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We didn’t come up with any plan for most of the night, we just sat and drank. He wanted to see some of my skills and abilities, but I told him I’d rather not demonstrate anything outside, especially in my own back garden with the risk of the neighbours overlooking. I was in enough trouble as iLUMiNO. I didn’t need the added risk of my own life being ruined by performing some parlour tricks for Barkley. He agreed. It didn’t take long for us to finish the spiced rum that he’d brought, it was only a small bottle.
“I really fancy another drink. Have you got anything in?” He said, pouring the last drop from the glass down his throat.
“I had a splash of vodka left, but Lottie made use of that dropping the glass and the vodka all over my carpet earlier.”
“Well, you could always go and get some, you know, without actually leaving your seat.”
I didn’t need to say anything to him I just looked at him, like a parent about to tell a child off. “Come on,” he said, “just grab a bottle from the shelf at the supermarket.”
“Mate, I’m not going to steal anything, they will have security cameras, especially on the alcohol. Oh yeah!’ I scoffed, “I can see the news headlines now. iLUMiNO Terrorist, Alcoholic, Thief.”
“Ahh come on pal, I just want a couple more drinks with you. You owe me remember, and besides I can’t drive now, I'm way over the limit.”
“Mate,” I said. “I’m not going to be emotionally persuaded or blackmailed or whatever you want to call it, not now not ever.”
His face sunk in and his eyes drooped down at the outer edges, his body withdrew like a child having his hand slapped for being naughty.
Those big brown puppy dog eyes, I’m sure I’m not the only one he can work those eyes on. He pretty much always gets what he wants.
“Ok,” I said. “But not because you owe me, it’s because I want another drink as well.”
He smiled, “Nice one.”
“I’m not taking it from a shop though, I won’t steal, I never have done, and I won’t start now. Have you got any liquor in at yours?” I asked, looking at him face on, he knew where I was going with this.
“Yeah,” he said rubbing his hands together excitedly. “Kim will be in bed by now, you know my kitchen, yeah? Well, I’ve got another bottle; left-hand side bottom cupboard.”
“Right. Two secs,” I said as I made my way inside. He was watching me through the glass patio doors. This was my way of killing two birds with one stone, showing him some iLUMiNO magic and getting the booze from his house.
I created a portal that gave me the travel window, just by imagining Barkley’s kitchen. I stepped through as myself, no iLUMiNO get up. However, the golden glow surrounded my body lit up my kitchen, shining out onto the patio. I stepped through into Barkley’s kitchen. I turned back, and I could see Barkley sitting on the rattan furniture in my back garden. It did look really bizarre if I am honest, but I was getting used to it. I grabbed the bottle from the cupboard, but as I was about to leave, I heard a voice that I recognised. It was a voice that I couldn’t put a face to, but I was sure I recognised it. I was certain it wasn’t Kim. The voice mentioned the name iLUMiNO, I could hear it crystal clear. It was coming from Barkley’s living room. I sneakily walked down the small hallway, leaving the portal open to my house. I peered into Barkley’s living room and Kim was sitting on the couch with her back towards me watching the latest news broadcast.
The voice I could hear was coming from the TV. It was the girl that I saved from the attacker. I leaned onto the living room door and as I did it moved ever so slightly, but enough for it to make a creaking noise. Before Kim could turn round, I ran back to the portal. Barkley was there hanging his head through it taking in the view of his own kitchen from my house. “Wow,” he said. “How cool is this!”
“Quick,” I said. “Kim heard me.”
He took a step back and I headed into the portal with his bottle of spiced rum in hand.
“Quick, grab me those marshmallows from the side will you?”
I rolled my eyes, grabbed them, and stepped back into my own house. The portal closed with a near silent woosh.
“Put the news on,” I said. “There’s a girl on the TV saying positive things about me. About iLUMiNO.”
Barkley switched on my TV and flicked a couple of channels, and there she was. The young woman I had saved and staved off an attacker.
“He wouldn’t do that, I know it in my heart. There is no way iLUMiNO would plant a bomb. He scared off my attacker. I was about to be raped, I know I was. I wasn’t strong enough to push the attacker off but iLUMiNO came and scared him off. If it wasn’t for iLUMiNO I don’t know what frame of mind I would be in right now. I did sustain an injury that iLUMiNO healed just like he healed that famous guy, Barkley. But not only that, he actually asked my permission to do so. What kind of terrorist would do that? He asked my permission to be healed. Not only did he heal my open wound, but he also touched my forehead, looked into my eyes, and I looked deep into his soul and all I could see, all I could feel was love, and within seconds it was like a flash of energy something that I have never ever felt before. I felt every demon that I had, all the bad thoughts and bad feelings I’d got, every last bit of negative energy that I had, disappear in an instant. It was like I had been hit with an electrical current that neutralised negative energy.
“Before all of this, before meeting iLUMiNO I was unemployed, I slept on my mother’s couch, I needed alcohol to curb the pain of life, I was a nobody, and I was going nowhere in life. Whatever iLUMiNO did to me that night changed my life for the better. Because instantly I loved myself, instantly I accepted my flaws, instantly I knew what I needed to do to give my life a purpose. My life already had a purpose, don’t get me wrong, but not a happy one. He helped me see the goodness in myself. iLUMiNO is no terrorist. He’s an enigmatic being of love and compassion and balance.”
The camera panned back to the reporter, not Darcey Dyson.
“iLUMiNO is still wanted for questioning over the attempted Leicester Square Cinema bombing. The investigation...”
I turned it off before the reporter finished his sentence.
“She’s right,” I said to Barkley. “When I am close to people, I can see a dark energy. It’s like a life force all on its own. I know it’s a negative energy, or some kind of darkness within a person, and I can pull on it, I can pull it out. I can alleviate a person’s struggles in life.”
“Did you do that when you healed me?” Barkley asked looking very serious.
“No, I didn’t see any negative energy in you mate. I saw pain around your wound in the form of negative energy, that’s what I did I pulled the negative energy out of your wound and it healed.”
“Wow, mate. You could make millions just healing people! Imagine a world where no one dies, or has any pain. You could be the cure for cancer.”
“Mate,” I said. “I don’t think you’re thinking this through right. That would be a full-time job with no let-up ever. I like my life as Aaron Abbey, kind-hearted hospital porter, thank you very much. iLUMiNO isn’t a permanent fixture in my life yet.”
“Yet,” he replied.
My phone rang, it was Lottie, I let it ring longer than I should, I just stared at the screen. Barkley saw that it was Lottie, “Aren’t you going to get that?” he asked.
Picking the phone up, I switched it to speakerphone, “Hey Lottie, how are you feeling love? Barkley’s still with me. You're on loud speaker, were having a good catch up, how are you?”
“I’ve just had the news on, and there was this woman, that you, that iLUMiNO, saved and she said he, you changed her life.”
“We saw it too.”
“Well,” she paused. “That’s what you did to me Aaron, you pulled every negative demon within me, out of me. My anxiety was through the roof before I came to yours today. You have made me feel like I am a new person, like all my worries and all my stresses, all the negative pressure I was under, has gone. Lifted as if... as if, I’m me again, like I have been reset.”
“Wow,” Barkley said. “You see Aaron, there’s a market for this.”
“I’m so pleased you’re ok, and feel better, I didn’t see your worries, your anxiety.” I said, “I just saw it as a negative energy in you. That’s the only way I can explain it.”
“Well don’t you see?” she said with a tint of excitement in her voice.
“See what?” I said.
“Aaron, you have got the perfect tool, weapon, or power, whatever you want to call it, you are the perfect person to show Darcey Dyson who she really is. You can save her from herself, and at the same time save yourself. Or iLUMiNO. Oh, you get what I mean, don’t you? I don’t get this two names thing. What I’m trying to say is. Pull the negative energy from Darcey. Do your thing! Maybe, just maybe she might come clean or do the right thing.”
Barkley looked at me, raised his glass and said, “And now my friend, we have a plan...”