NaNoWriMo + @freewritehouse = #freewritemadness.

17 18 freewriters are gathering at the @freewritehouse to write 50000 words in one month!

I had meant to write yesterday on the train back from London. But DISASTER struck! My wife had her phone pickpocketed in Paris, somewhere between getting off the Eurostar and getting on the Metro. So instead of a nice relaxing train journey home, we had to spend the time, cancelling the phone sim, cancelling the credit card (we both use our phone like a wallet) and generally feeling a bit shit!

So today I am going back to the story. Instead of finishing chapter 23 like I intended I am writing 4 five minute freewrites (I will finish this chapter tomorrow and move on to the next one on Wednesday)

I am using @mariannewest’s #freewrite prompts (https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-22-5-minute-freewrite-prompt-itching) and (https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-401-5-minute-freewrite-sunday-prompt-hotel) and @mydivathings’ #365daysofwriting picture prompts (https://steemit.com/fiction/@mydivathings/day-341-365-days-of-writing-challenge) and (https://steemit.com/fiction/@mydivathings/day-342-365-days-of-writing-challenge) to help write my story.

Today’s prompts are: itching and a Photo by Jordan McGee on Unsplash and hotel and a Photo by Ghost Presenter on Unsplash

and

As usual I used themostdangerouswritingapp.com to write each of the four five minute freewrites (itching, then first picture, then hotel, then second picture).

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_{_{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}}

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The many torments of Tiny Earl - Chapter 23 (part three)

Glenn didn't know what to say. He wondered why was it that the shopkeeper was telling him this now. He suddenly realised that he didn't know what he was involved in.

All this time he had believed he was working for an organisation that's aim was to protect this world - his world, his reality - from collapsing, because of the actions of Tiny.

Now, he had the horrible feeling that he was a pawn in a a game of chess.

Perhaps the shop wasn't here just to protect his world. Perhaps the aim of the shop was simply to get some kind of revenge on Tiny. Glenn suddenly realised he didn't know who to trust anymore.

Certainly not the man he was speaking to on the phone, someone who had come from a different reality than his own, and seemed to have a personal vendetta against Tiny.

He felt a horrible feeling crawl all over him, a kind of itching all over. Had all this time he been working for an organisation that might cause harm to his world?

Could he trust anyone?

Abigail? The woman he had slept with, but who Tiny appeared to recognise as someone from his past?

Could he trust Clare? He barely knew the woman. She, like Abigail, was a sensitive. What exactly were they? Were they from this reality? Or, like the shopkeeper did they also come from a different world, an alternative universe.

Glenn suddenly felt alone, and scared. If he made the wrong decision, trusted the wrong person, could he see his whole world disintegrate? He wasn't sure what to do. He felt like getting as far from here as possible, getting in a car and driving and driving and driving.

Forget the shop, forget Tiny.

Live the rest of his life in ignorance. Would he even know if his world came to an end, or would he just vanish into nothingness. He suddenly thought that might not be a bad way to end his days.

And he thought of his father, and his father's doppelgangers... had they really been trying to harm him, or his reality? Or had they been trying to warn him? To save him somehow.

"Hello?" the shopkeeper said on the other end of the communication device. "Are you still there, Glenn?"

"Yes, sir," Glenn said. "I was just trying to get my head round a few things."

Glenn took a deep breath, before speaking again. He wasn't sure whether to tell the shopkeeper about his father's doppelgangers or not. Would Abigail do so?

"Glenn? Is there anything else?"

"No, sir. Apart from... perhaps it would be a good idea to move Tiny to a hotel? Somewhere neutral? Clearly, this house is not a safe house, sir." There was a pause.

"No," the shopkeeper said, finally. "I don't think that would be a good idea. We need to protect the public. They are our priority."

Glenn took another deep breath.

"Okay, sir," he said. "I'm going to go back and check on Tiny, and Clare. Have you any further instructions."

"Just keep me informed of any further developments, Glenn. It is important, if there are any other movements from other realities, that I know about it immediately. It could threaten the stability of this reality."

"Yes, sir. Of course, sir."

After the call had ended, Glenn stood alone outside for a few minutes.

He felt so isolated.

It reminded him of the time he went travelling on his own as a teenager. He was supposed to go with three of his friends, but at the last minute they all found excuses as why they weren't going to go. He had been looking forward to the trip, he'd felt so let down by his friends, and was going to just go home, tell his father and sister that he wasn't going on the adventure of a lifetime, after all. And then he thought, fuck it! I can do this. I don't need friends, or anyone else.

So he had gone traveling, alone.

Most of the time he had found other travelling companions and had had the time of his life.

Except that one time, in the desert.

Stupidly, he had decided not to go with a guide. He had a map, he could find his way across the desert, by himself. He was almost twenty, for fucks sake.

He was a grown up. He wouldn't get lost. Of course he would be fine.

He got lost.

Of course he did, and he almost ran out of water. He could have died. He was lucky he was found by a local man.

...