Unavoidable discussion and conflict (Kat and Rina)

Kat had ran away from her sister 3 weeks ago; she had been hiding out in the forest. She couldn't face her sister after what she had said; after she had blurted out some truths that her sister's mind had been erased of or sheltered from knowing. She couldnt avoid her older sister forever though, she knew that.

Recently, she had been attacked by monsters and demons in the depths of the forest that she had been unable to identify. She was filthy and wounded and looked slightly derranged; well, one would do with the type of nightmares she had still been having. There was a voice, mocking her, telling her that she was going to become more monster than human and that she was bound to do something terrible again.

She traced out a seal symbol with her finger on a charmed rock and a rock brigde appeared out of the swamp water and stretched up into a mountain. She climbe dit and the bridge disappeared behind her with each step. She squoze through the narrow opening in the rock wall and followed the path down to the small cabin that was hidden away in there. As quietly as she could, she turned the door handle and stepped inside, closing it carefully behind her. She was greeted by darkeness. The cabin was silent and empty, or so she thought...

Ever since that first week of arriving...that day at the lake...Karina had been going out of her mind. Who was she? Why had she been lied to for so long? Why did her little sister know more about who she was than she herself did? Why did Kat display such hostility towards Volkov..? The more she thought or tried to remember, the more she seemed to forget, but she had still managed to write some stuff down, things she wanted answers to.

She hadnt even gone to work part time at the school because she was so troubled by what her sister had said. She waited in the cabin every night, worrying like crazy about whether or not her little sister was alright. She knew Kat could normally handle herself just fine but she still worried.

Whilst doing her nightly meditation, she was able to sense her sister approaching. She didnt just want to come running out to her, otherwise her sister would just run off again. Instead, she made herself a cup of tea and sat in the dark waiting.

When Kat entered and closed the door behind her, Karina flicked on the light and her eyes widened in horror at the tattered state of her litle sister.
"Kat! What on earth happened to you? Where in the hell have you been? Do you know I've been going out of my mind with worry?! How could you just run off like that?"

She rose from her seat and tried to examine the claw marks on her sisters face and arms. "What did this to you? Kat! Talk to me!"

Kat jumped slightly in shock and bolted round as the light turned on. Sure enough, there was her sister. Kat was hoping that at such early hours of the morning that her sister would be asleep.

And right away, her sister started on her. Kat scowled and avoided eye contact. She shrugged off her sisters touch and batted her hand away.
"Will you quit it, it's nothing,I'm fine, I'm not a little kid any more. Can't this wait?"

She knew she had been unfair to her sister and broke her promise to Leo, but she didnt want a confrontation the second she stepped through the door. She tried to bolt past her sister and make a run for the stairs.

Karina couldnt believe how Kat was acting; when did her sister become so distant from her? It hurt to be batted away when she was only showing concern. What had happened to her sister to make her so cold and so against affection?

"No Kat, this cannot wait! You cant just run away all the time! If you dont want to be treated like a little girl you need to stop acting like one! You need to talk to me! Please dont shut me out Kat, you're all I have left."

She blocked Kat's way to the stairs by stretching her arm out in front of her.
"Kat! Talk to me! I just wan to know a few things alright? I just want the truth. Who are we really? What happened to us? How did Volkov know us? What have we been doin with ourselves these past few years? Why dont we have any friends or family? WHy dont I remeber anything? Kat please, you dont know how painful it is not to know, to have dreams of peoples face you cant recognise and not know what they mean..."

Being yelled at and pummelled with questions when she was starving and exhausted made Kat's head throb. She really wished she didnt have to do this crap now...

"Urrgghh!!! Fine! I'l tell you what I can, but i'll never show you. Leo entrusted his timeturner to me; I'll fill you in on Leo later..."

Kat rubbed her hands across her face and sat down on the armchair nearest the stairs and waited for her sister to sit down too.

"Your name is Karina Fenixfire, daughter of wanted wizards Alexander Fenixfire and Estelle Lune. They tampered with things and ticked off people they shouldnt have, nothing evil though. Their coing together meant the spirit in you could awaken again, hence your healing powers and why you can turn into a pheonix. They were killed in a fire when you were a young girl. I think it was due to the demon Lord Lupine; who cursed mother when she was pregnat with me so I would be a demon like him. Leo pulled you out of the fire and became a lifelong friend; he was madly in love with you even then. He became a demon hunter to hunt down Lupine and keep you safe so demons wouldnt currupt you or try to take away your powers or hurt you etc."

Kat left a silence for Karina to take it in.
"After they died, we were left to people who knew about us and father. We lived with this horrible woman called Dahlia for years and she was abusive to us. Made us change our names for our own saftey to Katja Fridolf and Arina Fridolf. After you worked at a muggle hospital as a nurse for a while, you got some money and ran off with me. Dahlia forced us to go the Durmstrang where there was this demon there who... who did bad things to us. You had a breakdown for a while and I got really angry...Thats were Volkov knew us by the way...he gave you the job as the school healer...you had a thing for him for a while but he couldnt have gave a crap about you."

"I lost control of my demon side and burnt our old house down by accident with dmeon fire... You had a friend you grew up with when living in Russia called Veronika, and we took in a boy off the streets called Adrian... When in my demon state...I...I never meant to but I..."

Her throat tightened and her eyes watered. "My demon fire killed them... Leo had to trap me in this seal and keep me in a special cage until i calmed down. We left Russia after that and Leo let us live with him in his manor in England. He went after the demon who hurt you and died... Beforehand he made a clone of himself for you to fall in love with and become engaged to becuase he wanted you to be happy and for there to be someone to look after you. He knew men would come to kill his clone thinking it was him so he told me to gaurd over you. He balnked your memory so you would stop haivng nightmares and so you could be happy and blissfully ignorant again. Thats it."

Timeturner..? Was that how Kat knew more than she did? And why was Kat entrusted with the luxury of knowing yet she was deprived of it?

Karina sat in a chair facing Kat and had her notepad and pen ready; she didnt want to let herself forget, so she was going to write it down.
What things..? My powers.? Spirit...? Demons...? She was already lost and confused, thinking of more and more questions. Still, she listened and jotted down what she could to try to make sense of it later.

As Kat continued to explain, some things began to make sense. Thats why Volkov had called her Arina; thats how he'd known her and knowing her luck with her memory problem she probably believed that Arina was her real name and forgot what she was really called for a while.

Safety from what..? Wheres this Dahlia woman now? What bad things?

She blushed when Kat told her she's once had a crush on Volkov; true he had nice features but she couldnt imagine herself loving him, or anyone else. Perhaps he was a different man when they had first met; not that she would ever be able to remember. Is this why Kat hated him so much; because he didnt return my feelings? Why is my memory so bad?

Karina wished she could remember these people Kat was talking about. She looked on in anxious concern when her sister looke dlike she was going to cry. What she had done must have been really bad for her to feel so guilty about it; and it was. Karina didnt know how to react for a minute; she and her sister had done a lot to survive, but she didnt realise her sister had murdered anyone before.
How old had Kat been? How old were those people when they died? She wrote these questions down; she didnt think she'd be able to speak after taking all this in. Her eyes were starting to water too; was she cursed or something to have so much death follow her..?

"He messed with my memories...? He made me fall in love with an illusion...? What else is a lie Kat..? That cant be it... There has to be more you're not telling me..."
She tore off the bit of the page with her additional questions and passed it to Kat.

Kat took the paper and answered the questions in the order they were jotted down.
"Ancient magics and scriptures and stuff, I dont really know but it doesnt matter. Yea, you didnt just get to be as good as you are, they put you through rituals to make you stronger and you've had to practice for years. Your powers use your lifeforce to heal others, hence why you died once. You depleted your life energy. Oh yea, theres a spirit in you that used to take over but hasnt shown herself in a while. Dont worry about it. And yea, mum and dad pissed some demons off, that or someone they knew did so mum and dad had to pay for it."
It felt weird saying the words mum and dad; they were alien to her; Kat had never had parents or a proper family growing up, she had always been alone or pushed out becuase she could never compare to Karina...

"Safety from getting killed or being forced to use your powers to suit the purpose of others. Dahlia's dead, i killed that bitch too. And just drop it Reen, they were just really bad ok! I dont want to tlak about them..." She didnt want to see her sister revert back to that state again...plus thinking about what that animal had done filled Kat with uncontrollable rage.

"Dont flatter yourself so much. I have other reasons for hating that bastard... He was an asshole to me and he abandonned us when we needed him, he was full of shit. And your memory is shit becuase you were bron with the problem and it got worse as your powers developed; Leo messing around and blocking stuff by puting seals in there mustnt have helped much either..."

"I was 11... Adrian was 11...Veronika was in her mid 20s I think and married with a baby... Shit like that really fucks a kid up... murdering her only friend and being attacked by a woman she once called her Auntie and having to kill her too... Ive had to live with what ive done for so long... im never going to be able to forgive myself...ever..."

Kat's sadness suddenly turned to anger and she shot up and screamed right in her sisters face; her eyes wild and her claws digging into the arms of the chair.

"He went into purgatory to rescue you you stupid selfish cow!!! He gave his life for you!! He just wanted to protect you and make you happy!! I'm not telling you shit anymore!! In fact, i've got some questions for you!! How do you think it feels to be me?! Let the golden child swap places with the monster for a day!! How do you think i felt when you uprooted me from the only place i felt safe and happy, huh?!! Do you think thats fair?! That i have to live my life by what is best for you?! Fuck what i want like! No-one could give two shits about me! My head is so messed up and ive never felt so alone in my life!"

Was that why she felt so drained after using her powers..? Is that why she had faint scars on her body that looked like symbols or patterns? The words mum and dad sounded weird to her too; she couldnt remember having a family or using those words.

Karina couldnt help but throw Kat a stern look by how easily she spoke of murdering someone; what had happened to her little sister..? Who was she? Certainly not the innocent girl in the fur hat she remembered who wouldnt harm a fly. She guessed there were some things she would never get Kat to tell her about, and she would have to live with it. She didnt like the way she was being spoken to though...surely she hadnt let Kat become such a moody teenager had she..? And did she really have to hate Volkov so much for something that happened years ago; couldnt she just forgive and forget?

"11..? Good god..." Karina put her hand over her mouth and looked at the ground.

Karina shot back in her chair and turned white and still as Kat screamed in her face. She didnt think Kat had ever screamed at her before. She sounded tearful.
"I...i didnt know about Leo... I didnt know how moving made you feel... Why havent you talked to me about all this before..? I didnt know that you felt..."

What was the point? Karina would never understand. She probably thought Kat was a monster like other people did.

"You didnt know coz you didnt care enough to ask me! I dont talk to you coz theres no point! You dont listen and you wouldnt get it! I'm turning into a frikkin monster Reen! Im haivng nightmares every single night! I have no friends! I have no talents! No-one loves me, people have always loved you more! Even you dont love me as much as you used to! I dont even think we should call ourselves sisters anymore... I'd be better of on my own. You'd forget about me soon enough anyway. There have been times were i've hated you Reen... Ive not been happy as much as you... You're allowed to forget and move on and i'm trapped..."

She put away her claws and headed up the stairs. "Im going to bed. We're done talking. I'm going back to live with Shyler in Leo's house. You want answers, ask her, or ask Volkov. I'll be gone agian by morning. Dont bother trying to stop me. I'll leave a book behind though thats worth a read. It'll give you something to do."

"Of course I care! You're my little sister and i love you! I want you to be able to talk to me about anything, not shut me out. We can figure something out to help you, i'm sure we can. Kat please stop this, why are you being so hurtful..? Why cant we move on with our lives together? You and me against the world remember?"

Kat wasnt listening to her now. Karina felt like she had been disembowled. "Kat, dont go..."
But Kat's bedroom door slammed shut and she heard the lock click. This couldnt be happening surely..? What would she have without her sister? They needed each other.

Karina cried for a while and knocked on Kat's door. It creaked open and was empty apart from a scrapbook on the bed. She was really gone... In the book, there were old diary extracts in different handwritings; spells; pictures of creatures and people; lists. Kat had even jotted down some of her nightmares or techniques for survival in the book, and it revealed research she had been doing, one of which was techniques that could prolong Karina's life. There was quite a dark feel to the book, but Karina wrote a note to herself to read through the book at some point when she felt in a better state.