Gonna be honest, this is a boring, but important chapter. Boring, mostly cause I suck at writing long, detailed flashbacks, but hey! It fits with the story, so it's in here!
But I slightly recommend reading this chapter cause it does contain some important information about Jeremy, despite it being boring to read through. Your choice!
(Jeremy is supposed to be Scout, for those of you who don't know)
Chapter 1: Jeremy
Meet Jeremy, a 23 year old boy that had fallen victim to the wrong 'turn' in life...
Egotistical, rude, cocky, brash... but smart.
Recently, smart.
He wasn't smart his whole life. In fact, he fitted right in with the teenage youth that were usually viewed as delinquents that were nothing but trouble. But he wasn't that much of a troublemaker, as he somewhat knew the differences between good and bad in serious circumstances.
But despite how reckless his character was, Jeremy managed to develop the brains that were needed to survive while undertaking this dangerous life he had chose.
He had the looks of someone that seemed nice, and respectable enough for his age, but with his questionable personality, his character was quick to become despised by the average person.
His description wouldn't be complete without mention of his unusual talent... and his other 'normal' talents.
He knows how to fight, and he knows how to shoot a gun — the 2 basic principles that are needed for the life he lived.
Jeremy is a fast runner... and by fast, he's nearly 22 Miles Per Hour fast. Very above average in terms of normal human speed.
There was a time when speed was his only questionable trait... there was a time when he was... a good kid, as unbelievable as it sounded to the ones that knew him...
But what changed him?
What caused such a drastic change of scenery in his fairytale view of the world?
Jeremy had a rough upbringing.
It all started when he was 17...
x
A young Jeremy was forced to move from his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, to London, at the hopeful age of 17.
Work opportunities were scarce for his parents... Or parent...
He never had a father, only his mother (whom he loved very much) and his 7 older brothers.
But it wasn't 7 anymore, as much as he wanted it to be. 6 of them ended up dead while living the same life Jeremy had chose, and one just... dissapeared. Without a trace.
The experience toughened Jeremy... but for the better, or for the worse?
It was him and his Mom against the whole world.
She saved up enough money to take a flight to London, which was booming with work opportunities for the struggling family.
She took advantage of it, and was lucky enough to land herself a job, eventually working her way up to a shabby, one bedroom apartment.
It wasn't ideal, but it was shelter, and Jeremy was thankful for it.
Life was going well for Jeremy and his mom... Until the one fateful day that seemed to change his life forever... and for the worse...
Jeremy's mom was diagnosed with cancer on her check up with the Doctor.
It was the nightmare of every kid that loved their Mom. A sudden reveal of unavoidable death that forced them to put extra attention to the precious remaining days of their life...
She approached him with the news... and he was devastated.
He felt like his whole world was beginning to shatter when she confessed, tearing down the strong optimism for his future plans that he had seen himself doing for his mother and himself.
His joyous youth was destroyed that day. It changed him.
A month passed since she has been diagnosed with cancer, and it only got worse for her.
Violent fits of coughing were a regular, and the occasional wheeze and the exasperated gasps were heard everywhere around the household.
He told her... he fucking told her that she should have stopped smoking... stop doing it to herself...
He told her, but she didn't listen...
Jeremy knew better, and knew something had to be done about her self-harm.
He hid her last pack of cigarettes on a quiet day, in the furthest corner of the small closet they had.
She came home to find her pack of cigarettes missing from it's usual place on the nightstand. Knowing she had only a limited time to live, she still continued to work — for Jeremy.
Unsurprisingly, she threw a tantrum when she found out the cigarettes were gone, and after some tense minutes of intense rummaging in the apartment, she found the pack in the corner of the closet, knowing Jeremy had hid it.
She feebly attempted to hit him... some of her hits landing, some of them not. In his mind, he was doing what he thought was right for the woman he loved with all his heart...
He didn't want to see her go. She was the anchor of his life, he didn't know what he'd do without her by his side, so he couldn't take any chances...
He let her hit him as she spat countless insults at him. He did not say a word back, and did not attempt to strike back. His loyalty towards his mom was strong, and there wasn't anything that could break it.
But ever since that day — the relationship between them had grown sour, which only worsened the effects of his mom's once-sweet personality...
His performance in school wasn't sweet either.
He didn't like school.
His below average grades started to drop more, as he earned debilitating remarks from his teachers, and started getting into regular fights with other students that looked at him funny. He also got kicked off the baseball team for his recent lack of good behaviour, and being called down to the principal's office a plethora amount of times — only for him to get notified that he would be serving suspension after suspension for the trouble that he was causing for other students and teachers alike...
He was dangerously close to being expelled, and this was when the school decided to involve his mother — for the seventh time in less than 2 months.
He had a small circle of friends he stayed tight with. But like most things in his life, they all started to fade away from him. His personality was in all sorts of whack.
Jeremy blamed their slow drift-off on his Mom's situation — it was ruining him, slowly, but surely.
He was falling apart.
One day, Jeremy left school grounds during one of his classes that he had no intentions of going to, and decided to walk home from there, as much as his Mom would dislike it.
School was a 20 minute walk from where he lived, and the route he had to use made him walk the less preferable routes of London, places where crime was more rampant on happening, and more common then the richer counterparts of the area.
His surroundings didn't help his life turn for the better.
The things he saw, and the things he just had to learn to stay alive quickened his maturity into the real world...
Jeremy first grew wary of the route, learning to watch his back at all times when a thief stole his only bar of granola — right from his hands.
He chased after the thief and caught up to him with ease, his above average speed during his time as a 17 year old excelled the speed of many other students in the nation. He was special.
He caught the thief and was intent on rocking every living bone in his body, but he soon backed off as a group of shady individuals turned a corner.
They wielded weapons that his Mom told him to stay away from, never to hold, and never to use...
He learned an important lesson at that moment...
Only pick fights you can win.
One of the many lessons he learned for his survival.
Once he was in the clear of the individuals that were most likely criminals, he resumed walking his normal route. But a nagging thought played in his mind, suddenly growing wary of what his mom might do to him if she found out about his recent suspension...
She was going to find out about the suspension, no doubt, considering she was mostly home during his school hours.
He walked up to the door, only for his Mom to physically discipline him, beginning the experience by pulling him inside by his collar.
Jeremy was old enough to withstand the hits of his Mother... but never, her scorning words.
Hearing her call him a 'disappointment' and a 'waste of a son' was debilitating to him, and no matter how tough he would pretend he was, his mother's words always got to him...
The whole ordeal ended up with him leaving the apartment, much to his Mom's dismay — as she was the one that caused him to leave in the first place.
His mom yelled... Pleaded, for him to come back. He ignored her and continued to run outside the apartment, running as far as his legs could take him, anywhere but that place.
Jeremy was a fantastic free runner, he jumped and ran across the many crumbling structures of South Boston with his rebellious older brothers during his questionable youth.
He learned much in the ways of evasion and elusiveness during the crime sprees he had committed with his brothers.
Knowing that her youngest son was being influenced into a life she didn't want him to go in, it gave her more grey hair than she could count, and even more stress to go through in her feeble life.
Since then, she had only been more feebler and weaker to the ways of life. She always knew that if her youngest son continued his ways, he would end up just like her older sons...
He'd end up as a criminal.
It was close to 12 in the afternoon when he left the house.
His free run lead him to an abandoned construction site, and onto a slab of concrete, which was on the highest point of the cancelled project. He could vault walls and find alternative routes at the speed of a maestro — he was a natural at being so damn mobile.
His talents rewarded him with a beautiful view of... The shitty Southie...
And though it was London he was in, he couldn't get the thought of South Boston out of his head whenever he looked at the city from a bird's eye view.
Grimy, dirty, industrial, crowded... dark...
South Boston was his home, and it would always be. Though it was beaten up, tarnished and well beyond maintenance — it was home.
He was a product of what it created.
An honest criminal.
But he didn't know that yet...
London proved to be an extension of South Boston for Jeremy... as if both places were somehow connected with each other in terms of negative influence...
Or maybe that was just him...
As he sat on the highest point of the cancelled building, he found himself dozing off to the peaceful sun in the sky, watching the clouds roll on, as he was doing as well with his own life.
He did manage to doze off to the calming view alone...
He woke up 3 hours later only to find out that he had slept to the peaceful silence of London. He jumped down from the sets of stairs and landed onto a platform, jumping over a fence and pulling himself up on a bar of metal that was suspended between two surfaces. As he hung from the bar, he felt like he was untouchable with his natural acrobatics.
And he would get the opportunity to prove his beliefs about himself as a security guard stumbled upon him, yelling at him while unlocking the fence that he climbed over earlier.
He was trespassing, or course...
To his surprise, more security guards came in with the initial one, threatening to lock him up because apparently, it was 'restricted'.
Bullshit.
Jeremy would've known if it was restricted if there was a sign that said that. He smirked at the individuals, as he already knew that they wouldn't be able to catch him. He evaded the hands of the guards as he weaved through them with grace, leaving the guards literally, in the dust...
It had been a fun day for Jeremy after starting off with some negativity.
That's all he could really ask for, happy moments like this, where he felt truly... young, and excited to be living in the moment.
It was what Jeremy wanted for his whole life.
But a general rule of thumb was applied to his type by the book of law... he didn't deserve happiness...
criminals never deserve happiness...
He ran back home with a evil smirk on his face, imagining the looks on the guards faces as he outran them by a mile and a half. It was close to evening. He assumed he was outside for a good 6 or 7 hours, and though Jeremy later felt terrible for not listening to his mother's pleads to come back...
He would apologize for it later.
Jeremy even considered using the little money he had been trying to save on something to buy for her, as an apology gift, because he knew that his Mother deserved the whole damn world for keeping him alive this long...
He tried to open the door...
but it was locked.
He knocked on the door for 7 minutes... but no reply.
He knew that she had to be home. She called in sick for work. So where else would she be if not her own house?
Jeremy still failed to force a reply as he called for his mom, continuing to knock uselessly on the door.
He knocked until his knuckles took on a purple bruise...
Something had to be done about this.
He decided to break into his own house.
Mom wouldn't be happy about it one bit, but that was the least of his concerns, as he needed to figure out why she wasn't responding to his knocks... why he had this nagging feeling inside of him...
Since the room was on the first floor of the apartment, he easily located the window to his living room. He pushed the cheap glass work in, falling down onto the living room floor and cracking into multiple shards.
That would earn him a slap from his Mother, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.
He fit his body through the broken window and after some slight squirming, he was now in his living room. He hit the ground with a quiet thud, careful not to make too much noise on the collision.
Jeremy called for his mom... but there was no reply.
He checked the kitchen if she was there... getting it off on a cigarette most likely...
He walked towards the small white-tiled kitchen...
No one was there...
He then decided to check the bathroom — getting it off on a cigarette most likely...
No such luck...
Wait. Luck?
Like it was okay to find her wasting her life on a damn cancer-stick...
Jeremy then checked the bedroom, finding his mom tucked neatly in the sheets of the bed with a piece of paper on her nightstand.
He tried to wake her up... But she wasn't reacting...
He then noticed something very off... something that made his veins drop below zero...
She wasn't breathing.
His heart hammered within his chest as he listened for a pulse.
The eerie silence of death was becoming a reality to him...
There was no pulse.
Jeremy's heart thrashed inside of him as he felt a single tear flowing down his cheeks, which were followed by many more. Panicked, he sprinted all the way to their small living room and used the home phone to call the paramedics. He panicked on the phone, stuttering madly and crying. They asked him to calm down, but how would he calm down after recently finding out that his Mother wasn't breathing?!
He didn't know what to do - his only piece of family that was still available to him wasn't even breathing anymore, how could Jeremy not be panicked?
The paramedics dispatched an ambulance to his location, and while he waited, he prayed that this wasn't real... he prayed that this was just a bad dream, and he'd eventually wake up soon...
He wasn't religious. Whatever higher force that looked after him had probably moved on a long time ago.
10 minutes felt like an eternity to him as they finally came into his apartment room, a fellow Omnic and a man carrying limp body onto a stretcher, he went along with them in the back of the ambulance.
Jeremy was sweating and was teary faced as they reached the hospital. As he watched the Doctor examine his mother for any signs of life. He waited for an hour and would not let himself fall asleep, desperately wanting to know whether or not his mother was going to be fine.
The doctor exited the room with a grin look on his face...
The words that came out his mouth were grimmer, and seemed to tear Jeremy apart.
"She didn't make it... I'm sorry..." The doctor mumbled regretfully.
x
It all stared at this very moment.
The rude awakening to where things would take a turn for the worse for the young man.
Jeremy felt like the world fell down upon him. He couldn't breath properly, and his eyes refused to work properly as it faded from reality and into black.
The feeling inside of his head was tremendously difficult to ignore. It got to the point where he fainted, due to extreme shock...
The rest of his life seemed to be a blur from that point on. School was no longer a necessity for him, as he dropped out a few weeks later. Friends weren't a necessity for him, as he drifted away from them a few days later.
But money was a necessity for him, as he would need a lot of it later down the road. He picked up odd jobs around London, and despite the lack of necessary credentials for 'safe' working conditions in these odd workplaces, it put money in his pocket, and back then, that was primary concern.
Life would never be the same for him, as the odd jobs became outright shady and even illegal. It ranged from being invoked with the wrong crowds, fighting for money and taking part in illegal activities that would have landed him a hefty sentence in jail.
But Money talks, and what it said to Jeremy was strong enough for him to ignore what his Mom would've wanted for his life.
x
Fast forward six years after Jeremy's mother had died... And he seemed to be doing well in life... Criminally. His amazing natural speed gave him a major edge whenever he robbed a old lady's purse or robbed a convenience store, with his normal job as a cashier at a fast food joint that paid decent and his robbing hobbies at late night, he was doing well for a criminal that stayed under the radar. Criminal connections played a huge role in keeping his status as a law-abiding citizen, and not a robber like he truly was.
Jeremy knew that what he was doing was wrong... But money ruled him completely, as it seemed to make all of his troubles just... dissapear.
He was a broken mess inside, but he wouldn't dare show it. Surely it would take something, or someone truly special for him to get fixed...