At the end of part 2 I had met a girl while working at McDonalds and shortly after, we moved in together. Her name was Crystal and she couldn't have been more wrong for me. We fought from our very first date till the last time we ever spoke. Even today I can say this is one person that I have no interest in ever making amends with. Crystal and I were together for the better part of 4 years and no matter how hard I tried to end the relationship, I just couldn't get away. I did every low life thing I could to this girl - cheated on her so many times I lost track. But no matter what I did, as long as my pay check supported her sitting on her rear end she was content to stay with me. I found my freedom in year four when on a drunken club night I ended up making out with her best friend, Tammy. Now Tammy was my kind of girl! I had had a thing for her since the moment I met her and I took the first opportunity I could to have a relationship with her. I'm not afraid to admit that Tammy was my first real love. After the revelation our relationship came out I moved to my uncles house (well really it's my house - I own it). Tammy and I had a red hot relationship for most of the summer til one day she decided life was taking her in a different direction. I was crushed. Never had I hurt so bad in my life. I honestly felt dead inside and legitimately tried to kill myself with 2 bottles of pain killers. Thankfully by the grace of God a close friend showed up at my house and shoved a pen down my throat until I puked up most of the pills. I was so out of it that I slept for 3 days straight.
Come fall some friends talked me into working at the local haunted house. It was just what I needed to get out of the funk I was in. Chosen Crossroads was the standard for haunted houses - never was there a better one and never will there be a better one. On a slow night we were selling 2,000 tickets. I loved it. My second week there the guy playing "Michael Myers" walked out and I took the role. This caused a lot of the veterans at the house to dislike me, and a lot of the girls to worship me. I felt like a rock star. I had the fame, the drugs, the booze, and the girls - life was grand.
Then November 1st came along. In the last week of October my uncle and I had gotten into a fight over his drinking. See, I don't care what you do with your life, but don't pull me into it. And that's exactly what he was doing. So I packed some bags and went to stay a few days with the owner of the haunted house. The day before Halloween the owner asked me if I wanted to call my uncle and try to make amends with him. My exact words were "No, what's a few more days? I have plenty of time to make things right with him." It's true what they say. Act as if today is your last day to see a loved one. On November 1st my uncle was brutally murdered. An old friend of mine from my childhood showed up at my house and got to drinking with my uncle. Somewhere into their drinking things turned ugly. It ended with my uncle catching a knife across his throat. The kid then proceeded to burn my house down but that wasn't before butchering my cat. I never had the chance to tell my uncle I loved him and that I was sorry. The crime scene investigators caught the boy a few days later but not before I made the news as suspect number 1 in one of the biggest murder cases in Ashevilles last decade. Things just got worse and worse from there. I moved to Forrest City with my friend Derick and stayed in a constant drug fueled stooper. At the start of the new year I finally hit rock bottom when I woke up naked in a strange house in a puddle of my own vomit. Apparently I had decided to see how much cocaine the human heart could handle and found my way into a bathroom, had wild unprotected sex, and passed out. This was just the wake up call I needed. I knew I had to clean up my life so I did the hardest thing I could and admitted that I needed help.
I found that help and I am proud to say I've been drug free for the last 7.5 years of my life. Around this time I ran into a girl that had been a tour guide at the haunted house. Her name was Melinda, and she would become my first wife. But, we will touch on that in part 4 of "Brandon Vs. B: A Jekyll and Hyde Tell."
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