Enticed by the Satyr (Kindred Tales)

He batted several empty Hungry Man frozen dinner trays out of the way, waving at the flies that rose from them, before sinking into his special easy chair.

Place was a fucking mess and it was all Mia’s fault, he thought resentfully, looking around the cluttered, dirty room. She’d left him and left her home responsibilities as well, even though she knew damn good and well that a woman’s place was in the home!

He picked up the TV remote and clicked on the TV, only to turn it off again impatiently a moment later. He couldn’t concentrate on sports when he was so damn angry.

“That bitch deserted me,” he said in a low, hate-filled voice. “She left me and then she sent them after me! Alien fuckers! They never would have come down here if she hadn’t sent them!”

He got up and started pacing, kicking empty beer bottles and trash out of the way as he did so. She had left him and gone up to that goddamned Kindred Mother Ship and what do you want to bet she was fucking one of those fuckers right now? Some giant alien with a foot-long schlong was probably putting it to his wife right this minute and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it! There wasn’t—

Suddenly his eyes lit on a bright orange post card-type thing lying on the floor in the corner of the room. Frowning, he went over to pick it up.

On the front, it said, “Official Missive from the Mother Ship” in fancy gold script. Below the words was a picture of the Kindred Mother Ship, only instead of orbiting the moon, it was flying around a giant jack-o-lantern with a toothy, grinning face. Under the picture, in the same golden script it read, “Come for a Halloween Tour! And in finer print below that, “*advanced applications required—spaces are limited*”

Flipping it over, Hank read,

Mia,

Isn’t this post card too funny? They’re giving them out for Halloween this year. The Mother Ship is going all out with trick-or-treating for the kids and I’m even going to have a party for the new chorus. We have so many members already signed up already that it’s going to be huge! Wish you were here!

Love, Kaylee

Hank tore the post card in two and threw it angrily to the floor. That fucking interfering bitch, Kaylee! She had always gotten in the way of him punishing Mia the way she ought to be punished. She never really said anything but she’d always given Hank the idea that she was watching.

He had also known she would be happy to spread gossip about him, which would make things hard when it came time for folks to vote to re-elect him Sheriff of Crate’s Corners—and all just for keeping his own wife in line! What was the world coming to when a man couldn’t punish his own wife?

When his wife’s best friend had first been taken away by a Kindred warrior, Hank had been glad. Glad? Hell, he’d been fucking overjoyed! Finally the nosy bitch was gone and he was able to restrict Mia to the house, which was where she belonged.

Making his wife quit her job at the high school and the church and getting rid of her students had been quite satisfying. She had gotten quiet and respectful, as a woman should be. His last step was going to be to get rid of that fucking piano she was always banging on. Once that was out of the house, he could relax without worrying that she would start playing when he was trying to watch the game.

She never played anything good, either—all that frou-frou rich-people shit that nobody wanted to hear, Hank thought as he stalked into the living room. He stared resentfully at the old wooden upright piano that Mia’s grandmother had left to her. Who could have guessed she would get so upset over his threat to sell the old piece of shit?

He hadn’t really been going to sell it, of course—it wasn’t worth enough to get a pool table out of. He’d just wanted to get rid of it once and for all, because it annoyed him to watch Mia play it. When she was playing she looked almost happy—like she was thinking of something else, something besides him, Hank thought resentfully. Which was just fucking wrong. A wife’s first and only thought should be of her husband—his comfort and happiness should be what concerned her the most. Not playing frou-frou classical music all day.

Well now she’s up in that fucking Mother Ship with Kaylee and you can bet she’s playing as much as she wants to, a mean little voice whispered in his head. Probably fucking around too, with one of those Kindred warriors. Hell, the little slut is probably banging two or three of them at a time by now!