Chapter Thirteen

I only had two choices, either stay out of her life or tell her. I couldn’t lie to her. Lying would always be the worst option. You thought you were protecting her, but then she found out you had been lying all those years, she would probably never forgive you. I would let Jessica make this important life-and-death decision.

“Jessica are you okay!”

“Besides almost getting attacked and then watched you knocking four big guys out, I’m pretty good.” I smiled for a bit. At least she wasn’t in so much shock at first.

“Why were they doing that?”

“Long story. So there was this big bully guy with his gang, which is them,” she pointed as we slowly headed out. “Everyone feared him, and his minions just called him Champion. And this Champion guy started to act all this weirdly around me in school, perhaps because of the oncoming dance in a month. Of course I got annoyed, and he was a scum, so I didn’t have too much interest in talking to him. I politely voiced myself, and then this happened.”

“He did all that? For a dance?”

“Yeah. The dance was kind of big this year. The school invited all high schoolers of this whole village. Anyways it was probably his pride or something, since nobody had ever said no to him for ages.”

“Then you did the right thing!”

“Yeah, I guess.”

I needed to tell her about my identity now.

“Jessica, this might sound hilarious, or even ridiculous in some of a way, but here you got an important decision to make. Life-and-death related.”

“Are you serious?” she laughed.

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But I didn’t. “Yes Jessica.”

She stopped laughing too. She saw the seriousness from my face. “Okay go.”

“You would probably have wondered why I was so good at fighting.”

“Yea,” she cut me off, “Why?”

“Be patient,” I said. “And you always probably wondered about all those things I told you last time. I mean I probably seemed like an enigma to you in some ways. So here’s the truth. I’m not normal. Not like you or your friends. I have a rather secret, and dangerous, life, and I don’t want to bring you any trouble.

“I have thought about this for days, and I come down to only two options. I can either stay away from your life forever, if you want me to, and you will not have any risks of getting hurt, OR DIE. Or the other option, I can tell you about my whole life, and you will be a major part of it. But the consequence would be that there might be people going after you, a hundred times more dangerous than the ones we just confronted. And it would require your courage and finesse.

“Sorry Jessica. I know we didn’t know each other for long, but I couldn’t bear keeping this from you anymore. I know this would affect our friendship one day, or more…” I trailed off.

Jessica stopped walking. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she opened them again, her eyes shining fiercely. She seemed to be battling internally, analyzing the weight of each choice.

“You sure this is all dead serious right?” she asked again.

I nodded my head.

“Then tell me. About everything.”

It was just five words, but I saw the courage behind them. To be honest I was expecting her to politely ask me to stay away. Surprisingly she would take this risk.

“Okay, first of all, this is all complicated. I am a human, a real human. Just like you and everyone else in this village, but the ones around me, they are not.”

“Then what are they?”

“It’s too hard to explain, and it doesn’t matter for now. It’s their intention that matters. They have been training me and other privates.”

“Privates?”

“Yes, a soldier rank. We were trained to do all kinds of things, including to kill.”

Jessica looked shocked, and a bit horrified.

“Is that why? You can defeat those guys so easily?”

“Yes.”

“Then… then why did you not hurt any one of them, if you are trained to do it?”

“I’m human. They are not. The line that marks the difference between is emotion, and love too.”

“So you can feel happy and sad and all those, but they can not?”

“Correct.”

“And you can feel love?”

“Yes Jessica,” I stopped and looked at her beautiful eyes, partially hidden beneath her hair. “It was until lately, I felt love. They didn’t know love but they wouldn’t allow me and others to have it. My best friend, and perhaps one of my only ones, got murdered after his girlfriend got killed a few years ago. He took a bullet for me and died. I was supposed to be the target.”

“Oh I’m so sorry to hear that Andrew. Who was it that you loved so deeply?”

“You.”

She moved closer to me. Her face showed tiny tints of red on the cheeks.

“I love you too,” she whispered into my ears.

I blushed too. First time. My heart was pumping fiercely and I couldn’t slow it down.

We just stood it like this for a moment, her hands in mine. Finally she spoke.

“You wanna go somewhere?”

“Sure. Where?”

“Anywhere for couples. You are my boyfriend right?”