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Nolan, around forty, listens through his headset in a glass-walled office at night.

A supernatural horror novella

HOTLINE

BENJAMIN PERCY

Life and death—
and love—
are all on the line.

A secluded cottage under white pines, its windows closed against the approaching dawn.

The night shift

He does everything
he can to keep
them alive.

Night after night, Nolan answers calls from strangers who are thinking about ending things. He listens. Sympathizes. Argues. Finds a joke, a memory, a reason to stay.

He means every word. But sometimes he loses them.

And when that happens, he finds them.
And he feeds.

His secluded home and carefully ordered routines have kept his hunger hidden. Helping people gives him a reason to go on. It does little to ease his loneliness.

Eva, a Black woman with light-brown curls, talks on the phone behind a motel reception desk.

A voice he wants to hear again

Then Eva calls.

She’s funny, wounded, impatient with his professional questions. Soon they’re sharing stories, teasing each other, finding reasons to keep talking.

Nolan has spent years making himself inconspicuous. Now he’s taking risks for someone he barely knows.

And as a trail of violent deaths draws closer to home, he begins to suspect Eva shares more than his loneliness.

She may be a vampire too.
One with a very different appetite.

A burned country church stands beside a cemetery in rural Minnesota.

HOTLINE · Screen adaptation

For film
and television.

Vampire Nolan spends his nights talking suicidal strangers back from the edge—then feeding on the ones he fails to save. But when he falls for a caller who may be another vampire, he discovers her appetite and moral compass are far bloodier than his own.

The claustrophobic tension of The Guilty.
The tragic humanity of Let the Right One In.

Rights and PDF inquiriescontact@neotextcorp.com
A roadside motel in cold night rain, its rooms dark beneath a covered walkway.

For film and television

A monster worth
rooting for.

  • A morally charged lead. Healer, scavenger and occasional vigilante: Nolan’s empathy is real, and so is his capacity for violence.
  • An off-kilter romance. Two lonely people find humor and intimacy over the phone. Their connection tests the rules Nolan has built his life around.
  • Contemporary vampire noir. Call centers, roadside motels and rural Minnesota bring an old mythology into a recognizable American world.
  • Feature or series potential. Nolan and Eva anchor an intimate feature; the callers and competing vampires offer room to expand for television.
HOTLINE by Benjamin Percy. A pink cover featuring a telephone receiver with fangs.

The novella

Read the book.

A haunting, character-driven horror story about the need to connect—and the things we tell ourselves to survive.

Read the book

Benjamin Percy

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels, including The Sky Vault, three story collections, and the acclaimed craft book Thrill Me. His comics work includes Wolverine, X-Force and Ghost Rider. His honors include a Whiting Award, an NEA Fellowship, the Plimpton Prize and two Pushcart Prizes.

A headset rests beside an unfinished report in Nolan’s empty office.

NeoText

Let’s talk
about Hotline.

Contact NeoTextcontact@neotextcorp.com