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We had arranged a meal for my Birthday, but there was to be a special guest, one who wouldn’t be able to resist. Barkley came up with the idea saying that Kim couldn’t make it, and he would invite Darcey as a plus one instead.
Darcey was now prime-time and wouldn’t normally associate with us low-life, normal people. But the investigative journalistic demon inside her wanted more of Aaron Abbey. We knew she would jump at the chance to attend a birthday meal with Aaron Abbey and a few of his friends. And she did.
“She’s confirmed,” Barkley had rung me that morning. He didn’t need to say any more, I knew who he meant. It was game on.
She swanned in from behind a lattice partition wall with fake ivy weaved in and out of it, which screened off the entrance to the toilets from the main eating area.
“Darling, darling,” she said. Her dress was an egotistical overstatement for the little small-town restaurant that we were eating in. She looked like she was about to collect an award at the Oscars. Her bleached blonde short spiky hair and heavy eye makeup really did make her look like the James Bond villainess that I imagined she was.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again, and on your birthday. Many happy returns sweetie,” she came in to kiss my cheek, but with no physical contact. “Mwah,” she said and then strolled over to Barkley.
Looking out of the window she said, “My my, someone's doing well for themselves. It's not a substitute for something else is it darling?” followed by a cheeky laugh. The girls laughed, along with her. I must admit, they were amazing. They were acting just as normal, no one would have guessed that the six of us had a plan in place.
A black car pulled up outside with blacked-out windows and parked behind the Bugatti. It stayed there for ages and no one got out of it. We all looked at each other, we were not expecting company. Barkley’s face was pinched. I could see the thought pattern in his face. Was this the secret government people? If so, the plan definitely couldn’t not go ahead.
“What's up with everyone,” Darcey laughed, sat at the head of the table. “It's just my car waiting to pick me up.”
The waiter came over and took our order. The meal was ok, nothing special, but ok. There wasn’t anything unusual about the evening apart from the fact that no one brought up the subject of iLUMiNO, not even Darcey. I looked over at Barkley and I gave him an extended look, he knew what it meant.
“So, are you any closer with your investigation on the Leicester Square Bombing?” he asked Darcey outright. All eyes moved towards Darcey.
“Oh, I’m close,” she replied. “Very close,” she said, eyes transfixed on me as she took a drink from her wine glass.
“You are? That’s great,” I said. “So, you definitely think it was iLUMiNO that planted the bomb?” I asked making eye contact with her in return.
“I know for a fact it was iLUMiNO darling,” she said. She leaned into the table and quietly said, “I’ve got proof.”
She sat back and took another delicate sip from her glass. She owned the table right now, and she knew it.
“What proof?” Leigh blurted out knee jerk reaction style, then made shifty eyes at me as if to say sorry.
“What proof?” She laughed putting her glass down on the table. “Now if I told you that, I wouldn’t be a good reporter, would I? And besides,” she said rubbing her index finger around the top of her wine glass. “I wouldn’t want iLUMiNO to trash the evidence, would I?” Again, she made direct eye contact with me.
“What if iLUMiNO was in this room? What if he was sitting at this table with you right now, what would you say?”
“I wouldn’t be worried at all,” she laughed. “I’d simply say ‘Hello iLUMiNO!’ I’m wearing a body mic, and I have a camera focused on me from my car, I don’t have anything to be worried about.”
“You're filming us?” Leigh blurted out again, this time with no apologetic glance over at me, slamming her coke down on the table. At the same time, Lottie sprayed her drink over the table.
Passing Lottie a napkin she said, “Darling, I’m filming me, don’t worry. It’s a dangerous job I do, you never know when you will need footage.”
She had come with the hope that she would be able to get something from the meal. Bringing a micro-film crew, she was hoping that this meal would reveal more than meets the eye.
And boy was she right. The plan we had wasn’t going to work, we all knew at this point it was game over. But not for me, that was it.
This was the moment. It was now or never, I felt an energy surge like no other. My cells ignited and I could feel the transformation taking place. I shifted into the neutral zone but this time I brought someone along with me.
Time froze and everyone stood still mid breath, the waiter began to pixelate to blackness, the restaurant followed, and eventually Barkley, Penelope, Leigh, Lottie and Brenda faded away. Leaving myself and Darcey sitting in the black room, sitting at an empty table with a light shining down on both of us.
I was iLUMiNO.
“I knew it,” she said laughing and happy that her discovery was true. Looking around she stuttered, “How did you? What have you? Nevermind. I’m sorry Aaron, or iLUMiNO, the world has a right to know who you are and what you are capable of and now you have given me the biggest scoop I could ever wish for.”
“Who I am?” I said standing up from the chair at the table.
“What I am capable of?” I said walking towards her.
“What I am capable of?” I said even louder.
“I will show you what I am capable of!” I waved my hands to create the construct of a scene.
Out of the darkness, in front of us as if the scene was on an actual stage, you could see me as myself outside the lifts at the hospital at work. The little girl Caroline sat in the oversized wheelchair, riddled with cancer. I showed her how I pulled the negative energy from her body. I was emotional as I watched it back, her little face unsure what was happening, but knowing that she was now going to be ok.
I swiped the scene across, and took us to a scene of Caroline playing in the school playground. Her hair had grown back. Ginger locks fell down her face and bounced around as she played with the other children.
Waving my hand again as if swiping a screen across, I showed her another scene.
I took Darcey to the attempted shoot out. Barkley laid on the floor blood pouring from his shoulder. The gunman with a gun towards Darcey's head.
“Do you remember what you felt at this moment?” I asked Darcey. “Do you remember the fear flowing through your body the moment you had a gun to your head?”
She remained silent.
“Do you?” I raised my voice.
“I don’t ... I don’t remember,” she said, her voice cracking. I know she didn’t want to remember.
“Let's remember,” I said.
Darcey was no longer sitting at the table. She was in the same position as the reconstructed Darcey, her evening dress now even more out of place.
“Now do you remember?” I asked.
“Please,” she cried, “I don’t want to.”
“Look at the gun, Darcey. This gun has just shot Barkley down and you are next. Is that what you want to happen?”
“No, no I don’t!” she cried.
“Are you sure?” I said. “Because if I don’t turn up, you're sure as dead. Shall we let that scenario play out?” I asked. She didn’t answer.
I gestured with my hand three circles and the scene rewound to the part when Barkley entered the road and then it started to play out again. A recreation of what happened, the only difference was Darcey was still wearing the evening dress. Darcey was in the scene again. I stood watching from the side.
“Stay where you are,” the gunman shouted at Barkley. “I only want one death today, don't make it two.”
Darcey moved her eyes, just her eyes, as she looked at me in fear.
I shrugged my shoulders. “The world doesn’t need me,” I said, as I stood back and watched with my arms folded. “Barkley will survive the shoulder bullet; I don’t know the extent of your injuries yet because we haven’t got to that bit yet. You know what happens when iLUMiNO comes and changes your destiny. Let's see what happens when he doesn’t come, shall we?”
I felt really bad letting this play out. Darcey was getting more and more upset and I didn’t like toying with her emotions. But I had to carry on.
The gunman shot the gun into the air, the camera and sound man came into vision, albeit pixelated, they were not relevant to this current play out.
The gunman grabbed the real Darcy's hand and spun her around, pulling the back of her head onto his chest. The real Darcey screamed, “No not again! Please no!”
The gunman took the gun from the side of Darcey's head and pointed it directly at Barkley. “Stay back, or I will shoot,” he said, flipping the weapon back and forth from Darcey's head to Barkley and back, just like he did at the real event.
“Put the gun down,” Barkley said.
“This is what I originally said as iLUMiNO,” I pointed out. “But without me appearing, it looks like this scene is now playing out very differently.”
I was now just an observer. Darcey was a participant of a scene she was party to in real life, real-time to her, but this version would have totally different endings.
“Please don’t do this,” she said. I don’t know if she was directing this at me or the gunman. Either way, I let the scene play out.
Again, the gunman said, “Stay where you are. I only want one death today, don't make it two.”
“Put the gun down,” Barkley said taking two steps closer.
Bang, the gun went off as he shot it into the air. Darcey screamed out loud and appeared to be more scared than she was when it happened the first time around.
“I said step back,” the gunman repeated, even more agitated. This was new territory now.
Barkley took one step closer and BANG. The gunman shot at Barkley just like he did in the real event, Barkley took the bullet in his shoulder, falling to the ground instantly. He was out cold.
“All I can do is watch,” I said.
Darcey was screaming and struggling to get out of the clutches of the gunman.
She looked helpless but I had to let this play through.
She managed to free herself and she ran towards me, the real me and then BANG.
The next part was played out in slow motion.
The gunman’s gun had sparks coming from it. The bullet appeared, and shock waves followed it as it made its way towards Darcey. She turned around in real-time, she could see the bullet coming for her. Her eyes froze in fear. Tears filled the corners of her eyes. She closed them awaiting her fate, tears rolling down her face now in slow motion.
When she finally opened her eyes, the bullet was right in front of her frozen in time.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I said.
She looked at me, scared stiff. Her eyes moved across to me and then back to the bullet. Slowly she took a step back.
She didn’t say anything. Black mascara ran either side of her face.
The coffee shop scene faded away back to the blackness of the still room. The bullet was the last thing to go. I grabbed it and gave it to Darcey, She looked at it remorsefully.
The scene changed to that of a funeral. It was inside a church, and at the front was an open casket. The little girl Caroline lay in it. Her mother was on her knees sobbing uncontrollably at the side of the coffin. A picture of the little girl full of life and good health lay beside the sobbing mother. The corpse was distressing for even me to see, the skin whiter than white. You could see they had tried to give her a splash of colour with makeup, but it was obvious, her bald head and cheekbones protruding, she looked frailer than when I saw her in the hospital. She looked like she had suffered.
Darcey burst into tears, “Oh no please, no. I can’t bear it.”
“There is also the girl I saved from being raped. Do you want to go and see that take place in a world where iLUMiNO doesn’t exist? In a world where iLUMiNO isn’t allowed to exist because of you?”
“No, no,” she said. “Please don’t. I’m sorry. I really am. Please no more.”
The scene turned back to the room, the chair and table appeared just where she was, all she needed to do was sit down. I sat beside her. Two adults talking openly.
“Why?” I asked.
“You were my big break,” she said. “That’s why.”
Wiping tears away and smudging mascara across the side of her cheek.
“I have worked hard all my life. I have pushed and delivered and done things in my life, and in my career, things that I didn’t want to, but I had to in order to work my way up.”
“You were my golden ticket. You gave me a twenty-year jump start on my career. It’s a fickle business is journalism. But you gave me a taste of the high life and I wanted more.”
“By painting me as the bad guy.”
“I was threatened by you. Most of the world is. We don’t know what you are capable of, what your intentions are.”
“I felt compelled to do something, and the career jump you gave me wasn’t enough. I wanted more. I wanted more,” she cried. “I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t know if I can fix this. I wish I’d have taken the bullet. Maybe the world would be better off without me.”
“Darcey, those scenarios will never play out. Not in this timeline anyway. They may have done in other timelines. But this one, I was there to change those events in a positive way.”
“I still don’t know how I can change things. The media is a powerful tool, one word can change the whole perception of events and change public opinion one way or another.”
“Don’t I know it. Calling me out as a terrorist, live on television! Yeah, I guess you know your stuff. Let me heal you,” I said giving her a tissue that appeared on the table.
“Heal me?” she said, wiping her nose.
“If you give me permission to heal you, I think you will be able to move forward.”
“What is this place?” The trauma of the scenes playing out was subsiding and Darcey realised she was no longer in the restaurant, “Where are we?”
“We are in the neutral zone,” I said. “Here, time stands still on the outside. Whilst in here I am able to construct events, scenarios if you like and watch them play out. I’m still learning my skills and abilities. If I’d have thought, I could have come here before the bomb exploded and looked at different outcomes. But I didn’t. I was naïve. I'm still only human”.
“So, what now?” she said, rolling the bullet she still had in her hand between her thumb and forefinger.
“Let me heal you,” I said.
“Heal me?” she said again, “I haven’t got any injuries.”
“Let me heal your heart. I am able to take away all negative energy from within. But I won't do it without your permission.”
“That’s what the girl said on the news. You asked before you changed her. I don’t want to be changed,” she said. “I like being me”.
“Do you? Do you really Darcey?”
She looked down at the table and shook her head slowly.
“Then let me heal you.”
She lifted her head, looked into my eyes, and nodded.
“Go ahead. Do your worst,” she said.
Placing two fingers on her forehead, my hand glowing, the dark energy that she had within was being released. Anger, betrayal, jealousy, rage, fear, loneliness. A barrage of negativity attached to these emotions was released.
She took a big breath out as if someone had knocked the air out of her lungs. She looked at me and her eyes lit up. She looked alive; her soul looked like it had been awakened.
“What have you done?” she asked.
“I’ve released the negativity that was stuck to some of your memories and emotions. Don’t worry, you will still feel negative emotions in the future, and you will still remember the ones you have had in the past. After all, it was those feelings, that defined you and made you into the person you are today. The only thing that’s changed is they are no longer dragging you down. Emotional baggage, sleepless nights, bad decisions, can now be a thing of the past if you embrace it.”
“I feel like a new woman,” she said. “I can't thank you enough.”
“You can,” I said. “You can do the right thing and undo the negative work around iLUMiNO. Let us re-write the future. If you make it right, I will give you first dibs on a full-on interview with me.”
“You’d do that?”
I nodded, “Promise.”
She smiled. I stood and took my seat at the other end of the table.
“Are we going back now?” she asked.
“Ready when you are.”
She smiled and gave me a nod.
Suddenly, the black room began to light up one pixel at a time, the waiter appeared, and then the background to the restaurant, and then items on the table, followed by my friends, and then life carried on just as we left it.
Darcey looked over at me as Aaron. She said nothing, as she slowly held the bullet up to me from the neutral zone.
“How?” I didn’t have time to finish my question, she dropped the bullet into her handbag then pulled out a wad of notes. Standing up she put them on the table.
“Darlings it's been a wonderful time, and I have very much enjoyed your company, but I have to leave I have things I need to do. I'll take care of the bill, please, it's my way of...” she paused. “Well, it's my way of saying thank you.”
Leigh stood up, “Don’t, you can't leave yet!”
“Aaron,” she said looking at me across the table.
“It’s ok guys,” I said. “I've done my bit.”
Darcey turned around and looked at us all at the table, a realisation hit her across the face. She had realised they all knew my secret. With a nod of understanding, she turned to leave.
“I’ll be seeing you. But right now, I have an important interview to schedule with iLUMiNO,” Darcey said as she turned and walked out of the building.
“What did you do?” Barkley asked.
I sat there and smiled back at my gang.
“I healed her,” I said.