Ain't No Grave: God Walks The Dark Hills Book III

By B. L. Blankenship

Horror ensued. In the brutal aftermath of The American Civil War, the blood-stained president Abraham Lincoln was slain and exalted unto godhood via newspapers across the nation. Meanwhile, terror gripped the land. The tattered remains of the fallen South caused many to live in desolation. Once marvelous cities now lay in ashes. Oppressive busin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benjamin Blankenship
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781088006061

B. L. Blankenship

About the AuthorB. L. BlankenshipBenjamin Lee Blankenship was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1981 to his two southern parents Larry Brown Blankenship of Giles County, Tennessee & Jonelle Blankenship of Harlan, Kentucky. During his youth in the mid-1990s, he moved to Roane County, Tennessee. Having a deep love for literature and history, he's studied many aspects of the American Civil War.Like many Americans his ancestors fought on both sides of the war. Each of his direct bloodline kindred that fought for the Federal Government (i.e. Union Army) lived in the Republican stronghold of Harlan County, Kentucky. They were: • James H. Ticky Howard (1832-1922)• Leonard Samuel Scott (1825-1889)• David E. Lee (1824-1905)• Elijah G. Helton (1829-1904)• William Burton "Gabby Burt" Hensley (1832-1906)Each of these willingly submitted to the federal draft under the direction of Robert Hays, Prevost Martial of the 8th Kentucky District.Likewise, his family housed many proud Democrats who fought for the Confederate States of America. Unlike the array of Harlan Co. Union Soldiers within his bloodline, those who chose to serve as Confederates were spread abroad; they were:CONFEDERATE HERITAGE:Richard Pierce Stracener (1843-1906)7th Reg. Georgia Infantry--------------------------James W. Farmer (1834-1910)Company C, North Carolina 3rd Light Artillery Battalion--------------------------Jefferson Pack (1830-1864)35th Regiment Tennessee Infantry, 5th Infantry,1st Mountain Rifle Regiment--------------------------Granville Smith (1843-1923)60th Regiment Virginia Infantry3rd Regiment Wise Legion, Company A--------------------------Gabrial "Rial" Smith (1820-1912)4th Regiment, Virginia Reserves, Company F--------------------------William Riley Thurman (1816-1907)2nd Battalion, Arkansas Infantry--------------------------All of B. L. Blankenship's direct bloodline ancestors lived through the American Civil War except for the confederate Jefferson Pack. He was born in Stokes, North Carolina (1830) and died on November 12th, 1864 while imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Illinois.

Book preview

COPYRIGHT 2020

AINT

NO

GRAVE

Dedication

  With this novel being the third book canonical series of six books, it’s difficult thinking of what to say in regards to the dedication that had not been said in my first dual novel. My initial statements were in giving thanks to my readers & every solider who has fought for freedom. Both of those statements still stand.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

PROVERBS 14:12 KJV

Contents

DEDICATION

pg. III

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EPIGRAPH

pg. IV

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PREFACE

pg. VI

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

pg. IX

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INTRODUCTION

pg. XIV

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CHAPTER 1: IN THE BLOOD

pg. 1

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CHAPTER 2: HANDS OF CLAY

pg. 17

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CHAPTER 3: AFTER DEATH

pg. 33

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CHAPTER 4: THE JUDGEMENT

pg. 44

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CHAPTER 5: HELLHOLE

pg. 59

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CHAPTER 6: MUSIC FOR DANCING

pg. 84

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CHAPTER 7: DRAPED BY SHADOW

pg. 98

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CHAPTER 8: INTO THE PIT

pg. 113

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CHAPTER 9: WAGES OF SIN

pg. 133

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CHAPTER 10: HIS FATHER’S SON

pg. 142

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

pg. XIV

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Preface

  I’ve been a fan of both the Western genre and Horror genre for as long as I can remember. Moreover, I especially love it when elements of Horror are employed during a time period that is so appealing to me. When I was a boy in school history wasn’t remotely interesting to me as it became later on in life. They say that the difference between smart people and other people is that smart people ask better questions.

  Just like any kind of historical research, or a good Bible study, it’s driven by asking a series of questions that sends you down further down a rabbit hole of sometimes extraordinarily peculiar information. To some extent you have to be pliable (open to change), while to another, you have to have some kind of roots (grounded; not chasing after every whim and doctrine that you come across). That probably sounds easier than it is.

  Writing historical fiction that intertwines with real history can be a challenge, especially if it’s drug out over a long time and a lot of historical places and events. Still, it makes the world real, and something of a puzzle. The creating of music, art, and literature is extraordinarily cathartic and enjoyable to me. Rather than go all over the place, my intent under the pen name of B. L. Blankenship is to give my readers more of the same in different ways.

  As a self-published author, I’ve sold far more books in person than I have online, though sales exist in both arenas. As my number of book sales pale in comparison with authors like Stephen King and such, I thereby tend to do events on Saturdays in bookstores within an hour of my home (every time another book is published). So many people have been so kind to me, loving to read, and wanting to support local authors.

  I’ve made a specific point to be very forthright with them all, telling each person that my books are exceedingly or obscenely violent. Those descriptions go on a bit longer. My effort both with the cover art, and overall presentation is to let people know what these books are before they get them. I don’t want to talk someone into something they don’t want.

  A fantastic author, L. B. Stimson whom I’ve worked with calls my style Extreme Horror. My style of horror is purposefully a literary 18th-19th Century equivalent to the cinematic brutality embraced within films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostile, Green Inferno, Cannibal Holocaust, Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes, House of 1,000 Corpses, I Spit On Your Grave, and The Street Fighter combined.

  The overall and consistent message that prevails through every work of horror that I write is how unkind so much of mankind can be to one another. My inspiration for villainy is encapsulated in Proverbs 30:20, which reads:

Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

  Evil minimizes the wrong it does and justifies it. The wicked don’t even blush at their sin. Remorse infers that you can find redemption. Doing bad things and not feeling bad about it is truly terrible. It doesn’t make the wicked deeds less wrong, it just makes the person worse for being unfeeling towards others.

  In any regard, that’s a look inside the mindset that I have when I write. I don’t want my readers to become desensitized towards things that are bad. I want them to be hard to stomach & obvious that they’re wrong.

Acknowledgements

  I suppose fairly often horror writers give a special thanks to their spouses. During Stephen King’s first runaway novel Carrie, his wife was an incredible support to him. She assisted him in laying out the female mindset, thus helping him to capture the essence of its protagonist character Carrie White.

  My wife, who I adore is likely rather different from Stephen’s. She’s sunshiny and abysmally loathes all things horror with a revulsion far too deep to express without going into a full chapter-length description of it. Despite this, she has come with me to a few book-signings, helped me set up my table, and made some outrageously tasty candy for my merchandise table thus helping me offset my expenses at festivals and such.

   I was ushered into the world of horror by my mother, Jonelle Blankenship at a young age. To this day she says that one of the scariest movies she’s ever seen is Night of The Living Dead. As a teenager, she snuck into the drive-in via the trunk of her brother’s car to watch it.

  She loves Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Bad Seed, and far too many other horror movies to name. Because of my mother’s particular tastes, I was raised on Horror movies, Southern Gospel Music, and Holy Ghost Filled Revivals.

  Some years ago she and my father (Larry Brown Blankenship) paid out an absurdity of money for my youngest sister to start a business. While I’m an artist myself, I’ve paid Wendy Saber Core to do the cover art for God Walks The Dark Hills: Book I&II, Ain’t No Grave: A Collection of Western Horror Stories, and now this book Ain’t No Grave: God Walks The Dark Hills Book III. He does a phenomenal job at illustrating the immense levels of violence and terror found within their pages.

  I’ve never been anyone that asked for a whole lot of anything. However, for my last birthday when I was asked what I’d like, I told my parents that I’d love it if they sponsored my next book (i.e. cover art & publishing fees). More than the money, it was the gesture that was meaningful to me. When the time came, my mother gave me the envelope with the cash money in it and said, Make a book with this or whatever. It was touching.

  Consistently, with each book that I’ve written, my faithful proofreader has been Kristen Keeton. She’s been absolutely fabulous. She’s an ideal candidate as she loves horror and loves to read. Her assistance and reliability have been completely invaluable to me.

  Kristen has deep roots in the horror community as well. She works professionally as a movie makeup artist, creates and sells macabre crafts online, and works in conjunction with some haunted events where she doubles as a makeup artist and an actor.

  Beyond all of them that are directly involved, some individuals have touched my life and inspired me in ways that without them the writing of these books would not be conceivable. I’ve drawn inspiration from so many sources that it’d escape most readers as its application is so mild. While this list might hint at some spoilers, some (not remotely all) influences for a few of the characters in God Walks The Dark Hills Books I-III are listed below.

Reginald Beauregard Valencia

•  Batman (DC Comics)

•  Afro (Afro Samurai)

•  Mad Pierrot (Cowboy Bebop/Anime)

•  Shadow People (various Cryptozoology & Cultural     Lore)

•   Inuyasha (Manga/Anime)

•  Wolverine (Marvel Comics)

Chthonian Idiot Gods: Peter Grimm, Hugo Francesco Artemis XVII, (1 unnamed: Book II)

•  Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

•  The Mohadib (Dune)

Clay Corpse

•  A young Robert Redford via his appearance

•  Domino (Marvel Comics) via his skill as a shootist

•  Fee The Kid Herod (The Quick And The Dead:     Movie. Played by: Leonard Dicaprio)

•  Dennis Peck (Internal Affairs: Movie. Played by     Richard Gere)

The Weird Sisters aka The Lupei Sisters"

•  The Weird Sisters (Bram Stokers Dracula &       Macbeth)

•  Samantha & Rebecca are both names of two girls   unassociated with each other who acted cruelly     to me in my past, thus I named these characters     after them. Technically, I’ve known a few jerky     women who shared those first names.

Robert Cummins

•  Rob Zombie (Horror & Music Icon)

•  The Apostle Peter (Bible)

Ichi Minami

•  Ichi (Zatoichi Film & TV Series, Japan)

•   Battousai the Manslayer (Rurouni Kenshin /       Samurai X: Anime/Manga)

•   Kwai Chang Caine (Kung Fu: TV Western)

Desmond Johannes Valencia

•  Raizo (Ninja Assassin: Movie)

•  Batman (DC Comics)

The Lincoln Man

•  Slenderman (CreepyPasta)

•  Spring-Heeled Jack (British Cryptid, Victorian Lore)

•  Kuchisake-onna (Japanese Cryptid, Lore)

•  Noppera-bō (Japanese Cryptid, Lore)

•  Jersey Devil/Devil of Leeds (Cryptid)

  While none of those influences sum up these characters as a whole, they did play their part in adding certain colorful attributes to them. I’m merely mentioning all of this as an easter egg to my readers. Lots of little homages and nuances were hidden in the first dual novel. For example, there is a specific scene during the battle Shiloh that mirrors the scene with General Grant & Sherman’s conversational scene from the movie How The West Was Won, only from a different perspective.

  Peter Grimm’s line I have seen the great god Pan is a nod to the Victorian horror classic of the same name. Far too many things are put in these books on purpose, such as I’ve named. My influences and thanks are broad.

  Particularly, I’d like to thank all of my readers. Your continued support drives me to do more.

Introduction

  Presumably, if you’re reading this book, you’ve likewise read and enjoyed the ultra-violent dual-novel God Walks The Dark Hills: Book I&II. While it was not the first book I’d ever written, it was my first published work of literary fiction. Your continued readership means so much to me. I’m glad that the twists and turns of these terribly violent books keep you coming back.

  As you’d imagine, Ain’t No Grave: God Walks The Dark Hills Part III takes off directly after the events of Book II, following its protagonist Reginald Beauregard Valencia. When I began writing his character I had a lot of things in mind. There was a documentary film entitled Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. In the film, they specifically discussed the extraordinary lack of a negro character being either a formidable hero or villain within films in general.

  Something that is often talked about in regards to the American Civil War is the Black Confederates. While some revisionists of history ignorantly deny them, they’re easy enough to find. Granted, there were not hundreds of thousands of negros wearing the Confederate gray, still, it was a thing.

  In creating Reginald Valencia I specifically wanted him to be a viewed as full-on black-sheep/outcast sort of character. I wanted to make someone who didn’t fit into society's mold, hence presenting a constant struggle and uncomfortability. The fictitious Confederate militia Heaven’s Seven followed the same pattern. Reginald was the biggest outcast in a group of outcast characters. Every one of them projected real sorts of Confederates that rail against the disinformation of revisionist history.

  Its group held within its ranks a Jew, Northerner, a Woman, Native American. All of which, there were plenty of fighting in the war. Beyond this, allying them with the Confederate States of America means that in real life they’d be denigrated and written out of history by the victors of war. They’d also have fought an army far larger than themselves. If there was a way to make them more counter-culture or punk-rock, I’m unaware of it.

  Most of the characters in this series as well as other books and stories amid my authorship will tend to exhibit an abundance of freewill, cognitive decadence, and other dualistic multilayered human qualities, while not ignoring the true history or world around them. A variety of religions are talked about within the story as it pertains. When Chike Bancole (aka