Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
For Phil Pendleton, a relatively happy man running an errand at his local WalMart, his encounter with a frazzled mother and her spoiled child was just business as usual at the world's most famous chain asylum.
But Phil is wrong, for his normal life is about to spin out of control, taking Reality with it, as he finds himself facing something unspeakable from the mists of legend and folklore, something that will cost him his sanity and his life.......
Kealan Patrick Burke offers up a truly chilling novella, one that reads like a modern version of the Brothers Grimm, but this is no cautionary tale for children. This is a warning for adults, distilling the legend of the changeling, a dash of Chambers and just a hint of Machen into a potent literary "dram" that is pure Burke, pure genius and powerful enough to knock you flat........only to get up and reach for the "bottle' again.
The man is that good.....and he's getting better with every story and every word he writes.