Driving off to the Grill, Jeremy tried his best to focus on his mission and ignore the little voice in his head warning him of all the trouble he was about to get himself into.

He parked his car out of the Grill, well-aware that otherwise Stefan would be able to track down his every move and hurriedly set off toward the park where he was supposed to meet Kol. He only stopped when several seconds later a familiar voice roared his name from behind him.

Jeremy froze on the spot, and guiltily as a kid that has been caught misbehaving, he wheeled around on his heel to face Matt, who emerged from inside the Grill and was now running toward him.

"Hey" Jeremy gave a small wave, attempting to sound at least a little happy to see him. Though he really wasn't. If Stefan went in all that trouble to bug his car all over again, there was no doubt he wouldn't only stop there. He would recruit eyes to keep tabs on him outside the house and Matt was the perfect candidate for the job.

"Hey, aren't you coming inside?" Matt pointed at the Grill, while scrutinizing Jeremy from head to toe.

"Maybe later" said Jeremy with a shrug, "I have to meet a friend now" he added and was about takeoff, when Matt jumped in front of him.

"I could come with you" there was a trace of panic in Matt's voice, the kind that Stefan couldn't possibly induce and especially not to Matt.

"Isn't this your shift?" Jeremy looked pointedly at the Grill employee uniform that Matt was wearing.

"Huh?" Matt glanced down at his shirt, "Ah, right. I could bail, it's no big deal" he hurried to explain.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at Matt's odd behavior. He was clearly put in charge to keep an eye on him and despite how useless and unnecessary Jeremy thought that was, Matt was either very eager to protect him or he was really scared about something he was hiding.

No matter what the case was, Jeremy had no time to deal with that at the moment as Kol was probably already waiting for him and it didn't take an expert to know that Kol hated being stood up.

"It's cool, Matt, thanks. But it's Kylie and she wants some alone time" that lie came out easier than he thought.

Matt was in complete disgrace. He kept kicking the ground and glancing around, but in the end he didn't say anything and allowed Jeremy to walk away.

Having a strong feeling that he would soon somehow bump into Tyler; Jeremy got off the main street and chose to take another, less popular route to get to the meeting location.


Jeremy pulled a copy of Mr. Bell's house key (the one he held since his last visit) and placed it inside the lock, always glancing carefully around to make sure that nobody was watching. Slightly surprised, Jeremy noticed that Mr. Bell didn't change the locks even though he was sure beyond doubt that the boy broke into his house couple months back. The key fitted perfectly into the gap and soon after, a soft mechanical clink broke the tense silence, allowing Jeremy to finally breathe in relief.

"Step aside" Kol pushed him out of the way and drew closer to the open door.

"You're not invited in" Jeremy reminded him, rubbing his elbow after he crashed in a hanging flower pot.

"He might not even be human" Kol muttered thoughtfully, waving his hands in front of the door, but yet not daring to pass through.

Jeremy titled his head in shock, "you said he's a High Priest" he croaked.

"Like I know what species they are" Kol took a deep breath as though he was preparing himself for a dive and dashed forward.

Jeremy almost screamed out, but managed to control himself the very last second. He'd seen before vampires unable to enter a house owned by a human without invitation. Their bodies would be struck against an invisible shield, preventing them from getting inside, but what happened to Kol was nothing of this sort.

His body flew up in the air after what appeared to be a blow from a mass of white light, shooting the vampire about five meters away and throwing him unconscious out of the grounds of Mr. Bell's property.

Jeremy quickly ran up to Kol, who immediately opened his eyes looking rather terrified.

"What the hell was that?" Jeremy panted, helping Kol back on his feet.

"He must've put a spell around the house, for vampires" Kol beat indignantly the dust of his clothes, "Looks like you're going in alone, mate" he fought to keep his voice steady, though there was a definite gleam of fear still in his eyes.

"Yeah, I figured" Jeremy let go off Kol right next to the teacher's mailbox and set off toward the door that was now shut after Kol's pathetic attempt to get in. He reopened it with the key still stuck in the lock and with a short glance at Kol over his shoulder, he slowly stepped inside.

For a wild second he expected to be thrown in the air like his friend did, but Kol was right. The spell was probably there to keep vampires away and that had to be the reason why nothing spectacular happened to him.

The house was just as he remembered it. The half of it was neat and spotless in a very OCD manner, while the other half was filled with pizza boxes, stale leftovers, empty beer canes and enough dust to assume it hasn't been cleaned since the beginning of time.

The stone had to be hidden somewhere nobody would ever think of searching. Somewhere like the little space under a loose plank, up in the teacher's bedroom, also known as the place Jeremy once found the journal.

He was just about to head upstairs, when he felt his cellphone buzzing from the back pocket of his jeans. Having already guessed what the case was, Jeremy pulled out his phone and glared at the name: 'Dracula', flashing on its screen.

"Great" he muttered angrily, pushing the 'off' button turning his phone off completely before putting it back in his pocket.

"Somebody's in trouble" he heard Kol's irritating voice singing from outside, who also must have guessed the nature of that call.

Despite how much Jeremy wanted to scream back something snarky, he had to admit that Kol was right. Matt must had already ratted him out and now an angry Stefan was wandering the streets in hope to find him and predictably make his dream of beating him up senseless come true.

"Well I'm screwed anyway" Jeremy spoke to the empty room with a mere shrug and quietly made his way up the stairs.

Like the last time, the house appeared to be empty, but that didn't stop him from having a feeling of being watched by unseen eyes. He had only reached the upstairs landing, when the front door snapped closed, making him jump backwards and almost causing him to fall from the stairs.

He quickly convinced himself that it was only Kol, playing a cruel prank on his nerves and refusing to see all the dangers surrounding his new idiotic idea, he stepped into Mr. Bell's bedroom. At the foot of the bed, just like he remembered it he heard the very familiar hollow sound.

Feeling that this was a complete loss of his time, he easily pulled out the loose plank and stuck his arm inside the gap, but predictably enough the only thing in there was the original copy of the journal. He put back the plank, covering the hole and stood up with a groan.

He kept searching for about an hour what had to be every inch of the house, including a basement he didn't even know existed, but there was no sign of a stone or anything supernatural. All he found was dusty boxes filled with white candles, several jars of what he guessed to be human blood, a pair of hopefully-not-human blue eyeballs and a dead rat stuck in a mousetrap.

He was just about to give up, knowing that it wouldn't be too long until Stefan figured out his whereabouts, when all of the sudden he could swear he saw a male figure peeking down at him from the top of the stairs, before vanishing into thin air.

A mass of thoughts, one crazier than the other got through his head, but none was powerful or reasonable enough to help him from running directly up the stairs and stare with wide eyes at the spot the man was standing a couple seconds ago.

He gazed around in alarm. The door of Mr. Bell's room was wide open, though he vividly remembered closing it after he finished searching it. Hoping against hope that this was a clue rather than a trap, quietly as he could, he walked in, always biting the inside of his mouth to prevent himself from letting out a sound.

He was standing in the middle of the room, examining every corner, when a sudden though occurred to him. The stone had to be hidden somewhere where nobody would ever think to look. Somewhere obvious, with no protection spells against vampires or thieves or anything else implying the existence of something valuable. Somewhere where everybody would have access and never even notice a useless, red rock. Somewhere like the typical office of a school teacher, who nobody particularly liked or wanted to spend any time with.

Once Jeremy finished that thought, a satisfied smile spread across his face. The stone had to be in the school, the only place he would never think to look. All of the sudden the door snapped shut by an invisible hand, as well as the window. Trying to keep himself fairly calm and still pretending that all this was some weird creation of his imagination, Jeremy walked to the door and pulled it with all his might, but the door remained unmoved.

He soon realized he was trapped inside that room with no way out and that's when the panic kicked in. He immediately grabbed a chair and threw it against the door, but that didn't do any good, same as when he started kicking and punching it, unable to feel the pain in his legs or hands that didn't stop striking against the hard wood even when he heard the definite sound of his finger snapping.

He was doomed, even if Kol was able to listen to his struggle, he couldn't enter the house. He was trapped in that place until the owner was back, or at least that's what he hoped as a distant rumble of strange voices broke inside his head, growing louder and louder with every second passing.

At first the voices were uneasy and whispery, speaking one up to the other causing him a simple headache, but soon they became louder and distinct, making the blood in his veins run cold through his body.

"Jeremy" he heard a carrying whisper calling his name several times. It was a female voice, one he hasn't heard in over two years, one he would never forget in his whole entire life. Though what he remembered once to be his mother's sweet and tender voice was now changed to a rough and cruel tone he somewhat seemed to be afraid of.

"Mom…?" Jeremy spoke uncertainly to the empty room, turning around on his heels, searching for a sign of his mother and though he knew the voice was only in his head, he still had hope to see her face, the one he missed more than he would ever admit.

"You are not my son!" she shouted frantically, "we never wanted you! We had Elena, the perfect daughter, you were a mistake! You were trouble!"

"We couldn't wait to get rid of you" a man's voice that he recognized to be his father's added in the same rough tone, "you were a disappointment, I never considered you my son"

Jeremy had never in his life experienced a pain as such. He threw himself down on his knees, unable to stop the tears from streaming down his face. He spend years thinking and regretting of the wrongs he did and the disappointments he caused to his parents while they were alive, unable to fix anything anymore.

"You destroyed my life. I left college for you, to take care of you" Jenna's cold voice echoed inside his head, "I put my whole life on hold for you and it's because of you I'm dead!"

"NO!" Jeremy screamed on top of his lungs, clapping his hands over his ears.

"You were never worthy of my love. If you let me be with Tyler I would never had died" Vicky's voice appeared once the others fell quiet.

"We were supposed to be together!" Anna's voice topped Vicky's, "You could have saved me! You let me die!"
"I wanted to save you" Jeremy cried, bashing his head against the wooded floor, wishing to break it, wishing for him to die and end this nightmare.

"I never cared about you" a new venomous voice spoke before the others. Alaric's kind voice, filled with compassion that once soothed the boy was now stiff and sadistic. "I only felt sorry for you"

Holding his head tightly, covering his ears, Jeremy was dreading the appearance of the last voice he had no trouble recognizing to be Damon's. Though it was a lot different from the calm and tender tone he remembered Damon using on their last conversation together at the night that he died.

"You killed me" he said accusatively in a voice that reminded him the barking of an angry dog. "My only regret is that I didn't succeed killing you when I had the chance. You are nothing but a disappointment and the world would be a better place without you poisoning it. You are responsible for my death, you killed me!"

Never in those whole sixteen years of his existence, Jeremy had felt such desire to end his life. He was responsible for the deaths of all the people he ever loved, he was not worthy of being alive. With that thought he grabbed the kitchen knife he used before to lift the plank and still listening to the rumbling of words encouraging him, he brought the knife closer to his chest.

"I loved you all…I didn't mean for any of you to die" he cried, fresh tears making their appearance as he raised the knife ready to strike himself.

He was only seconds away before the knife made contact with his heart, when without warning something hushed the voices and the only sound was the one of a shattering glass.

Jeremy dropped the knife panting and still drenched in cold sweat, looked around at the smashed window and later at a small rock the size of a coin that rolled right next to him.

Trembling all over, Jeremy shook his head, the voices still echoing inside his head and got up on his feet. Walking, ended up being more of a task as he almost crawled to the window and climbed catlike out of the broken glass, ignoring several deep cuts caused by the sharp angles, and having the world's strongest deja vu, he jumped down.