The homeless man limped into the dark alleyway. At his side he held a half empty bottle of wine. A fly landed on the dirty blanket that was a large haggard rag on his back. The man shuffled over to a large bin and sat beside it. He brought the bottle to his lips. The bottle was slightly illuminated from a gas streetlamp at the end of the alleyway. A slight skittering noise echoed from the dark end of the alley. The homeless man lowers the bottle and his sad dark eyes peer into the blackness in the alleyway. A rat skitters out of a hole in the wall and into the halo of the streetlight. It sniffs around a bit then skitters into the darkness, disappearing when it passes out of the range of the flickering lamp light. Out of the darkness there is a squeek and a thump, then nothing. After a while, the homeless man fell asleep.

Two men walked into the alley, passing the homeless man, not seeing him. They waited in the darkness. Soon, a third man joined them. They whispered in hushed tones. One of the first two sneezed. The other two looked at him with accusing eyes. The homeless man stirred. The one man passed a package to the man who had not sneezed. The one who had sneezed gave the one man an envelope. The homeless man dropped his bottle. It thunked on the ground and its contents started spilling out. All three men stared at him. The homeless man stared past them, horrified.

The three men started towards the homeless man. He did not move, but quick and confused syllables fell out of the man's mouth like words chewed into bits. The one man pulled a knife from his pocket. The blade glinting as it came into the light of the lamp. A blur of motion shot from the darkness. One of the men behind the knife wielder crumpled to the ground. The other two men turned, the homeless man suddenly not the biggest threat. Two tentacles wrapped around a leg on each of the men, dragging them screaming into the dark. One of the screams went from terror to a low maniac cry. The other scream went silent.

The sick wet sound of a knife sticking into something wet repeated itself several times. The maniac cry continued. The sticking sound stopped with a final sucking sound then the sound of metal hitting pavement echoed from the darkness. The maniac cry's point of origin rose from near the ground to up in the air. It hung there for a moment then fell. A thud resounded from the shadows, accompanied by a wet cracking sound. The cry stopped. The sound of slurping and bones crunching from inside a giant maw continued for several minutes. When it stopped, the homeless man looked at his bottle that was laying on the ground. It's clear contents was a pool on the ground. At that moment he decided that no more was he going to store water in old bottles. Certainly it did not keep well and was dirty. He stood up quickly and limped as fast as he could out of the alleyway. From the darkness an unspeakable and blasphemous belch echoed into the night.