And so, after hearing about it from a friend, he set out to find the Fountain of Youth. His travels took him wide and far, but he never found that fountain. At long last, he sat on his death bed with no friends to aid him. You see, the old man had pushed away anyone willing to be his friend for fear that if he indeed found the legendary fountain, they would steal it. And so, the old man soon died, old and decrepit. He was buried in his own fields, by his only son."

"But one morning, a young man decided to walk the fields on a dare. When he came to the spot of the old man's body, a tombstone stood there. And on that tombstone was a most peculiar set of words: There would be no light without darkness, and no darkness without light. What did that mean? He sat and pondered upon these words for many days on end, until one day, he woke up to find that the words had changed. It now said: Without knowledge, we would be stumbling in the dark. The man was confused. A symbol was found beneath the engraving, depicting a snake on a pile of bones. As all men know, that is the sign of shades. And so, he traveled to Eye of the Dark."

"The palace was a sanctuary for the undead, and once he had entered, the mighty king of all the undead, Death himself, inquired his whereabouts. The man innocently asked Death if he may speak to one of his shades. However, Death was suspicious. He asked the man for his name. The man was not so foolish, he knew that he would be followed by Death if he told the man his name, and so, he recited, 'I am Harry Potter.' Death knew of the frivolous stories the living told and was outraged at this mockery. He began to order the death of the man, when a young shade stepped up. 'He is Harry,' the shade firmly told Death. Shades were Death's most loyal and favorite servants, so he believed what the shade told him was true. The shade went up to the man and told Death that he would deal with this one. Death undoubtedly agreed, and without Death hovering over them, the man was able to ask the shade of the cryptic words on the old farmer's grave. The shade told the man about the Fountain of Knowledge, where mortal men were free to drink. The shade also gave the location of it, and at once the man set off to find this 'Fountain.'"

"After many moons, he had finally found it. Unfortunately, a guardian stood in front of the massive marble gates and blocked his path. For days and nights he sat, wondering how to get past the ferocious dragon made of stone. Finally, an answer came to him. He threw a rock far into the forest opposite of the gateway and watched as the creature chased after it hopelessly. Then, he crept past the gates and past the iron door. He had reached the Fountain. He only managed to take a few sips before the Guardian trudged back to his rightful spot. The man carefully sneaked out of the door and waited. A few days later, Death found out about the shade's treachery and created three columns of the Vengeful world: the wraiths on top, the ghosts next, and finally, the shades at the bottom. He also cursed the man to an eternal life, and every day, the man distracts the guardian to take a few gulps of knowledge. Death didn't give the man an eternal life for nothing, though. The man must wander through life, cursed to think of the fountain every single moment of his immortal life. His friends discarded him, thinking that he was ignoring them. His family abandoned him, not bothering to search for the lost soul. And so ends the tale of a curious man, still alive to this day."

Drake finished and looked at me expectantly. "There really was no real need to tell me that story," I pointed out.

He looked hurt and whispered, "The Fountain is real. We need to be prepared. Who knows? Maybe the man is the 'curse that must be undone.' No one knows for sure, but we've got five, possibly eight, clues from that riddle. Now come on, let's get some sleep."

I nodded and fell into the spare bed. For hours, I toiled about the thought of reversing the man's curse. Before the dark overcame me, I heard Drake mutter in his sleep, "No, not her. Take me instead." Strange. But now, I was drifting off...I heard a pair of muffled footsteps enter the room and my mind was instantly alert again. I felt something poke me and now nothing else mattered but sleep...