This one shot is all about Katherine's memories and feelings towards Klaus. I heard the song "Fighter" and had to write this. I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own TVD.

Tortured Memories

Those without feeling are those with the deepest wounds.

Klaus freed me. I'm finally free. The curse is broken and there is no reason for me to keep fleeing from the shadows that follow me. There are no shadows following me to fear.

Now, I can live for eternity in peace. I can stop running and playing dead. I don't have to be a ghost or plot the easiest escape routes anymore. The only thing I have to worry about is keeping under human radar.

Or not. Whichever.

I raise my glass in a toast to no one in particular and throw it back. It burns a little as it goes down, but that doesn't stop me from grabbing the bottle and having some more. I deserve it. I stayed alive, I protected myself. Now, there's no reason for me to hold back. I can party and dance and get as drunk as I want. There's nothing to stop me from living my undead life however I please.

"Katerina!"

I freeze as the voice plays in my head, repeating harshly and reminding me of a life I've long left behind. That's the great thing about being a vampire: I can turn those emotions off.

Of course, some things you can't escape, no matter how hard you try. The past is one of those.

Without a moment's hesitation, I feel the rush of memories long buried rising to the surface. I remember the daughter that was taken from me, yanked from my arms before I could even look at her. I remember how my mother cried with me, despite my father's brusque attitude. I remember my siblings, ashamed but still loving me.

I remember coming home to find them all slaughtered, killed by Klaus as revenge towards me.

If there is anything in my existence I wish I could change, it would be that night. I would have come home before he ever could have mauled them. I would have protected them to my last breath.

But then you wouldn't be alive, that vampire side of me chimed. You would be dead with them. No one can defeat Klaus. He's too powerful.

One day I will. I will find his weakness and expose it, just as I have to everyone else who has stood in my way. I will avenge my family's death and watch the life drain from his body. Even if I die trying.

What right was it of his to kill them? He could have found me, he could have killed me. But he'd rather I live in complete misery for eternity than something so easy as death. And I can never forgive him for it. I never will.

You play with fire to think that you could defeat him in any way, that emotionless side of me quipped. Someday, he will come back for you. You almost destroyed his chances of removing the curse and he won't forgive it just because Elena became his new sacrifice. You've started a chain of events that you'll never be able to stop.

But I don't care. I can't make myself care that I will die getting my revenge. Maybe that is why I always have that switch flipped. Whenever I get that pang of fear, I make myself unfeeling. That way, I don't follow through with my plan.

I eye the men checking me out from across the room and smirk. More human blood, more power. More power, more of a chance of at least scratching Klaus when it finally comes down to it. And also more power over my feelings. Maybe someday I won't even be able to hear my family's screams.

Maybe.