Vampire Diaries Imagines

Ghost Aren't Warm - Jeremy Gilbert

Grief doesn't scream. It doesn't wail or rage. It's quiet.

A slow, suffocating silence that seeps into every part of you, pressing down on your chest until you forget what it feels like to take a full breath. That's what losing Jeremy felt like.

The world kept spinning, but I didn't. I went through the motions-school, work, home. Repeat. Barely speaking. Not even to Tyler.

Everyone was worried. I could see it in their eyes, hear it in the careful way they spoke to me. But it didn't matter. Nothing did.

Not when the only person I wanted to talk to, the only person who could make the weight in my chest feel lighter, was gone.

So I disappeared.

At night, when the world was asleep, I slipped into the woods, to the only place my mind ever felt quiet. The old Lockwood homestead.

The house was long gone, nothing left but crumbled stone and overgrown grass. But I still walked the outline of it, step by step, tracing where the walls once stood. Where doors had opened. Where windows had let in light.

It was the only place I could think. The only place where the grief wasn't as suffocating.

Tonight was no different.

The moon hung high, spilling silver light over the ruins as my feet followed the familiar path. I walked slowly, eyes down, tracing the ghost of a home with each careful step.

Then-

A snap.

A sharp, unmistakable crack of a branch breaking underfoot.

I froze. My breath caught in my throat.

Someone was behind me.

I turned fast, heart hammering, expecting-what? An animal? A hunter? A ghost? But nothing could have prepared me for what I actually saw.

Jeremy.

Standing there, a few feet away, chest rising and falling, eyes locked onto mine like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.

I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.

He looked different-not in a drastic way, but enough. His hair was slightly longer, his clothes the same style he always wore. But it was his eyes that stopped me. Because they weren't vacant. They weren't lifeless.

They were warm. Real.

I took a step back, shaking my head. "No," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "This isn't real. You're not real."

Jeremy's lips parted slightly, like he wanted to say something, but instead, he took a step forward. Then another.

I took another step back, heart slamming against my ribs.

"You-" My voice cracked, my throat burning. "You're dead."

His brows pulled together. "YNN..."

Hearing him say my name nearly shattered me.

This had to be a dream. A hallucination. Maybe I'd finally lost my mind, finally let the grief break me the way everyone had been afraid it would.

Jeremy moved again, slowly, like he was afraid I'd disappear if he moved too fast.

"I know what this looks like," he said, voice careful. "But it's me. I swear."

I squeezed my eyes shut. "No."

This wasn't happening. It couldn't be.

Then- warmth. Fingertips brushing against mine.

My eyes snapped open.