Hidden by the darkness of night, the creature lingered in a spot where the streetlight couldn't quite reach, watching.
Across the street, the monster saw a bald man walking slowly. He hesitated before stepping into a diner, ordered a sandwich from the combo deal, paid, picked up his food, and sat at a table away from the counter. He ate alone, in silence.
Outside, the starving creature fixed its gaze on its prey. It imagined devouring the man, grinding his bones inside its revolting stomach. The emptiness of hunger roared within, a pain that consumed its entire being. The monster shuddered and convulsed, curling in on itself as much as it could. If its body allowed, it would have growled with hunger—but not in that form. Not like that. For now, it could only watch and decide.
Inside the diner, the bald man finished his meal. He tossed his napkins and Styrofoam cup into the trash, set the tray aside, gathered the bag he carried, and left. His steps were slow, quiet, the bag swinging at his side.
Behind him, at a safe distance, the creature crawled. Once, it had to hide in the shadow of a bench to avoid being noticed. Its stench was what drew the most attention, but since people usually only realized too late, most of the time the monster went unseen until it was ready to feed. Pareidolia—that was the word it heard people use when they spoke of it.
Through the night, dissolving into hunger, hunter and prey finally reached an address. The man had walked far before arriving home. It was a modest one-story house, with a low wall and an iron gate. No garage. The creature slipped easily through the bars of the gate, then strained to squeeze beneath the front door, which opened into the living room; beyond lay the kitchen, and two bedrooms at the back.
The man didn't turn on any lights. For the monster, it didn't matter. It didn't need eyes to move—though not long ago it had carried a human eye dangling from a vein fused to its flesh, it had no use for it. No. The creature moved by vibrations, its few organs tuned to external signals.
Then, in the hallway, as it followed the bald man, the pain of hunger surged stronger than ever. This time the monster shook so violently and thrashed against the floor with such force that the man froze, spun around, rushed to the switch, and flicked on the light.