This is the continuation of my freewritemadness/NaNoWriMo story.
Catch up with the previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23part1, 23Part2, 23Part3, 23Part4, 24, 25Part1, 25Part2, 26Part1, 26Part2, 27Part1, 27Part2, 28Part1
…
I am using 
Today’s prompts are: boxer and a Photo by Kyle Brinker on Unsplash
As usual I started with the freewrite prompt and used themostdangerouswritingapp.com to write the first five minutes:
The many torments of Tiny Earl - Chapter 28 (Part 2)
They made small talk whilst Brett busied himself making sure Eleanor was comfortable and that she had everything she needed. Then, seeing he couldn't justify hanging around in the room any more, he slipped out, leaving the door ajar. Eleanor stood up, from the chair she sat in beside Clare's bed, and strode over to the door and gently closed it.
"I guess," she said, returning to the chair. "You have a few questions that you'd like answered." Clare nodded.
"And I’m guessing you don't need me to ask them, you know what they are: go ahead. You've changed, Eleanor. Something about you is different. You are... stronger."
Eleanor smiled and nodded.
"I have had some time to prepare," she said. "Well, let’s just say time has become less of an issue for me." She bent her arm at the elbow, showing Clare her bicep muscle. "I've even had time to learn how to fight," she said. "From a professional boxer. Nice guy, called Muhammad Ali. I don’t think you recognise the name, he wasn’t a part of our reality." She smiled again. "But you probably want to know how you got here, in this bed, and how much time has gone by since your last memory... which I am guessing is you in the kitchen of the coastal house,"
Clare nodded.
“When you crossed over, I had to fight pretty hard to get hold of you, you know,” Eleanor said, sitting back in the chair. “There were… forces that wanted you for their own purposes, some you are familiar with, some you are not. I’m afraid that… battle, had a bit of an effect on your health and you were knocked unconcious… and displaced somewhat.”
“Displaced?”
“I lost my grip of you, and whilst you ended up in the right reality and the right time frame, you didn’t quite end up in the location I had in mind.”
“I ended up in the sea.”
“Yes.”
“I nearly drowned.”
“Actually,” Eleanor shifted uncomfortably. She looked… embarrassed.
“Actually, you did drown. Several times. It took me several attempts before I managed to get the rescue team in the right place at the right time.”
Clare’s head was beginning to thump again. She reached over for the glass of water on the table beside her, and took a sip.
“Okay…” she said. “I’m not sure I am following you, but go on.”
“It turns out I have certain… abilities, I was unaware of,” Eleanor said. “All these years, I thought I was a freak, unnatural… well it turns out I was right. But, my uniqueness has certain advantages. It turns out whilst Tiny flits about from reality to reality, ripping holes in the very fabric of the multiverse, causing loose threads to start unravelling realities, I do the opposite… I have the ability to take hold of those threads, and make something new.”
Clare smiled, “Like some kind of multiverse seamstress?”
Eleanor laughed. “Something like that,” she said. “Although I don’t use a needle, and I don’t do sewing. It’s difficult to explain. I can hold the multiverse in my hand, like a small brightly coloured ball,” Eleanor’s expression glazed over, as she spoke, Clare assumed she was seeing the image she was trying to explain. “And I massage the threads into their rightful place.”
Clare shook her head. Perhaps Eleanor was insane.
“You’re not making sense, Eleanor.”
Eleanor’s expression changed, as she came out of her dreamstate. She looked directly at Clare.
“I did tell you it was difficult to explain,” she said, a little haughtily. “Anyway, how I do what I do is by the by. Your Mr Belmond recognised my talents early on. And manipulated me so I would get close to Tiny. Although his motives were not as benign as he would have you believe.”
“Sorry… my Mr Belmond? Who the actual fuck is Mr Belmond?”
“I think you know him as the shopkeeper”
“You know about the shop?” Clare sat up.
“You’d be surprised what I know, Clare. Did you know that the shopkeeper has a wife?”
“I… I don’t know… I’ve never really thought about his private life.”
“Oh, his wife is very much involved in the day to day running of the shop. You’d recognise her, I think. Her name is Janet. In another reality she was Tiny’s wife. In fact, in this reality she was Tiny’s wife too. But let’s just say… slightly less faithful than Tiny would have wanted.”
Clare closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Perhaps she was dreaming all of this. She would wake up in a moment and find herself back in the coastal house. Or even better, at home.
“You’re home doesn’t really exist any more. Well, at the moment… unless we fix a few things.”
Clare opened her eyes and stared at Eleanor. “You read minds now?”
“Sort of,” Eleanor said, smiling.
“Can you read this?”
Eleanor laughed. “Nice imagery, Clare. But to answer your unasked question, that went with that picture: where the fuck am I? This reality, the one we are in right now, is the part of the multiverse that is causing all the problems.”
“The one that Tiny came from?”
“Not our Tiny. He originated in a reality that has long since disappeared. Even I couldn’t find the threads that came from that part of the multiverse. No, he wasn’t born here, but he spent enough time here to make a lot of trouble. And it is that trouble that is hunting him in the reality we originated from.”
“What are we doing here, Eleanor? And why do you need me?”
Eleanor smiled. “You’re important, Clare. Like me you have a certain sensitivity to the multiverse. Unlike me, you have had some training. And you know the workings of the shop. I need you to help me stop Tiny before he fucks things up here, and disappears again to fuck more things up.”
“I was kind of working on that, back where I was. Before you took me and dumped me in the ocean.”
“Okay… two things, firstly you were the one who decided to take a little trip through the multiverse, I just saved you from falling into the wrong hands. Secondly, back there, the people you were working for: they weren’t part of the solution, Clare. They were part of the problem. Belmond - your little twisted cross-eyed shopkeeper - he doesn’t want to protect your reality - or any other fucking reality, for that matter. He, his fucked up psychotic wife and their psychopathic daughter, want to get their hands on the machine Tiny used to flit from universe to universe. And you can bet it isn’t to help heal the wounds they helped cause. They want revenge.
“Revenge? Revenge on who?”
“The person who is fucking with your Tiny. The person they were trying to kill when he turned up and screwed things up,” Eleanor leaned over Clare and picked up the magazine she’d been reading. She pointed at the picture of the man with the “Thing BIG. Vote TINY” rosette. “They want to kill Tiny Earl.”
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