Fourth Floor

100 word microfiction. Genre: mystery. Action: riding an elevator. Word: permanence

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You can't go to the fourth floor. An exorcism, you know the book, it was the Jesuits. Here. You don't believe the legends, although this is true: you can't get to the fourth floor of Reinigen Hall.

Stairs go up; there is no door. Rather, there is a door, but the bolts have an unmitigated permanence to them. Sealed.

There’s an elevator button. The little lock next to it begging for a key.

"There's no call button," they claim. "You're trapped until someone else has the same notion."

You slip the master key in your pocket. You’ve always been notional.