Jeremy felt his lids grow heavy as his head slumped down against his pillows. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut tighter, block out all possible glimpses of earthly light coming in, but he couldn't. The pills in his system made sure of that. They made him drowsy, unable to control anything. Even if he'd wanted to change his mind, open his eyes, wake up, live... those pills would guarantee otherwise. They'd say, "No, it's too late. You took what was left of us…you wanted to die." Luckily for Jeremy, as everything went dark…cold…dead…he hadn't – not for a moment- changed his mind.

Jeremy Gilbert had thought this through a bit more than that. He was smarter than just to take the rest of Elena's prescribed pills and be done with it all. He wasn't ready to go, just wasn't content with where he was at the moment. Feeling empty and whatnot. But that'd change, once he woke up again. He'd convinced himself of it – before...

Those pills –whatever Elena's left for him to find - were just an ends to a means. Anna's blood was in his body. He'd drank that bitter little vile just before counting out the little life-stoppers and popping each one then washing it down with barely enough tap water to soothe his tensed throat. This wasn't to be a suicide…not technically. As his consciousness waned, he thought he felt something. A breeze? A touch? A breath? …Then nothing.

His body was limp, the color already draining from his features by the time his newly-revealed-to-be- adopted sister padded up the stairs, gruffly dragging her garment-bagged founder's day costume behind her. "…Jer?" She called, heading to her room but seeing the dim light seeping out from underneath his closed bedroom door on her way there. She sighed irritatedly, unknowing of what lay in store for her in the next room over. "C'mon Jeremy…I know you're upset…I don't blame you, but…" she bit her lip, hesitating to go on, not wanting to have a conversation of this magnitude on the other side of his bedroom door.

Elena Gilbert thrust the heavy garment onto the edge of her bed, figuring she'd deal with hanging it up or whatever she'd do with it, later. She nervously wrung her hands on her way to Jeremy's door, convincing herself she'd camp out in the hall all night if she had to. "Talk to me Jer…please?"

Of course he won't answer, she thought glumly. He hates me. She looked down, hopelessly leaning her weight against the doorframe. But that can't stop me, she realized. I can't leave it like this, I can fix this. She nodded, encouraged by her own upbeat thoughts. She placed her hand on the doorknob and twisted, pushing in Jeremy's door. She opened her mouth to try explaining herself again but saw that her brother – even if not by blood – wasn't there.

Hours later, Jeremy started to wake. No longer empty Jeremy Gilbert, who didn't fit in anywhere, now Jeremy Gilbert, who – well, he wasn't sure yet. The overwhelming desire to empty the contents of his stomachs all over the place was severely clouding his ability to think. He felt like his head was spinning. Was he moving? Was he even standing up? His whole body felt achy, his skins tingled unpleasantly, every sound was all too loud.

His gradually fading pulse pounded in his ears, worrying him that his brain would implode. Anna hadn't warned him that his heart would still beat until his transition was completed. Even trying to lift his eye lids or blink – those simple humanly processes- invoked the sensation of tiny needles pricking his eyeballs. There was much that Anna's description had lacked, he begrudgingly realized.

It took him a few minutes to discover he wasn't in his room, in his bed, where he'd died. So he'd disappeared? Stranger things had happened in Mystic Falls…somehow. Elena's diary, if nothing else, was evidence of that. If he could only try to look around or at least sit up, control something – anything about his body at this point he could worry about where he'd gotten to and how, afterward.

Feeling cold, hard ground underneath his hands, Jeremy was able to conclude he was lying down, somewhere. He tried to push himself up but it just resulted in him feeling like his muscles were tearing from his bones. Needless to say, one agonizing series of groans later, he'd resigned himself to remain on the floor a bit longer. Finally able to force his eyes open longer than one second, dread began to sink in. For a moment, he thought something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. Maybe he has succeeded in killing himself…a little too well. Maybe he'd died and …gone to the other place? He thought himself crazy for entertaining the thought of an actual Hell, but reminded himself, this is Mystic Falls…I never thought vampires existed before…

He couldn't say it, what he was afraid of, he dared not try to talk yet, blinking was torture enough. So he thought what he couldn't ask out loud. Am I in Hell?

"No…not quite, though it might feel a bit like that."

Now Jeremy knew for sure that he hadn't answered himself. He'd heard a female's voice – a familiar one. Someone was with him, though he couldn't see where; everything was still so dark, so out of focus. Who's voice had he heard? Any how could she have answered him? Had she heard his thoughts?

His dread returned if only for a moment; he had recognized that voice after all. His eyes oriented to the thin brunette approaching him from what he made out to be the bottom row of a set of basement stairs. She was before him in a flash, before he could even blink again. She leaned down by his face, quietly scanning his features, letting her long hair carelessly fall over her shoulders.

"Sit up," she instructed. "We should talk." Jeremy gasped a bit as he felt his body move effortlessly into a sitting position. Well, without his effort anyway. His shoulders pushed up, his spine postured properly, his back leaned against a sturdy support beam bolted down to the ground beneath him. Unable to turn his focus on anything but the brunette, he instinctively croaked, "Elena…?"

The girl he referred to as Elena tilted her head at him, intrigued, amused. Her thin lips twisted up at the corners as she taunted, teasingly baring her fangs, "No…not quite."