8

I ran to the bathroom and groped around for a few precious seconds in the dark before I found the sink. I quickly climbed up on the sink and was able to reach the ceiling and push a panel out of it's cradle and get up into the ceiling and, working by feel, I replaced the tile. My office door shattered, the sound being muffled by the closed bathroom door.
I felt carefully along the support frame as I moved away from my entry point. I wasn't sure what all the creature could do, but scent would be a likely way to follow me, assuming the place it came from was as dark as the slit was when it started to come through. Sound was the other way that I could think of. I heard the fire door open and close. that made me think scent more than hearing since I had gone there first. Amazing how analytical your brain can get when it's trying hard not to be terrified.
Trouble is, the ceiling was just another trap. There were limits to where I could go. Which means if the creature decided to tear the ceiling apart, it would find me. I needed to be someplace else when it figured that out. The load-bearing walls had access holes for the wiring, plumbing and ventilation to get between rooms and floors.
If I could slip through there, it would be even harder for the creature to find me. I realized right after that I had a bigger problem. I'm not the only one in the building..I'm on the fourth floor, which I share with six other businesses, and there are three floors below me with more people and businesses in them. If the creature ran into any one of them, they'd be slaughtered, and I'd have been the one to let them get killed. The creature was sent after me. I had to get near a window, my cell-phone wouldn't work this deep in the building.
The trouble is, I didn't know exactly where I was in relation to any of the rooms here. I'd gone here to hide and done a good job of moving in the dark away from the bathroom, but in the dark, it's hard to tell distance. Direction I had as I'm on the hanging frame, and that's oriented square to the halls and rooms. I had gone the same direction away from the bathroom, which put offices to my left.
All I had to do was turn left and go until I hit a wall, then drop through the ceiling and call the police. Fawn, my sister and wonder-woman look-alike, was head of the magical response squad (MaRS) and she and her group were very good at what they did, which was take down supernatural threats. Having them here would do a lot for getting me and the others in here out alive and in one piece.