Short story about a man in solitary confinement, tears a button off his mattress to toss and catch. Button doesn't come back down and he loses his mind, tearing the room apart to find it. Dies without knowing it was caught in a spider web

[Lina]

I probably read this sometime between 1998-2004.

Either the prison cell was completely dark, or he was blind, which is why he couldn't see where the button went. Spider web was high up enough that he couldn't reach, and in a corner of the cell.

The button served as a form of entertainment, just a simple toss and catch game. He was very stuck on the concept of "what goes up must come back down" and so the fact that the button did not come back down made him go completely crazy. He completely tore the mattress up and went through everything meticulously, numerous times.

[Nicolas]

Sounds like a Phillip K. Dick short story! I don't remember reading it though... Do you remember where you found it? Analog, or IASFM, or any particular anthology?

If you could remember the character's name, that might lead us to the story!

[Lina]

I feel like the character may have been nameless. He was the only character in the whole story.

It might actually have been required reading in either high school or college. Totally possible a teacher scanned it and made us all printout copies to read!