Dear Diary, I am so excited right now! Bae is finally coming back to town from visiting his family. I haven't gotten to hear all about everything he did while he was out of town, but tomorrow, when I pick him up I know he will catch me up with everything that is going on! I'm glad I had this time to myself to just reflect on things in the past that I really hadn't taken the time to deal with. I finally feel like I can let go of all of this baggage and finally be happy again! I only started acting like this AFTER all of that mess started to happen years ago, after my brother died. This isn't me. This reflection period really showed me that! Hopefully i'll be able to just keep all of this to myself and not have to tell Tae. I know you're supposed to be honest with the people you care about the most, but I just don't want to lose him. We've been together for seven months now and I just feel like that would destroy everything we've built if I just tell him now. Guess we'll see how things go.
That next afternoon, Brittany went to pick up Tae at the airport and everything seemed to be going just fine! They were so excited to see one another just as they would have been any other time. Brittany was sure that all was well, but Tae spent his time doing more than he expressed to Brittany, while he was away.
During the week Tae spent with his "family," he was actually doing some research of his own. Alicia, the secretary at the office they both worked at, had told him something a few months before she went missing. Tae never thought much about it until things started to add up to what she had told him. Alicia told Tae that a friend of hers from another firm told her that word on the street was that Brittany spent a pretty good amount of time in a psychiatric facility and that she was someone he ought to stay away from. She also told him that people said that Brittany could appear to be the sweetest girl but in reality, something had caused her to become very deceiving and manipulative.
Of course, Tae swept this under the rug, because there was no way that the girl of his dreams was really this manipulative psychopath! And then it dawned on him... "the girl... of my dreams." It literally seemed like from day one, she was perfect and that she knew exactly what to do for him to think that she was perfect. When Alicia went missing and Brittany didn't seem to show any concern at all, all of his suspicions were verified.
That following week, Tae decided that he was going to get to the bottom of all of this on his own. But he wasn't going to mention this to Brittany, of course. One, because she might be legitimately crazy. And two, if she wasn't this crazy psychopath she had been made out to be, he didn't want her to know that he ever entertained the theory.
Tae told Brittany that he was going to visit his folks for a week or so and that he would be back. He contacted a few of his old buddies from college to help him dig up the dirt and figure this all out, because he knew it was important for him to know the one he was with. Once he started digging, he made some terrifying discoveries. After uncovering that Brittany was more than likely responsible for the disappearance of multiple people, spent time in the psychiatric ward, and more than likely devised the entire plan for them to get together, he knew that this was going to be their end. Although, he did feel horrible about what happened to her brother, the crazy counselor that tried to brainwash her, and everything else that occurred in her past.
Tae decided that he wasn't going to turn her into the police, but did realize that he was going to have to break up with her as soon as he returned home.
The next day, after he got home, Tae decided that he wanted to go ahead and make the break up official. He decided to take Brittany to a public location (just in case her crazy come out play) and have this discussion with her.
If someone was sitting across the street, looking into the coffee shop where they went to talk, you would think that Brittany was told that her puppy had died. It was clear that they were both heartbroken, because they both truly cared for one another. Tae ended up calling a Lyft to take Brittany home and he drove separately. As each of them walked out, a few tears rolled down their cheeks.
And there you have it, folks. The love story of Brittany and Deontae came to an end just as Brittany was really starting to make changes within herself. As unfortunate of an ending this was, Tae finally knows the one that he was with.
Author's Note: This story was loosely based off of the battle between Beowulf and Grendel. In that battle, Grendel snuck in like a thief in the night (literally) into the town that Beowulf was staying in. Grendel casted a spell that made each of the men fall into an extremely deep sleep. Beowulf, being the extraordinary man that he is, was able to wake up, only to find Grendel devouring one of Beowulf's comrades. Grendel and Beowulf ended up having a fight with one another and Beowulf ended up coming out in the end, victoriously. The story of Brittany and Tae is an ongoing story that you can read here on my blog. This is finally their conclusion, just as the fight with Beowulf was the final conclusion for Grendel. If you're interested in learning about how this love connection all began, read the very first story, entitled #KnowTheOneYoureWith: The Introduction PART I, and go from there!
This story is part of the Beowulf unit. Story source: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933).
Photo of coffee mug came from here.
