| |
After the laughter had died down, and Barkley had said hello to everyone, the room fell silent again and all eyes were fixed on me. Well, he didn’t exactly say hello to me, he just gave me a nod and took the last remaining chair in the living room. He slouched back casually and looked around the room. He looked really well. He sat there and didn’t look like a scorned friend that I thought he was. He looked happy to see me, and although no words were exchanged. I was happy to see him too.
“As if!” Leigh said stuffing another biscuit in her mouth. “I mean...” She laughed at herself with a mouth full of digestive biscuit on show, “I’ll be honest, I did at one point think that you could be the infamous iLUMiNO, but then reality kicked in. I told you at work, didn’t I?” She continued to laugh at herself. “This is going to be good. Oh, I'm glad I came now!” she said rearranging the cushions and getting comfortable.
Brenda looked directly into my eyes, as if she was piercing my soul. Bluntly and to the point, “Are you?” she asked.
Lottie shoved Brenda's shoulder as she laughed out loud. “Are you seriously asking him if he’s iLUMiNO?” she continued to laugh, “Oh, don’t make me laugh, I'll need to go to the toilet, weak bladder!” she laughed.
I could tell by her laugh that she was deflecting, it was a nervous laugh in case the answer was yes.
I had to tell them. I had to let them in on my secret, but most of all, I wanted to tell them that I was innocent and that I had not planted the bomb. That was the main reason behind this. I wanted my friends to believe me when I said it wasn’t me. I wanted my friends to reassure me that everything was going to be ok, and that we would get through this, together. The only obstacle in doing this was that I had to reveal the biggest secret I have ever held.
“He’s right,” I said with my head held low. I felt ashamed admitting that I was the world’s most wanted terrorist. “But I’m innocent,” I said with passion lifting my head up so they could see my face. I was upset, I didn’t want them to judge me.
Leigh didn’t say anything as she struggled to get up from the chair, but when she did she put her arms around me and I placed my head on her shoulder, she always mothered me.
Lottie was in denial straight away, “Is this some kind of a wind-up? I haven’t got time for this, really I haven’t, I've told you my kids are with the neighbour and I'm freaking out. I'm off.” She grabbed her bag and her coat and walked past me and Leigh, heading towards the front door.
“Lottie,” I said. “They are ok. I promised you, didn’t I? Look.”
Letting go from Leigh's embrace I reached out with my right hand. The golden glow of energy was emitting from my hand like I was holding onto something that was on fire. I drew a circle in the air which opened a one-way viewing portal to Lottie's living room. The twins were visible, sat on the rug in front of the television playing a computer game and her littlest was sat at the dining table colouring in. A woman sat on the sofa reading a newspaper.
“You see? I told you they were ok.”
Lottie dropped her handbag and her hat at the door and slowly walked up to the portal, she stood right in front and looked through inside the portal that revealed her living room. She stroked the golden smoky edges of the portal as if they were a new born puppy. She was mesmerised and bewildered. Slowly, she took her mobile phone from her pocket and pressed the recent call button, watching the neighbour eagerly. The lady who was sat on Lottie's couch, reading Lottie's newspaper, picked up her phone and said hello.
Lottie stuttered her words, looking around at the others, “I’m just checking you're all ok?” she said.
“We’re all good,” the neighbour said down the phone. “Take your time. The girls are colouring and playing Xbox games. Is everything ok at your end?”
Lottie said, “Yeah, everything is fine.” She hung up the phone.
Sitting back down on the sofa with the others, her face was still and motionless as if she’d had years of botox.
“I... I don’t know what to say,” Penelope said, looking as shocked and perplexed as everyone else in the room. “Is this some sort of wind-up? Are we being filmed? Is this one of those reality TV shows?”
“What just happened?” Brenda said. “Can someone please explain what just happened?”
“Barkley has already told you,” I said. “I am iLUMiNO.”
Just saying those words out loud, for the first time even to myself, felt good. It felt revitalising to actually say those words and let my friends in on the biggest secret of my life.
“So, you're not gay then?” Brenda said
“Hang on a minute,” Leigh said. “What's that got to do with what we have just seen? Gay or not, I’m not being funny, but we have just witnessed a miracle right in front of our very eyes!”
“You’re the intellectual one, Brenda. Have you not grasped what we have just seen?” Leigh said.
“Yes, I am. It's just that, my brain can’t rationalise what I've just seen, I really thought we were coming here for you to come out to us,” Brenda said as she began rocking on the edge of her seat again.
Barkley just sat there stroking his chin. He remained silent.
“Ok,” I said. “Yes, I am gay, there I've said that too. Not that you didn’t know. But I am also iLUMiNO and I didn't plant a bomb. I am not a criminal. I’m not a terrorist. I’m still me. You guys know me, I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Have you got any vodka? I need a stiff drink,” Lottie said as she stood up and made her way to the kitchen, her skin pale and shiny with perspiration, she was in shock.
“I knew it, I bloody knew it!” Leigh said holding a cushion in front of her. “Do something else,” she said, wriggling into the chair. “Come on, show us some more!”
“Yeah, show us iLUMiNO if you are him,” Penelope piped up, “I’m not yet convinced. I don’t know what I saw just now but...”
She stopped mid-sentence as I transformed into my alter ego. The gold embers surrounded my body. My face changed into that of iLUMiNO and the purple costume and cape looked so out of place in my living room with my friends looking at me.
“I... I don’t believe it,” Penelope finished.
Lottie came back from the kitchen with a glass of clear liquid I assumed was vodka, she stood and froze, and she stared at me for what seemed like an eternity. I could feel her fear, the internal drum of anguish, it was a fear of the unknown. Her hands began to shake and she crushed the top of the thin glass, causing a deep laceration through the palm of her hand. Blood ran down her arm and the colour faded from her face. Brenda let out a small scream. Penelope put her little dog down and quickly pulled off her pink silk neck scarf rushing towards Lottie. She placed it on her lacerated hand and sat her down before she fainted.
All eyes were upon me as I walked up to Lottie, she pulled away in fear until I said, “Lottie it’s me, Aaron.”
Penelope was still stemming the blood, and Lottie wouldn’t let me come near her.
“Stay away,” she said. “Stay away from me.” She was shaking, the fear was real.
I slowly edged towards her, repeating, “It’s me Lottie, Aaron, let me help you.”
By now she was crying and shaking her head, blood was all over her dress as Penelope tried her best to stop the bleeding.
I stood there in front of her, looking directly into her eyes, as my real face, the face that she recognised, came through the golden aura. I was still in the iLUMiNO costume, but I was Aaron Abbey. “See,” I said “It’s me. You're ok, I promise. Let me look at that hand.”
“Let him look at your hand,” Barkley said, the first thing he had said in a while. “If you don’t, it's an accident and emergency trip. You’re talking six hours in A & E. Do you want to be away from your daughters that long?”
She shook her head. “No,” she sobbed.
“I won't hurt you,” I said. “I promise.” Lottie slowly extended her torn hand out to me. Penelope removed the blood-soaked neck scarf and you could see it was a deep cut, fatty tissue and ligaments were visible.
Holding her hand in the cusp of both my hands, an orange, golden glow surrounded my hands as they healed the wound. It felt warm and electrifying, I could feel dark energy, the pain, leaving her body.
Once the healing of her hand was done, I held onto her a moment longer, and that’s when I saw her deepest of fears. She was once nearly abducted by a man in a car as a child and she has lived with this fear all her life. She knew what I saw, she knew I felt what she felt, and she let me, like a patient talking to a psychologist. It was like she agreed to share that information with me. Without verbally asking, it was an unwritten communication like our souls were having a full-blown conversation, she agreed to let me help her. The anxiety that she had lived with all these years, the fear and anguish that had built up inside, the evil dark memories that had scarred her, were now being released.
I could see the darkness being pulled away from her head, as it travelled down her arm and into my hand. It clearly made an electrical spark as it burnt on exit.
She pulled her hand away slowly; we had connected on a level that we have never connected on before. She looked at her hand and remnants of blood were all that was left.
“Thank you,” she said in a meaningful soft voice. She wasn’t shaking anymore. She was at peace with herself for the first time in a very long time.
Looking over at the broken glass on the carpet, I imagined all the pieces being together again. An orange glow surrounded the broken glass and the pieces on the floor, they lifted up from the carpet. Extending out my hand as I imagined it being one whole piece again, it slowly became the original glass as it landed in the palm of my hand.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else to hurt themselves,” I said as I put the glass down on the bookshelf. The vodka remained on the carpet.
I looked over at all my friends, all of them sat with bewildered looks on their faces, even Barkley.
“I didn't plant the bomb guys. I didn’t, you have to believe me.”
I felt emotionally drained, my voice cracked and I fell to my knees. The superhero before them crying like a child who has just lost his parents.
“I need you guys to know, I am not the bad person here.”
“No, you're not mate,” Barkley said as he pulled me up from my knees. “Darcey Dyson is and we’re going to help you prove it.”