Hey look, I'm back again after 5 minutes. I just couldn't stay away... *snickers* I am ever so pleased that I have the power to bring Natty back to life, but, alas, I cannot get Jonathon Stroud to agree and publish a sequel to the trilogy, damnit(not to imply I've contacted him in any way, shape or form... which I haven't).

When I read the last few pages, I felt like hunting down Stroud and giving him a good piece of my mind. Though... It was a surprisingly neat way to end the story, and instantly I began to think up this one.

I only posted the first chapter after 1 week of reading the book. I had been thinking of exactly what would happen and already know (for the most part) my way around this.

Okai, so I said 5 minutes? Well, more like a day. I just wanted to give people a little of a break before reading the next chapter. But I wrote it 5 minutes after... so...

EDIT: Actually, I've decided to post two chapters a day now. So, this will be posted at the same time as the first.

I'm English, if you haven't already guessed, and I found this book amazing and is definitely one of my all time favourites. My favourite scene has to be the beginning of the first book. Definetely. I know it all off by heart now.

My favourite line? Oooohhh... tough one. Choice between:

'Then two yellow staring eyes materialised within the heart of smoke.' Book one.

And:

'Say hello to Kitty for me.' Book three - *cries*.

Ugh... . Darn my indecisiveness...

Anyways, onto the story. I don't want to bore you with anymore babble.

BARTIMAEUS

Chapter 2

Save me your Blabber

The girl froze, swallowing the small piece of chewing gum in her mouth. So she obviously recognised me.

"Tell me Kitty, how many years has it been since 'Nathaniel's death'?" *1 I looked around, now more relaxed than ever. Obviously Nathaniel was just playing with him, mucking around with his mind... Not much like Natty, mind you, but there was blaintantly something going on here.

Kitty frowned. "Who is... Kitty... or, Lizzie, or any of those people? My name is Amy Isa-" But 'Edward' had caught her mid-sentence.

"Amy! I've told you about this before. You do not give away your name to the demons."*2 Obviously the pair were playing it cool. What came as a surprise to me is that Nat was actually better at this acting than Kitty... Strange. That wasn't normal for him.

"So, how did you do it?" I said, turning back to Mandrake over there. The boy frowned. God, how long was I gone?

"Do, what, exactly?" I rolled my eyes, reverting back to my regular guise of Ptolemy.

I sighed at him. "Still sharp as ever, I see." Just a smidge of sarcasm. "How you survived that little incident with Nouda." The human's frown burrowed deeper.

"Incident with- Oh never mind! I shall not participate in your games and chatter demon." He turned back to Kitty. "Amy, please attend to this mess. We shall speak of this little mishap later." Kitty nodded politely, wandering off to fetch a broom.

"So, how are you then Nathaniel? And save me your blabber. We both know very well who you are." I said, grinning somewhat evilly at him. "Or is this just some ploy to make me think that you haven't broken your promise and summoned me again?"

"I haven't broken any promise. For I prefer not to converse with my slaves." Terrible. I was growing ever weary of his talk. Why not just admit defeat? I sighed as Ptolemy opened his mouth to speak. But before any words escaped, he cut me off. And certainly not for the first time. "You may be gone for the time being demon. I am dealing with more important matters than you right now. For now you can do whatever you want here. Do not harm anyone. Do not touch anything. And do not create scene of sorts. Return to me within two hours." And with that, I was gone from the pentacle. Great...

I decided to take this opportunity, whilst Nat was 'going through something', to pay a visit to my little friend, Kitty. Ptolemy walked curiously down the small and stiff staircase. With every step I took it creeked loudly, the timbers groaning.

I spotted the dark haired girl a while off. Marvellous. Muttering silently to myself I began to head down into the dingy, kitchen that smelt horribly of Jabor...*3 Yuck. Just, yuck. I meandered down the long and thin tiled path to meet the same dark haired girl that gave John a black eye, and saved his life. The only commoner to visit The Other Place, and currently one of my favourite guises*4. Oh yes, she recognised me. I could tell.

Grinning, I approached the girl. "So, 'Amy'," I said casually, leaning on the worktop. "What do you do about the house?"

"I am a commoner, and I'm not supposed to talk to the demons." She said, scurrying off, her eyes desperately avoiding contact with mine. She wasn't stupid. She knew I knew. But I might aswell play it her way, and humour the child*4.

"How old, are you Amy?" I asked again, grinning as I did so.

"Nineteen." She replied calmly, her front faced away from me, still cleaning the surface.

"Well now..." I pondered on this for a moment. That made it only around a year or so I was away in The Other Place. He girl stopped what she was doing. "You okay?" I asked, not very curiously for someone who is dying to know what was going on.

She swished round to face me and stared into Ptolemy's deep dark and chocolately brown eyes. I flinched, waiting for the blow. There came none. Odd... I smiled at this, now standing up properly.

*1 Of corse, I had no doubt that Nathaniel was alive now. Kitty was the only proof I needed, paired nicely along with Mr. 'Edward' over here.

*2 Demons. How I loathed that word. I mean, really... We're not evil or anything. Just horribly misunderstood. I mean, of corse I'd like to kill and eat most of you at the first chance, but that's because of what your kind has done to us! Oh, don't look at me like that...

*3 One time a while ago, back in Prague, he... well, I don't want to gross you out with the details. It wasn't a pretty sight, or smell, I can tell you that. Ugh... If us djini could regurgitate, well...

*4 Okay, so she wasn't exactly a child anymore... But considering how old I am, she's fairly young.

*4 She was wonderful at shaking Nathaniel up earlier, when he thought her to be dead.

Meh... I know, this chapter isn't too good, but I was at a loss for words for this one, because I deeply wanted to hurry into the next and reveal Kitty's backstory. Alas, I am leaving you now! Mwahahahaha! I feel so evil.

*3, by the way is so bad. I was uber annoyed at this one because I couldn't think of anything. Bathing in imp's blood was one of the images that came to mine here...

Damnit. Perhaps I'll edit this one out later.

Remember to comment. I always love to hear what you guys have to say!