“His breath gushed from him. He pressed his palms and forehead to the cold wood, letting it seep away his fatigue. Please let us pass. His bile pulsed. Balin bit his lip, shook his head. Open, he thought. He grabbed the knob again and twisted. It held. A stiff, solid mold of brass. Balin imagined the door within his mind’s eye: the grain of the wood, the shine of the knob. The knob turned in his mind. Balin’s hand shook. Numbness seeped up from his fingertips along his palm. Open. In his mind, the handle turned. Something within him pulled taut, stretched. Open. He squeezed the door’s handle and twisted. It held. Open! He gritted his teeth, thought the door to open, demanded the door to open. That tight thing within him stretched further. A blunt ache blossomed into a sting, like a pulled muscle, but it wasn’t physical. It wasn’t mental either. Something else. Something unchartered. Open. Open. Open.
He twisted the knob.
It did not move.”
―
Vanessa MacLellan,
Awaken: A Norse Dark Fantasy