Bartimaeus fanfic sequel

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Swirls of colour roamed about, twisting and turning around. Flashes appeared once in a while. Images of the past, fragments of memories.

                Where the HELL is Bartimaeus?! A particularly agitated swirl kept speeding through the chaos. The other wisps of colour were oppressed by his obstinate singularity. How long has it been? Two days? A week? A year? There’s no way to tell how much time passed in this bloody place.

                An image of Mrs Underwood appeared and spoke. This bloody place is your home now, you better get used to it.

                Nathaniel disliked seeing these illusions, especially the ones displaying his past regrets. If only he could find Bartimaeus, he could convince them to leave him alone. It seemed only a few moments ago he was still talking with Bartimaeus, but he stopped answering him in the middle of the conversation and hadn’t spoken since. Just tell me where Bartimaeus is! He said defiantly.

                An angry Arthur Underwood replaced the previous image. SILENCE boy! I’ll hear no more of this! Know your place!

                Nathaniel’s consciousness shook, receding to become as small as possible. Stop it! Why are you tormenting me? My place isn’t here; I’m human… At that moment he felt himself being pulled, not in one direction, but in many. He tried to resist, thinking that the spirits finally decided they had enough of him and became aggressive. It was no use; the forces wrenching him were too strong. He thought he was dying as he was stretched beyond his limits. Soon enough he was completely torn apart…

…then came the words. Words which were very familiar to him. Each word bound him back together, each of them a chain keeping him whole and also keeping him restrained. It felt like his entire self was forcefully compacted into a recipient that was too small. The last words finally echoed and his prison was sealed tight; now he was trapped. Sensations came to him: lightness; a floating feeling, a pungent smell of brimstone and a few other odors beneath it; incense, wax, paper, sweat? That last one was disconcerting. It certainly wasn’t his own. Then he heard a sound, so quiet he almost didn’t hear: “Nathaniel…” He knew whose voice it was as soon as he heard it. He instinctively opened his eyes. “Kitty?” Strangely, his own voice sounded all around as if hearing a recording of himself without saying anything. A pale curtain of what seemed like smoke was blurring his view. Kitty stood before him just as he had last seen her; wearing commoners’ clothes over her slender body, eyes like shining gems inside her wrinkled face looking at him as if she’d never see him again. His first thought was to move toward her. At that moment he realized something was missing, but before he could think on it further he was hit by a shock and flung backwards. “Ow!” Pain. And with that pain he knew what was missing; his body. “What’s going on?!” His voice didn’t come from his mouth, because he had none.

                Kitty spoke louder this time. “Nathaniel, you have to calm down!”

                His eyes darted all around, inspecting the surroundings. It was a fairly large room; stacks of books were laid out along the walls like a welcoming audience watching the show and a lonely desk stood in a corner. On the dark wooden floorboards below him three simple pentacles were drawn: one around himself, one around Kitty and the third one around a smirking Egyptian boy. “Bartimaeus!”

                The boy raised a hand and waved. “Present!”

                “You’re back on Earth.” Kitty explained. “I summoned you here.”