After Death (Katerina Petrova One-Shot)

A/N: Dedicated to Katerina Petrova. A fighter, a mother, a lover, a friend, foe, doppelganger, and human. May she rest in peace... 

I do not own the attached video.

Katherine wanders through the dark abyss, her eyes not being able to settle on one singular thing. Nothing standing out to her, and her face shows a look of sheer terror and horror. The cold and dark winds surrounding her slicing through her arms and body, chilling every part of her. Every particle, bump, bone, and organ is ripped to shreds by the fierce swords. When she breathes the air burns her lungs, and she can only see what is right in front of her. The heavy fog blocking out everything, and she has to squint her dark brown eyes to see everything.

One thing is for sure though... She is alone. No one else there with her, and she is stuck here until she makes up for all the wrong she's done. That could take a century, maybe longer. Just at the thought of staying here another minute causes hot tears to stream down her face. Every bad thing she's done in her five-hundred plus years of life rushes back to her. Her body shaking hard, she grabs her stomach as pain rushes through her.

Regret flooding over her, and she looks down at the dingy ground and her ripped clothes truly torture. She wipes the tears away and staggers towards a boulder that is covered in mold. Her damp palm touches the boulder and a searing hot pain shoots through her hand. Looking down her palm is blistered and swollen from where it burned her. But she needs something to lean on, anything, so she warily places her hand back on the boulder. The pain shoots through her arm and she sinks to the muddy ground beneath her.  Closing her weary eyes, her mind drifts back to the last day she was alive, and her mind replays the time when she died.

Katherine had just finished saying goodbye to Nadia and watching her only daughter die a painful and horrible death. She had died from the poisonous effects of a werewolf bite given to her byTyler Lockwood. The venom had ran through her veins and body until she took her last breath. Katherine clutches her daughters hand, and strokes Nadia's dark brown hair as she chooses her worsds from the heart. "This is not what your life should've been, Nadia. 500 years searching for a mother who ended up...being me. Let me show you what your life should've been, what your perfect day would have been like," She strokes her hair and uses her vessels vampire abilities one last time.

"You and I had a little cottage, it was an ordinary summer day. You had been playing outside so you were tired and it was time for bed. You told me about the fort that you had built out in the woods by the river. So I asked if I could visit and you said when the sun came up in the morning, and I said..goodnight Nadia, sleep well. Your mother loves you."

Those were the last words she ever said to her child, her own baby before the veins crawl up on her face, and tears escape her eyes and Nadia died. But Katherine wouldn't let her die alone, there was no way she was leaving her own daughter behind again.. She stands up and turns around, trying to look strong and brave but inside she is ripped ot shreds.

She goes through the people that she would soon be leaving behind, telling them goodbye and being honest in the fact that everything she did to them made them stronger or better. Everything she ever did was to protect herself. Fear courses through her body as she thinks of the idea of dying for good this time, that there was no way out.

But when she comes up to Stefan, she can't tell him what she really did to him made him stronger. Even though in a way, it really did. She reaches up and touches his face, and stares into his eyes. "'I always wondered what it would be like to be loved by you. You've gotta admit for that one fleeting moment, your feelings were real. This truly has been the role of a lifetime. Stefan, I love you, I've always loved you. But I guess this is how our love story finally ends." With that, she kisses him passionatly, and Stefan kisses her back. The sparks between them was obvious to anyone. She really did love him.