"No…not quite."

Jeremy's voice caught in his throat, all his bodily aches momentarily ceased as an intense feeling of child-like wonder overwhelmed him. His brows furrowed together, unable to believe the eerie resemblance of this woman, this centuries-old vampire to his own sister. "K-Katherine?" He stammered, recalling her name scrawled all over the pages of Elena's journal, along with Stefan and Damon's. Katherine simply gave a slight acknowledging nod, then stood up from her crouched position, looming over Jeremy. "Whoa," he gasped, gawking at her.

Katherine shrugged, disinterested with his prolonged attention, apathetically fingering the ends of her dark hair as Jeremy frantically tried to recall every last bit of information he'd read about her. She sighed, interrupting his clouded series of thoughts, "I hate my hair in this century...the styles are so boring…especially the way Elena wears it." Jeremy noticed the way she scrunched her nose with disgust as she uttered Elena's name.

He looked at Katherine, perplexed, wondering what she wanted from him and how he'd gotten…wherever he was. He tried not to show it, but he was beginning to worry. Elena's journal never had anything positive to say about Katherine Pierce. The sick feeling in his stomach gradually returned, worsening as Katherine turned to wander the room, seemingly paying him no mind.

"So, you were Annabelle's? …How cute." Katherine teased. "It's a pity your little whirlwind romance didn't last longer...what with her being staked and all." She smirked wickedly at Jeremy, noticing him cringe and grit his teeth. He shut his eyes and bowed his head, letting his hair fall in his face, obscuring his saddened features; the pain of losing Anna so suddenly was still very fresh.

"I'm sorry…" Katherine mocked, her voice echoing from the opposite side of the room. "Does that hurt your precious, little feelings?"

"What do you want from me?" Jeremy seethed, scowling in the direction of her voice. He scanned around, surprised not to see her where he thought she'd been. "Patience," She seethed back, breathing against his ear, suddenly beside him. Jeremy groaned in pain as Katherine grabbed a thick chunk of his hair and pulled his head back, making him submissive to her. "…And it wouldn't kill you to be a little more respectful of me…I am your elder…and you're not one of us yet…"

"S-sorry, I'm sorry," Jeremy gasped, squirming until Katherine let him go. "You're right," Katherine sighed, wiping her hands. "You reek of self-pity. It's sickening." Jeremy leaned over, quietly rubbing the back of his head, trying to suck it up, seeing Katherine really had no sympathy for his suffering.

"Tell me Jeremy, why'd you want this for yourself?" She asked, pursing her lips, folding her arms. Jeremy breathed deeply, trying to relax so his voice wouldn't tremble like he could feel his body doing. "I wanted…to stop feeling hurt…and alone.." he murmured. "I wanted to stop feeling empty." "You wanted to stop feeling," She concluded for him. Jeremy nodded stiffly, presuming he'd made a mistake since he felt all of those things very strongly right now.

Katherine crouched down in front of him again, gently tilting his chin up. "You can end the pity party, Jeremy," She nodded slowly, encouragingly. "You can make the pain of living go away. I can teach you how…" Jeremy looked into Katherine's eyes and felt a chill run down his spine. Her eyes were so cold, so dead. "Well?" She insisted, withdrawing her hand from his face. "Do you want to learn or not?"

Jeremy swallowed hard, grateful that his nauseous feeling began to subside. Looking into Katherine's eyes had an oddly calming effect; maybe it was distracting or something, Jeremy wasn't sure. He bobbed his head and truthfully replied, "Yes…I want to learn." Katherine grinned, pleased with his response, already having decided that she would've killed him if he hadn't answered in the affirmative. He would've be useless to her, an inconvenience, if he really didn't want this on some level. "Excellent," She said. She was going to enjoy this.

Katherine stood up and walked to the foot of the basement stairs as Jeremy curiously followed her with his eyes, not daring to question her again. She called up to someone, but he couldn't understand anything. He was starting to feel very tired, his focus was drifting. His stomach churned, but the feeling was different this time. What was it? He shut his eyes for a while, only hearing the sounds of footsteps on the creaky stairs. A man and a girl were coming toward them. A girl his age. How'd he know that? He couldn't even see her.

"She smells good, doesn't she?" Katherine drawled, clarifying things for him. It was her scent that gave it away. His vampiric senses were beginning to set in. He opened his eyes and saw her; a thin girl with light brown hair and light brown eyes, being lead down the stairs and over to him by a male vampire. The girl didn't seem frightened by her circumstances, she was oddly serene, in fact. He felt worried for this girl. He turned to Katherine, hoping she wouldn't confirm his suspicions.

Katherine just smiled at him, unaffected. She took the girl's hand in hers and lead her closer to Jeremy. She guided her to sit down next to him and helped her push the collar of her sweater down, exposing her neck. She smirked at Jeremy, presenting her as a gift.

"Bon appétit."