Chapter 25

Bartimaeus

As I landed on the roof of Mr. Button's house, I had two things on my mind. Kitty and Ptolemy. Why? Because they're the two most important people I know. Both went to the Other Place with me, and both had a sense of determination and love for us djinn. Wow, I never realized how similar they are. They could make great friends, I guess.

I made the nessecary change and stole into the house, hoping that nothing would be waiting for me there. There wasn't any strong pulse anymore, so whatever was radiating such power had fled or been taken since my last visit. And for that I was somewhat thankful. I honestly didn't want to take part in any sort of battle at the moment.(1)

Inside, everything was as before. Nothin ghad changed since my previous visit, and that included Mr. Button's body. Okay, deep breaths. Euch. Flies were abundunt, plentiful. Gross. The decaying body was staring back at me. Maggots were eating their way through the eyes and nose. Mold covering the openings were the flies seemed to have abandoned. What meat was left of the eyes was drawing back into the skull.

Euch, I'd better say no more.(3)

Okay, more deep breaths. I took the form of Ptolemy and tried to ignore Mr. Button's body, although it was difficult. When he was out of sight, I looked around. Everything was as before. Books were strewn around the place, and it was hard to keep balance.

Alright. Here's a plan. I can look for more books for Kitty. Yes, That's a good idea.(5)

I slipped into another room and looked around. There were tons of books. Thousands upon thousands, all in alphabetical order by name of author. The entire collection of books rivaled the one in the British library. The room was huge; it had to bee at least a hundred feet high. I guessed that was what most of the mansion was made of. It all ended in a circular curve towards the end of the room. In that said curve was the largest bookcases I had ever seen. It went all the way to the ceiling and covered the entire curve of the room. In front of said bookcase were tons of smaller bookcases, about the standard size of a bookcase. There were tons of them. I estimated somwhere around a hundred. If Ptolemy were here, he'd faint. I wondered vaguely what Kitty would think.

I decided to bring Kitty back all of Ptolemy's works. He didn't have much, so it wouldn't be much trouble to carry them all.

Alright. If these books were stacked by alphabetical order, Ptolemy would be under 'P'. And if each of the normal bookshelves were one entire letter, Ptolemy's works would be found at the sixteenth bookcase. So, that's where I headed.

Over at the 'P' bookshelf, I skimmed the spines of the books. I searched with a fine tooth-comb, but no Ptolemy. I stepped back for a moment. Where else could his works be found? But when I got a better look at the books, I noticed they were in order by last name. Ptolemy didn't have a last name. So, would he be over at the big bookshelf?

I decided to find out, and walked over to it. I read a random spine of the book. It was 'J'. The spine said Jabor. So Ptolemy wouldn't be at the big bookshelf, either. It was all djinn. So where was Ptolemy's works?

Just as I was about to find out, I felt the summons.

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Besides, I'm not the fighting type. Run, dodge, and attack. That's more like me.

Aren't you people the least bit hygenic? I mean seriously. It's been what, three days since he'd been murdered? Eww. Even for somone like me, who's seen a lot of things in his long lifetime, not cleaning up after a murderer for three days is seriously disgusting.

(4) For the sake of both our stomachs.

(5) I'm not nervous. Do I sound nervous to you?

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No time to write a A/n. Kitty chapter next. I'm back at school and getting the laptop in 1-2 weeks, so updates will be every night! I gotta go now, bye!