Before:

     Loveth, the mother, and Coveth, the second eldest, came back into the room with two men. 

     Both men held clubs like they were extensions of their arms.

     All four of them looked at what looked to be an empty cot.

    "Where is he?" Bolock, the Club Commander asked. "The last time I saw him, he was on this cot."

     "A week ago," Loveth replied.

     "I was taking a nap on this cot," Coveth said. "You woke me up with your rude knocks."

     "In the middle of the day."

     "When I tire, I rest."

     "So you can stay up half the night dancing. I've heard about you, and I still believe a man not of Earth stays here."

     The women responded with looks that asked, and what can we do about that?

     "You brought him here. I watched you."

     "To see to his wounds. Your doctors are butchers."

     "You were to bring him to us once he was well enough."

     "According to you."

     "We'll do as we wish," Coveth muttered in reply.

     "The wish of witches," Folock, Bolock's son, muttered in reply to that.

     "He went berserk," Loveth said. "It was all I could do to keep that beast from attacking my daughters."

     "Yes, your daughters, your precious daughters."

     "All daughters are precious, or should be. The last I saw of him, he was limping away for Rags Boulevard."

     "You're lying to me. Why?"

     "We've done all we can do for you today," Loveth replied.

     And, as she did, she held wide her arms, fingers outstretched, her message there being, if you'd like us to stop visiting and start biting, we can respond in that manner as well, if pressed.

     "He's not here," came another voice from another part of the women's home. "We've looked everywhere."

     "This is not the end of this," Bolock said, and with that, he nodded at his son, and the four of them exited.

     Coveth left last.

     She took one last look around the room.

     "Where did you go?" she muttered.

CONTINUE