Read Offline: In The Flesh Online
Authors: Kealan Patrick Burke
Offline: In The Flesh (4 page)
Kelly:
Why did you leave?
Kelly
:
Aaron. I know you’re there.
Kelly
:
Why did you LEAVE?
Kelly:
Answer me. I don’t know what’s HAPPENING. We were having such a good time and you just freaked out.
Kelly:
Please just ANSWER me.
Aaron
: How long has she been like that?
Kelly
:
Like what? She was better than I’ve ever SEEN her. She was the OLD her. I told you she would be fine. You were the one acting CRAZY.
Aaron
: How long has she been like that?
Kelly
:
What does that MEAN? You’re acting weird. She was nothing but NICE to you!
Aaron
: How long has she been like that, Kelly? Answer the question.
Kelly
:
What is the MATTER with you? Are you out of your MIND? Do you have any idea how HARD she had to work on herself to be NICE to you? I thought you LOVED me?
Aaron
: I do. I do love you. Or I did. I just don’t know what’s going on.
Kelly
:
Did she SAY something to you when I was upstairs? Please help me to UNDERSTAND why you’re acting this way?
Aaron
: I need you to listen to me, Kelly. Please.
Kelly
:
I AM listening. I just don’t understand what you’re SAYING.
Aaron
: How long has your mother been dead?
Kelly
:
What. The. FUCK. Are. You. Talking. About? Have you LOST your mind?
Aaron
: It looked like she’d been in that basement for months, maybe longer. How long has it been, Kelly?
Kelly
:
I thought you were DIFFERENT. I thought you LOVED me. I thought you wanted to BE with me. But you’re just like everyone else. You claim to be TOLERANT of other people’s BELIEFS, of other people’s LIVES, but you’re not. You’re the same as all those other HEATHENS.
Aaron
: That night I spoke to her on here. That was you. Why, Kelly? Make me understand.
Kelly
:
Are you going to call the POLICE on me now like they did back in Kentucky? All those NON-BELIEVERS, people who claim to have FAITH but are empty and dead inside. Is that what you’re going to do, Aaron?
Aaron
: I’ve already called the police, Kelly. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. But there’s something badly wrong with you. I just don’t understand how I didn’t see it before now.
Kelly
:
Because all you wanted to do was LIE with me, you little shit. All you wanted was to corrupt my VIRTUE. Nobody sees ANYTHING from behind a veil of SIN except their own inner DESIRES and UGLINESS. But guess what? I’m PURE, Aaron, the purest thing you will ever know, and now I know where you LIVE.
Aaron
: I’m so sorry, Kelly. Please believe me. I’m so sorry.
Kelly
:
I know what you ARE.
Kelly
:
And I know your NAME.
Your message:
And I know your name
has not been delivered. The recipient has either blocked you or disabled their account.
* * *
Kelly Lewiston was never apprehended. The investigation into the murder of her mother, Abigail Lewiston, continues. Anyone with any information pertaining to the whereabouts of the suspect is advised to call Orange County Sherriff’s Department at the following number: 407-254-7000.
# # #
“
Jack & Jill
is filled with some of Burke’s best imagery to date. There’s a palpable tension running through the book from the very first page, and Burke is unrelenting in the way he tightens the screws on characters and readers alike.” -
Fearnet
“It’s also worth mentioning that there was one sequence toward the middle that, while I won’t spoil it, I’ll just say has got to be one of the most disturbing scenes to take place in a bathroom (this side of the Overlook Hotel or the Bates Motel). This novella was creepy, through and through.” -
Shock Totem
“One of the most powerful pieces of fiction I’ve read in a long time, one I will not soon forget. Kealan Patrick Burke doesn’t just touch a nerve. He hooks it up to an emotional powerline and cranks up the juice. This one hits like a bolt of lightning.”
- Ravenous Reads
“If
Jaws
was the story that made people stay away from the ocean,
The Tent
is the mean little novella that will keep them out of the woods.” - Norman Partridge, author of
Dark Harvest
.
“Burke has concocted a tasty mix of
The Thing
meets
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
meets
The Twilight Zone
, and he made sure to marinate it in a couple of gallons of blood before setting it free.” –
Fearnet
“...packs a wallop in terms of emotional tension and fright. And it also possesses one of the most extraordinary and unique monsters I think I’ve ever read in a horror story.” -
Horror World
“If you’re a fan of Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon, or movies like
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
and
Deliverance
, don’t miss
Kin
. Burke’s novel not only re-imagines the classic slasher tropes, but it invents new ones. This is a modern classic, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.” -
Fearnet
“If you took the moral quandaries about revenge, justice and violence against evil from Dennis Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie novels, spread it over the sprawling cast of a Stephen King thriller, and mixed it with the Southern Gothic grotesques of Eudora Welty, you might end up with something like Kealan Patrick Burke’s new novel,
Kin
.” -
Litstack
“It’s odd that an Irish transplant to the Northern US has written one of the best Southern Gothic novels in recent memory. I’ll look forward to Burke’s next work just as much as I hated to see this one end. I would highly recommend
Kin
to lovers of old fashioned horror fiction with a twist. If you’re going to read just one noir cannibal revenge novel this year,
Kin
should fit the bill.” –
Dark Discoveries
“...the themes are big and the peril is honestly engaging. By and large this is a wonderful specimen of the genre, well worth reading under the covers with a flashlight” - Cherie Priest,
Subterranean
“Burke evokes the creepy atmosphere beautifully and the gory scenes are done with as much taste as is possible under the circumstances. Grady is an interesting protagonist whose adventures should capture the attention of most readers who enjoy a touch of the grotesque. I’ve enjoyed several of the author’s short stories in the past and am happy to say that he is no slouch at novel length either.” - Don D’Ammassa
“Very atmospheric, great characters, fabulous old fashioned classic Hammer Horror style English gothica at its best, and above all else, easily the best new horror novel I’ve had the pleasure of reading in ages.” -
Mass Movement
Magazine
Born and raised in Dungarvan, Ireland, Kealan Patrick Burke is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of five novels (
Master of the Moors
,
Currency of Souls
,
Kin
,
The Living
, and
Nemesis: The Death of Timmy Quinn
), over a hundred short stories, four collections (
Ravenous Ghosts
,
The Number 121 to Pennsylvania & Others
,
Theater Macabre
, and
The Novellas
), and editor of four acclaimed anthologies (
Taverns of the Dead
,
Quietly Now: A Tribute to Charles L. Grant
,
Brimstone Turnpike
, and
Tales from the Gorezone
, proceeds from which were donated to children’s charity PROTECT.)
Kealan has worked as a waiter, a drama teacher, a mapmaker, a security guard, an assembly-line worker at Apple Computers, a salesman (for a day), a bartender, landscape gardener, vocalist in a grunge band, and, most recently, a fraud investigator. He also played the male lead in
Slime City Massacre
, director Gregory Lamberson’s sequel to his cult B-movie classic
Slime City
, alongside scream queens Debbie Rochon and Brooke Lewis.
When not writing, Kealan designs covers for print and digital books through his company
Elderlemon Design
. To date he has designed covers for books by Richard Laymon, Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, Bentley Little, William Schoell, and Hugh Howey, to name a few.
In what little free time remains, Kealan is a voracious reader, movie buff, videogamer (Xbox & PS3), and road-trip enthusiast.
A movie based on his short story “Peekers” is currently in development through Lionsgate Entertainment.