Chapter 1, The middle.
It was hardly a fairy-tale start to their relationship, but Zoe and Cole were besotted. He was 27 and she was 19. Cole's divorce to his ex-wife Vicky had been an easy process since he had given her more than she should ever have been entitled to. They signed the documents and that was it. They were over and would never have to acknowledge each other again. He still loved Vicky, and Zoe knew it, but she also knew the history and there was no risk of him pining for her, besides, Zoe was all the woman Cole wanted.
They lived in a large 7 bedroom detached house on the outskirts of town, a quiet and idyllic spot away from prying eyes. They had housemates, 8 of them in total, Jim and Hayley, unmarried but very close, Mike and Sian, again unmarried but close, and James and Jayne who had recently become engaged just a few months earlier. The other two housemates were Emma and Jess.
The house was a strange set up. There were two bedrooms where the front reception rooms should have been and another in a room behind the stairs. Four en-suite bedrooms on the first floor with a family bathroom too. On the top floor there was an adult's only spa/playroom with a fully kitted out gym. Where the cellar would normally be was a modern open plan living space that covered the entire footprint of the house. It stood in an acre of grounds and over looked long rolling fields to the rear. At the rear of the house was a wraparound conservatory that made the best of those views.
The majority of the house mates were in business together in a venture which employed Emma and Jess. The gang had their ups and downs and losing Cole's wife Vicky as a partner was a pretty deep down, but when you're at the bottom the only way is up.
Zoe and Cole had met 9 months earlier when Cole and Vicky had employed her to work for them. As Cole and Vicky started to fall apart, she and Cole had started to become closer and closer. After the split they were drawn together like binary stars, constantly falling around each other, continually becoming closer. Those 9 months in this house had brought Cole and Zoe to a pinnacle and they were extremely happy with their situation. They enjoyed their lifestyle and it wasn't for anyone else in the world to judge, except for maybe four people; their parents.
Chapter 2, Sex.
Cole met Vicky when they were still in school. He was in his last year at 19 and she was 18. They met in sixth form and got on really well. He noticed the tall girl with long fiery red hair and deep grey blue eyes straight away and knew she was destined for him. He asked her out but she thought Cole was too nice. It didn't stop him asking her though. He became her confidant and best friend but it wasn't what he wanted. She told him everything but she wouldn't let him any closer.
She was a party girl and she loved men; big men, small men, tall me, short men, old men and young men. She liked Cole, a lot, but felt her lifestyle wasn't conducive to a successful relationship, so she kept him at arm's length. He would try every angle to capture her heart but she refuted his advances at every turn. The thing is, Vicky liked sex a bit too much. She was promiscuous to the point of surrealism. Her libido was insatiable. She thought she could take on the world, and tried too.
In reality she was an addict but she didn't realise it. It was this that kept her from allowing Cole into her life for so long. Cole knew it though. He was the one listening to her mad stories, seeing her actions and yet he still wanted to be with her. It wasn't because she was easy but because he was so head over heels, madly, deeply and mind bendingly in love that he was relentless in his pursuit of her. After two years of asking, begging and pleading she finally relented and agreed to be with him.
She was not a one man woman though and her libido was not to be denied. Every time she met a man while she was out in town she would get her way. To begin with Cole was clueless and maybe he would have been happier if things had continued that way but his own sense of humanity led him to believe that she would be happier if she was allowed her sexual freedom. This would ultimately be their undoing.
Vicky took the offer of freedom as an offer to humiliate him. She loved him but she was extreme. She sometimes brought men home telling Cole he had to sleep in the guest room. It was all a game that Vicky found fun. Cole accepted it as part of his relationship with Vicky. He didn't like it but he accepted it. When she wasn't with other men she was with him and that was the part he had always wanted.
They had talked about having a baby but with Vicky's activity she would almost definitely become pregnant by someone else and not Cole, so the idea was left to die. Then they met Jim. Vicky regularly looked on dating websites for new men and came across Jim's profile. Neither of them knew he would become one of their best friends because Vicky was just looking for her next interaction. When he met them he was surprised at their relationship but Cole was numb to it at that point.
Vicky started seeing Jim in a more and more serious capacity. She wasn't leaving Cole because she had nowhere else to go. Her parents had died in a car crash years earlier so her only shoulder was Cole's. They were reliant on each other but with each new man she was straining the relationship. Jim ended up moving in at Cole's request to try to stop her from going after more and more men. His reasoning was, if she had choice at home she wouldn't need anyone else, and the two of them got on extremely well. It worked, for about two weeks but then she started to stray again as extreme as ever. At least now Cole had a good friend in Jim and they could both sulk together.
Jim wasn't the first man who had moved in. She had 2 other men who had moved in previously. One was Cole's friend, Tim who was struggling after his divorce. Tim didn't mind Vicky's promiscuity since he had no real feelings for her; he was there for one thing and one thing only. He stayed for nearly 18 months.
Jeremy was the other. A man she met on a night out who ended up staying for 6 months until Vicky wanted more again. He wouldn't let her stray and was adamant he was going to keep her inline. More fool him. She went out and did what Vicky did best causing John to move out. During both of those relationships Cole was rarely allowed access to his wife for husbandly rights.
She started to sell herself and while Cole hated it he was always trying to be the hero and thought if he was somehow involved he could at least try to keep her safe. It came about one day in winter when their boiler had broken down and they had no money to have it repaired. She made the attending heating engineer an offer he was never going to refuse just to get the heating fixed. She realised she had a commodity she could make money from and so she did.
Jim lived with them for around eleven months in their little house and she would alternate between them each night. Jim had no reason to complain since he had walked into their relationship and still considered himself the outsider. Cole couldn't complain because she was still with him even if she was also with everyone else. He loved her too much to let go of her completely so letting her off the metaphorical leash was the closest he would come to giving her up.
Vicky's best friends Jayne and Hayley were both party girls too but nowhere near as extreme as she was. Jayne's boyfriend knew she played away but as long as she didn't go off the rails he didn't care. It was a similar situation to Cole's but nowhere near as wild. Hayley was married but her husband was a businessman and regularly worked away which allowed her to have as much fun as she wanted. He was a fat and balding man but he had money which blinded Hayley to his aesthetic shortcomings, anyway she had plenty of choice when he was away. She was a trophy wife in the truest sense of the term but he had no clue what she was doing behind his back.
Vicky managed to get Jayne and Hayley involved in selling themselves and it led to them starting a small brothel running from Cole and Vicky's house. Jim fell for Vicky's friend Hayley and gave up on Vicky because she had become so sex mad.
The men were in an impossible situation with the women. They loved them and they were trapped. The only thing they could do was make the best of a bad job so they started promoting the girls. They made a lot of money and decided to buy a much bigger house. Castillo de Mierda.
Chapter 3, Aneurism.
During an internal party one night things had got wild. Seriously wild! It was the 4 men and a couple of very well paying clients with the 6 girls, they were switching and swapping like a box of hamsters. They'd all been drinking heavily, and using the spa in the playroom at the top of the house. Vicky was humiliating Cole in front of everyone by taking up with all the other men but denying him. Zoe loved Vicky but hated what she was doing to Cole so while Vicky was distracted Zoe took Cole downstairs to her room where they had their own private party. They made love, and ended the night falling asleep together.
Cole woke at 5am as he did every morning to train with Mike, Jim and James but as he stood he felt dizzy and had a pounding headache which he put down to the alcohol and lack of sleep. In his dark room he was seeing sparkles and fireworks which he had never experienced before. He turned on the lamp to see Zoe lying in her bed but the bed sheets seemed to be coiling around her like a serpent. He knew he was seeing things and again put it down to the lack of sleep coupled with the alcohol. He left his room and went down to the main kitchen where he expected to see Mike preparing breakfast as he did every morning. He said "No Mike, weird" and as he walked out he saw Jim and James. He stopped and told them Mike wasn't there and he was going to find him.
Cole walked up to the first floor to see if Mike had slept in. Mike was a very disciplined ex-military man so it was out of character for him not to stick to his routine. As Cole passed Mike and Sian's room he knocked on the door but there was no reply so he entered. The room was empty so he continued up the next flight of stairs. As he popped his head above the floor level he could see movement and carried on up. The room seemed to become misty as he was looking around. Suddenly a hand gripped his ankle and Cole shouted out "WHAT THE FUCK!"
He looked down and saw Jayne who seemed to be seriously injured and covered in blood. He Knelt down and held her head and concerned he asked "What happened?"
She didn't reply so he told her he was going to get her out of there and started to drag her out of what seemed to have become a swamp in the upstairs playroom. He saw another dark shape and recognised her to be Vicky. He placed Jayne's head down and stood as Vicky's face rushed at him in the darkness, then the world fell over and hit him in the head. He woke a week later with no feeling in his left hand or left leg. icky and Zoe were there but when he tried to talk he couldn't make proper words. It was like his tongue was upside down and stapled to the top of his mouth.
