A Creative Writing Exercise #2: The Unlikely Alliance
A practice of building a story based on the interactions of two antagonistic characters
Chapter 1 – The Bloodless Mystery
It was 1805, the last year before the fall of the now more than 1000-year-old Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon was on the march, the pressures were building and the formerly unified German states were in havoc. With the terror coming from without, a lot of trouble was spurling within. Murder, rape, and theft were common business for now-29-year-old Nick Eizenhaur. Having been a Vigile (a watchman of the city) for more than 10 years, Nick has seen a lot of gore and trouble. Nonetheless, what had happened on that fateful afternoon was nothing like he had ever seen before.
Arriving at the place of the homicide of a middle-aged woman, Nik was struck with the scene of the crime. Although he could see clear wounds on the victim’s body, he did not find any blood within or around the now cold-dead person. Even the likely tool of murder was clean of blood or stains, as though not even touched. Maybe it was a decoy? Could it be that the blood was sucked out of the victim with some kind of a special tool? If so, what kind of tool could it have been, and how to track it?
Scratching his head at the puzzle, Nik remembered his two former companions. Christopher Barbosa and Micheal Shtrudenberg were intellectual rivals from the skin to the bone. Being born in the wake of Romanticism, both men were still holding the ideas of the former world on their shoulders. Having done away with scholasticism both men joined separate intellectual camps each defending their ideas passionately.
For an empiricist, such as Shtrutenberg, all knowledge can be gathered only through the use of the senses. ‘I only believe what I can see, test, and measure,’ he said once to a fellow colleague. ‘All learning comes from keen and careful observation of the external world. If there’s something there, I’ll get to the bottom of it through sight.’
Barbosa, on the other hand, was groomed in the spirit of rationalism, a belief that truth can only be acquired through a person’s capacity to reason. ‘I don’t know why I know. I just do. God has been kind enough to implant knowledge into the blueprints of my soul. All that I have to do is deduce the conclusions through my sense of reason and logical thought.
Writing letters to both men Nik inquired into their opinions about the case and asked them whether they could come and help him out with the investigation.
‘How bizarre,’ he remarked in his letter to Shtrutenberg, ‘It almost seems that the person who was found to be murdered did not have blood in her veins, to begin with. How can that be the case? In my childhood, I heard stories about vampires and other beasts of the night, but I cannot persuade. myself to believe in fairy tales. You are one of the keenest observers that I have met. There is certainly something that our eyes are missing here. Would you care to investigate the case with us? Your sharp senses and clear eyes would benefit us greatly.’
Writing to Barbosa, Nik asked of him a similar favor, yet from a different perspective: ‘We have worked on cases before. I know that your primary concerns are mostly intellectual, yet this calls for someone with a greater intellect than mine. I have seen many cases, but nothing like this had crossed my horizons before. How is it possible that a person could have no traces of blood in or outside the body? I don’t want to become superstitious, but this seems to be breaking my capacity to reason. Maybe a man of your stature could do away with this better than I would?’
‘What do you make of this incident?’ Eizenhaur inquired. ‘Isn’t it odd that there are clear bruises and cut wounds, but no blood attached? There’s even the instrument of murder lying not that away from the body, yet it appears clean, almost untouched.’
Barbosa pondered for a moment. Pacing through the room he tried to connect the possibly opposing facts together.
Receiving the letters both men became intensely intrigued with the case. How exciting! Instead of becoming mere armchair professors they have once again received a true opportunity to apply their knowledge in the context of everyday matters. Might solving this case put an end to the centuries-old rivalry of ideas? Could this murder be the last stronghold either of them will have to capture? Or might it break the world and minds of all three investigators?
As the day of departure was drawing nearer, both men began to pack their belongings and consolidate their thoughts. What might have caused this out-of-the-ordinary homicide and is it actually as unique as Nik had described it to be? What will they find once they arrive in Bavaria?
Nik was waiting both for them patiently, and as the day of their arrival began to draw nearer he started to wonder.
‘The likes of the two of them coming together into the same places a year ago would have seemed preposterous. Nonetheless, extreme cases call for extreme measures, and for some reason, it feels like this is just the tip of the iceberg that we have begun to scratch. Could it be the bloody French trying to confuse and break us from within or is it something else happening altogether? I’ll get to the bottom of this case even if it is the last one I’ll have to take care of.
A sense of mystery covered the air of the small town where Eizenhaur was residing. All type of horrific claims has spread since the day that the townsfolk learned what had happened in their formerly quiet little village.
Fortunately, on the 5th of June, an air of change flooded the town’s hall as the story of the arrival of two of the greatest minds in the empire spread like wildfire. The townsfolk greeted both of the guests with claps and admiration, but instead of joy quickly got replaced with silence and tension. Both men stood on the opposite side of the entrance to the town hall and glared at each other with dismay and clear distrust. Nonetheless, escorted by Nik, both of the men entered the town hall one by one, silently and without ceremony.
After the doors had closed the town’s people were left wondering what will come about from this unlikely alliance and most importantly, will it help to solve the mystery that was keeping them in suspense. Only time will tell, and unfortunately for everyone, it began to tick at a speed that was unprecedented in the history of Bavaria and the Empire altogether.
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