❝Leave out all the rest❞

12.

❝Cause no one else cares❞

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I got pushed forward in my seat as the breaks sounded high-pitched screeches, slowing the train down to a stop at the platform. I gathered the notes I've been reading, sticking everything back inside my bag, and left for the town's library.

It was a huge Sixteenth Century building, the kind that's usually very cold and sorta dark inside, where even the tiniest of sounds echoes along the hallways. It was the kind of place that makes people feel really small.

I roamed the science halls until I found some books I thought would help me with an upcoming biochemistry test. On my way to the tables in the middle section, I passed one last shelf that could contain something interesting in the subject, when my eyes caught a title. Specifically, a single word in the title: argentum.

Although it didn't have anything to do with the biochemistry test, the Latin word for silver inadvertently caught my attention. Upon a closer inspection, I realised the book itself was about the use of silver as an anticonvulsant, so I decided to leave it there, since I didn't understand anything about convulsant properties.

I sat at the table with my pile of books and notes with the intention of studying for the test, yet, my mind wouldn't stop going back to that specific element of the periodic table and its relation to - well - werewolves.

Deciding it was no use sitting there, rereading the same paragraph over and over again, trying to understand the stuff for class whilst thinking about fairytale creatures, I got up and walked straight to the mythology section. I browsed through every werewolf book I could find and, boy, were there a lot of those.

Most of it was full of misconceptions, of course, and only some of it seemed to have actually been written by people who knew or at least believed in the existence of werewolves. I was about to give up when I dropped a book to the floor and, as I retrieved it, I noticed a very old brochure on the corner of the very last shelf.

I picked it carefully, for it seemed it would fall apart in my hands. Its pages were yellow and fragile, handwritten with black ink. I didn't believe I had ever held anything older than that in my life. At first, it was hard to read the handwriting, but I managed to decipher the title after looking at it more attentively. It mentioned a cure.

I took it to the table where I was previously sited and started my attempts to read the strange text. It was dated 1816, signed Sir Lyall Bleiz. Bleiz. Isaac's last name.

I scrolled up until the very end and noticed Sir Lyall's research was inconclusive. Not that it came as a surprise. Obviously, he didn't succeed, since hundreds of years latter his family still carried the curse, but I couldn't help but hope a little.

Then, a thought crossed my mind: people didn't understand science, in 1816, the same way we do now. So, I power-walked to the chemistry again, and got myself three books on the properties of silver, plus that one about the use of it as an anticonvulsant, because why not. I was already way out of my league, I was no scientist, just an undergrad student, so if I was going to meddle with what I don't understand, I might as well dive deep into it.

I started from the first page of the brochure, taking the original text and rewriting it onto my notebook, adding and changing things according to what I could find on the latest textbooks.

"Hey" Someone whispered in my ear and I jumped in place, meeting my favourite pair of almond eyes.

"Oh, hey, what are you doing here?"

He leaned in and placed a quick kiss on my lips.

"Aw, I'm very glad to see you too, love" He said.

"I am very glad to see you, I just wasn't expecting it." I defended myself as he took a sit by my side.

"Why? Don't I look exactly like the type of guy who visits the library often?" He smirked.

"You may not, but your relative here sure did" I pointed to the brochure.

"Wha-?" He frowned, taking a closer look at the book.

"See? Sir Lyall Bleiz. Must be your ancestral or something-"

"What are you doing with this thing?" He asked, pushing the book away.

I shrugged.

"I thought I could finish his studies. I know it's silly..."

Isaac pierced me with his eyes, I'd never saw them this cold.

"It is silly. You should drop it"

"I'm not dropping it." I stated, smirking.

"Why are you even interested in this?"

"Cause no one else cares. At least, you don't seem to. Even though you should, since it's your life."

"Exactly. It's my life, so you should just let it be." He crossed his arms, displeased.

"Why does this bother you so much?"

"Take a guess." Isaac raised an eyebrow at me.

"You don't need to be like this." I started closing the books and putting my notes back in my bag. "I get it, you don't want me messing with your family's thing. Geez, it's like you enjoy being this way-"

Isaac snorted a "what" so loud that the librarian hissed at him. He lowered his voice.

"I absolutely do not like this, but I've accepted it. I won't waist my life looking for a cure that is not real!" He hissed.

"Why don't you let me do it, then?"

"Because it's in vain. You won't find it, just like Grandpa Zev didn't find it, or this dude" He pointed to the brochure. "Sir something Bleiz... Because you'll spend time and energy in this and when you see that there's no way out, you'll be disappointed, and you'll leave."

I stared at him. He started to blush, and I assumed he realised how foolish that sounded.

"Your grandfather didn't find it because he's been a mechanic all his life." I took a deep breath and took a step closer to him, so that I could speak in a whisper. "It's true he's incredibly smart, but he could be the most intelligent man on the planet and he wouldn't be able to figure this out. I may still be in college, and I'm far from a straight-A student, but I have the basic knowledge your grandfather didn't have, and I have the technology your ancestors didn't have."

I could see him struggling to give me an answer and after a few moments in silence, he declared himself defeated by my stubbornness.

"You're gonna do this whether I want it or not, aren't you?"

I just nodded, glad we understood each other.