10

I looked at him and brought my sight up. Art remained Art. “Umm, Art, did you notice anything weird like lights going out and loud noises from my room?” Art got an alarmed look on his face and his eyes darted towards the door. “Should I have heard something?” he asked nervously. “Yeah, I fired four rounds at something in my office, you darn well should have heard something.” I said tersely. “That, and the lights went out all over.” “Lights went out?”, he said to me as he put his coffee cup down on his desk. Maybe you blew a local breaker Fern, 'cause I haven't lost any lights”
It took a moment to sink in and I returned quickly to my office. Art followed me out of his office and back to mine. “Fern, what are you doing?” he asked me. “I'm going to find out what kind of magic someone used on me.” I as certain that SOME kind of magic was used. I just didn't understand why yet. “Can I watch if I don't get in the way?” Art asked, as he looked in on my office. He seemed surprised at its dingy condition and the clutter. He looked at me again. “When was that last time you cleaned up?” he said curiously to me.
I flipped the wall switch, and the lights came on with no problem at all. I flipped them off and on twice more to make sure I wasn't just imagining the lights. Finally, I went back over to my possibles bag, and pulled out my machete' and an iron nail. I put the nail in my pocket and pulled out a bag of salt and a second bag of iron filings.
I chose an open part of the floor, and laid the machete' down by my feet, then at arm's reach, made a salt circle around me, then a iron circle inside the salt. I tossed the bags back next to the possibles bag, and picked up my machete', then I unsheathed it and laid the blade edge-on in my palm and wrapped my fingers around the blade, and tugged it sharply, cutting my hand slightly. I dropped blood inside of the other two circles, South, North, West, East. Then I made a third circle by dragging the tip of the machete' through the blood drops in a clockwise manner. Art watched all the preparations with fascination. I stepped carefully over the circles, and got some toilet paper from the bathroom to cover the cut on my hand with.
“This is where it gets tricky” I told him. The creature I'm going to call up will be outside the circle and won't be happy, you sure you want to stay?” “Uh, thanks, but I'm not that curious” Art told me, and hurried back to his office and I head a door slam. Heh. I wasn't going to call up a creature, but I did want him somewhere else. The circles were made and I was ready.
I sheathed the machete' ,pulled the iron nail, and focused my will. “Truth in salt, truth in iron, truth in blood.” I said as I turned in place. Once I finished a complete rotation, I dropped the nail to my feet. It sped to the ground like a released arrow and buried itself halfway into the floor. My office remained the same, dingy AUTHENTIC 1930's style gumshoe office. That ruled out external glamour. The room did not have the illusion on it, I had it on me.
I could deal with that too, but I might have already. The magic I'd most likely been around was fae, since “Mr. Cobb” had been my client today, and he was most definitely fae. The iron nail and the filings could have inadvertently disrupted any fae spell cast on me, but would leave some kind of trace that could be spotted by a good, meaning expert, wizard. There were other ways too, one that a simpleton magically could use, but they were liable to hurt the caster.

9

I went along the bracing, groping in front of me for the next wire or the wall, and presently, my fingertips brushed cement, I raised one foot and stomped on the panel, breaking it and letting me see down into the room below. The panel broke into three irregular pieces and fell into the room, bouncing off the edge of a large desk. I stopped momentarily to listen for screams or the creature, but didn't hear either.
I could see the large, ornate wooden desk below me. An antique laptop was on the corner while a modern flat-touch was recessed into the surface. It was on and operating. A replica green-shaded banker's lamp had been knocked over by the falling panel, and it lay on it's back.
Light streamed in the opening allowing me to see the conduit I was holding onto for balance. I listened again and when I heard no loud or odd noises, I dropped lightly onto the desk. There was a chair pushed against the wall to my left, and to the right was a pair of chairs facing the desk, with a couch and coffee table just beyond them. Looking behind me I saw the door into the room, and it was open.
I heard footsteps in the hall getting louder, I quietly stepped off the desk and crouched behind it. I peeked at the door from the side of the desk and saw my neighbor Art Uhlan come back in with a cup of coffee in his right hand. He stepped in the room, and then froze in surprise, and stared at the broken panel. “What the fuck!” he exclaimed, and then saw me, and his gaze turned to confusion. “Fern? Are you okay? What are you doing in here?” He glanced around the room again, and rerturned to looking at me, and the broken panel on the floor by the desk.
I stood up and abesent-mindedly brushed the dust and cobwebs that clung to me after my time in the ceiling. He looked more closely and an angry smile quirked his lips. “Fern, if you wanted to come see me you could have used the door. Now would you tell me what the hell is going on?”

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.