ONE - Brittle Bodies
"We're damaged, Katerina, not broken."

For the longest time, I used my senses in their dullest forms. I saw black, smelt dead flesh, heard irking silence, tasted nothing, not even that of saliva, and felt the smooth, cobble ground beneath me. These sensations became the only recognisable things I had. What subsided me, eased the pain of isolation, were memories. Memories that often went stale when I thought too hard on who was there and how I had never, never... see them again.

Oftentimes, I had wished for an eternal sleep, one where my mind would only drift off into dreams. No nightmares, no cold chill of loneliness on my undead heart. In these dreams, I could see everyone who meant something to me, I would be able to touch them, loll in the feeling of their skin once again. The feeling of living, the one I no longer had. All I needed was to feel human again, but had no desire to be one.

Although, I wonder if my choices had resulted my fate or if the world had doomed me exiled from the beginning. Why had not I just driven a stake through my heart, or lay myself out to Niklaus as a sacrifice for my sister's life? Why had not I died while the night was still young, while I had blood dancing on my tongue and lovely boys at both arms? Why had not I revealed my true nature to Mystic Falls in hopes that someone would strike me trough, end this before darkness truly enveloped my body and mind? Anything would've been better than this, I had regretted. If only Katherine had parted from me long before, if only I had the guts to do it first. I should have left her just as the sun in our new life rose above a red sea, sided with the enemy, sided with Elijah and Niklaus Mikaelson as if they had not driven me to death, to suicide alongside my sister.

The world was cruel, and as I began to feel it get worse, my veins rubbing together like soft skin on rough pavement, I heard again. The voice- no, voices, were all too familiar. One spoke with so much sorrow and anger it had felt as if icy wind had picked up in the underground cellar, a wind that hurt rosy cheeks in the winter. The other, he sounded lost in a surge of urgency, unaffected by what his brother had been saying.

"It's not worth spending all of eternity down here! She's not worth it!" Stefan, I deemed the voice to be, was undoubtedly correct. The only thing I had wished from the Salvatore was salvation, a sliver of emotion that would move him to save me, but it was to be more expected from Damon, who hadn't been the one to get my sister and me caught. Damon was always sweeter, more logical. Stefan had, alike to Katherine before she had turned, been an unreasonable, impulsive teenager. He was forever frozen that way and the thought, if there were any fluids running through me, would have provoked tears.

Another voice sounded, one of a feminine nature that sounded almost like mine, but unmistakably alike to my sisters. For my own sake, I had hoped to be calling out to the brothers as the voice had been. The voice, although it sounded characteristically alike to Katherine's, spoke differently to the vampire version my sister, as if Katherine had become human once again.

"Damon-" the pitter-patter of feet sounded, and then her heavy breathing, "-please..." save me. Adding this onto the girl's sentence in my mind, I pleaded the world that my power was strong enough to send a message. Formidably, I knew it had not been and feared my life was truly an eternity in Hell. Tears. I had wished, willing myself, to cry tears as a coping mechanism, but all was dry. After my thoughts had cleared, the sweet smell of lukewarm blood wafted into my nostrils. It had felt alike to my first time smelling blood, so irresistible. The sound of liquid splattering in the wall had echoed in my mind sounding just as it had when Damon was still here.

-

There was a need for the blood hanging in the air as time passed and the creaking joints of many bounced off cobble walls after a little taste of the intoxicating liquid. It took a moment for someone to reach me and gingerly wipe a bit of the iron-smelling drink onto my chapped lips. With all my mite, I swallowed without tasting. The little gained strength helped open my eyes to look at my savior. Before seeing, I listed my hopes, desires, and expectations. Stefan, I yearned for it to be, for a redemption from him. Damon was my craving, one that was stronger than blood. He would not swindle as Stefan had, would he? I had expected it to be Katherine as she had sounded to be softer, more gentle than the last haunting words I had heard to drop poisonously from her mouth.

"I will be relieved to rid myself of you."

I shivered and quickly opened my eyes, unable to watch the memory playing in my mind any longer.

Pearl. It was only Pearl...

The former Mystic Falls apothecary. Of course someone of her stature would heal me. She smiled softly down toward me, her dark eyes searching mine for any emotion. I suspected my look to be blank, watching as Pearl shook her head dismissively and put a hand out in front of me. I took it slowly, my arm aching and sore, watching as her dusty dress moved when she pulled me up. 

The hopeful smile of Pearl imbedded itself in my mind as we turned down a corridor. I pleaded for her to have that smile forever, she only deserved good.

-

Anna greeted me warmly up above ground, her bright smile alike to the young girl she'd been stuck in. My power low, a barely-there smile appeared on my face. I felt groggy, like one who slept too long. My bones ached and the drop of blood slowly reached my heart, pumping nothing through. Veins scratching together again, I clenched my teeth and looked away. None of my strength was used to hold me up, Pearl had kindly done that for me. Moving my feet became impossible as we almost escaped the wood. My body collapsed onto itself, falling out of Pearl's hands and to the pine floor. Weakness was all I'd felt in one hundred years, I begged the feeling to end. Everything became dark as my eyelids shut and sleep enveloped me once again.

-

Awaking in an unfamiliar environment wasn't anything new to my old soul, Katherine and I had traveled non-stop over the centuries. If one of us had been in slumber when we arrived, the other would take us inside. I wondered where Kathrine was now and if she was the one I'd heard with the Salvatore's or if it was a lonely hallucination.

Remnants of blood tasted on my tongue easily gave the satisfaction I needed to subside my aching cravings. I had felt much like a new vampire, unable to control my need for blood. Sitting up, I analyzed the empty room. A single old, green couch cushioned my body. Everything in the room seemed to belong to another who hadn't visited in a while. Dust coated the bookshelf and desk along with the small, glass mixed with wood table ahead of me. Stretching made me realize all my strength had been restored and I smirked at the blue and silver bracelet still on my wrist.

Without word to anyone, I departed from the unfamiliar house and into the town I once knew. The crescent moon was centered in the sky, trees surrounding my view.

-

Veritas Estate, it no longer stood off the edge of Mystic Falls. High and mighty, it was, with endless acres of land and beautiful flowers to fawn over. Where I had stayed with Katherine, the carriage house, had been missing. The garden was no longer to the left, no bush maze that Stefan's mother had insisted they needed. There were no stables nor horses to accompany them, the land blank and boring filled with tree trunks and ruins. I turned around myself, gawking at the unfamiliar sight I once knew my way around. I tried to run a hand through my hair, but it stopped at knots and tangles halfway through. Maybe everything I'd heard had just been a dream, a very believable one at that. Barely anything made mark of Veritas Estate, just the white and rotten wood of the main house.

Was I going insane? Had I simply imaged the voices because isolation drove my
mind to lie? Sadness boiled itself to anger, my foot impulsively kicking at the peeling, white wood. Rotten bits flew about and I had glared at them, watching as more of the estate became destroyed.

I slept in the ruins of Veritas that night, the leftovers of my last home being all I knew, all I could hold onto, the only think I had left of useless human emotion. Childishly, I held onto the emotions I begged to be rid of.

-

A/n
I hope everyone enjoys!