SOLVED. A specific volume of 'This Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror' - Spoilers within comment Read in the late 1990's or early 2000's. [s]

[Alicia]

Hello,

I'm hoping you all will be able to assist me in determining which volume I am looking for. Volume 10's cover looks familiar to me, however I have search through The Sluice http://www.gamalei.net/sluice/ page by page and was unable to readily identify the short story I expect within my wanted book.

Hopefully, someone will have an Ah ha! moment if I describe the short story. The name of the short story or author would also suffice, if you know it, as I can then do the rest of the legwork from there.

The description:
(view spoiler)[There is a father with a young child. I believe they are walking somewhere when the child takes off, following a sweet smell. Eventually, this leads both the man and the child to a run down shack (which may or may not be near rail tracks).
This area doesn't have the best reputation due to young people going missing there over the years.
The little one gets inside the building and is met with a black thing (I currently imagine it like a flexible sheet of tar on the floor). It smells sickly sweet and the younger you are the more attractive and irresistible the smell.
There is an old man who attempts to stop the child from getting near it. He's missing limbs and is too slow to grab the child. The father is too late as well.
At some point, the monstrous thing is revealed to have always been there. The shack was built around it. The old man attempts to guard it to keep children away. Touching the unknown entity results in the area of contact being burned off (thus why the old man has missing bits and pieces).
The father is beside himself at first. He watches the thing undulate with the outline of children and birds underneath, as if they were just hiding under a sheet and playing.
His wife will be broken by this. No one will believe him. But then he gives up. The farce of trying to find their child will halt their divorce proceedings and they'll get back together. They can have another child. (hide spoiler)]

And that is all I remember. It's been over twenty years, so it may have been embellished by my imagination over time.

Hopefully you all will have a ready answer for me. Tthank you for taking the time to read this lengthy description.

Kind regards,

[Alicia]

Yes, the former not the latter.

Thank you so much! My library doesn't have them so I can't check for myself.

[Alicia]

Ah! You're an angel! Thank you so much.

You've just solved a 16 year brain itch for me!!