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Jeremy heard the shower running in the bathroom he shared with his sister Elena, so he slipped out of his room and quietly opened the door to her bedroom. Good. He had been pretty sure her boyfriend Stefan had left, but you never knew when a vampire could be lurking around. Since they could move fast, they could be sneaky and surprise you.
He looked around and found his pocket watch on Elena’s dresser, slid it into the pocket of his jeans, and quietly closed the door on his way out.
He went back to his room and picked up his sketchbook that was open to a drawing of Stefan and Damon. In the picture, Stefan had hero hair and Damon was dressed all in black, looking similar to how Jeremy was dressed. They both had cool fangs, and dark veins around their eyes. He closed the cover, then slid the sketchbook between the wall and his bed. Elena didn’t know he knew about vampires, and he figured if she could keep secrets, so could he.
One benefit of being a younger sibling was that you were often able to hang around unnoticed, which meant sometimes you got to eavesdrop on some really wild conversations.
He also had plenty of opportunities to snoop in Elena’s diary when she was out with Stefan, which talked all about how awesome Stefan and Damon were because they were vampires.
Well, she may not have talked so highly of Damon, but Jeremy could see how badass he was, and Jeremy wanted to be like that, too. He hoped that someday Stefan or Damon would turn him into a vampire, and then they could all hang out together and use their superpowers to get hot girlfriends.
Jeremy creeped down the stairs, and as he left the house, he sent a text to Matt.
I got it. I’m on my way.
When he got to Matt’s house, Tyler was already there, and he and Matt were eager to look at Jeremy’s pocket watch. However, their enthusiasm waned when they finally saw it.
“It just looks like a watch,” Matt said skeptically.
Tyler grabbed it, and pointed it in different directions. “How do you even know it works?”
Jeremy took back the watch, closed it, and put it back in his pocket. “That’s why we’re gonna try it out tonight.”
He didn’t tell them he had overheard Stefan telling Elena that the watch was actually a compass that pointed to vampires, and by the sound of Elena’s reaction it apparently was pointing at Stefan. He wanted to protect his vampire friends. He had heard there were other vampires in town, so he felt sure they could find one that night.
Matt microwaved a bag of pizza rolls for them to eat for dinner, then once it was dark they headed out.
After walking in the dark for almost an hour, the needle on the compass started moving, and once they figured out which direction it was pointing, they headed that way.
“You better be right about this,” said Tyler, before Jeremy shushed him and grabbed his friends’ arms so they’d stop walking. They hurried over to some bushes, and peeked through them to see what the vampire looked like.
“That’s Mr. Saltzman,” Jeremy whispered excitedly, as they watched their teacher arguing with another man who looked familiar.
“And that guy from the news!” Matt put his hand on Jeremy’s back as he peered around him.
“Watch the hair,” Jeremy hissed at him.
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, hero hair. Who cares. What I want to know is if Mr. Saltzman is the vampire, or is it the news guy?”
They eagerly watched the two men, and saw Mr. Saltzman whip a wooden stake out and stab the other guy with it in the heart.
The three boys’ jaws dropped in excitement, their eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. Jeremy hopped from one foot to the other as they watched the news guy fall to the ground, his skin turning all gray, veiny, and gross.
The boys couldn’t contain their excitement, and started whooping and hollering. When they saw Mr. Saltzman look their direction, they took off running, and didn’t stop until they got back to Matt’s house.
“That was sick!” Jeremy exclaimed.
“We’ve got to ask Mr. Saltzman to teach us how to kill vampires,” Tyler said, slapping Jeremy’s back, his earlier skepticism now keen admiration.
As the other two boys eagerly talked about how they were going to become vampire hunters, Jeremy quietly thought about how he was going to become the most badass vampire ever.