Humanity ~A Katherine Pierce Story
Authors note: Based on the season finale of season 4 (4x23) when Elena forces Katherine to take the cure.
Disclaimer: I really wish that I did own the Vampire Diaries but I don't.
Chapter One: The Living
Who knew what time it was, four am? Five am? There was a soft murmur from the girl lying on the floor, bruised, cut and bleeding. She rolled over, holding her side in pain whilst wincing. Her chocolate locks fell over her face as she let out a louder cry of pain. Things hadn't turned out exactly as planned for Katherine Pierce. In fact they had turned out quite the opposite. She leant up, dragging her dainty frame with her. The school was empty from the previous graduation, she was seemingly alone. Seemingly.
"Ouch…" She muttered, running her hand across her torso. Everything hurt. Everything hurt a little too much. She had no memory of the previous evening, things were a blur to her – just one big blur that was slowly starting to come back into focus. And as they did, the girl's eyes widened and she attempted to spring to her feet but fell right back down. "No, no, no, no…" Using all fours, plus the help of a nearby locker, Katherine managed to scramble onto her heeled feet. She looked down at herself, wounds that should have healed minutes after they happened were scattered across her arms and legs. "NO!" Her fierce voice echoed down the hallway but didn't have the same presence it once did. The realisation had finally hit her, she was human.
A whole whirl-wind of emotions hit her at once, even though she had had them on in her other life, first she felt anger and then sadness followed by even more anger. She turned round at the pace of any normal mortal and hit her fist against the locker she had used to steady herself. All it did was cause her more pain and more realisation of what had happened to her. Before she could cause herself anymore harm, the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway startled her – sometime that would have never scared her before. She span around trying to recognise which way the noise was coming from. Had a humans hearing always been this bad? Rather than sticking around to find out who it was, she opted for running. But saying that, she wasn't exactly quick or subtly. Her heels hit the ground with such force and echoed, her panting for air must have been reasonably loud too. Pushing open a pair of double doors, she entered the cafeteria and stopped in her tracks. The footsteps had stopped. She sighed in relief, though still doubled over trying to get some air back into her lungs from running – another thing she had never had to do as an immortal. BAM! The doors of the cafeteria closed and were definitely not from her own entrance. She froze.
"Enjoying humanity, Katherine?"
She stood up straight, hearing the voice that sounded almost exactly like her own just with more innocents. Of course, she turned to her doppelgänger, Elena.
"What, the older Gilbert, come to see me suffer?" She quipped, quite daringly seeing how weak she was compared to the vampire in front of her.
Elena stepped forward, arms over her chest, which appeared to be stained with blood. If she remembered correctly, she had been the one to cause it.
"Yes."
The next thing Katherine knew she was flying across the room and landing with a horrible thud. She cried out in pain, everything felt so broken.
"You killed my brother…"
She was sent tumbling again, landing on her front this time.
"…You're responsible for everything…"
Once more she was flying backwards and landed painfully on her side.
"And now, I want to see you suffer…"
Katherine coughed, limply pushing herself up to a kneel. Her chocolate brown eyes met Elena's.
"Go on," She croaked, wiping the blood that was now oozing out of her bottom lip. "Kill me."
She was returned with an almost laugh and her 'mirror-me' was in her face in seconds. "What's the fun in that?"
With a final shove, the doppelgänger hit the ground hard and the Gilbert was gone by the time she looked back up.
Her eyes stared up at the ceiling, her breathing heavy. She didn't want to move. Human. She was a human. The same anger and sadness whirled over her again but she still didn't move. Over 5 centuries she'd spent hiding and running, living. Now what was she? A typical 18-year-old girl with nothing. She was feeling things she hadn't before, she felt different. She wasn't exaggerating when she thought of having nothing. She really did have nothing. No family, no friends, no money, no home, no future and no lover. She gulped at that word. There was only one name that sprung into her head at that moment, Elijah. The last time she had seen him was when he said he was leaving for the New Orleans with Klaus. She gulped again. Klaus. Without speed, strength or compulsion how was she supposed to keep herself from being murdered by him? She was a useless, alone mortal who wanted nothing more than death. But no, she had to suffer and she knew that she would. She was positive that she was alone now, even she could sense it as a human. With weak and bruised arms she slowly pushed herself up to a crawl and then crawled along to one of the lunch tables to help pull herself back to her feet. Her head span and she almost fell right back over. Humans really were delicate.
The hallways were eerie and she was scared by how defenceless she would be to anyone who tried to attack her. She kept going though, finding herself at the front doors of the school and pushing them open. The sunlight hit her skin and she gasped, looking down to check her wrist for her bracelet only to remember that she didn't need it anymore. Neither did she need to be invited into people's homes, drink blood or avoid vervein. She unhooked the stupid thing from her wrist and tucked it into her jeans pockets – which were absolutely filthy might I add. She squinted slightly, eyes adjusting to the daylight as she walked down the steps and out to the front.
"Where to know?" She muttered to herself, looking around the empty car park. The few belongings that she had were in her car and she didn't even have the slightest clue where she had parked that. It hadn't even been hers, she'd stolen it from one of the many woman she had compelled whilst hiding the cure.
"Guess you'll have to do a bit of walking…" She mumbled again to herself as she started walking away from the high school. It hadn't really hit her that she looked a complete mess, with blood on her face and rips in her clothing, no wonder she was getting strange looks from passing byers. There wasn't the same confidence in her step anymore, more accurately there was limp because of the damage Elena had caused throwing her around like a toy. There were a few people who gave her waves from across the street, obviously classmates of her doppelgänger, and even a few who gave her concerned looks. She ignored them all, her emotions were in full rage mode and although she couldn't actually hurt Elena with ease, boy she was going to try.
It was around midday by now and she felt the strange sensation of being hungry – for food not blood. Not to mention she was thirsty and tired, exhausted actually. You could only imagine the relief she felt when she spotted the sports car parked on the side walk that only she would be able to steal and drive without getting caught. Somehow she still had her car key in her jacket pocket, even after being thrown around. She unlocked it before climbing into the driver's side. Okay, maybe she didn't have nothing but a phone, some spare clothes and around 40 dollars wasn't going to get her far. She hastily unlocked her phone and went through her contacts to find possibly the only person who might listen to her for thirty seconds or so. Holding the phone to her ear, she waited and was angered by being sent to voicemail.
"Look, I know you're not talking to me but I'm in trouble." She took a deep breathe, "Elena forced the cure down my throat and I'm human. I need you're help Elijah, even if you don't want mine."
And with that she hung up and put her phone down on the seat next to her.
So, Katerina Petrova was alone, weak and human. Three things that she hadn't really been before – well not for long anyway. Maybe she was used to being alone but she always seemed to have someone to drag along with her. Mystic Falls really wasn't a good place to be at the moment but it was a place that she had grown quite fond to throughout her visits. She started up the engine of the car, maybe she was human – but only temporarily. As she drove down the road towards the Salvatore boarding house she started to realise how much humans were missing out on. Firstly, she still felt like she'd been run over by a car and then hit by a lorry. Secondly, she couldn't hear anything out of a reasonable radius. And thirdly, she couldn't order people around whenever she pleased. No wonder Elena didn't take the cure. Maybe the girl wasn't as stupid as she seemed.
Unlike Katherine had suspected, the Salvatore boarding house was quiet and wasn't full of the crowd of vampires that usually met there. To her displeasure she was greeted by Damon, just the brother she didn't want to see. He raised an eyebrow as he looked to her,
"You seem…"
"Human." She finished, walking straight past him into the house, "And mad."
Maybe Katherine Pierce was a human but she still had a tone to her voice that was threatening – at least it would be to humans. She pulled off her black blazer-jacket, tossing it onto the sofa as she sat down. Not that she was sat down long because in seconds a hand was around her throat and she was up against the wall.
"You took the cure." The aggressive grip and tone from Damon Salvatore was met by coughing from the brunette as she struggled for air. Today, really, wasn't her day.
"I-didn't –take it…" She managed to choke out. His grip didn't loosen slightly even when her face started to go a horrible colour from the lack of air.
"Of course you took it, how else could you be human?" He snapped. Katherine's hands were pushing against his as though she might actually be able to release herself.
"Elena…" She choked once more.
And with that her body slid down the wall and hit the ground, as she immediately started gasping for air.
"The bitch forced it down my throat..." She mumbled, slumping against the wall, though perfectly aware that he could hear her.
That earned her a kick in the side.
She winced, "Guessing she picked you over Stefan then… Bad decision…"
Another kick.
"What're the even doing here I have every reason to kill you right now, you'd have to be stupid to come crawling to one of the people that hates you the most."
Katherine pulled herself up off the floor.
"Guess I'm stupid then." She replied, hand running over her side where he had just kicked her – pretty sure there was going to be a bruise there soon.
She was being stupid, stupidly brave, as she stepped closer towards him.
"Turn me."
He frowned, "Now why on earth would I do that?"
Katherine took a deep breath, limping forward even more daringly close.
"Turn me, Damon, and I'll get the hell out of this town."
He laughed bluntly,
"I'd much rather enjoy seeing Katherine Pierce suffer every downfall of humanity."
Every downfall of humanity – she gulped.
"Please." She croaked, her voice weak from not only from the damage on her neck but the nerves she felt.
"Let me think about that." Damon taunted, "Hmm, No."
And with that he picked up a bottle from the side and sat down with his feet up. "Can't you get that little boyfriend of yours to do it for you?" Katherine took another deep breath. "Oh wait, he left you for his brother. Ouch."
There was an uncountable amount of things that Katherine wanted to do to him in that moment, all of which she needed to be her old self to do. Stupid, weak, human.
"Elijah has nothing to do with this." She argued, no one needed to know about her secret plead for help to him not all that long ago. "This is about me and I want my life back."
Damon scoffed, finishing a mouthful of his drink. "What life?"
Katherine gritted her fists, her jaw clenching.
"You should just be lucky that I didn't get to rip your girlfriends heart out."
Bad move Katherine.
If she had wanted to kill Damon earlier she wanted to shove his own heart down his throat now. Oh wait, she couldn't. After receiving another beating from the second person she had spoken to today she had been kicked out and had the door slammed in her face.
Smooth Katherine, real smooth.
So there was Katerina Petrova, limping back into her car without any plan. She checked her phone, hoping that she'd have a missed call from Elijah. Of course, she didn't. She slumped back in frustration, putting a hand to her head. There was no one in this town that didn't want to see her suffer but she had nowhere else to go. The New Orleans was a big bust, Klaus would kill her as soon as she stepped foot there and she didn't have anywhere else she could go.
A small tear ran down the girls face, something that hadn't happened for a long time. She hastily wiped it away and started up the engine.
"Humanities making you weak…"