Kealan,
I think this is easily the most darkly disturbing, violent piece I've read of yours. Currency of Souls had some gruesome scenes, and felt more bleak as far as the actual setting went, but this tale was seriously the birth of a monster. And yet, I feel for Peregrine too. This isn't what he wanted, but by God, it's who he is. Chilling.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!
At the beginning, when Peregrine thinks his mom is a ghost in the kitchen, I thought it was going to be a situation where Peregrine was actually the dead one, and his mother was thinking of him. I'm glad it didn't turn out that way - it seemed like an obvious direction to go, and I thought, "Surely Kealan's too clever to do something so blatant." And I was right.
