Isiah had travelled to Germany for an excavation of medieval relics before. His friend and Isiah had rescued a sword of unknown times, the blade rusty from the test of time, but upon restoring the blade as good as possible the grip made of gold with leather strips providing grip for the once valiant soldier who must have been of high standing. The pommel had been crown shaped and the skeleton of the man had broken bones in his arms and ribcage and a few notches in his leg bones where arrows of lethal potential must have chipped part of his bone. Dr. Falkner, a colleague of Isiah whom he had met as a university student as Falkner had conducted research on the history of cape cod in the states, was of invaluable use for Isiah’s archaeological research as Falkner’s knowledge as historian complemented him well. Thus, Isiah was intruiged when Falkner corresponded that dusty documents in his archive tell of a small town in rural Germany that is now abandoned but apparently was struck by a severe case of the bubonic plague in the 17th century. On top of that, Falkner gathered, as the townsfolk had died by the thousands in the matter of a couple of years their fear and desolation had grown in to eagerness to act and they had concluded that witches must be responsible for the malady that had found this unassuming town of devout christians. And therefore a handful of witches had been burnt and added to the mass grave. Dr. Falkner thought it only sensible to ask for his friends help to shed light onto the awful fate of Bad Veilsstein.
Isiah curiosity was peaked though he had never excavated a mass grave and from the scant information had no allusion to the success of the endevour. But friendship called him to duty and Isiah made his way from Lakehurst to New York form where he boarded a steamship to Hamburg and then took a carriage to Rußbach in Bavaria. A large pothole in the rural roads of southern germany jolted the carriage and Isiah awoke to witness the rolling hills loaded with franconian vineyards already harvested and now ornating the hillside in their retirement. He had slept for most of the journey and now the familiarity of the region heralded his destination. He found Dr. Falkner’s estate just as he would imagine it, a stone structure with a gable roof and two stories with wooden shutters attached to small windows. Overall an unassuming property which hints at the inhabitant’s improved social status without flaunting extraordinary signs of wealth. The solitudinous positioning of the estaste was only befitting of Falkner’s character as Isiah remembered him, a man of pragmatism and rational thought in the vein of the Enlightenment, a man of scant words but precise wording commendable for a historian. As the carriage closed in on the estate, Isiah saw Falkner working in the backyard before he came to greet him. Being of a stone-cold complexion with a protruding browridge, a broad and sharp jawline, a clean shaven face, Falkner’s countenance bore no signs of emotional expressions but rather the scrutiny of a curious scientist. Nevertheless the dusky blue pair of eyes peering through steel-framed glasses gave enough evidence to assume an attentive listener in Falkner. Thus, catching up on almost a decade since they last met had Isiah doing most of the talking, whereas Falkner only talked about peculiarites which Isiah specifically asked about. Since Isiah’s arrival, a couple of hours must have passed talking heart-to-heart about what they had experienced in the course of time and now the autumnal air had grown brisk and the sun lay low on the horizon peering into the modestly furnished living room on ground floor. But the arduous voyage had made Isiah weary and before mentioning the details of the subject to be investigated, he suggested to retire for the day and continue on the morrow.
A deep and dreamless sleep in the mute germany countryside had recuperated isiah fully. Upon waking up in the homely guest room of Falkner’s estate he could already perceive Falkner’s movements on ground floor. As he descended the stairs to greet Falkner, Isiah saw that he had already prepared the necessities for the excavation. And since Isiah brought with him hardly any instruments, he was ready too.
It was still early morning as they left. Dr. Falkner was leading the way to Rußbach’s train station from where they ought to board a train to a town near Bad Veilsstein, as Falkner told. Isiah was blindly following his friend and they hardly talked on their way to the station, so Isiah took in the scenery of southern germany. In order to find the station, they had to traverse Rußbach where the stone roads were carpeted with fallen leaves in brown and yellow. They passed the narrow streets with looming stone houses with gable roofs before crossing the large marketplace wich had a fountain in the middle of it with a stone soldier erected in the center holding up a flag carved with Rußbach’s city sigil. It wasn’t long before they arrived at the station but Dr. Falkner must have been greeted by at least a dozen people on their way. The general culture, Isiah thought, must be warm and welcoming almost like a large family in this small town, even during the chilly and damp autumn.
“We must first take zhe train to Eichenfeld, witsch iz a town near Bad Veilsstein, becauz there are no train going direktly to Bad Veilsstein anymore and zhis is the only train leaving for Eichenfeld today.”, Falkner began before they boarded the train that’s already waiting in the station.
Now on the train Falkner produced a dossier from his backpack. Documents from his archive. Isiah perused the papers which showed a gradual decline in business in the town. Less and less people appear in the bookkeeping of the local artisans, farmers and drapers.
“Zhis usually indikates that a town has a great loss of people.”
“But couldn’t it be that the townsfolk just moved into the cities for work?”, Isiah asked.
“Yes, it could be.”, Dr. Falkner retorted. Then without words he rummaged further in his leather backpack and produced another set of papers. “But then we found this.”
It was the diary of the local physician describing fully the individual cases of his patients who complained of nausea, fever and of course had egg-sized swellings mostly in the armpits. Around 1651 the number of cases increased drastically. In that diary the physician, Dr. Krämer, detailed his desperate attempts to with various herbs. After a while he resorted even to surgery although never being formally taught surgery against swellings of the plague. Most of his patients had died, Dr. Krämer admitted. Krämer had explained the cases in detail and continuously mentioned that these poor souls are victim to a witch’s curse, which he never elaborated. His entries mysteriously stopped in the winter.
“We assume he died, probably from zhe plague aswell. Zhere must be a grave nearby where zhe town was. From zhe archive we conclude that zhe people were buried right behind zhe towns cemetery as zhe docuemts tell of such a large number that zhe cemetery waz not big enough to host every corpse.”.
Isiah carefully listened whilst fancying the ominous capacity of the mass grave.
A whole town wiped out, he brooded.
The intention of unearthing countless souls from their infinite slumber is like walking a tightrope between necessary means of scientific curiosity, a stride towards enlightened insight and impertinent blasphemy. The dead ought to remain remain in the soil, stored in the unconscious of the living with only gravestones and sepulchers signifying the life once lost. Additionally, as Isiah had often encountered superstitions in his work as an archaeologist, the repetitous mentioning of a curse in the diary of the late physician Dr. Krämer, had roused his interest.
What is this curse that Krämer keeps mentioning?”
“A trifling matter. Zhe townsfolk had, shortly before being struck by zhe plague, burnt a mass of alleged witches and, of course people during zhat time were deeply superstitious.”, Falkner said while adjusting his glasses.
Isiah further studied the documents which Falkner produced from his bag and had laid out on the table between them. The rumbling of the train made reading difficult but Isiah noticed a particular case described in ample detail. It was the case of Katharina Meyer, a middle aged woman accused of witchcraft after successfully healing her neighbours toothache with a list of commonly used herbal remedies. She was acused by the neighbour’s son, Thomas Wagner, who was of similar age. Subsequently, she was imprisoned and forced to wear a witche’s shift, which was a type of shirt blessed by local clercs to dispel any magic she might cast to escape the law. The following judicial process took three days and involved a number of witnesses, most of which based their testimonies on encounters with Katharina and subsequent seemingly coincidental bodily illnes or discomfort. One witness told of an occurance between Katharina and her husband, which they had held in public, as they had often done. Then the witness experienced a migraine the following night and attributed it to the magical, banshee-like screech Katharina had aired in the argument. Another witness, Thomas Wagner himself, described walking past Katharina in a lonely alley one day. She had cast a deragatory look at him, which he told had made him ill the same day. Although a couple of other witnesses had admitted witnessing romantic advances by Thomas toward Katharina and the decisive rejection the man had received, the judge still accepted the testimony as legitimate. The last and most devestating testimony came from Katharina’s husband himself. He had told the judge of how he met Katharina; she had come from a different, unkown village and they had fallen in love quickly, which the husband now retrospectively attributed to a love potion Katharina must have administered. Her husband based his acusation on the fact that the following years of marriage were most stormy, full of fights and arguments. Katharina was even seen trying to run away from the village again, only to return once she, allegedly realized she had no other place to go. The couple years of marriage, her husband argues, were used by Katharina to slowly poison him and casting witchcraft which turnt him miserable. She had done this out of spite, he revealed to the judge. During the three day trial Katharina was kept imprisoned while forced to wear the withc’s shift all the time. Her defence had grown more dejected by the day and confessed on the third day, resigning her right to live and with a belly full of hatred said she wished she could curse the whole god forsaken, unjust village if she could. The next day she was beheaded and her corpse burried wearing the witche’s shift in order the annul the curse she had cast. The superstitious physician Krämer must have meant this curse, Isiah thought.
The train closed in on Eichenfeld. The carriage was devoid of other passengers, although Isiah could hardly remember anyone boarding the train with them. Also, as Eichenfeld train station was coming to view, the dilapidated state was evident, even from afar. The two disembarked the train and again noticed the absence of passengers or even other trains in the station. Stepping into the main building, they walked past an elderly ticket clerk sitting lonely in his booth, laid back in his chair, snoring. He was the only one there. Exiting the main building, the town came into view and left Isiah taken aback by the stark contrast between the modern and orderly streets of Rußbach and the ancient roads of Eichenfeld. It seemed as though the town hadn’t reached the present yet and the denizens couldn’t find it’s place in the world. Having reached the town on a Saturday, there were no possible explanations for Isiah why everyday life was also fast asleep. The streets were empty. Before he could mention this observation, share his foreboding with Falkner, the latter already started walking.
“Bad Veilsstein iz not far from here, maybe we can find a motor or a karriage to bring us zhere.”
As if he either did not notice or did not care about the premonitions which would naturally creep into even the most average observer, Falkner proceeded. Walking through the town, Isiah further noticed the disposition of distrust towards strangers by the locals, as the very few people Isiah and Falkner spotted, give a quick look then disappear into dark valleys. The towns streets seem to have been build ages ago and left in a state of continuous erosion. And the cold gusts of wind blowing every now and then must easily blow through the woodedn windows as they are in obvious need of repair. The houses were built upon already existing stone structures of forgotten centuries, as one could tell by the distinct change in colour and general state of wear on the material. Being avoided by everyone, the search for a horse-drawn cab took a while, but once found another issue arose. Falkner was talking to the gaunt elderly man who run the cab and Isiah was left to guess the meaning of the harsh-sounding german words uttered. It seemed as though the old man was arguing with Falkner; at times he looked shocked, shaking his head.
“He doesn’t want to drive us. Zhe place is shunned, he says.”, Falkner explained.
Hearing this, Isiah’s premonitions deepened, but Falkner seemingly was adamant in conducting the research, or he was oblivious to, or maybe dismissive of the curse they had found mentioned in the documents. Either way Isiah was not ready to speak up, as he would tarnish his standing as a rational scientist.
The old man and Falkner kept arguing until Falkner handed over a handful of coins to old man.
“He will lend us zhe carriage, but we must ride zhe horse ourselves. I shall do it.”
Falkner held the reins as Isiah was left on the hansom cab, supressing any foreboding he fancied, as they strode through the hillside.
As they were driving, Isiah couldn’t help but test his premonitions on Falkner.
“What do you think of this curse?”, Isiah probed.
“It iz merely a superstition. It proves one again zhe power of psychology on people. Zhey abandoned old Bad Veilsstein out of fear and attributed it to zhe curse, thus making it a self fulfilling prophecy.”
I guess he must be right, Isiah thought.
“Yes, you are most likely correct, althought I must say, my mind was stirred when I read the documents. The trial she faced lacked any sense judicial fairness.”
“Zhat is zhe way witch trials were held, Isiah. Ludicrious acusations were sufficient as zhe people back then believed wholeheartedly in the power of witchcraft and thus the witch’s shift.”
“What exactly is that anyway?”
“A special type of garment crafted with apotropaic seals and warding material to dispel any effects of dark magic. Again merely a trick on the mind. Makes people feel safe. But this witch’s shift is what make this case interesting in the first place, because as you might have noticed the alleged witch wasn’t burnt, merely beheaded. Usually witches are burnt becaus it was believed that the cleansing of the fire made any spell she might have casted ineffective. So, maybe we can find it alongside the mass grave.”
Isiah listened carefully and stayed quiet for the rest of the way.
It was a thirty minute drive to the ruins. Having talked to Falkner about it, even briefly, had put Isiah’s mind to rest and awoke within him the analytical operating mode of his mind, unperturbed from any emotion. Nonetheless, there was still the shadow of doubt in the back of his mind shouting for caution as they closed in on Bad Veilsstein’s ruins. Drawing closer, Isiah did not fail to notice singular spots of twisted shrubbery of unkown taxonomy growing out of the cracks of the forlorn infrastructure remaing from distant centuries. His fright mingled with his curiosity and peaked at the thought of finding the witch’s remains; excavating the mass grave was secondary to him now. Riding throug the remains of this old village, the horse would sometimes stop, refusing to commence further unless Falkner put the whip on it. After passing through almost the entire village, the cemetery with a large tree growing in the middle of itcame into view in the outskirt of the village. By now it took Isiah had to conjure all his mental faculties to supress the feeling that something is wrong, because apart from the tree, the rest of the surrounding land looked barren with only small patches growing blades of grass which crumpled into a almost dust-like substance if the horse stepped on it. Now, the horse stopped going completely, refusing to take a step forward even if Falkner whipped it. Thus they preceeded by foot. Reaching the cemetery, Isiah now could not keep his composure, he was in horror as he saw the tree, which had grown wickedly, twisted in unnatural shapes reminiscing of contorted bodies writhing in pain. A few slabs of stone bearing illegible carvings of name could be found and Falkner guessed the mass grave to be right behind the last row of gravestones. So he produced from his bag two collapsible shovels and they started digging. The soil was oddly porose and lightly packed making it feel as if shovelling sand. After digging for hours, both were shocked to not find a single corpse in the entire graveyard. It was as if even the dead had deserted the place. The sun was waning, when suddenly Falkner tossed aside the shovel and started shoveling the sand with his hands. Isiah immediately came close to see what his friend had found and Falkner pulled out of the earth the witch’s shift.
“Is that the witch’s shift? Why is it here?”
“Zhey buried her here too. Most peculiar.”
The finding was close the sinister tree of the cemetery and with not a single corpse of the mass grave found, Isiah’s eerie feeling about the whole undertaking had taken up his mind once again.
“We should leave, Falkner. I’ll tell the university that we failed at finding the grave. It will be a hard blow to my career but so be it. I don’t like the feeling of this. Put it back and let’s leave.”
“I didn’t know a great archeologist shied away from a little superstition. I am sure you must’ve encountered many instances where your work felt like sacrilage.”
“Falkner, you see the most unnatural earth, too? This is different. Put it back.”
He remained silent for a while and every part of Isiah’s being wanted to let the place, whole Bad Veilsstein, rest and be forgotten in history.
“I shall take it with me. For my research.”
Before he could even object, the witch’s shift disappeared in Falkner’s bag and he was already disassembling the shovels, so Isiah remained silent.
As they returned to Falkner’s estate, Isiah’s mind obsessed not only about the failure of finding what he had embarked from America for, but more so about the curse.
It was late at night, when they arrived at the estate and both retired to their beds quickly. The day had exhausted both and even with a racing mind Isiah fell asleep shortly after.
It was then, in the small hours, when a bright light awoke Isiah from his sleep. Deeply confused, he rushed to his window and drawing back the curtains saw a roaring flame down the street. Many locals had already noticed it and when Isiah joined them he saw them already trying to extinguish the flames. Eventhough he didn’t understand a word they spoke, he help as best as he could.
Horror gripped him the moment he saw, what had caused a stir in the locals.
Someone was burning. And the flames had a blinding brightness to them, which he had never seen before. It took a dozens buckets of water and when the fire died down, no one dared to speak. As if the air itself demanded tranquility no word broke the silence. But everyone saw. There were no ashes and only a single item survived what now seemed like supernatural punishment.
Where the flames were, remained only the steel frame of Falkner’s glasses.