Jacob arrived late the next day. A long, brown overcoat was draped over his body while a pair of well worn gloves hid his hands from view. His face was obscured by a combination of the wide brimmed hat he wore pushed down on his head as far as it would go, and the turned up collar of his unnecessarily baggy coat. All and all, he seemed better fitting for lurking in a dark ally then associating with a member of parliament (I meant Kitty by the way, in case you didn't catch on). Typical paranoid Jacob. The kid hasn't changed a bit! Kitty ran up and flung her arms around her unsuspecting victims neck.
"Jacob! I'm so glad you could make it!" She greeted him.
"Nice to see you too kitty. Now can we move this to somewhere less crowded?" He asked. His eyes flitted around nervously. I coughed loudly.
"Hate to brake up this lovely reunion, really its touching, but I don't honestly see a need for me to be here." Kitty shot me a frightening look.
"We leave when I say we leave. Got it?" I nodded hastily, not to keen on attracting kitty's wrath.
"Jacob, you remember Bartimaeus, don't you?" She introduced politely. The boy grimaced, and I honestly can't say I blamed him
"How could I forget?" He muttered dryly. "Him and that scrawny little magician kid make a pretty unforgettable duo. Believe me, I've tried." I winced at the sharp pain in my chest.
"You and me both kid." I muttered, my slightly move jovial mood plummeted back to my original state of indifference towards the world. Jacob shot me a questioning glance, but I averted my eyes. Kitty was quick to change the topic to every day mundane things, but the damage was done. We clamored into Kitty's car, and spent the rest of the ride home in tense silence, with a few sporadic attempts at conversation on Kitty's part. I'll give the girl props though, she was certainly persistent, and quite good at prancing around the "elephant in the room" so to speak. Unfortunately her friend was not so adapt at dealing with theses kinds of things.
"So where is that scrawny brat anyhow. Please don't tell me he lives with you Kitty. I know you said in your letters that magicians as a whole had changed for the better, but I REALY don't want to be anywhere near him. I would be perfectly fine staying with my parents." Kitty shot me a guilty and concerned look before opening her mouth to respond, but I beat her to it.
"No chance of running into him." I snapped out sharply. "That is, unless you plan on taking a stroll where the glass palace used to be. oh wait, forgot, you aren't much of an outdoorsy type, are you?" My words dropped with venom enough to kill an elephant. My lips contorted into a sneer and my eyes filled with anger and pent up pain. "Bartimaeus!" Kitty pleaded as the temperature of the car began to drop drastically. The windows began to crack and the car shook. The light dimmed, but I allowed my eyes to glow with unchecked pain overwhelmed me. The only other time I could remember feeling anything close to this was when Kitty brought up Ptolemy, and that pain had been dulled by centuries. This pain was fresh and overwhelming. It tore into my head and coursed through my veins like fire. I could hear kitty calling my name, and Jacob shouting pointless questions, but their terrified voices hardly registered in my tormented mind. My world was coming apart at the seems and the pain was unbearable.
That was when I heard it. The voice, His voice, whispering in my ear. 'Bartimaeus... Bartimaeus... It's ok... Your ok..." The anger began to fade, the pain relented. "That's it." The voice coaxed. "Let the pain go." As if a plug had been pulled, the fury and despair drained out of me, leavening my feeling week and drained. I fell back limply to the seat, the darkness gone and the windows repaired. Kitty pulled the car over on the side of the road and turned in the seat to look at her two passengers. Jacob was staring opened mouthed with a look I can only describe as a combination of terror and horror. Kitty, on the other hand, looked sad and sympathetic. She reached back and placed a hand on my knee. "Everyone ok?" She asked. The two of us nodded. "Good." And with that she restarted the car. A few times Jacob looked like he was going to begin questioning me, but then Kitty would shoot him a look and his mouth would snap shut. As you could probably assume, it was a long and uncomfortable car ride. Even Kitty had given up on her futile attempts at polite conversation. I found myself wishing I was quite literally anywhere else. As in anywhere. Something told me the feeling was mutual.
A/N: chapters may take a little longer now. I'v got a lot of stuff going on with school right now and I really don't want to fail 8th grade. Thanks for understanding. Please review.