"Bull," Matthew said. "There's nothing wrong with me. I'm just tired of you two arguing all the time."
"We don't argue," Wesley insisted, "Jimmy just won't agree with me...ever."
"That's because you're never right...ever," James shot back.
"Are you kidding me?" Wesley asked. "You always come up with the stupidest ideas I've ever heard of. In fact, if I'm right, which I always am, this whole big disaster is a direct result of you doing yet another stupid thing."
"It's not my fault," James said.
"Isn't it?" Wesley replied. "You wanted to 'summon' dead people just for the sake of seeing if you could do it. Meanwhile, I try to practice with this weird power and I get yelled at by the likes of you, of both of y'all. The fact that I'm younger than y'all doesn't give either of y'all any authority over me."
"You could use some," James said under his breath, but deliberately loud enough for Wesley to hear.
"Well," Wesley said quite calmly, "since you want to be the brains behind this whole thing, why don't you just proceed without me. I'm going out."
"Where are you going?" Matthew asked.
"Away," Wesley said, grabbing his keys and closing the door behind him.
"What a dick," James said to Matthew, who seemed to not be paying any more attention. "Matt? Matt? You there?"
Matthew's face looked blank. He didn't move an inch. It was as if Wesley had frozen him, but James knew that that wasn't what had happened. Then, Matthew suddenly shook his head, like he was trying to shake something out of his hair. He looked strangely at James. His eyes flashed red again and went back to normal. James took another step back.
"Matt," he said, "something's definitely wrong with you. Your eyes flashed again."
"This time I felt it," Matthew said. "I never thought anything was wrong, though. I mean, I always get that feeling when I boxed. I just passed it off as aggression, but now I think it's something else."
"Maybe the Book has something in it," James said, taking the Book of Light from Matthew.
James flipped through the Book again, looking for anything that could give information about Matthew's condition. However, the Book was centuries old and did not have a table of contents, so finding anything took a great amount of time. Some of the pages had neat entries while others only contained what looked like indecipherable chicken scratch. It was going to be hard for any of them to get used to the Book.
James, having no idea of what to look for, gave up and threw the Book on the table. He stared into space for a second, hoping that some sort of inspiration would just hit him. But nothing happened. Finally, Matthew started to take the Book and flip through it himself, but as he reached out for it, the Book glowed faintly and Matthew was forced away from it.
"Jimmy," he said. "What's wrong with the Book? I can't touch it."
"That's retarded," James said. "The Book only repels itself from evil, and you're not..."
"Evil?" Matthew asked. "Me? Why? How?"
Just then, Matthew felt dizzy. The world around him began to spin out of control. He had no control over what was happening to him. What he was feeling at that moment wasn't clear to him; it was a combination of emotions. It was a little bit of anxiety, some anger, a bit of frustration, and a lot of rage. The same thing had happened to him before, but this time it was much stronger and he didn't think he would be able to fight it again.
"Matt!" James shouted, shaking him. "Snap out of it!"
"Snap out of this!" Matthew suddenly said. Even his voice had changed.
Matthew grabbed James' hand and twisted it, almost breaking it in the process. He threw James across the room, making him slam into the wall. James only stared at Matthew. Why was he acting like this, he thought to himself. First William, then Wesley, now Matthew. He didn't want to get thrown again, so he reached out and used his power to pin Matthew against the opposite wall. He slowly approached his younger brother.
"Matt," he said, "whatever's happening to you, you have to fight it. Do you hear me? Fight it, Matt!"
"Why fight it?" Matthew said in almost the same way William spoke when he turned evil. "Can't you see what's happening? I've been freed. Now, let me go."
"No," James said. "Not until the real Matt comes back. I need at least one brother on my side here."
"On the contrary," Matthew said, eyes fully red now. "We need one last brother on our side..."
With a great effort, Matthew willed himself free from James' telekinetic hold over him. He swung fiercely at James, hitting him right in the stomach. James doubled over in pain; he had been in plenty of fights, but he had never been hit as hard as that. Matthew wasted no time and kneed James in the face, throwing him back upright. He scored another hit, this time on James' face, knocking him back. He swung again, but James ducked and countered with a punch of his own to Matthew's chest. He grabbed Matthew and forced him into a headlock, trying desperately to bring the good Matthew back.
"Matt," he said, struggling, "you have to fight it!"
"No!" Matthew said, trying to break free. "You need to embrace it!"
Matthew's body became transparent as he phased out of James' hold. Catching James off guard, Matthew kicked him square in the chest, sending him crashing into a bookshelf. Before he could advance again, James waved his hand and Matthew flew backwards and landed on the floor with a thud.
My word! A fight between Jimmy and Matt? How precocious! Coming up next: Wesley has left the building, but can he survive, not knowing what lies in the supernatural world? Also, a slight insight is given into his family tree (emphasis on 'slight')...