The Mail Slot Ambush

I lunged off the bottom stair the instant the brass mail flap clattered open! Three stiff envelopes came tumbling down like a barrage of white sails. A sneak attack? Ha! I hit the bristly coir mat with a muffled thud and drove my hook straight into the fattest cardboard mailer—*skrrrch!* The steel point pinned the intruder dead to the fibers before it could slide away. No silent messenger breaches this perimeter without answering to the captain! I kicked the fluttering paper flat with one heel, standing guard over my captured prize.