A g*****a

NOT HUMAN

Andree:

It was several years now when Cesar disappeared from our lives. I will forever honor him like no other. I hope he knows that I look up to him as my second father.

Back then, Mr. Lino was able to give Cesar a job in his fish trading business. The relationship grew, Mr. Lino and Susan have treated Cesar as a son and me as their grandchild. Lino’s business was expanding, so he needed a right hand to do the traveling, which involved strenuous tasks which Lino could not attend to. Cesar did that for him. It is given that I go where Cesar goes. While growing up, Cesar made sure we had time to do physical training for me for self-defense, since I had already come face to face with death. He trained me in the water, regardless if it is the sea or rivers. That consistent training made me a good swimmer, it made me improve my agility and strength. I owe it to Cesar, who I grew up to be, but he was not the one responsible for my s****l preference. You cannot infer that, because of the rigid training that we had, have given me a masculine personality or a mindset. It's all me, that has been me since birth, it is my heart why I am into girls, although I am a girl as well. Everything was my choice. I always felt that I was a man in a woman’s body. It was a bonus that it was Cesar's idea to document my name as Andree.

Cesar was my guardian and the only person who witnessed almost everything that happened to me. He was the only person who knew my abilities. The only thing he constantly reminded me was to trust no one. I can still remember that was the last reminder he told me the day before he disappeared. After one sparring session that we had, a few days later, he vanished.

“Do not just tell anyone about your abilities, never share with anybody about what you can do or see, what you know and what you think. I know you can read minds, behaviors, people in general. Refrain from doing things that could expose you. " He told me,

"What do you mean? I have no other friends aside from you, your wife and my grandparents," I retorted.

"You are different, you are not like any other human. Keeping your abilities as a secret will always be your ace." He continued.

" I don't think I am a fool to reach the point of exposing my secrets to other people," I assured him.

"Who knows, remember, you have a good heart, you are kind. You always tend to help people in need. Never, I repeat, never ever put yourself in danger for the sake of helping others." He answered me in a tensed voice.

"Woah! chill! Am I that weak?" I asked.

"It's too soon to tell. Just make a promise, a vow that cannot be broken. Never trust anyone, even me. No one knows, maybe there will come a time that you should never trust me.” He said in a broken voice,

"Are you OK?" worried, I asked.

“I knew that you knew how much I loved you as my own child, but always keep in mind that I am not your real father.” he continued, while staring blank into space.

When I heard the last part of his speech, I felt sadness, it was as if it was too painful to take every breath. I was heartbroken. He kept reminding me that he was not my real father. I always knew I had a real father, but that was all I could remember. I can not even remember if we even spent time together. I can not even recall how it felt to be embraced by my real parents. All I knew was, I have my biological parents. That was it. I even came to a point where I asked Cesar if we could look for them, but he would never respond, which clearly meant that it was a matter that cannot be discussed.

With this constant reminder about trust issues, I knew he did not mean for me to be heartless, but knowing that he had experienced several of the most painful instances that could happen to anyone that annihilate the concept of trust in his heart, I somehow came to understand his point of view. I am stubborn, but I am not a self-destructing maniac.

When Cesar was still around, he would repeatedly remind me that my father died because he tried to help humans. He would always refer to people as humans. I did not get it, back then. For me, he was a human too, unless he was an alien. I have always been wondering every time he goes out and would tell me not to look for him. I would just find him sleeping anywhere. The only thing I hated was whenever I would try to read his mind every moment out of curiosity. He would not answer my queries.

The reason was not that I could not get through his mind, but the problem was there were too many things that felt like it was too crowded, dark, and it was too dangerous for me to go in.

It felt like whenever I attempted to get inside his mind, I could feel anger, sadness, regret, pain, although there were also feelings of happiness, love and hope. I mean, everything is all over the place. His mind needs to have compartments, I suggest. I was also wondering as to why I could feel all his emotions at once when, in fact, what I was just trying to access was his mind, the logical part of a person.

Every time we sparred, I knew he was not at his hundred percent strength. I only found out about his strong will to hold his full strength was once when we discussed the fact that I wanted to find my biological parents.

While we exchanged punches and kicks, when I opened the topic, at first, he acted as if he did not hear anything. He did not mind what I was telling him. That time, I was so fed up with all the silence he had been giving me when it came to my parents. I kept insisting on all the ideas and plans that I had. Then suddenly I saw him breathing heavily like he was a beast wanting to attack his prey. I saw his eyes, they were not his usual eyes, I felt every punch he was throwing at me, his attacks, they were not the usual heavy blows. At that rate he could break a punching bag into two. He even threw me into a tree, I literally flew that I almost broke my back.

That was the strongest sparring partner that I have ever met. We exchanged heavy punches. I was forced to give all my strength until I was able to hurt him. I had him lose his momentum. The moment I got the chance to immobilize him, I tied him up, which was the SOP when one of us lost control.

That was the beginning of my training with a supernatural being. We started to use that extent of strenght since there were instances that the sparring calls for it. That was the moment I came to realize why he kept calling people human. I also came to the conclusion that, although he may not admit it, he trusted me. If asked why we trusted the Bo couple, even though Cesar had forgotten the essence of the word trust? It was simple, it was because of me. I have not seen any ulterior motives from them, so I have not shown any hesitation to trust the couple. They were real people from the start, their offer to help was genuine. My abilities helped Cesar trust people again. According to him, the first time he trusted someone after the incident in which he lost his family was with my real grandfather. That was during the most painful part of his life.