Not On Speaking Terms

The light! How could I be so stupid? It was probably attracted to the light!

I pushed the lamp closed and slipped the handle over my wrist. 

As soon as the room was dark again, two things happened at the same time. 

The first thing to happen was that I jumped up on my desk, jumping up so I could push the ceiling tiles above it open. 

As soon as it moved, a rope ladder fell down toward me. It had taken a lot of finessing to make that happen and a lot of time spent on making sure it happened consistently. 

But I was crazy, and time was something I had a lot of. 

The second thing that happened was the sound of the glass on my door shattering and the angry roar of the creature outside my office. 

Knowing that my time was getting limited, I pulled myself up and then pulled up the ladder, replacing the tile so no one could see anything amiss.