A Summon in Bruges

After what seemed like a million years I felt the oh-so familiar pull of my essence being yanked from The Other Place. And I was not happy about this at all. The little fishhooks seemed to dig into my essence and I was powerless to stop it. In the seconds it would take I searched my brain[1]for a form that I could assume. Something that would benefit me once I struck home in a foreign pentacle. From the feel of the summons I could tell that my new master was a shoddy piece of work at best. This was very inconvenient for him, but not as such for me.

            Quickly I decided upon a satisfactory form. With striking speed and creativity I molded my essence into a large serpent-like beast. Flames erupted and licked my sharpened green scales and my eyes were set ablaze likewise. The plumes of smoke escaping from my nostrils curled around the serpent’s horns and in a final moment, my essence materialized on Earth.

            Before I could let my new master speak or make his presence known I spoke my part. Well, someone’s got to the give the poor guy some warning before it’s too late. With a voice so tremulous it shook the walls of the building I spoke, “Who dares to summon me? Bartimeaus of Uruk, Sakhr Al-Jinni! It is I who has built the walls of Prague and spoken with Solomon and Ptolemy of old! Cower before me mortal, for I—,”

            I stopped all of a sudden as I realized who stood in the pentacle opposite of mine.

            “Oh, it’s you,” I raised a brow[2] and crossed my scaly arms.

The girl was grinning widely, a gleam in her eye. Examining her appearance, I inhaled deeply, “Tsk, tsk. I’d been wondering if you’d forgotten me already. How long’s it been then?”

The girl didn’t say anything but she beamed at me with an expression that could have been shock. I couldn’t blame her though. I’d have been most offended if she looked at me any other way. For she, first and foremost, was staring at me. Such a reaction is normal if they’d known all the wonders that I’d accomplished in my 5000 yearlong lifespan.

All the same, I knew this was different. This kind of shock was more of a “looking at a ghost” kind of shock. Giving a little awkward cough, I began again, “You’re looking well.”

This was true. Since the last time the I’d seen the girl, her hair had been short and gray. Her face had been slightly aged and lines had been present. This was of course after she visited the Other Place to find me of all djinn. But hey, that’s what happens when you separate your body from your soul. But the girl that stood before me looked young once again. Her hair had been dyed black again and it hung long, cascading around her face. But it was the eyes that did it: the big wide eyes that stared at me, full of shock and life. Yes, these eyes belonged to no other than that of Kitty Jones.

At last Kitty seemed to snap out of her trance. With a small croak, she replied, “Yes, yes. I suppose I do. It’s been a year after all.”

“A year? Y’know some people might have called.”

“You know very well why I didn’t!” she replied, rather sourly, to my surprise.

“You might feel kind enough to enlighten me, eh?” I asked. By now I had changed into my preferred Ptolemy guise, which must have suited Kitty just fine. I could tell she felt more at ease with this form than my particularly magnificent serpent.

“Oh, don’t give me that!” her eyes bore into me, sending shivers down my spine. In all honesty, I thought she was about to cry[3]. “I thought you were dead.”

Looking down, I shuffled within my pentacle, “To be honest, I’d thought I was dead at the time too. In fact I would have been if my idiot master hadn’t dismissed me at the last minute.”