Post by ru on Apr 28, 2008 11:33:53 GMT -5
This is the story my friend and I are writing...Bartimaeus is in it. ^^ Oh, and to those who read the non-edited version, Rahl is Fynley, we just changed her name. Rorie will make an appearance in the third chapter. ^-^
Ch. 1: Innocent Intentions
Bartimaeus was certainly not your stereotypical librarian. With short, stylish, strawberry-blond hair with a touch of black near the bottom layers, striking orange eyes and an interesting goatee, the only thing that made him resemble such a person was his round glasses that never seemed to leave his face.
Blinking and staring at his computer screen, the young man was playing his umpteenth game of Solitaire while "waiting" for someone to walk in and ask him where to find a certain book. For now, the few people that even waltzed in here, either found what they were looking for or had talked to him and got no response. Barty couldn't help it if he blocked out words as he concentrated. He was trying to beat his last record! Who could blame him?
That and the little voice in his head whom so loved to make a conversation was beginning to become impatient from the lack of communication in his own mind while playing with the cards. The magician paid no mind to the headache that was now so eagerly forming behind his temples. He just kept on playing, sighing when he finished and the computer cards began falling from the stacks once he won. Bartimaeus was anything but satisfied.
Not that the world of one Rahleigh Schindler was much more interesting, considering that she was on the constant having to watch out for herself - a pretty tough feat to accomplish, considering her being visually impaired. She had dressed to blend in today, as she had every day of her life for the past four years. Unfortunately, it was very hard to go unnoticed when walking down the street with two white dogs and a long white cane, especially when one is adorned in black.
Her prayer to get off of the streets safely and without debate, however, was answered quickly when she finally arrived at the doorstep of the library, quickly ducking inside as both dogs ushered her in. It was cooler in here than it was outside, thankfully, considering the sun had been beating down on her the entire trip (and the wearing of black didn't help).
Once she had shaken off the shocking sense of heat from the outer world, she walked quietly over to where Bartimaeus sat, tags on the dogs' collars jingling merrily as she trotted along at her sides, avoiding the swing of the cane as it continued in its pendulum motions across the floor until it tapped against the floor surface of the desk. She cleared her throat quietly and attempted to speak.
"Excuse me..."
Bartimaeus did not bother taking his eyes off of his computer screen and made a discreet "Mmhm" as a reply while starting a new game. He obviously wasn't even aware of her presence and even if he was, he still wouldn't acknowledge her unless she had said something no one could possibly ignore.
So while he clicked away at the cards, his eyes drifted away only for a second to glance at her and paid no mind as he took a sip from his Redbull that sat next to him on his desk. Barty was hardly one to drink so much caffeine, but he hadn't slept in the last few days.
Why? The voice that was once just an occasional intruder that whispered in his mind every so often had decided to chat with him on a regular basis, no matter what the time of the day it was....or night, in his case. Sleep was near impossible. At least now for the time being his card playing lowered the voice's volume to near silence.
Being blind and being dumb are two different things, and while the former was true for Rahl , the latter most certainly wasn't. There was an edge suddenly on her when she found he wasn't paying attention, and quite frankly, it was starting to get on her nerves. She wanted to get his attention, but she really didn't know how to without disrupting this rather empty-sounding library.
BLAM!
She whacked the overlarge Braille book that she had checked out the afternoon before - the impact was magnificent.
Bartimaeus' concentration was obliterated when the sound of the book being purposefully slammed onto his desk shocked him into the real world and he looked up immediately. His round spectacles had slanted from his face and he fixed them while gawking at the woman. "Umm, can I help you?"
Judging by the look of things and the obvious sight of two dogs on each side of her, he made the deduction she was blind. The Braille book that had been loudly placed in front of him also gave that fact away.
"Yes," replied a half-exasperated Rahl, although her voice was no indicator, "I'm returning this book and getting another one. Which way were the Braille books?"
Rahl, though frustrated, was rather lost. She had only been to this library once or twice; once being a few months prior and twice being the day before today, making this the third time she had encountered him. Needless to say that she was not so approving of his work ethic.
Barty sighed deeply when he suddenly started feeling the headache he had been neglecting to realize was there, rubbing his temples. "It's on your left and third shelf on the right," he muttered, warily watching the dogs, "They...are...er...well trained, right?" he asked about them. "And why do you have two, may I ask?"
His temples were pounding and he didn't know why he even asked. He just wanted her to go on her way. The librarian just wanted complete silence and some Advil to go along with it. With another gulp of his Redbull, he turned back to his computer, not expecting an answer.
At the sound of the directions, Rahl began to wander off toward the shelves with both dogs in tow. It irked her that he would ask her such a question when it was obvious she needed them in order to get around. She could feel every vein in her face dying to throb violently.
"I wouldn't bring them in here if they weren't," she replied curtly after her short moment of thought, "The first one is seeing-eye, and the second one is my guard."
Bartimaeus lifted a dark eyebrow at her reply and shook his head, not bothering to respond. He was not a very social person and he tended to stay that way. Another drink of his Redbull and a swallow of two gel pills of Advil, Barty went back to his card game he had been distracted from.
He did, however, make a few glances towards Rahleigh whenever he had gotten a straight collection of cards during his game of Solitaire. He did this mainly because he was wary of the dogs taking a dump on the library carpet.
Neither dog did, however, as they were far more intelligent than the librarian apparently thought they were. Having a sixth sense about them that dogs have, though, they sensed this and seemed to bristle whenever they caught him looking in their master's direction. Artemis even dared to let out a growl, being the hostile one.
Rahleigh noticed but said nothing, letting her fingers trail along the spines of the books as she searched quietly for the next title to embark on in the following afternoon, at last climbing down with the monstrous tome in her hands. She began to walk back to the desk, cane extended.
Barty blinked a few times without pausing as she came back to the desk, "Did you find what you wanted?" he asked, trying to sound polite, but his common droning didn't really help matters or his reputation to the young woman.
He cleared his throat as if trying to somehow act as if he was getting a cold and blaming his tone on that. Anyone who had been here longer would know Bartimaeus' voice was anything but nice. Not that his voice was unpleasant, but his tone seemed to insinuate "I really don't care, so go talk to someone else."
That wasn't always the case, though. The man was just not well practiced on casual conversation, sadly. Well, when it came to the voice in his head--but that was another story.
Unfortunately, being blind, Rahl went continuously unable to make these kinds of deductions without the ability to read facial expressions like most. Thus she continued to take his tone as an inflection due to being rude, and she thought even less of him than she had from walking in the door earlier. It was extremely obvious that for a shy, fault-overlooking person, she was running out of patience with him. She resisted the urge to sigh.
"I did," came her stiff reply as she put the bulky tome down on the desk to be scanned and cataloged. It appeared to be the second Lord of the Rings book, as opposed to the first one, which she had borrowed the day before. For a blind girl, she was very fast in her reading.
Barty sighed at her reaction, having expected because of the way he had spoken. "Sorry if that sounded off. I'm having a terrible day," he said in a softer tone as he stamped the card as he told her the date to return it. "You can bring that back on the third of next month."
His gaze wasn't directly on her as he said it, perhaps feeling a little ashamed about his behavior. It was hard to tell.
"It's fine," Rahl replied with a tone that spoke naught of disbelief, but utter numbness in soul. Her fingers gripped the book as she carefully tucked it away into her courier bag. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't used to it."
And it was true. In her life, she had met her share of unpleasant people, few of whom weren't intentional. In fact, it would be a greater lie to say that Barty was the worst of the ones she had met. There are crueler people out there than the non-intentional, particularly the ones who carried a certain uncalled-for prejudice toward the visually-impaired.
Bartimaeus nodded, but realized once again that she couldn't see that movement. "Yeah...er...is there any other particular book you are trying to find?" he asked, trying to be a little more helpful. Bad impressions weren't exactly what he needed in this job. He already had less and less visitors as weeks passed by. Well, at least it wasn't as bad as his other profession, if one could call it that.
Being a an actual warlock playing a magician wasn't exactly easy as it looked. Not for Barty, anyway. He wasn't as talented as his "father" hoped for him to be.
Rahl was quick to shake her head in response, closing up the bag and re-gripping her cane. "No, this is all I need for now. I'll have this book promptly returned by tomorrow." Despite being blind, her light perception wasn't gone, so immediately turning to the source of light; she found the door, heading toward it.
A thought crossed her mind as she headed toward it, however, having to put her long, white guide in the crook of her arm as she attempted to push the door open. What if she finished the book early and wanted another one? No, she doubted that. After all, Lord of the Rings took many people weeks to get through. It was only through the grace of her idle time that she finished fast. In fact, it made her wonder just how quickly she could read in the deficit of blindness. She could only imagine that her fingers would still be faster.
Bartimaeus watched her as she made her way out of his library and yawned, feeling the effects of his Redbull fading fast. He really needed some sleep. It wouldn't be long until his next performance was needed for the city's carnival. He winced at the thought. Barty was not too keen on it. Especially after last year’s incident.
How was he supposed to know trying to use a disappearance type spell could turn a rabbit inside out? Common mistake, really. Or maybe not. It didn't matter. Barty would know the right tricks to use this time around.
The pull of city life seemed to have its adverse effects on Rahleigh as she went back out onto the sidewalk, the blind girl having to squint from the radiating brightness of the sun as it bore down on her. Today had not been a good day to wear black, and unfortunately, it was far too late to take back her decision in the choice of vestments that she had made. Oh well. She'd have to take it in stride, but she'd deal with it accordingly.
"Come on, guys, let's go," she said in an almost-bored tone as she directed her steps down the street, trying to get her cane in position as she did so. She knew that there were several places in this sidewalk that were decrepit, chipping, and had turned into deep, twist-your-ankle kinds of hole all throughout the path. For this reason, she had to be cautious. Her caution had become extremely evident, too, when she had taken to walking slowly and making slightly-wider swings with her cane.
Her approach to safety didn't last for long, though; the end of her cane caught in a small fissure in the concrete, causing it to bend and flick out of her hand into the street, and suddenly disoriented from trying to turn toward the direction of the noise, Rahleigh found herself on her hands and knees, still outside of the library, now searching the sidewalk for her fiberglass guide. There was a panicked expression on her face as she scanned over the surface with her fingers, Shakespeare now standing directly beside her, free from restraint as she was now using both hands to locate.
"Oh God, please...not today...not here..."
She crawled forward suddenly sending herself tumbling off of the sidewalk and into the street by several feet, suddenly laying hand on her cane and being frozen by the sound of a blaring horn and squealing tires. Her eyes were wide, and even the barking of the dogs couldn't snap her out of the automobile-induced trance. Was this it for her?
Bartimaeus had kept his eyes on her for the longest time after she left his library. He began to wonder exactly why he felt so strange when she was near by. It wasn't that cheesy "I think I'm falling in love" type of feeling. It was more along the lines of "I'm not normal and neither are you", which caused him to feel paranoid. Barty had tried to keep his distance from other mystics for years.
Maybe he was just jumping to conclusions. Perhaps the only thing different about her was that she was blind? She certainly wasn't a witch. His thoughts were broken when a familiar, taunting voice made its presence known very, very loudly.
“HEY! DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT IS GOING ON OUTSIDE?”
Bartimaeus flinched and nearly fell out of his seat, ears ringing to no end and the headache now pulsing erratically. "What are you-" he stopped short as his bright, amber eyes widened in shock as he spotted Rahleigh stumbling onto the road. Did no one else see this? Why wasn't anyone going to help?
“Time to play hero, buddy,” the voice taunted, as if whispering it in his ear. He always assumed the voice was just a part of him. Lately, though, it seemed it was only a disembodied voice with a mind of its own. It was quite disturbing, really; and with the occasional "possession", it brought him to believe the voice was some kind of demon. Yet, he never studied demonology and he'd rather not. What was important was the blind, young woman.
"Buggar..." he growled to himself, rushing out the door and quickly wrapping his arms around Rahleigh's waist and pulling her out of the road. He heard the blast of the vehicle's horn and the wind brushing past them. It was enough to cause his heart to skip a beat, if only for a moment. His breath caught in his throat and when he felt they were no longer in danger, he let go of her on the sidewalk and stepped away. "Are...you...okay?" he panted, trying to register what had happened and why he had even done that. It wasn't like he didn't want to save people, but it also wasn't something he'd have the gumption to do.
There was something about her...
Rahleigh had gasped, suddenly pulled away from her metal, gas-powered demise by what she later deemed the thread of all chances. She suddenly found herself panting as well, suddenly sinking down on her knees and leaning up against a lamppost. She didn't know what had happened, either, why she didn't immediately get back on the sidewalk like she knew she should. Something just stopped her in her tracks. She hadn't even been able to budge or blink.
"I... I think so..." She was more disoriented than anything, and she now had a headache from the strain that was trying to work its way out of her system. In fact, Rahl just looked plainly unhealthy and unsettled, like someone with the flu who couldn't focus at all. "What happened...?" More than anything, it was hard for Rahl to talk over the dogs, which were swarmed around her, licking at her face and whining. They had been terrified for her.
"In all honesty," Bartimaeus began, "I haven't the slightest clue," he said while blinking, his eyes still wide.
“Not surprising,” commented the voice. If the voice had a face, Barty could only imagine it rolling its eyes at him. The magician clenched his teeth and almost growled quietly, but caught himself.
"You were almost hit by a car," Barty said while trying to keep his attention on Rahleigh and not the others' words. "I'm appalled no one else seemed to come to your aide. It was pure luck that I saw you at the right time."
A scoff from the voice. Bartimaeus had to roll his eyes this time. That only led to a stronger headache. He winced and closed his eyes tightly, pinching the brim of his nose.
Rahleigh just gave a single nod, resting a few fingers on one temple as she tried to get a hold of herself rather unsuccessfully. "I don't know what happened to me, I just...I blanked out...and...and...wait! My cane!"
It was a needless worry, however, as the white object lay snapped in the middle of the road, run over by whatever car that refused to stop. Rahleigh didn't know this, however, and thus was still in a panic to find it, her dogs panicking and trying to keep her from going back into the road.
“Well, look who finally decided to take some action for once,” flaunted the little voice in Barty's head, “Finally decided to stop sitting on the sidelines?”
"Shut up," Barty snapped back to the voice with his thoughts. He watched the pitiful sight Rahl was giving and his gaze fixed on the cane in the middle of the road. Broken. He should tell her this, right? Sighing deeply, Bartimaeus walked over to her, at least closer than he was originally.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and chewed the bottom of his lip for a second, as if contemplating how to tell her this, "I'm sorry, but...your cane...? It has been run over by a few passing cars," he grimaced by his casual way of saying it. He wasn't good at being sociable, let alone sympathetic.
Ch. 1: Innocent Intentions
Bartimaeus was certainly not your stereotypical librarian. With short, stylish, strawberry-blond hair with a touch of black near the bottom layers, striking orange eyes and an interesting goatee, the only thing that made him resemble such a person was his round glasses that never seemed to leave his face.
Blinking and staring at his computer screen, the young man was playing his umpteenth game of Solitaire while "waiting" for someone to walk in and ask him where to find a certain book. For now, the few people that even waltzed in here, either found what they were looking for or had talked to him and got no response. Barty couldn't help it if he blocked out words as he concentrated. He was trying to beat his last record! Who could blame him?
That and the little voice in his head whom so loved to make a conversation was beginning to become impatient from the lack of communication in his own mind while playing with the cards. The magician paid no mind to the headache that was now so eagerly forming behind his temples. He just kept on playing, sighing when he finished and the computer cards began falling from the stacks once he won. Bartimaeus was anything but satisfied.
Not that the world of one Rahleigh Schindler was much more interesting, considering that she was on the constant having to watch out for herself - a pretty tough feat to accomplish, considering her being visually impaired. She had dressed to blend in today, as she had every day of her life for the past four years. Unfortunately, it was very hard to go unnoticed when walking down the street with two white dogs and a long white cane, especially when one is adorned in black.
Her prayer to get off of the streets safely and without debate, however, was answered quickly when she finally arrived at the doorstep of the library, quickly ducking inside as both dogs ushered her in. It was cooler in here than it was outside, thankfully, considering the sun had been beating down on her the entire trip (and the wearing of black didn't help).
Once she had shaken off the shocking sense of heat from the outer world, she walked quietly over to where Bartimaeus sat, tags on the dogs' collars jingling merrily as she trotted along at her sides, avoiding the swing of the cane as it continued in its pendulum motions across the floor until it tapped against the floor surface of the desk. She cleared her throat quietly and attempted to speak.
"Excuse me..."
Bartimaeus did not bother taking his eyes off of his computer screen and made a discreet "Mmhm" as a reply while starting a new game. He obviously wasn't even aware of her presence and even if he was, he still wouldn't acknowledge her unless she had said something no one could possibly ignore.
So while he clicked away at the cards, his eyes drifted away only for a second to glance at her and paid no mind as he took a sip from his Redbull that sat next to him on his desk. Barty was hardly one to drink so much caffeine, but he hadn't slept in the last few days.
Why? The voice that was once just an occasional intruder that whispered in his mind every so often had decided to chat with him on a regular basis, no matter what the time of the day it was....or night, in his case. Sleep was near impossible. At least now for the time being his card playing lowered the voice's volume to near silence.
Being blind and being dumb are two different things, and while the former was true for Rahl , the latter most certainly wasn't. There was an edge suddenly on her when she found he wasn't paying attention, and quite frankly, it was starting to get on her nerves. She wanted to get his attention, but she really didn't know how to without disrupting this rather empty-sounding library.
BLAM!
She whacked the overlarge Braille book that she had checked out the afternoon before - the impact was magnificent.
Bartimaeus' concentration was obliterated when the sound of the book being purposefully slammed onto his desk shocked him into the real world and he looked up immediately. His round spectacles had slanted from his face and he fixed them while gawking at the woman. "Umm, can I help you?"
Judging by the look of things and the obvious sight of two dogs on each side of her, he made the deduction she was blind. The Braille book that had been loudly placed in front of him also gave that fact away.
"Yes," replied a half-exasperated Rahl, although her voice was no indicator, "I'm returning this book and getting another one. Which way were the Braille books?"
Rahl, though frustrated, was rather lost. She had only been to this library once or twice; once being a few months prior and twice being the day before today, making this the third time she had encountered him. Needless to say that she was not so approving of his work ethic.
Barty sighed deeply when he suddenly started feeling the headache he had been neglecting to realize was there, rubbing his temples. "It's on your left and third shelf on the right," he muttered, warily watching the dogs, "They...are...er...well trained, right?" he asked about them. "And why do you have two, may I ask?"
His temples were pounding and he didn't know why he even asked. He just wanted her to go on her way. The librarian just wanted complete silence and some Advil to go along with it. With another gulp of his Redbull, he turned back to his computer, not expecting an answer.
At the sound of the directions, Rahl began to wander off toward the shelves with both dogs in tow. It irked her that he would ask her such a question when it was obvious she needed them in order to get around. She could feel every vein in her face dying to throb violently.
"I wouldn't bring them in here if they weren't," she replied curtly after her short moment of thought, "The first one is seeing-eye, and the second one is my guard."
Bartimaeus lifted a dark eyebrow at her reply and shook his head, not bothering to respond. He was not a very social person and he tended to stay that way. Another drink of his Redbull and a swallow of two gel pills of Advil, Barty went back to his card game he had been distracted from.
He did, however, make a few glances towards Rahleigh whenever he had gotten a straight collection of cards during his game of Solitaire. He did this mainly because he was wary of the dogs taking a dump on the library carpet.
Neither dog did, however, as they were far more intelligent than the librarian apparently thought they were. Having a sixth sense about them that dogs have, though, they sensed this and seemed to bristle whenever they caught him looking in their master's direction. Artemis even dared to let out a growl, being the hostile one.
Rahleigh noticed but said nothing, letting her fingers trail along the spines of the books as she searched quietly for the next title to embark on in the following afternoon, at last climbing down with the monstrous tome in her hands. She began to walk back to the desk, cane extended.
Barty blinked a few times without pausing as she came back to the desk, "Did you find what you wanted?" he asked, trying to sound polite, but his common droning didn't really help matters or his reputation to the young woman.
He cleared his throat as if trying to somehow act as if he was getting a cold and blaming his tone on that. Anyone who had been here longer would know Bartimaeus' voice was anything but nice. Not that his voice was unpleasant, but his tone seemed to insinuate "I really don't care, so go talk to someone else."
That wasn't always the case, though. The man was just not well practiced on casual conversation, sadly. Well, when it came to the voice in his head--but that was another story.
Unfortunately, being blind, Rahl went continuously unable to make these kinds of deductions without the ability to read facial expressions like most. Thus she continued to take his tone as an inflection due to being rude, and she thought even less of him than she had from walking in the door earlier. It was extremely obvious that for a shy, fault-overlooking person, she was running out of patience with him. She resisted the urge to sigh.
"I did," came her stiff reply as she put the bulky tome down on the desk to be scanned and cataloged. It appeared to be the second Lord of the Rings book, as opposed to the first one, which she had borrowed the day before. For a blind girl, she was very fast in her reading.
Barty sighed at her reaction, having expected because of the way he had spoken. "Sorry if that sounded off. I'm having a terrible day," he said in a softer tone as he stamped the card as he told her the date to return it. "You can bring that back on the third of next month."
His gaze wasn't directly on her as he said it, perhaps feeling a little ashamed about his behavior. It was hard to tell.
"It's fine," Rahl replied with a tone that spoke naught of disbelief, but utter numbness in soul. Her fingers gripped the book as she carefully tucked it away into her courier bag. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't used to it."
And it was true. In her life, she had met her share of unpleasant people, few of whom weren't intentional. In fact, it would be a greater lie to say that Barty was the worst of the ones she had met. There are crueler people out there than the non-intentional, particularly the ones who carried a certain uncalled-for prejudice toward the visually-impaired.
Bartimaeus nodded, but realized once again that she couldn't see that movement. "Yeah...er...is there any other particular book you are trying to find?" he asked, trying to be a little more helpful. Bad impressions weren't exactly what he needed in this job. He already had less and less visitors as weeks passed by. Well, at least it wasn't as bad as his other profession, if one could call it that.
Being a an actual warlock playing a magician wasn't exactly easy as it looked. Not for Barty, anyway. He wasn't as talented as his "father" hoped for him to be.
Rahl was quick to shake her head in response, closing up the bag and re-gripping her cane. "No, this is all I need for now. I'll have this book promptly returned by tomorrow." Despite being blind, her light perception wasn't gone, so immediately turning to the source of light; she found the door, heading toward it.
A thought crossed her mind as she headed toward it, however, having to put her long, white guide in the crook of her arm as she attempted to push the door open. What if she finished the book early and wanted another one? No, she doubted that. After all, Lord of the Rings took many people weeks to get through. It was only through the grace of her idle time that she finished fast. In fact, it made her wonder just how quickly she could read in the deficit of blindness. She could only imagine that her fingers would still be faster.
Bartimaeus watched her as she made her way out of his library and yawned, feeling the effects of his Redbull fading fast. He really needed some sleep. It wouldn't be long until his next performance was needed for the city's carnival. He winced at the thought. Barty was not too keen on it. Especially after last year’s incident.
How was he supposed to know trying to use a disappearance type spell could turn a rabbit inside out? Common mistake, really. Or maybe not. It didn't matter. Barty would know the right tricks to use this time around.
The pull of city life seemed to have its adverse effects on Rahleigh as she went back out onto the sidewalk, the blind girl having to squint from the radiating brightness of the sun as it bore down on her. Today had not been a good day to wear black, and unfortunately, it was far too late to take back her decision in the choice of vestments that she had made. Oh well. She'd have to take it in stride, but she'd deal with it accordingly.
"Come on, guys, let's go," she said in an almost-bored tone as she directed her steps down the street, trying to get her cane in position as she did so. She knew that there were several places in this sidewalk that were decrepit, chipping, and had turned into deep, twist-your-ankle kinds of hole all throughout the path. For this reason, she had to be cautious. Her caution had become extremely evident, too, when she had taken to walking slowly and making slightly-wider swings with her cane.
Her approach to safety didn't last for long, though; the end of her cane caught in a small fissure in the concrete, causing it to bend and flick out of her hand into the street, and suddenly disoriented from trying to turn toward the direction of the noise, Rahleigh found herself on her hands and knees, still outside of the library, now searching the sidewalk for her fiberglass guide. There was a panicked expression on her face as she scanned over the surface with her fingers, Shakespeare now standing directly beside her, free from restraint as she was now using both hands to locate.
"Oh God, please...not today...not here..."
She crawled forward suddenly sending herself tumbling off of the sidewalk and into the street by several feet, suddenly laying hand on her cane and being frozen by the sound of a blaring horn and squealing tires. Her eyes were wide, and even the barking of the dogs couldn't snap her out of the automobile-induced trance. Was this it for her?
Bartimaeus had kept his eyes on her for the longest time after she left his library. He began to wonder exactly why he felt so strange when she was near by. It wasn't that cheesy "I think I'm falling in love" type of feeling. It was more along the lines of "I'm not normal and neither are you", which caused him to feel paranoid. Barty had tried to keep his distance from other mystics for years.
Maybe he was just jumping to conclusions. Perhaps the only thing different about her was that she was blind? She certainly wasn't a witch. His thoughts were broken when a familiar, taunting voice made its presence known very, very loudly.
“HEY! DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT IS GOING ON OUTSIDE?”
Bartimaeus flinched and nearly fell out of his seat, ears ringing to no end and the headache now pulsing erratically. "What are you-" he stopped short as his bright, amber eyes widened in shock as he spotted Rahleigh stumbling onto the road. Did no one else see this? Why wasn't anyone going to help?
“Time to play hero, buddy,” the voice taunted, as if whispering it in his ear. He always assumed the voice was just a part of him. Lately, though, it seemed it was only a disembodied voice with a mind of its own. It was quite disturbing, really; and with the occasional "possession", it brought him to believe the voice was some kind of demon. Yet, he never studied demonology and he'd rather not. What was important was the blind, young woman.
"Buggar..." he growled to himself, rushing out the door and quickly wrapping his arms around Rahleigh's waist and pulling her out of the road. He heard the blast of the vehicle's horn and the wind brushing past them. It was enough to cause his heart to skip a beat, if only for a moment. His breath caught in his throat and when he felt they were no longer in danger, he let go of her on the sidewalk and stepped away. "Are...you...okay?" he panted, trying to register what had happened and why he had even done that. It wasn't like he didn't want to save people, but it also wasn't something he'd have the gumption to do.
There was something about her...
Rahleigh had gasped, suddenly pulled away from her metal, gas-powered demise by what she later deemed the thread of all chances. She suddenly found herself panting as well, suddenly sinking down on her knees and leaning up against a lamppost. She didn't know what had happened, either, why she didn't immediately get back on the sidewalk like she knew she should. Something just stopped her in her tracks. She hadn't even been able to budge or blink.
"I... I think so..." She was more disoriented than anything, and she now had a headache from the strain that was trying to work its way out of her system. In fact, Rahl just looked plainly unhealthy and unsettled, like someone with the flu who couldn't focus at all. "What happened...?" More than anything, it was hard for Rahl to talk over the dogs, which were swarmed around her, licking at her face and whining. They had been terrified for her.
"In all honesty," Bartimaeus began, "I haven't the slightest clue," he said while blinking, his eyes still wide.
“Not surprising,” commented the voice. If the voice had a face, Barty could only imagine it rolling its eyes at him. The magician clenched his teeth and almost growled quietly, but caught himself.
"You were almost hit by a car," Barty said while trying to keep his attention on Rahleigh and not the others' words. "I'm appalled no one else seemed to come to your aide. It was pure luck that I saw you at the right time."
A scoff from the voice. Bartimaeus had to roll his eyes this time. That only led to a stronger headache. He winced and closed his eyes tightly, pinching the brim of his nose.
Rahleigh just gave a single nod, resting a few fingers on one temple as she tried to get a hold of herself rather unsuccessfully. "I don't know what happened to me, I just...I blanked out...and...and...wait! My cane!"
It was a needless worry, however, as the white object lay snapped in the middle of the road, run over by whatever car that refused to stop. Rahleigh didn't know this, however, and thus was still in a panic to find it, her dogs panicking and trying to keep her from going back into the road.
“Well, look who finally decided to take some action for once,” flaunted the little voice in Barty's head, “Finally decided to stop sitting on the sidelines?”
"Shut up," Barty snapped back to the voice with his thoughts. He watched the pitiful sight Rahl was giving and his gaze fixed on the cane in the middle of the road. Broken. He should tell her this, right? Sighing deeply, Bartimaeus walked over to her, at least closer than he was originally.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and chewed the bottom of his lip for a second, as if contemplating how to tell her this, "I'm sorry, but...your cane...? It has been run over by a few passing cars," he grimaced by his casual way of saying it. He wasn't good at being sociable, let alone sympathetic.