Book Five, Chapter 75: Armed with Knowledge

~Riley~

Just because Carousel decided to redress me didn’t mean I lost access to my luggage tag or to any of the items I’d brought in my hoodie pocket.

It just meant I now had to try to find a way to squeeze my headphones out of the narrow breast pocket of my suit jacket.

I literally had to disassemble them just to get them out. Luckily, I didn’t have to try to get my Walkman out too—that would have been impossible. The pocket was made for glasses or a pen. Cell phones hadn’t been invented yet.

I only needed my headphones because those would allow me to listen in on whatever scene was On-Screen using Quiet On Set. Seeing as this storyline was shaping up to be quite research-heavy in nature, with Andrew, Lila, and me nose-deep in books, I felt the need to multitask and listen in.

And it was weird.

At first, I heard a lot of breathing. I thought it was just someone who needed to hit the gym more often, but then I realized I was listening to a dog—no, a wolf—running for, like, 30 whole seconds. As I realized that’s what I was hearing, I became afraid I was going to hear a scream afterward, but I never did.

Instead, the conversation shifted from place to place, focusing on things that were mostly irrelevant to the plot. I heard laughing and splashing. I heard people talking as they walked the trails.

Whatever Carousel was planning for all the summertime vacationers in the area, it was sure taking its time setting things up.

Meanwhile, I was trying my best to sort through the information I’d found in a nearly 200-year-old journal.

As far as I could figure, the information could be divided into three different types: stuff that I thought was secret lore, which would not go On-Screen; stuff that was normal lore, which would go On-Screen; and finally, detailed paranormal experimentation, which could be either type. I didn’t know.

If werewolves were allergic to normal silver, rolling silver—whatever that was—was like kryptonite to them.

Just reading the entries got me excited. “Amadeus Sing” really got into experiment mode in the summer of 1826.

June 25, 1826
Experiment XVII: Subject D.A. (Volunteer Lycanthrope)
Objective: Test exposure to rolling silver for transformation interruption and potential cure.

10:00 PM – Exposure begins. Subject seated, restrained. Ten ounces of rolling silver placed within ten feet and activated. Initial signs of discomfort: shallow breathing, furrowed brow.
10:05 PM – At three feet. Subject exhibits visible distress. Sweating profusely, reporting “burning” sensation internally. Pulse elevated.
10:10 PM – Early signs of transformation (clawing at restraints, reddening of irises) abruptly cease. Subject begins retching, collapsing against bonds. No observable wolfish traits develop.
10:15 PM – Consciousness fades briefly; upon revival, subject is fully human but unresponsive. Skin pale, ashen. Reports “hollow heat” in chest, unable to rise.

Note: The Woolsey family has agreed to additional funding for my tests. Rolling silver continues to elicit transformative disruption but offers no progress toward reversing affliction. Subject withdrew consent after recovery, citing “unbearable torment.” Curious—effect persists even at distance. Mechanism remains unexplained. Rolling silver potency affected by amount and proximity.

When I read this On-Screen, I would have to change Woolsey to Withers if it came up, their in-story name. Carousel always liked to complicate things.

July 18, 1826
Experiment XIX: Transformed Subject E.J. (Lycanthrope, non-volunteer)
Objective: Test exposure to rolling silver on a subject already in wolfish form.

11:00 PM – Transformed subject introduced to containment area. Nominal amount of rolling silver activated. No immediate reaction; subject growls low, pacing.
11:03 PM – Now at three feet. Subject emits guttural growls, escalating to loud howls. Claws at containment bars in agitation. No visible signs of reversion.
11:07 PM – Amount increased. Howling ceases. Subject collapses into a convulsive state, fur bristling unnaturally. Movement restricted to spasms. Transformation remains intact.
11:10 PM – Subject lies motionless apart from labored breathing. Observed continued wolfish traits with no signs of human emergence.
11:20 PM – Experiment terminated. Subject subdued and restrained.

Note: Rolling silver induces severe distress but fails to initiate reversion from the fully transformed state. Consistent agony observed, mirroring earlier trials. Contradicts findings from pre-transformation exposures.

~

July 22, 1826
Experiment XX: Barrier Trial with Rolling Silver Subject D.A. (Lycanthrope, non-volunteer)
Objective: Test efficacy of rolling silver through a dense barrier.

11:30 PM – Nominal rolling silver activated ten feet behind a 1-foot-thick brick wall which blockades the beast from contact. Transformed subject introduced unrestrained into adjacent chamber. Initial pacing and sniffing observed.
11:35 PM – At six feet. Subject begins growling, scratching at the ground. Agitation builds despite no direct exposure to rolling silver.
11:36 PM – Subject stumbles mid-pace, convulsing briefly. Breathing becomes erratic, growling ceases.
11:40 PM – Subject collapses entirely, lying motionless but maintaining wolfish form. Labored breathing observed.
11:45 PM – Experiment concluded.

Note: Rolling silver’s effects persist even when entirely obstructed by dense material. Potency is unaffected by physical barriers, suggesting the reaction originates from properties beyond physical exposure. Need air-tight apparatus to confirm. Mechanism remains wholly unexplained. Further study is required.

~

Whatever rolling silver was, it was a big deal. Honestly, I refused to believe that any real-life scientist could do such thorough and exhaustive research on a subject without once actually defining it, but for a movie, that was a fairly typical problem to have.

We knew that rolling silver was a very potent weapon, and now we had to figure out what it was exactly. I had some ideas. Mercury sprang to mind, but I wasn’t sure what it meant for mercury to be “activated.” I might have to do some experiments of my own.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

More importantly, we had to bring it into the story. We had to establish it, or else it might not be around for us to use later on.

I took off my headphones and hid them behind a stack of books. It was 1986, so they weren’t exactly an egregious anachronism, but they did feel out of place in a candlelit library while reading 100-year-old texts.

I conferred with Andrew about how we were going to establish rolling silver. We asked Lila to wait outside. She was another problem. In order for her to be First Blood, we probably had to establish her as a character.

She said she would work on it.

After a quick conversation—and confirming that nothing important was happening On-Screen by listening to my headphones for a moment—I knew we were in a prime moment to introduce rolling silver to the narrative. All the information related to secret lore would just have to wait.

It turned out we were getting pretty good at this game because as soon as we were prepared, Carousel was there, waiting to start filming.

On-Screen

“Have you read anything about something called rolling silver?” I asked, holding up the journal and pointing it out to Andrew.

He leaned over and squinted at the page. “How in the world are you reading that handwriting?” he asked. “Rolling silver?” He sat back and thought for a moment. “Perhaps that’s an old way of saying mercury?”

“I had thought of that, but I wasn’t sure,” I said. “They did used to call mercury quicksilver, didn’t they?”

“They did.”

“I’m not sure, though,” I said. “This is supposed to be really potent stuff. We’re talking about every wolf nearby would be doubled over if you had enough of it…If mercury was as effective against the werewolves as this scientist is claiming rolling silver is, then I can’t imagine someone in the modern age wouldn’t have figured it out already.”

“It would certainly strain credulity,” Andrew said. “Mercury is in every household in thermometers. Though most modern werewolf experts rarely approach the subject from a scientific perspective. How did he discover it?”