Jeremy laid back against the railing of the fire escape as he pressed his pencil to his sketch book and began drawing his latest work of art. He shivered as a cool breeze hit his bare chest. It was early fall in New York, which meant warm days and cold nights. He stopped sketching to grab the bottle of vodka sitting next to him. He took a swig, grimaced at the taste, and resumed his drawing.
Jeremy had been living in New York for several months now. His life before moving to the big city is uncomprehensible to the mortal mind. It wasn't always this way, though. For fifteen years, he was just a normal boy living in a small town in Virginia with his parents and older sister.
April 15, 2009 was the day that changed everything. His aunt called him, frantically driving from her apartment in the next city to his home in Mystic Falls. All he could make out between her sobs was something about a car accident. He was able to piece together what had happened and although Jenna begged him to stay home and wait for her, he ran straight to the hospital. Seven miles, without breaking sprint a single time. The first thing he did at the hospital was locate his sister. She was in the waiting room, uncontrollably sobbing while a nurse tended to a small cut on her forehead. His aunt arrived shortly after, and he never saw his parents again.
If the mourning wasn't enough, he was thrust into a whole new world when his sister fell in love with a vampire. Throughout the next year, Jeremy started High School, became a pot head, met the love of his life, twice, and lost the love of his life, twice. With the loss of his aunt Jenna, came the loss of his humanity. In order to give Jeremy a new supernatural being-free life, his sister took it upon herself to force him away from Mystic Falls by compulsion. However, Elena was unaware Jeremy had ingested vervain only a few hours before the compulsion, nullifying the effects. As Damon looked into Jeremy's eyes, compelling him to leave, all Jeremy could think of were his parents, Jenna, Anna, and Vickie. In the span of fourteen months, Jeremy had lost five people he deeply cared for. He had the chance to start over, in a new place where supernatural beings hid in the shadows, away from him. Jeremy knew exactly what he needed to do.
After making his sister believe the compulsion had worked, and faking arrangements with family friends in Colorado, Jeremy took a seven hour bus ride to New York City. Once in the city, Jeremy made contact with the one person he never thought he would go to for help: Katherine Pierce.
Katherine got Jeremy an apartment, a job, and a subway pass within hours of Jeremy's arrival. He wasn't sure how she got them so quickly, but he assumed a mixture of murder and compulsion came into play. Of course, Katherine didn't do any of this for free. Jeremy had become her human blood bag when she wasn't in the mood for a hunt. Jeremy didn't mind too much. Sure, it hurt, but he actually enjoyed having Katherine around every once in a while. She reminded him of Elena, which reminded him of home.
The two of them had formed an intresting friendship. Katherine would go off to God-knows-where for a while, then come back to New York and they would go to bars or clubs and drink their troubles away. They would often come back to Jeremy's apartment in the middle of the night, and have drunken conversations about their lives, and their future. They had realized that they were both misfits in society, and were better off only interacting with them when they needed to.
Jeremy snapped out of his imagination when he heard his front door open, and slam shut. He cursed under his breath for not bringing any weapons out to the fire escape with him. Jeremy thought the intruder could be Katherine, but she has a tendency to use her speed to sneak into the apartment, then scare him when he least expects it. She calls it entertainment. He had two options: go down the ancient fire escape stairwell, that would probably colapse under his weight; or grow a pair and see who the intruder is. He decided to go with the latter.
As Jeremy walked into the apartment, he heard a clatter in the kitchen. He quickly reached under the sofa and grabbed a stake. He eyed the kitchen door from his position. With his heart beating at an extremely unhealthy rate, he slowly walked toward the door. In a steady beat, he pushed open the door, and lunged forward.
When he saw Katherine on her tip-toes trying to reach one of the top shelves in the pantry, he sighed.
"What's with all the dramatics?" Katherine asked with a mouth full of barbeque chips.
"You scared the crap out of me. I thought Klaus broke in."
"Right, and before ripping out your heart, he wanted to raid your fridge," she replied dryly as she continued rummaging through the shelf.
"The alcohol's outside," Jeremy told her as he realized what she was looking for.
"Then that's where I want to be," Katherine replied as she walked past Jeremy.
Katherine took Jeremy's place on the fire escape next to his sketchbook, and grabbed the bottle of vodka. She pressed the rim to her lips and tipped the bottle upward. Jeremy sat down in front of her and snatched his sketchbook from Katherine's side.
"What, you don't want me to see any of your emo-boy drawings?" Katherine asked in her signature bitchy tone after she downed a signifigant amount of the clear liquid.
Jeremy merely rolled his eyes in respone. "Where've you been?"
"Trying to find some leads on Klaus. I met a few hunky witches in Florida. They were delicious," Katherine replied with a menacing grin.
"Great," Jeremy replied, clearly uninterested as he began adding to his drawing.
"What's your problem?" Katherine asked, annoyed that Jeremy wasn't paying attention to her.
"Nothing," he answered without looking up.
"Jeremy. Diving into your mind takes a lot of effort on my part, so why don't you spare us both and just tell me what's wrong."
Jeremy sighed before responding, "Alright. I think I've been seeing things."
"Ghosts?"
"No. More like, visions."
"Visions of what?" Katherine asked, clearly inquisitive.
"Vampires," Jeremy said. He put down his sketchbook and focused his eyes on Katherine. "Last night, I saw these to girls being attacked by some vampire. I thought it was a dream, but this morning I saw pictures of the girls on the news. Anmial attack."
"So you're saying you saw the attack before it happened."
"While it happened."
Katherine didn't reply. She seemed to be in deep thought when Jeremy interrupted her, "I need your help."
Her eyes flashed up at him. "With what?"
"Another attack is going to happen tonight. I can feel it."
"What are we supposed to do about it?"
"Well, I figured with your abilities, and my crossbow, I think we could stop the attack."
Katherine rolled her eyes, "Jeremy, just because I've been nice to you, doesn't mean I'm on 'Team Good'. Saving people isn't my thing."
"I know it's not, but can't you help me out? Just this once?"
"What's in it for me?"
"The vampire might know something about Klaus. I'm sure you could smack something out of him while I make sure the people he attacked are okay."
Katherine thought about it for a moment before responding, "Fine, but it's not because I want to help these people. It's because I get something out it."
"Whatever Katherine," Jeremy said as he stood up and walked back into his apartment. "We should leave soon. The vampire's been attacking the same area for a while, I think I know where it is."
Less than an hour later, Jeremy and Katherine were sitting in Katherine's 'barrowed' Mustang, scoping out a deserted parking lot.
"We better not have to wait here long," Katherine said.
"Why? You have a date?" Jeremy asked, mildly sarcastic.
"You could call it that," Katherine replied as she leaned forward against the steering wheel. "I think we've got company," she said before pointing towards a group of girls walking towards the few cars in the parking lot.
The girls filed into the cars after several goodbyes. All, except one, of the girls drove away. The girl was loading giftbags into the back of her SUV.
"Come on. Just get in your car and leave," Jeremy whispered to himself.
A shadow ran past the girl, frightening her. She quickly shut her trunk and fumbled with her keys. She walked to the other side of her car, out of Katherine and Jeremy's view. They both watched intently before hearing an ear piercing scream.
"Game on," Katherine said before they got out of her car.