A Heavy Spring

The corridor carpet gave consistent traction, but the hallway dead-ended at a heavy fire door. At the lower hinge, a discarded silver ballpoint pen lay wedged against the baseboard. I tested the barrel; hollow plastic, cracked along the seam. I twisted the casing apart and extracted the internal steel compression spring. Resilient. High rebound tension. Tucking the spring onto my forearm joint, I noticed a recessed rubber stopper holding the stairwell door ajar by an inch. I tested the opening with my claw. Cool air rushed through. The stairwell leads downward.