"No, no, I don't believe this," Kasia stammered as her mind tried to process what Lana was saying.
"It's true, Kasia. I didn't mean for all of this to happen the way it did, but I am so glad that it was you who came here. We can make things right," Lana said with a smile.
Kasia's brown eyes blazed with fury as she slammed her fists onto the wooden table, making it shudder under the impact. "You traitor!" she spat, glaring at Lana. Lana stepped back as if struck and moved out of Kasia's reach.
"Kasia, I am not a traitor," Lana replied, her hazel eyes meeting her sister's without fear. "I never believed in the hunters. They're hypocrites; they kill just as indiscriminately as the beasts they claim to hunt."
The room seemed to close in on them, suffocating in its tension. Kasia's nostrils flared as she tried to fight the anger boiling inside her. How dare Lana say such things? After all they had been through together, after the blood that stained their hands in the name of their sacred mission?
"Is that what you truly believe?" Kasia asked, her voice tight with restrained rage. "You can be honest with me. If they hurt you to make you say these things, it doesn't matter; I can play along until we have an opportunity to escape."
Lana hesitated for a moment, her gaze faltering. She wanted to reassure her sister, but she couldn't keep lying about this. Lana could not ignore the truth of the matter, not even for Kasia. "Yes, Kasia, that is what I believe. No one is forcing me to say this. Everything we were told and everything we were taught was a lie. It hurt me as well when I found out. The guilt I felt was overwhelming, but I got through it, and you can get through it too. You just have to trust me."
"Trust you? You have me handcuffed like a prisoner!" Kasia responded.
"Only for your protection," Lana said.
Kasia stared at her sister, feeling as though a chasm had opened up between them. A stranger whose allegiances lay with the very monsters they had sworn to destroy appeared to be replacing the sister she knew and loved. Even though Lana's words made her heart hurt with betrayal and confusion, she refused to give in.
"Those creatures killed our parents, Lana," Kasia whispered, her voice cracking. "How can you forget that?"
Lana argued, her voice shaking. "We don't know who exactly did it, but we can't just blame an entire species for the actions of a few."
Kasia clenched her fists tightly, her knuckles turning white as she struggled to maintain control. Her sister had become a stranger before her eyes, and she didn't know how to bridge the gap between them. But one thing was certain: she could no longer trust Lana to stand by her side in the war against the werecreatures.
"Do you know what I gave up to come and save you?" Kasia asked. "I gave up everything. Everything I worked so hard to achieve only for me to be branded as a deserter to be killed on sight. I should've listened to Austin and Nadia."
"I never wanted this to happen, Kasia. I.." Lana continued, but Kasia scoffed.
"You're nothing but a damn furry, Lana. Was the sex that good that you lost your complete mind?"
Lana recoiled as if she'd been slapped, her hazel eyes wide in disgust. "Don't you dare call me that," she said fiercely. "That's not what is happening here, Kasia. Let me explain."
Kasia's brown eyes narrowed, and the muscles in her jaw clenched tight as she fought to keep her anger in check. How could this be happening? How could the sister she had loved so dearly turn her back on everything they had been fighting for?
"Explain?" Kasia echoed, her voice dripping with contempt. "Explain how you can stand there and defend those things after what they did to our family."
Lana bit her lip, her gaze darting around the room as though searching for the right words. She took a deep breath before speaking. "I never said I was defending them," she began slowly, her voice steadying. "We can't condemn them all because of the horrific actions of a few."
As Lana spoke, Kasia's mind raced; her thoughts tangled as she tried to make sense of her sister's betrayal. The pain of losing their parents still gnawed at her every day, and now the person she had counted on most seemed to be siding with the very creatures responsible for their deaths.
"Peaceful lives?" Kasia scoffed, her voice laced with bitterness. "Like the werewolf who slaughtered Mom and Dad? Or the ones we've been hunting down all these years?"
Lana held her ground. "I know there are monsters out there, Kasia. I know you're scared of the idea that maybe you were wrong about everything, but we can't let our hatred blind us to the truth. We can't be used as pawns. We are better than that."
"Our parents died trying to protect us from those monsters! How can you sit there and talk like that?" Kasia questioned.
"Stop doing that! You're avoiding the issue! Life isn't black and white, Kasia. There are gray areas. Just like not all humans are bad, not all werecreatures are bad. Why can you not see that?" Lana retorted.
Kasia's heart ached with the weight of Lana's words, but she couldn't let herself be swayed. To do so would be to betray everything they had been fighting for. And as much as it pained her, she knew that if Lana couldn't see that, then she was truly lost.
"Just give me a chance to explain, Kasia. That's all I want," Lana pleaded.
"Fine then," Kasia spat venomously. "Go ahead and explain, Lana. But I don't think anything you say can change the truth: you're not the sister I thought I knew."