"H- hi, can I play with you?" the small creature asked, approaching a young human girl playing alone in a box of sand. The child started at the noise and looked around before its gaze fell upon a small mass of tentacles, out of which poked a singular eye. The child shrieked and hurriedly backed away from it.

"Don't go away, I just want somebody to play with!" it cried, moving towards the child.

The child screamed again at the strange, unintelligible noises coming from the moving pile of arms. She scrambled to her feet and took off towards a light that shone nearby in the darkness.

Night after night, the creature tried to communicate, tried to tell anyone that it didn't want to hurt them. Nobody listened. Nobody understood. Eventually, it gave up. It never revealed itself to another human. Every night, it sat in the shadows, watching families sit around fires or friends play tag or couples gaze at the beautiful night sky. It watched, and it waited. Alone.