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Barkley had left the party soon after and he hadn't come back to speak to me. However, he did acknowledge me, giving me a wink through the double glass patio doors as he left. He gave Leigh a quick kiss on the cheek, and Adam a handshake. before whispering into Kim's ear as they left. He didn't fill me in on the phone conversation with Darcey Dyson; he went pretty much straight away.
That was two days ago.
Watching Barkley ‘live' on This Morning's daytime television show being interviewed by Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, I listened with particular detail and interest. I wasn't shocked to see Barkley on the television. His face had filled my news feed, and my television set, since this all began.
I remembered that Barkley had told me about the 'secret government people' or whoever they were, and that they had told him to follow a script of some sort. I wanted to hear what details he had changed. I was there at the time, I know what happened, and I wanted to see how much of his detail varied from the truth.
In short, he did explain what had happened. He did not deviate from that, but he did add elements that weren’t his own words. He stated that he could not be sure if it was a complete fake, like an elaborate magician's stunt. He used words like 'it appeared like” or 'it looked like' when being interviewed. Philip asked about being hit by a bullet. He said, “It's been suggested that it could have been a red paintball. Whatever it was that shot at me, the force did knock me to the ground. But again, this could still have been part of a highly sophisticated prank.” He looked off-camera nervously, and the camera cut back to the presenters.
Holly interjected, “Surely, you would have known if your shoulder had a bullet in it. If your shoulder was bleeding. I am sure you would be able to tell the difference between your own blood and red paint from a paintball gun?”
Barkley had an earpiece in, I could see it, and I could see him starting to sweat under stress. He nervously looked off-camera again. He was becoming agitated. He held his left hand to his left ear as if listening to someone. He then disguised it as an itch.
“I was in shock, I guess. My adrenalin kicked in,” he said. “Imagine yourself in my shoes. I initially saw a man with a gun pointed to Darcey Dyson, the woman from our regional news. Well to be honest, I was in fight or flight mode. The gun, to my knowledge at that time was real, and then when it went off, and I fell to the ground, with pain in my shoulder...” he paused. “Look, I can only tell you what I saw and what I experienced, and to me, the experience felt real, as real as I am here on the couch with you two. Look at it like this, those windows behind you, they’re not letting in natural light, are they? And that isn't the river Thames or a London skyline behind you, is it? It's a video on giant screens made to look like windows with pre-recorded footage of the river Thames, so for the viewers at home, it seems like we are in a building with the River Thames behind us.
“It looks and feels as real to me as it does to the viewers at home, but because I saw it earlier, before we went live on air, I saw them as static screens. If I hadn't seen the blank screens before we went on air, then I would have thought they were real windows. That is how my experience with this iLUMiNO guy was. It felt authentic. It felt very real. But at the same time, it could quite as easily have been an immense illusion like the ones that Dynamo does.”
He paused to think and then carried on, “Was it real? I don’t know. Did it feel natural and authentic to me?” He looks off camera again, then makes direct eye contact with the camera again, ”Yes, it felt real to me. And if you are out there iLUMiNO, if you are watching this, come forward, show the world that you are real.”
The female presenter quickly looked up from her cue cards and interrupted Barkley, “If this being, this so-called iLUMiNO was real. Barkley what would you say to him? What would you say to him right now?”
The camera slowly panned in on Barkley you could see that he was shaking, noticeable beads of sweat were gathering on his temples. He had his hands clasped fingers interlocked and was looking down towards his hands. He slowly lifted his head to the camera and said directly eyes locked as if he was only speaking to me.
“I've just said it, prove the doubters wrong iLUMiNO, prove to the world that you are real, let them see what I saw, what Darcey saw. Prove to them that I am not going mad, that we have not made this up and that you are a real person, entity, being, whatever you are, come forward.”
His hands were visibly shaking, and I could see the tension in his eyes, it was as if he was asking for an end to this, like he was in pain. He was suffering, and it was my fault. I made my mind up straight away. I didn't want to see one of my closest friends feeling tormented like this, and before I'd even processed the thoughts, I noted the familiar feeling of all my cells igniting. Again, the glow surrounded my body as my clothes pixelated, transforming into iLUMiNO's purple and gold costume. I put my hand to my nose. I felt the straight ski slope nose of iLUMiNO. Flicking my hair with my hands, I had transformed into iLUMiNO.
Imagining the studio set, with the presenters Holly and Philip and Barkley, the transition began. From my living room, I could see a golden oval shape swirling right in front of me. This was different and very new to me. I'd not noticed this when I zoomed to Brighton or zoomed to the bike stand at work. Through the gold oval portal in my living room, I could see the presenters Holly and Philip, and Barkley, sat on the TV studio set's sofas. Still, instead of seeing what the camera was showing me on my TV set, I could see crew members, camera operators, in total, about fifteen people all stood in front of the studio set. Through the oval golden swarm of atoms, I focused on what I could see, and just as before, my vision zoomed in.
The studio's image appeared to open up, encompassing me like a fisheye lens surrounding me, and with a pop of pressure in my head and ears, just like being on a plane, I was in the studio.
The studio was in silence. No one said a word. I could hear the humming of the electricity from the high voltage lights, but that is all I heard. The two presenters sat but didn't speak; they were in just as much shock as the entire studio was.
I looked over at Barkley, and I smiled at him.
He looked like the weight of the world had lifted from his shoulders. His eyes lit up, as his smile filled his face.
I heard someone from the gallery or in the presenter's earpiece, shouting, “Say something, somebody for god sake say something!”
One of the producers on the studio floor shouted, “Geoff mic him up; quick!”
In his early twenties, a young man hurriedly ran up to me and clipped a lapel microphone onto the front of my costume. He unclipped the microphone receiver, a black box with a clip, from his belt where he had two other lapel microphones clipped into him. I guess if one of them failed during the live show; he was ready to switch microphones.
“I should clip this on you somewhere,” he says looking at my cape and shaking his head, nervously he continued. Handing me the black microphone receiver, “Or you could always hold onto it.”
I could hear a male voice deep in tone saying, “Cut the live feed. Cut the feed.”
Across the studio floor was a tall man in a black suit. He looked out of place, compared to the crew who were all dressed casually in jeans, loose shirts, and some with baseball caps on.
I instantly assumed this to be the government or national security or whoever it was that had taken Barkley and Darcey.
“Do not cut this live show,” I said as I walked over to the hosts Philip and Holly. They both stood up to greet me. Barkley remained seated. Three security men came bumbling into the studio out of breath, tasers in hand. The male presenter Philip saw them and shooed them back with his hand as he spoke into a camera.
“Let me address the viewers at home and explain what has just happened.”
Holly held her hand out towards me, which I took ready to shake, but instead, she did a curtsy in front of me as if I was royalty.
Philip went straight into presenter mode and addressed a camera.
“Ladies and Gentleman, what you have just witnessed live on television is no computer trickery or special effects of any level. I can confirm complete honesty that what I have just seen here, along with this entire studio of about twenty people, and including you sat at home watching this right now, live on television, this man appeared out of thin air. From a golden plume of what looked like golden swirling steam, he stepped into our studio. This is breaking news, and this is live to the nation.”
Philip turned around and faced me front on; he looked a lot smaller than I thought he would and had more wrinkles in the flesh.
“Please take a seat,” he said. “Do we call you iLUMiNO? Is that your name?”
“Yes, my name is iLUMiNO,” I said.
I turned to my left, Barkley was sitting on the edge of the sofa, placing my hand on his shoulder, I asked “Barkley, are you ok?”
He nodded and said, “Yes. Thank you so much for proving to the people that you are real. I was beginning to think that maybe you weren't. But, wow, I am... Just thank you, thank you for saving my life, and Darcey's too. Thank you.”
Holly was transfixed on me, as if in a trance, “I'm sorry for staring,” she said. “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing, we’ve all seen the footage on the news, but I am...” she paused to think, ”I don't know what I am, I guess I’m in some state of shock that you are real, and you’re here.”
Seeing Holly struggle to find the words, Philip took over. “I have to ask, I am sure there are a million questions to be asked. But the first one I have to ask, are you human? Are you from the future? Or are you using some new tech because what you have just demonstrated to us is not humanly possible and nor do we have the current technology to do so.”
“Phillip, Holly, Barkley, and the viewers at home and across the world. I am human, and no, I am not from the future.”
“Is there an explanation that we can understand as to how you can do what you can do? Are there more people like you with these abilities? Abilities such as flying, healing, moving objects like the gun. Should we be afraid? I can be honest and tell you and the viewers at home that I do not feel scared or threatened. I do, however, feel safe and...” he paused and then changed his voice to one of questioning himself, “I feel loved, if that makes sense, in your presence.”
Holly agreed, “Yes, I feel precisely the same. I am in awe of your presence. You make me feel connected to myself. A loving that we all know to be true.”
“Philip, to answer your questions. I do not have the full answers yet myself as to why I have these so-called powers, these abilities. However, I can tell you that I was part of a cosmic event that has somehow aligned my physical body with my spiritual and ethereal body, enabling me to have the abilities that I now have. I am still learning the extent of my abilities. In answer to your second question, no, there are no other people like me that I am aware of. I am an enigma to myself.”
Holly smiled, “I would agree you are very enigmatic, but can I ask, why iLUMiNO? Do you have a real name? Do you go about life with normality? Do you have an alternate identity, or is this you? Is this you all of the time?”
Barkley took a real interest in this question, and he turned towards me in anticipation of the answer.
“I will be honest with you. As of right now, I still do have what I would call everyday life. One that doesn't include the abilities that I now possess. Whether that changes in the future who knows, but right now yes, I do have an alter ego.”
Barkley sat back onto the sofa and relaxed a little.
Philip asked, “What is your purpose? Why are you here? Do you even know?”
“I am here to provide a balance of energies. To rid the earth of negative energy and to heal the earth. In doing so, enriching the earth to become a better place to be for all who inhabit it.”
I didn't know where those words came from, but I believed in them wholeheartedly.
“I really must go now. I only came to alleviate Barkley's fears of my existence,” I turned to Barkley before I stood up. “I am real, and I am as loyal to you now as I was when I removed that bullet from your shoulder. Positive thoughts, Barkley. Positive thoughts.”
I imagined my living room, my golden aura illuminated, and in front of me the oval gold shape of swirling smoke and steam appeared, and like a pop my living room surroundings enveloped around me, and I was home. The golden aura was dissipating, and my purple and golden costume pixelated back to what I was wearing before.
The television was still on, and I was shocked to see that I was still in the studio due to the one-minute live television broadcast delay.
I watched it back as I turned across to Barkley. The words ‘BREAKING NEWS LIVE' blazoned across the bottom of the screen.
I watched myself as I said to Barkley, “I am real, and I am as loyal to you now as I was when I removed that bullet from your shoulder. Positive thoughts, Barkley. Positive thoughts.”
‘iLUMiNO LIVE #POSITIVETHOUGHTS’ replaced the Breaking News tag on the screen.
I watched on the television, and I could see the golden aura get more substantial and brighter around my body and then the smoke screen that was the golden oval appeared. In a flash, I disappeared along with the golden oval of swirling golden steam.
The studio camera cut to the two presenters; both looked dumbfounded.
Holly said, “Wow.”
Philip replied, “Wow, indeed. You saw it, and you heard it here first.”
He looked at the camera, and you could tell he was reading from an autocue, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to cut this programme short as we take you straight to the newsroom with breaking news just coming in. I've got a sneaky suspicion what it might be.”
This was followed by a full screen breaking news card that filled the entire screen and the news bulletin theme.
The news presenter opened with, “We are sorry to interrupt your programming, but breaking news just in... The man who can fly, and saved Darcey Dyson from being shot, and saved Barkley Brown by removing a bullet from his shoulder leaving no trauma, has appeared live on television. iLUMiNO appeared out of nowhere during the live broadcast of the television show 'This Morning'.”
I turned the channels over, and each tv station was broadcasting 'Breaking News iLUMiNO is Real'.
That was it; I was indeed out in the public domain, I'd now made a pact with the citizens of my planet to make this world a better place, for all of us. I switched off the television, sat in my chair and smiled at myself.
iLUMiNO #positivethoughts. I liked it.
My phone rang. It was Barkley. “Where are you?” he asked.
“I'm at home. Why?”
“I'm in London, and the press is going mental on me. Have you seen what just happened live on TV?”
“No, what?” I lied.
“Oh man, you missed it, iLUMiNO appeared out of thin air while I was in the middle of this interview live on television. I'm on my way to the news studio now.”
“What really? OMG, what happened?”
“Turn on the TV mate, you will see.”
“Aaron, I have to go now, I'm being ushered into another studio. I need to go, they are telling me to turn off my mobile phone, but quick check, are we still on for this weekend's camping trip?”
“Sure, sure, I'll see you at my house, say 3 pm?”
“I'll be there.”