*crunch* *crunch* *crunch*

It was a beautiful winter night. The full moon illuminating the streets below, a nearly ethereal view was presented to the young man on his late stroll. With wisps of wind picking up and lazily tussling around the snowflakes caking the concrete surfaces, a haunting image of peacefulness was presented, with nary a soul in sight to mar the walkers eyes. With a calm huff of frozen air, and the snow crunches of his steps following him, he passed a flickering streetlight as he turned into a nearby alley. And froze in shock.

Ahead of him, lightened only by a small ray of moonlight still shining through between the tall buildings, was a body, sticking half-out of an open manhole. Slender, pale arms holding her upright on her elbows was a blackhaired girl seemingly dangling from the snow-covered edge. As if sensing the shocked look of the passer-by, the formerly hunched head rose, and with a terrified gaze stared straight back.

"H´...elp!"

The whispery sound made seemed calling, echoing across the street, and spurned the observer to action. With quick strides the man rushed toward the dangler. Only as he reached down to pull her out of the hole he noticed her bare back and arms, seemingly as sickly white as the mid-winter snow around her did he feel the beginnings of a question forming in his mind. And just as he grabbed her under the shoulders, the woman shot out from the hole, grabbed the man in a back-breaking hug, and pulled him into the sewers below.  And the last thing the rescuer saw, was the body of the woman, extending frighteningly long into the darkness below.

***

*Crack*

With a familiarly delightful sound, the casing of the creatures brain was broken with brutal, yet precise application of pressure. With nary a mar on the delicate organ, the ever-shifting mass of half-formed muscle, mucus and eyes was... for what could closest to mamallian life be described as overly pleased with itself. Usually, even the best capture ends with whatever It seeks trying to bash its brain out once they even glance its form, but this new method was a rousing success. With the fresh source of Its hobby now happily de-brained and dissolving in its seemingly endless waves of flesh, it cradled fondly the macabre remains of the creatures thoughts.

"Librarian" is what it calls itself. Not because any of its own kin had designated it as such, or even any other creature in this realm. But its what it started to call itself after the taste it developed over the aeons. With practised haste, the still living brain is ripped apart layer-by-layer, and in painstaking detail converted down to a little thing of its own design. A tiny black bead, the size of a pearl is formed, now housing everything the creatures nervous system ever contained, the "Librarian" continued the process with due diligence. And in the end, stored away in the ever-fluctuating library that formed its undulating mass. Just one pearl in countless others. Freshest of them all, and containing an irresistible drove of lesser beings memories to read through, but the Host has other things to deal with first.

One of Its eye-stalks noticed another creature come into its range. This one seemed a bit... older and lankier, but that's all the better. Longer life, longer memories. In haste, the manhole cover was pushed away once again, and the bait was reset. Its tendril, a tip of it fitted to better attract the hapless biped once more rested in the edge of the manhole cover, trying to look as pathetic as it can, while its long body curled up like a snake to strike below.

And seemingly without any hesitation, the older biped turned into the alleyway even without the siren-call sounding. Just a calm, steady saunter toward the "maiden in distress", dangling from the hole as it looked straight at the beast...

"H...elp`!"

Even the siren call didnt stir the gentleman, as it seemed to stare straight back at the ambusher... The librarian did a double-take.... it had eyestalks above, below, ahead and behind the man, yet from every single one of them, it seemed to be looking straight at him, walking straight toward him... Even the one behind the mans head sent an image of his face, of a slowly growing grin of his, revealing a grotesque array of needle-like teeth...

With a jolt of panic, the bait-tendril shot up, grabbed the manhole cover, and pulled it back in place as it dissapeared into the tunnels below. The behemothian mass wasted no time, as a tide of semi-solid flesh washed like a tide down the tunnels, the eye-stalks snapping and withering as it had no time to recall them in its flight. Everything to distance itself from what it formerly thought to be its second lucky catch of the night.

*CRASH*

The ceiling of the tunnel behind It collapsed, as the smiling aberration fell from the streets into the sewage system below, His ever-growing grin never even turning a degree away from its backwards facing eyes. With haste of a horror that managed to survive more than a few extinction events, the Librarian did everything to slither away. Flowing down tunnels, ripping the ceiling down behind it to block access, splitting off false-bodies... the relaxed approach of the old man was barely hindered.

The retreat continued , until the primordial mass hit... mass-first into a brick wall, blocking the entire tunnel. With surprised gurgle coming from its formless mouths, the Librarian looked at the out-of-place wall... Simple brick and filth, blocking the entire passage with zero logic to it... Undeterred, the Horror clawed and slammed into it, expecting simple formed rock to crumble... But it didnt. Claws, mass, teeth and acid... a creature that once dug under the mantle of this realm with nary an effort, cant destroy a simple brick wall... With more and more frantic trashing, the endless mass was trapped, clawing and howling in tongues never known to man, as it was bottled... And there, right behind him, the gentlemen approached.... ITS smile never stopped growing, with now row after row of jagged needles  trailing up, and past his eyes, as he reached out a hand toward as if to grab a kitten off the sidewalk.

With a frantic howl of rage and revulsion, the eldrich horror turned from trying to escape, and surged toward the man. Tons after tons of flesh and scale and skin and bone, rushed with intent and force to crush everything in its path... and once the first tentacle snapped to crush the Aberration... It ignited... With blue fire, spreading like lightning from one abhorrent limb to the next, the entire incomprehensible mass of the behemoth was lit, and consumed in seconds... The entire creature burned as if made of paper, leaving nothing, but a half-dissolved carcass, with its head cracked open, smoking gently in a rapidly dissapearing puddle.

With the same grin never leaving its lips, the Abberation lowered his hand from the disappeared Behemoth, and picked up the half-dissolved arm of the youth. With a gentle tug, the entire limb came loose from its melted socket, as the smiling gentlemen retreated with his new catch.