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  D. K. KNIGHT

  Blood Wine

  First published by D. K. KNIGHT 2022

  Copyright © 2022 by D. K. KNIGHT

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  D. K. KNIGHT asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  D. K. KNIGHT has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  Author Note: This work of fiction makes reference to violence, brutality, sexual orientation, gore, bloodshed, vampires. By continuing on, you accept this work in its entirety and release the author from any and all liability.

  First edition

  ISBN: 9781005057107

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

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  BLOOD WINE

  The Red Rose Winery is home to twenty-five employees in the town of Rosewater, a decently quiet town with friendly people, but this town has many dark secrets. These secrets would never be found in the light of day, but after dark is another story.

  An old clunker is driving down the road and its driver Benny Kelvin is flipping through the radio as he drives past a sign that reads “Welcome to Rosewater”.

  “Finally, now things are looking up,” he blurted out.

  As Benny drew closer to town he thought his luck was changing for the better, since he applied to the Red Rose Winery and had his application accepted. He was grateful for the opportunity to advance his life and move out of and away from his uptight very strict parents. He passed another sign that read Rosewater two miles, then his car began to sputter and jerk as it continued on down the road.

  “No, no, no, come don’t do this to me, please,” he said in a panic.

  The car continued to jerk and sputter for several more minutes and then finally reached its end as the engine died. Benny pulled the car off to the side of the road and as he did, smoke began to come out of the hood. His panic has now become irritation as he knew he would have to walk the half a mile left into town. He opened the door and climbed out, walked over to the passenger and opened the door and grabbed his duffle and backpack, slung the backpack over his shoulder as he stared at the car for several moments.

  “Piece of shit,” he said as he kicked the side of the front end knocking off the bumper.

  Benny turned and began walking toward town. He pulled his cell phone out and tried to call his best friend and tell him what happened, but of course there was no signal as he drew closer to town. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and continued on his way into town.

  Finally arriving a half later, he saw the Red Rose Winery and headed straight for it. Jack Dawson, the owner of the winery stepped out of the building and walked across the parking lot where he met the young man.

  “Hello, can I help you?” he asked.

  “Hi, um, I am Benny Kelvin, your new hire,” he replied.

  “Oh, that’s right, alright Benny, you were supposed to be in town today. Okay, well let’s get your stuff placed in the office and find you some work,” he responded back.

  Jack turned and had him follow as they entered into the building where he led him to another small area through a sliding barn door. The room was full of bunks, lockers, and a shower room in the back.

  “Well, your bunk is the last one closest to the shower room. Go ahead and place your things in the locker and take the padlock and lock it, oh and don’t lose the key that is in it,” he told him as he walked away.

  Benny did as he was told. He placed his belongings in the locker and pulled out a jumpsuit and gloves, then he pad locked the locker to secure it before getting dressed in his work clothes. Later after he settled in, he headed to the office to be placed into a position to help. Jack waved him in as he knocked on the door.

  “Hey, I am ready to begin sir,” he said.

  “Okay Benny, I will have you start on the barrels. You will be in charge of the old barrels, you’re responsible for placing them on the metal heat resistant cart and wheeling them into the furnace to be destroyed,” he told him.

  “Okay, where exactly is the furnace?” he asked.

  “Benny, go to the far left corner of the building in the back. You will see a door and that will be the furnace area. Now scoot, I have tons of paperwork to deal with,” he replied.

  Benny left the office and walked through the building dodging fellow workers, forklifts, and carts. As the full barrels were being moved, he made his way to the back, but couldn’t find the door anywhere as he searched.

  “Hey man, can I help you find something? The name is Alex and this is Pablo,” he asked as he introduced himself.

  “I’m Benny, hey I can’t seem to find the door to the furnace room, I was assigned to destroy the old barrels,” he asked as he introduced himself.

  “I see, Pablo and I work in the same assigned area. You are close, so stick with us and you will be fine,” he responded.

  Benny followed Alex to a large cart with barrels close by. Both Pablo and Alex moved the cart and there it was the door to the furnace area.

  “Okay, so it is really easy. We have the best job. Open the walk-in furnace door and pull the carts out, then place the barrels on them and then wheel the carts back into the room. Step over to this panel and adjust the flame output, then hit the red button to start, that is it. After the process starts, it will take about two hours to completely destroy the barrels and turn them to ash,” Alex explained as he showed him what to do.

  The rest of the day Benny did exactly that. He placed the barrels on the carts, wheeled them into the furnace and then started the flames. Pablo, Alex and Benny spent their time talking and moving barrels into position as they prepared them to be placed on the carts. Benny noticed that some of the carts are heavier than others.

  “Hey Pablo, why are some of the carts heavier than others?” he asked as he struggled to move a cart.

  “Well, the boss has the garbage thrown into some of the barrels and incinerated with them. He says it saves the garbage from going to the landfills and saves money. I don’t know if he is legally doing it or not, but a job is a job and I can’t afford to lose it, so keeping your mouth shut is best,” he responded.

  Benny didn’t say another word about it, he just did his job and continued to get to know his coworkers. That night after shift, Benny was coming out of the shower. When he heard a strange noise, he glanced around, but didn’t see anything, so he headed to his bunk, got dressed, laid down and went to sleep.

  For the last few weeks this was his routine, work, shower, and sleep, and then one day Jack came in as he was getting ready for his shift.

  “Hey, how are things going?” he asked.

  “They are well, it is work and it pays well, so
I enjoy where I am in the furnace room,” he answered.

  “Great, well you have a couple days off, regulations and all. I am required to give it to you, so why don’t you explore the town and get to know your new home? Take Alex with you, he hasn’t had a day in a while,” he told him.

  Benny thanked him and climbed out of his jumpsuit and placed his clothes on, then he headed to the furnace room to fetch Alex, so he could hangout with him and explore the town.

  * * *

  As the day wore on, Benny and Alex were now standing at the edge of town after exploring around. Benny stopped when he noticed a building which looked like it had been abandoned years ago. He noticed a sign laying on the ground, so he slowly approached the boarded up building.

  Benny cleared the brush and read the sign out loud, “Hotel Rose Garden”.”

  Alex stood quiet for a moment then spoke up, “I remember hearing the story about this place. The story goes old lady Winters was a psycho cannibal witch who murdered her guests to eat them. People also said she killed a girl’s parents and then took her in, so she could kill her too.”

  “Bullshit, I call bullshit, I mean if it were true then why would she become the guardian of the girl just to kill her?” he said.

  “Well, people around town told me that the girl found out the truth about her rose garden and lady Winters and her grandsons tried to murder her and she killed them before she set the garden ablaze, and they say she never made it out,” he continued to explain.

  “Awe, sounds like bull crap to me. Hey, let’s head to the diner, I’m starving,” he replied.

  They fellas headed into the diner for their dinner and after ordering Benny noticed Alex staring off behind the counter at a dark haired beauty who happened to be their waitress. Benny continued to observe his behavior as he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. His gaze quickly turned away as she noticed him staring at her. She smiled a bit at his shyness and Benny laughed.

  “Smooth,” he said laughing.

  “Shut up,” he replied.

  “Seriously, go talk to her,” he told him.

  “I can’t, look at me, I am not what you call hot or handsome. I mean look at you for example, you look more like her type, the rugged jock look, I look more like the guy who would help with carrying her bags and doesn’t think of me that way because she thinks I am gay,” he replied with utter lack of confidence.

  “Please, I bet you should go for you, just ask and see what happens. Be brave and confident, trust me,” he told him.

  The waitress brought over their order to go and placed it on the table. She stared over at Alex, who was not glancing at her back.

  “Okay, for the last six months you have been coming in here and glancing or staring in my direction, so are you going to ask me out or not?” she said firmly.

  Alex sat there shocked and Benny snapped his fingers to get his attention, then nodded his head in her direction.

  “Um, sorry, I was a bit shocked that you would even consider a guy like me,” he replied.

  “Well, I am, so what, are you going to ask or not?” she said with a firm tone.

  “Would you like to go out with me tomorrow night?” he asked in a shaky voice.

  “Yes I would, I will see you tomorrow night here at the diner,” she replied.

  She turned and walked away. They grabbed their food and headed out back to the winery to eat and relax.

  “Nice, see I told you, now let’s get back,” he said playfully as he punched Alex’s arm.

  The rest of the night was different. Once they arrived back at the winery, they entered the housing area to find Jack boxing up Pablo’s belongings. Jack didn’t say a word to anyone, just boxed everything and walked out. Even Benny and Alex who were standing there were confused about what was going on, and without a word Alex went to his bunk and ate his food in silence. Benny did the same, but something was eating away at him about what they saw. Late into the night Benny awoke to a strange noise that occurred. He jumped out of his bunk and grabbed a flash light out of his drawer, and headed out into the rest of the factory to search around. He activated the light and searched around, but he didn’t see anything. So he was getting ready to head back to bed when another noise caused him to whip around pointing the light, and a bloody face scared the hell out of him and he fell backward onto the ground knocking himself out as he hit his head on the floor. Benny woke up as the other workers came out and started the equipment. He lifted himself off the floor as everyone stood there staring at him and began whispering to one another. He turned and rushed out of the room to dress for his shift. When he entered the housing area he saw his locker open, so he quickly ran up to it and checked his stuff, but nothing was missing. Confused, he hurried up and got dressed before Jack decided to come in to yell at him. He entered the furnace room and there was Alex placing barrels onto the carts. He glanced up and then back down without a word, Benny wondered if he was mad at him for something.

  “Hey are you mad at me?” he asked.

  “Not at all, I am just trying to get this done so Jack doesn’t think we are slacking because you came in late,” he responded.

  Without saying anything else Alex returned to his work. Suddenly, the radio squawked and John’s voice could be heard through it. Alex grabbed the radio to his ear and then spoke into it before disappearing out the door. Benny continued to work and everything was going great as he wheeled one of the carts into the furnace and was loading another. Benny grabbed another barrel placing a couple, but this one was heavier than the others, so he placed it on the appliance cart to move it to the trolley cart. As he was trying to move the barrel it slipped and fell off the appliance cart and broke open and he dropped the appliance cart to the ground with a loud thud.

  “Holy shit,” he screamed as he tore out of the furnace loading room.

  As he fled from the room, he slammed into a couple of guys moving barrels. He caused them to fall to the ground and a barrel to fall on one’s ankle, while the other hit his head on the side of a pole. The operations came to a halt to avoid any more injuries, but the boss and Alex also heard the problems going on.

  “What the hell is going on,” the boss yelled from the office.

  “Benny’s dumb ass, he came tearing out of the furnace loading room like a bat out of hell, then he caused two others to get injured. I have an ambulance on the way to check them out,” a worker replied.

  “Benny, get your ass in here right now,” he demanded with an angry voice.

  Benny did as he was told. He headed straight for the office and as he entered Jack laid into him.

  “Are you stupid, why the hell are you running through my building? Now for your stupid stunt, you get to work triple shifts tonight, so caffeinated because your ass is going to be burning barrels all night alone,” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  “Sir, I found Pablo’s body in a barrel, that is why I ran. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” he responded in a scared and shaky voice.

  “Pablo left son, so what the hell are you talking about? I found his letter on my desk and a bag of his clothes missing,” the boss replied.

  “Please, sir come with me and look, I swear, it is there in the furnace room where we load the barrels,” he said.

  “Let’s go then, show me,” he ordered.

  Jack stepped out from behind his desk and without a word followed Benny to the barrel furnace room and as they entered, there was no body and no broken barrel anywhere to be found. The furnace door was closed and locked up and the fire ignition was active.

  Jack glanced around and then spoke,”Well where is Pablo? You said you found his body and I don’t see anything at all. Listen, I don’t take kindly to pranks in the workplace, so get your ass back to work and if you pull any bullshit again, I will fire your sorry ass.”

  Jack stormed out of the room to deal with the incident Benny caused and Alex glanced at Benny, then left the room to assist in the other parts of the facility.

 
* * *

  Alex walked into the diner as the sun went down. He was fifteen minutes early for his date, so he relaxed at a booth while he waited. A short while later she walked in, Vivian the waitress. As she approached he became even more nervous because he felt out of place sitting across from the most beautiful woman in the place. As the night wore on they got to know each other more. As he rambled on about his home life and why he left, she just smiled. He ended up catching himself and sat quietly.