Chapter 1 - the beginning

I have to admit it: things were not going well between me and Valerie. Oh, they had been, three months ago and during our short engagement but now things had really gone south.

Valerie and I had been best friends for years before we became an item. I had had a thing for her right from the beginning but she never wanted to be anything more than friends, which I thought was kinda strange, strange because I had never had trouble winning over the opposite sex.

You see, I was very much involved in athletics in high school and I was the star of the school's wrestling time. Apart from being in great shape, I was pretty damn good looking if I do say so myself. This combination drove the chicks wild and I had dated the hottest and most popular of them back then.

Thing was though, I didn't really want to be with any of them. The only girl I wanted to be with was my best friend, Valerie. Valerie and I were extremely close but nothing I did seemed to get here interested in dating me. In fact, she didn't seem to be interested in dating anyone. After some time I figured she must be a lesbian who was still in the closet and stopped hinting to her that I wanted to be anything more than friends.

After high school, I secured a wrestling scholarship and we ended up at different colleges but remained close. She wasn't finding it easy making friends and hers and I comforted her every time we saw each other. During one of those evenings, she kissed me passionately. I guess she really needed the comfort that night.

After that, things changed - we were boyfriend and girlfriend, just like I had always wanted. It took a while for us to sleep together but I figured she just likes to take things slow. Usually, I would mind but it was worth it just to be Valerie.

Not long after that we got engaged; we just loved each other's company so much that we couldn't imagine being without each other. As I said, it was a short engagement.

The wedding was a big outdoor one with both our families there. When the priest said I could kiss the bride, I tipped Vallerie over and gave her a long passionate kiss. Everyone laughed and applauded. Valerie had a big smile on her face afterward and her eyes gleamed. Near the end, an aunt of hers said to me how happy she was and how she thought Valerie would never get married. I guess I was wrong about her - she wasn't a lesbian, she just needed a spark of some sort.

The honeymoon was great and so was the wedding, well, at least at the beginning. We put a down payment on a nice two-story house near where we grew up, with the help of my parents. The thing was as time went by Valerie grew less and less interested in sex. Lately, she had only been doing it out of obligation and it made me feel rotten. Not only was it bad for my self-esteem but I hated putting her through something she seemed to hate, so I stopped pressuring her and that was it.

One afternoon I was walking around the mall, look for something interesting that would get my mind off my troubles. That's when I spotted the curio shop. I always had a thing for curios and the exotic, so I decided to look for things I could decorate the house with. I walk in a saw a very odd-looking old man behind the counter, reading a book. When he blinked it was like I could like through his eyes and it storm raging in there. I went in, extremely curious. What did curiosity do to the cat again? Oh well, I forget. Here goes nothing.