Chapter Text
Everything was too fast and too slow, too vivid and too faded, his perception was dizzying and yet completely focused. What terrified him the most, other than the confusing environment, was the fact that Jeremy was completely aware that this was a dream, or he thinks its a dream…
Disoriented and vision blurring in and out, Jeremy tried to look at his surroundings, taking in a green leaf that nearly hit him in the face as he rushed by and then stared around at the blurry image of brown columns that he could only guess were trees. The area was dimly lit but at the same time, it was all too bright, silver and gold light flashing around him at odd intervals, but Jeremy was never blinded by the differences as he rushed passed the wooded areas.
It took him an embarrassingly long amount of time for Jeremy to figure out that someone was holding his hand, dragging him through the forest, but no matter what he did, Jeremy couldn’t seem to drag his eyes further than the hand that was clasped within his own. However, as he concentrated on the hand, he noticed that the appendage seemed to change, pale hands belonging to a man changing to a more delicate long-fingered feminine before changing to one that bore more scars and it carried on changing.
“… ic…” a distorted voice interrupted his thoughts and Jeremy blinked with confusion. Why did his mind feel so slow? What was wrong with him? “… see… gerous… b… ur sure… go… werewolves…”
“What?” Jeremy tried to get out, but his tongue felt heavy and wouldn’t cooperate with his mind.
“Werewolves…” the voice said again and Jeremy was finally able to raise his head enough to see the person who was dragging him through the blurred forest by his hand, but he could barely make out an outline as he tried to blink and squint to see who the person was. He couldn’t make out anything.
“Werewolves…”
“What about werewolves?” Jeremy asked, the question spoken so much slower than Jeremy had intended it. It felt like he was forced into a slow-motion reality, but his mind was at the speed of normal time, making him frustrated and confused.
Suddenly, Jeremy was falling, falling, falling…
It felt like he was going to fall forever when he suddenly hit a hard surface, forcing all the air from his lungs. Scared and confused, Jeremy tried to scramble up, but his body felt numb and he was barely about to crawl to his hands and knees before he looked up…
Supernatural, glowing amber eyes peered at Jeremy from the pitch black that no light seemed to be able to penetrate but those beastly eyes.
Bone-deep terror-filled Jeremy to his very core as he stared at those eyes.
Suddenly, the beast leapt forward, sharp white teeth glinting in the silver moonlight-
“NO!”-
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Hand floundering, Jeremy grabbed his blaring alarm and practically ripped it from the cord in the wall to finally shut it off.
When silence descended his dark room once again, Jeremy let out a shuddering breath and tried to wipe the sweat that had gathered on his forehead, but stopped when he realised that he was still holding the alarm. Dropping the device on his bed, Jeremy practically leapt from the covers and made his way to the bathroom to get a shower. Jeremy didn’t even try to be quiet in the much-too-early hours of the morning, he knew that he was alone in the house and he’d long since given up the pretence of imagining that there was…
Under the heat of the water, glass already fogging up with how hot he’d turned it, Jeremy wiped away his latest night of horror, robotically going through the routine of scrubbing himself clean, rubbing himself nearly raw as he tried to remove the lingering feel of hands all over him, nerve-endings still remembering the dream despite the fact that Jeremy couldn’t remember a single thing. That was a normal thing for Jeremy, these days. He’d have a horrifically intense dream and when he woke up, he’d be sweating and scared with no memory of why he was like that. The only thing that seemed to stay with him was the fact that he was scared - terrified - and the fact that he’d died.
The dreams had started when his parents had died.
He saw a school therapist for a while during the summer, but each time he went he felt no better and stopped attending the sessions in the end. Grief had kept Jeremy hidden in his room and his recurring nightmares made his nights just as hard. In the end, Jeremy had turned to drugs. He’d discovered that the drugs helped both the days and nights: during the day, he was too stoned to care about anything other than his next hit or the burn of cheap booze pouring down his throat; during the nights if Jeremy was stoned and drunk enough, he’d get no dreams and wouldn’t wake up in a cold sweat.
However, with the vampire business that had moved into town, things had steadily gotten more and more fucked up again. Fear and paranoia was now a constant presence in his every waking moment - Elena having left him in a house which had been invaded by far too many vampires for him to ever feel comfortable - and his anxiety and stress seemed to show in school as his teachers tried to contact Jenna, but she just assured them that Jeremy was just going through something. The excuse seemed to work because when wasn’t he going through something. First was his parents' deaths, then Vicky went missing before she turned up dead and then just as he was beginning to heal from that heartbreak, Anna was brutally killed by his uncle… It was just one thing after another and Jeremy could practically feel himself cracking under the pressure.
That certain track-record made Jeremy even warier and scared when it came to Bonnie, his new girlfriend. More often than not, Jeremy felt so much fear for what would happen to Bonnie that he’d considered breaking up with her more than he was truly willing to admit; the only thing that held him back from doing so was the fact that he loved her and if he loved her and trusted her, then he should have faith in her.
Finishing up with his shower, Jeremy hopped out from the stall and wrapped a towel around himself before he walked up to the mirror and wiped away the condensation. His reflection was not of a carefree teenager that was up for a good laugh and chasing girls like he should be at his age. No, the bags under his eyes were too dark and prominent, his brown eyes looked a bit too haunted for someone who was carefree, his face was a little bit too pale for someone who should constantly be outside - instead he was trying to stay safe in the boundaries of his home as much as possible…
Lately, it felt like his dreams had gotten worse. They felt more frequent and intense to what he was usually used to and it made Jeremy itch for a little pill to take his mind off the daunting event that was his own dreams or maybe he could blaze up one of the cigarettes that he still kept in his desk drawer. However, as soon as the temptation entered his mind, Jeremy immediately felt repulsed by it and the urge disappeared (in those times, Jeremy wondered if Elena had asked Damon to compel Jeremy’s slowly growing addiction away as well as the memories of Vicky’s death).
Checking the time on his phone, Jeremy sighed. He had an hour before the start of school, but he didn’t want to stay in this empty house anymore. Maybe he can hang out in the library and do a bit of homework before classes started?
Grabbing his bag and stuffing them with the textbooks that he’d need for the day, Jeremy descended down the stairs to grab a bit of toast before leaving but paused on the last step when he caught movement in the kitchen. Fear shot through him like a bullet as he silently took out the stake from his inside jacket pocket - he always had three stakes hidden on him, no matter what - and silently crept down the last step and slowly made his way to the kitchen.
Peering around the corner, Jeremy finally released his breath when he saw that it was just John making a coffee. Hiding the stake away, Jeremy went to creep back and leave the house without his uncle’s knowledge - he didn’t want to speak to the man any more than he had to.
“Good morning, Jeremy,” the casual greeting came and Jeremy hissed a curse between his lips as he froze up in the hall.
“Morning,” he grumbled from his hiding space, not moving out from behind the doorway in a reluctance to actually converse with the man.
“It’s a little early to be up for school isn’t it?” John prodded and Jeremy could practically hear the accusation in his tone - accusation from what though, Jeremy didn’t know.
Sighing, the teen stepped out from the doorway and crossed his arms as he stared down into his uncle’s crystal eyes, “I’m going to the library, you got a problem with that?”
The man’s thin lips twitched into a vague smile before he took a sip from his coffee, eyes knowing and judging as he stared at his nephew, “No problem at all. I’m glad you’re taking your studies more seriously,” he smiled again and Jeremy finally understood why Elena had always hated their uncle, his meticulous nature was starting to rub Jeremy the wrong way.
Just as the teen was about the leave again, John spoke up once again, “You look tired. You getting a good enough sleep?” he questioned and instantly Jeremy felt his nerves bristling with irritation, anger and irritation flooding his system as he glared down at his uncle with cold dark eyes.
“I sleep just fine.”
John merely rose his eyebrows, the emotion on his face at an all-time minimal, at Jeremy’s clipped tone. “It was just a question Jere,” he defended, “I get concerned about you sometimes.”
At that, Jeremy couldn’t resist a bark of harsh laughter that left him as he shook his head and grinned humorously, “Yeah, right. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and Isabel.” he hissed.
“Excuse me?” John started in a dangerous tone as he slowly got up from his seat at the breakfast bar and set his coffee down, “I care about you. I care about this family. I care about yours and Elena’s safety and health. I care about this town and its people-“
“Stop lying to me!” Jeremy thundered, his voice ringing throughout the kitchen as he glared murderously at his uncle, feeling completely done with the man, “If you cared you would have been here from the fucking start! You would have been there for me and Elena when mum and dad died, you would have been there when Elena met the Salvatores, you would have been here to help us when we needed you, not because Isabel snapped her fingers and told you to! If you cared about Elena, you would have told her that you were her real father when she was looking for you! If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have killed my girlfriend!” Jeremy shouted, each proclamation bringing him closer and closer to John until he was barely an inch away from the man and thrusting an angry finger in his face. “Everything you’ve done to ‘help’ us, has only ever brought us more pain…”
Silence hung around them like a guillotine, ready to fall at any moment as Jeremy breathed deeply to get his temper under control and John stared at Jeremy with unreadable eyes.
“I may have not been there for you then,” John finally spoke up, the admittance making Jeremy blink in slight shock, “But I’m here now and I can see you suffering. Being in this kind of life isn’t easy and it isn’t something that a kid as young as you should have ever been involved in and I never wanted this for you - neither did your parents… All I’m trying to say is that I’m here for you, now.”
Jeremy scoffed as he turned away from the older man and started to walk out the kitchen, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” was all he said before he marched himself out of the house and slammed the front door.
God, Klaus swore that if he ever had to go undercover into another high school, it would be too soon.
As someone who’s lived for over a thousand years, one would think that history was a favourite topic of his, but in actuality, he hated the subject. Well, he cared for his own history, his triumphs and achievements (he really did miss the days in which he could slaughter an entire village of people and, still, none would be privy to the existence of vampires), but the idea of learning about other wars and battles and the statistics of deaths and all that other rubbish. It was all very boring.
It didn’t really help when all he could feel was growing irritation for all the students at the school. As a history teacher, Klaus got very little respect to what he was used to. The teenagers were visibly bored during the class and often interrupted his class with rude inputs to which Klaus had tried to grin and bear it, all while imagining himself ripping apart their necks and draining them dry.
The fact that Klaus wasn’t in his own body didn’t help either. While some of his supernatural abilities passed over to his human vessel, his compulsion being his main skill, the human was still weak. Klaus’ senses had been dulled and dampened, unable to hear across the classroom, let alone a few corridors down, and his sight had been greatly diminished. What was probably worse was the fact that his speed and strength were practically nonexistent whilst he was in this body. Sure, if the body was killed, Klaus would just go back to his own, but that didn’t take away the niggling annoyance of currently feeling so weak. There was also the fact that the body itself was annoying as hell. Klaus hated the clothes the man usually wore, hated the way he barely styled his hair and allowed it to fall over one side of his forehead and hated the American accent that flowed from the man’s lips. It just wasn’t Klaus’ body and his impatience to get out of it only grew.
Honestly, Klaus had only wanted to get his eyes on his doppelgänger and maybe learn a little bit more about the group he was going to kill - he needed all the information he could get, especially if that thing about the Witch was true.
He saw Elena Gilbert in the first hour of the school day, as well as the rest of the little group. Part one accomplished. But then, to keep his cover as the history teacher, Klaus had to go through the entire day teaching a bunch of kids he’d rather just kill.
By the last period of the day, Klaus was more than ready to just leave the establishment and never go back but held back the irrational move by reassuring himself that it was only one hour left and then he was finished.
This was one of his youngest classes, the kids ranging from ages fourteen to fifteen - Freshmen, who would soon go into their sophomore year in a few short months. The only upside to the class was the knowledge that this was supposed to be Elena’s little brother’s class - if the register was anything to go by. Klaus didn’t even bother to look up at the students as he pretended to write some notes in a little book that Alaric kept on his desk.
When the bell went off, Klaus glanced up and gave a fake smile, “Alright class,” he started for what felt like the thousandth time that day but froze when his eyes landed on someone in the second row, seated closest to one of the windows.
Words seemed to dry up in Klaus’ throat as he openly stared at the familiar features that he hadn’t seen in so many years. Sure, his hair was shorter and he looked a little older than how Klaus remembered him, but no matter how old the vampire got, he would never forget the colour of that floppy brown hair, he would never forget the position of those little moles that dotted the side of his pale face, would never forget the shade of deep, earthy brown that burned amber in the sunlight. Klaus could never forget the face of his most precious little brother, who’d died before he and the others had been turned into vampires.
Never before had Klaus even considered the possibility of ever being able to see Henrik again, and he never expected his little brother to be none other than Jeremy Gilbert…
Anxiety weighed on Jeremy’s mind throughout the whole day, getting increasingly more overwhelming as the day wore on. Jeremy wasn’t sure that Bonnie knew how he felt about her dying. She seemed to be so… okay with it like it was her role and responsibility to be the dying martyr of their group, her sacrifice being necessary for the ‘greater good’ as a dedicated ‘servant of nature’. Never mind the fact that she had a family she would be leaving behind, never mind the fact that she was a seventeen-year-old kid, never mind that she would be leaving Jeremy all alone to crumble after losing yet another loved one…
Throughout the entire day, he’d been conflicted and so close to having panic attacks that he’d excused himself from every class except Alaric’s. He couldn’t concentrate of anything other than Bonnie telling him that she might die with when she saved his sister, stressing to him the fact that it was the only way and that he should have faith in her.
It felt unfair.
It felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. What was he supposed to do? Did he tell the others and loose Bonnie’s faith and trust in him and also lose his sister along the way? Or did he keep his mouth shut and silently watched Bonnie walk to her death? He swore to God, no other fifteen-year-old had to go through these kinds of decisions…
Anxiety seemed to take roots in him throughout the day. Not only did it weigh heavily on his shoulders, but he felt it building with every step he walked, felt it squeezing at his heart with every beat, felt it inching into his lungs, making it hard to breathe, and felt it invading his subconscious thoughts as evert time he closed his eyes he saw flashes of dark, glassy, dead eyes that looked like Bonnie’s… It felt like his thoughts were eating him alive and by the time night fell and he was walking towards the gym doors, the music thumping through his chest in time with his heart, the anxiety felt like it was going to cripple him.
As soon as the entered the dance, Jeremy felt like he was hyperaware of his surroundings, eyes scanning over every entrance and exit as he tried to think of a getaway plan for when everything went pear-shaped, as it usually does.
Suddenly, the music simmered down and one of the organisers, a cheerleader probably, that Jeremy couldn’t remember the exact name of took the stage and grinned widely at the crowd, "Thanks for being here everybody,” and the whole gym cheered loudly, making Jeremy flinch slightly at the loudness. Bonnie gave him a concerned glance and squeezed his hand in comfort before they both concentrated on the stage again. "We have a special shout-out tonight! This is for Elena. From Klaus,” she finished and then the music went up again and it left Jeremy feeling more chilled to the core than he had been for the entire day.
Jeremy was barely paying attention to what the others were saying as he tried to breathe properly, concentrating on not having any kind of panic attack at the prospect that Klaus was here. Because if Klaus was here, then Bonnie would go after him. And if Bonnie went after Klaus, then she was going to die…
“Good idea,” Bonnie’s voice filtered into his head, making Jeremy blink and push away his spiralling thoughts.
The teen had only a moment of confusion before he registered the fact that Bonnie was trying to lead him out to the dance floor. Instant reluctance took over as Jeremy tried to gently tug Bonnie back and shook his head, “No, no, I really don’t feel like dancing,” he pleaded, but his pleads were dismissed as Bonnie cast him a mischievous grin over her shoulder and she just pulled him harder.
“Too bad.”
Together, the couple swayed to the music and Jeremy could almost pretend that Bonnie wasn’t on a suicide mission. As he stared deeply into her beautiful eyes, her hands warm around his neck as they just settled in one another’s company, Jeremy felt like he was just dancing with his girlfriend and not feeling like she was saying goodbye to him without actually saying the words.
All too soon, the image was shattered when Damon stepped up beside them, trademark smirk on his lips as he focused ice-blue eyes on Bonnie, “May I?” he questioned, all while sounding like he was making a demand.
Reality shattering the image once again, Jeremy cast one last desperate look at Bonnie before he gave a slight nod and walked away. It took everything in Jeremy to not say anything to anyone as he marched himself out of the gym and into one of the dark and desolate corridors of the school, hands trembling and breath stuttering as he tried to control his feelings of helplessness. Jeremy couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed by Bonnie. She spoke to him about her death and sacrifice for Elena, telling him that Elena was her best friend and had to save her - Bonnie would die for Elena, so why couldn’t she live for Jeremy? It felt like Bonnie was choosing his sister over him, even after telling her his fears of losing her, even after telling her that he loved her, she was still choosing Elena.
“Shit!” Jeremy hissed between his teeth as he tried to stop the burning in his eyes. He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t break down. Not here. Not now.
“Jeremy,” Stefan called from down the hall as he jogged towards Jeremy, concern in his eyes, "What are you doing? Elena thinks we should stick together.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” the teen croaked out and then cleared his throat, wincing when Stefan gave him a disbelieving look and stepped forward as if to hug the teenager. Contact was the last thing Jeremy needed right now, and so he stepped back and waved his hand, “I’ve got my ring,” he tried to smile, but the muscles in his face didn’t seem to want to cooperate as his lips twitched down and tears blurred his vision, “It’s… It’s Bonnie…”
“What is it?” Stefan questioned, voice soft and comforting and his hand twitched slightly as if he wanted to touch the teen. If Jeremy had the will to smile, he would, Stefan was always the only one of the group that seemed to remember Jeremy’s age. While it had frustrated Jeremy when the group threw his age in his face in an effort to ‘protect’ him, it now seemed like they expected him to be okay with everything and shoulder his emotions in order to get a job done. Stefan was always the one who asked him if he was okay when Jeremy really needed it… “Hey,” the vampire prompted, giving the hesitant teen an imploring look, “You got something on your mind, spit it out.”
At that moment, Jeremy’s inner battle seemed to fall away and only one option was clear to him - he just hoped Bonnie forgave him for blabbing her secret. "If Bonnie takes on Klaus, channelling all that energy's going to kill her.”
The silence between the pair was nearly suffocating as Stefan’s eyes grew wide and he looked at Jeremy with alarm and disbelief.
“What?”
"But she doesn't want Elena to know, 'cause if Elena knows, she's gonna try to stop her. And it's Elena that could turn up dead, so…” Jeremy stuttered out a breath as he wrapped his fingers around his hair and a tear escaped from his eyes before he could stop it, “What am I supposed to do?”
At the sound of his desperate question, Stefan seemed to drop all pretences of keeping away from the teen as Jeremy suddenly found himself wrapped up in Stefan’s arms, the vampire’s hand in his hair as he tried to shush Jeremy and calm him down, rocking them slightly. “You’re not supposed to do anything. Leave it with me,” he assured Jeremy as he untangled his limbs from Jeremy, “I’ll take care if it.” and then from one blink to the next, Stefan was gone and Jeremy finally felt like he could properly breathe again.
Unwilling to get back to the party, Jeremy shoved his hands in his pockets and walked further down the dark hallways, feeling the constant thrum of the loud music fade from his chest the further to walked away. When he couldn’t feel the music at all, Jeremy took a deep breath. He felt so much better already. Getting away from the party and telling Stefan about Bonnie had done wonders to relax him and he didn’t feel like he was constantly choking.
However, nothing good ever seemed to last long in this town as Jeremy spotted three boys that he recognised from school waiting for him in the dark. A bad feeling rose in his chest, but Jeremy didn’t let that cow him as he carried on walking towards the waiting boys, "What's going on, guys?”
"You okay, Gilbert? You don't look so good,” the ringleader said and Jeremy could instantly tell from the tone that the three guys weren’t looking for any peaceful conversation to take place.
Holding up his hands placatingly, Jeremy glared at the leader, "Dude, seriously? Wrong day, wrong guy.”
However, that seemed to do nothing to deter them as the first guy swung his fist and clocked Jeremy in the jaw, hard enough for the younger teen to accidentally bit his lip and make it bleed. Before Jeremy even had a chance to recover, the other two leapt at him and grabbed his arms, fingers digging into his arms hard enough to bruise, and then he felt a familiar pain as the lead-guy punched him in the nose, blood instantly beginning to flow down - though it wasn’t hard enough to break, which Jeremy was thankful for. After that, Jeremy felt a few punches landing on his stomach before the two boys released his arms and threw him to the floor, a rain of kicks landing on him in all directions. All Jeremy could do was curl up as much as he could and wait for the beating to be over-
“Hey, idiots!” a voice interrupted and the kicking finally stopped. Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief, never before had Jeremy been thankful to hear Damon’s voice.
Glancing up, Jeremy was quick enough to see the leader pull out a crossbow and fire a wooden stake without a second of hesitation. The stick, impaling the dark vampire’s shoulder.
"Let me guess…” Damon grunted as he pulled out the stake, "Klaus says hi?”
It was all a blur of movement and by the time Jeremy was able to get his feet back under him, the three compelled teens were down and Stefan and Damon were talking. “Go find Bonnie and Elena. I got this. Go.” Stefan nodded to Damon and the older vampire didn’t need to be told twice before he was speeding away. “You okay?” Stefan questioned as he looked over Jeremy, taking in the bloody lip and nose.
“No,” Jeremy managed to get out, breathe unsteady as he tried to breathe around his injured ribs. In an instant, the vampire was beside Jeremy, steady hands grabbing his arm and slowly allowing Jeremy to straighten out properly.
“You okay?” Stefan asked again, a conflicted look in his eyes like he wanted to go after the others, but also didn’t want to leave Jeremy alone and vulnerable.
Nodding, Jeremy tried to wipe some of the blood on his face away, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Go help Damon.”
The vampire didn’t need much more prompting as he nodded and sped away, leaving Jeremy in the dark, empty hallway, surrounded by three unconscious teenagers. Slowly, Jeremy made his way to the toilets, wincing every now and again because of his tender ribs, trying to go faster and clean up so he could go and help the others. But, Jeremy couldn’t go out with a bloodied face, that was just asking for attention.
Slipping into the toilets and turning the taps, Jeremy wasted no time in grabbing a wad of paper towels and running it under warm water. Without much hesitation, Jeremy started to wipe away the blood, ignoring the way the water turned pink before it slipped down the drain. “Shit!” Jeremy hissed between his teeth when he dabbed at his slip lip with a little too much enthusiasm, before carrying on with the task. It was quite sad that Jeremy was so used to cleaning blood off his face that the task felt like nothing more than a hindrance.
Throwing the bloodied paper towel in the bin, Jeremy was about to start looking for the others, when drowsiness suddenly took over him. Exhausted, Jeremy was unable to catch himself when his knees gave out, but just before he hit the floor, arms caged around him before he felt his body being lifted from the cold, grimy floor of the school toilets.
“Who…” was all Jeremy was able to slur before his eyes rolled and darkness swiftly took over…
Jeremy hummed as he snuggled into his pillow, comfortable and content in the warmth of his bed. It had been so long since he’d woken up naturally, no alarm to disturb him, no strange, terrifying dreams to startle him awake - it was a good sleep and Jeremy was very reluctant to get the day started and go to school. Jeremy frowned, he didn’t even remember getting in and going to bed. What happened yest-
Suddenly, Jeremy bolted upright and tried to look around him with wide, frightened eyes. He remembered the dance, the attack in the hallway and he remembered being in the toilets, but after that, he didn’t remember a thing…
“Where am I?” Jeremy questioned, voice still rough from sleep as he stumbled up from the bed and tried to calm down enough to look around and take in his surroundings. Frowning, Jeremy patted his ribs, feeling no pain where a rib had been at least bruised. So he’d been healed and that meant he’d been taken by a vampire, but as Jeremy looked around, he realised something: this was Ric’s place. He recognised the interior of the spare bedroom, the half-bare bricks and the whitewashed wooden furniture that was surprisingly fashionable for a single man, Jeremy had stayed in here many a time when he’d needed someplace to hide from Elena and the group. Jeremy must have been attacked and one of the Salvatores had given him blood, but why was he here? What happened? Was Bonnie alright?
Feeling more frantic and needing answers, Jeremy started to make his way to the door (distantly he noted that his shoes seemed to have been taken, but were not left in the room) and when he tried to turn the handle, he found that it was stuck, locked. His panic building, Jeremy tried again just to make sure before he abandoned his effort and walked towards the large windows. Sure, Jeremy was quite high up, but if he remembered correctly, it was the spare bedroom that has the fire-escape attached to it. Pulling the curtains out the way, Jeremy narrowed his eyes at the daylight that nearly blinded him, before he tried to slide the window open, but he only had the same results as the door. Pausing his efforts, Jeremy leaned closer to the window seal and spotted the reason why he couldn’t slide it open: there was a clear solution that had lined the entire thing, which Jeremy could only guess was superglue.
With nothing to pry the window open, Jeremy abandoned his task and glared at the door.
Marking up to the barrier, Jeremy banged on the wood, “Hey! Alaric!” Jeremy shouted, annoyance clear in his tone, “C’mon! Open the door!” he banged on the wood again, before he huffed in frustration, dragged a hand through his hair and stepped away for a second to calm down.
However, just as Jeremy stepped away, the door’s lock clicked off and in stepped Alaric. Jeremy felt a flood of relief at the sight of his sort-of-guardian and was about to ask why the door was locked when Jeremy suddenly felt the words stick in his throat. The teen didn’t know why, but just looking at Ric, it felt as if something was wrong. It was a niggling feeling that just wouldn’t go away and it made Jeremy take a wary step back. Jeremy may not have been the smartest kid in his grade, but he was far from stupid and he knew that if his instincts were telling him to run, then something was very wrong.
“Ric?” Jeremy asked as he furrowed his brows.
At Jeremy’s question, Alaric’s face twisted into a smile that he’d never seen before, it was like a shark’s grin and every fibre of Jeremy’s being was screaming that he was in danger. “Not quite,” Ric swaggered further into the room but made sure that he was still blocking the door from Jeremy’s escape.
“Who are you?” Jeremy demanded, all hint of hesitance gone from his voice as he tried to stand tall and stare down at the intruder.
“To your little group, my name is Klaus,” Alaric bowed his head slightly a small smirk in place and then his eyes seemed to soften for a moment, though that could have been a trick of the light, “But you may call me Niklaus.”
Jeremy didn’t think he’d ever gone through so many rapid emotions as he stared at Alaric- no, this was Klaus, not his aunt’s boyfriend. Fear, anger, confusion, panic, worry, curiosity, it was nearly impossible to distinguish which emotion he was feeling and which ones he wasn’t. Luckily, Jeremy was able to push his emotions aside as he took another step back, unwilling to be too close to the mad vampire, “Why am I here? What did you do to Bonnie?”
“Did you know that there are certain supernatural phenomenons that not even the Witches can verify,” Klaus started, tone educational as he stepped ever closer to Jeremy, who matched his possessed friend’s movements until his back bumped into a wall, “Sure, there are the standard vampires, witches, werewolves, doppelgängers, syphons and travellers, but there is one supernatural race in which can neither be confirmed nor denied and that is reincarnation. Do you know what that is?” Klaus prodded.
“Yes,” Jeremy gritted out, feeling uncomfortable with how close the man to him, “What’s that got to do with me?”
The expression on Alaric’s face changed into something that was actually familiar on the man’s face. It was an expression of love and sorrow, a loss which pained Klaus from long ago; Alaric usually had that expression when he thought about Isobel before he found out that she’d left him to become a vampire. Jeremy would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious as to who Klaus could have lost that had meant so much to him.
“You see,” Klaus started off, licking his lips in a nervous tick, “While I may be an original vampire, the first of my kind, there are other originals…”
“There are more of you?” Jeremy asked with a slight quiver in his voice. With all the fear, stress and trouble that Jeremy and the group had been put through because of one original vampire, Jeremy wasn’t sure if he was ready to face a reality in which there were several…
“Yes,” Klaus nodded, a touch of warmth to his smile, “In the beginning, when we were human, there were seven of us. Seven siblings. My eldest sibling, I never knew. She died before I ever got to meet. For many years, my family lived happily, until the youngest of my siblings, my little brother, Henrik, got attacked and killed by a werewolf. After that, my remaining siblings and I were turned into vampires and the rest is history. I loved my little brother very much, but I have long since accepted that I will never see him again, not even in death… That is until very recently when I saw you.”
There was a brief pause that hung in the air as Jeremy stared at the vampire, wariness and confusion in his eyes before he dared to open his mouth and speak the words that he thought the original was trying to hint at. “You think that I’m your brother?”
“No,” Klaus shook his head, tone stern as he looked at Jeremy with hard eyes, “I know you’re my brother. Same looks, same mannerisms, maybe you look a little old and your hair is a little shorter, but I would know my little brother anywhere and you are him. You are Henrik, reborn.”
“No, I’m not,” Jeremy denied instantly and he nearly retracted his statement at the narrowed look that earned him, but Jeremy gathered his courage and gritted his teeth, “I might be some kind of doppelgänger, or similar to your brother, but I'm not Henrik. My name is Jeremy Gilbert and my sister is Elena Gilbert. Nothing more, nothing less.”
A dark look entered Klaus’ face and Jeremy didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at Alaric the same, now that he knew the man could pull off such a murderous expression. Suddenly, Klaus was far too close to Jeremy for comfort, hands fisted into the 60s style vest that he still hadn’t taken off from the decade dance the night before, as he shoved Jeremy into the wall as he leaned in and whispered, “You may have convinced yourself of such claims, but I know differently brother,” he growled out and Jeremy gulped in fear and the man’s anger and intensity. Then, Klaus moved away, far away enough for Jeremy to finally breath easier, “Stay here. Don’t try to leave.”
“You can’t compel me,” Jeremy claimed with a glare, “I’m on vervain.”
“True,” Klaus nodded and then smirked, causing a shiver of fear to rush down the human’s spine, “But that doesn’t stop me from getting one of my witches to place a spell on the door and it’s only a matter of days until the vervain fades from your system,” and with that, Klaus turned on his heel and left the room. The sound of the lock clicking into place seemed to echo throughout the small room just as Jeremy managed to reach it.
“Wait! Wait!” Jeremy shouted, voice cracking with desperation, “What about Bonnie! What happened to Bonnie! Let me out! Klaus!”