WHO: Matt Summerby and his house guests
WHAT: Stuff. Things.
WHERE: His house
WHEN: Tonight



It had been a long few days. His fight with Delilah, if you could call it that, weighed heavily on Matt's shoulders. He wasn't angry, he didn't think. He felt overwhelmed with the media swarm that had immediately sprung around him, he was upset that she had lied to him about her feelings toward his brother and----it hurt. Now he didn't know what to think, about Delilah, about...it made him wonder how Odette and Drystan really felt, or even how he felt himself. Was he blinded by happiness? Was he really moving too fast?

This was his brother. Caleb was his family, his only family. That's all Matt had ever wanted, for his family to be together again. He had not told Caleb about Delilah, or anything else for that matter, but it felt like his brother had been on edge ever since. Maybe Matt wasn't hiding his conflict as well as he had thought, and it drove him mad to think that this could be ruined. How could he risk---

---Matt groaned as the not-so-soft pillow strike from his brother whacked him in the side of the face.

“Thanks, for that!” he let out, managing to snatch the pillow from his brother’s hands. Caleb laughed and jumped back, hitting the back of his legs on the coffee table.

“Yeah, well, I owe you for getting that girl to high-tail it out of the pub.”

“She was not a girl, she was at least forty,” Matt argued, shaking a finger at his brother. The night had been full of laughter; it was a good night and Matt wanted more of them. Caleb shook his head and sat on the edge of the wooden table. “I couldn’t let my brother go home with that---what’s wrong with your face?”

“Sorry I’m not as pretty as you---” Caleb began, but Matt had already pushed himself up off the couch and grabbed hold of his brother’s chin.

“No--you look like you’re having a stroke!” Matt exclaimed, eyes wide. The left side of Caleb’s face looked like it had gone numb and lopsided. He patted his brother’s cheek, but the tips of his fingers stuck to his skin. It was like Caleb was…”You’re melting?!”

Matt pulled his hands away and stepped back. How drunk was he? He’d only had a few---Caleb jumped to his feet and rushed out of the living room, grabbing at his face and hair.

“CALEB!” Matt shouted, running after him. The door to the bathroom slammed, but he couldn’t just let his brother disappear. He stood outside the door of the bathroom, his heart racing. ”What the hell is going on?”

“It’s--it’s nothing! It’s nothing! I---” his brother’s voice shouted through the door. It seemed strangled and deeper, as if he was struggling to breathe. Matt hesitated for less than a second before slamming his shoulder into the door and knocking it off its hinges.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Matt shouted finding Caleb crouched and turned away from him in the corner of the bathroom. “Caleb, what did you have on your face, what---your hair---it’s---”

His brother suddenly wasn’t blonde anymore. His stringy blonde hair was shortening, almost like it was shrinking back into his head and turning black. Matt felt dizzy with his heavy breaths, he was so confused, this couldn’t be real---his hand gripped the frame of the door.

“You’re charmed,” he managed, watching Caleb’s shoulders broaden. It was only magic that could have changed his appearance, it wasn’t a trick of the mind, it wasn’t him being too drunk. Matt took a step back, trying to figure out if he could get to the wand he’d hidden in his bedroom. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, no, no, no.

Caleb, or---or whoever it was, stood and turned around to face him. Matt’s jaw clenched at the smirk on the other man’s face. He was completely unrecognizable, someone he didn’t know, had never seen before, didn’t trust.

“Polyjuice, actually. A variation.” The man cracked his knuckles and let out a laugh. “Guess the jig is up.”

Matt was shaking, every part of him was shaking. All this time, it hadn’t been his long lost brother, but some----some low life criminal in disguise. A bloody---Matt had noticed that he’d been misplacing things, small things, money in particular, but it hadn’t been---This person had been living under the guise of his brother, had pushed himself into Matt’s life in every aspect. He’d trusted him.

Matt had loved him.

Before he could think Matt hurled himself at the man, slamming him into the tiled wall. They wrestled, and in the struggle somehow Matt managed to get the upper-hand. He had never understood the saying ‘blinded with rage,’ but his vision blurred, his senses went numb because he could only hear but not feel the bones cracking under his knuckles as he pummeled his fist into the man’s face. There was some sound in the distance, like doors slamming and shouts, but Matt didn’t pay them any mind. All he wanted to do was smash the face off of this impostor, this face that was not Caleb's.

"Stop! You're gonna kill him!"

Matt held his fist up as he turned around to see John, 'Caleb's roommate,' standing in the doorway. His wand was out, but he shaking terribly. How had he gotten in? Wait--Matt knew the answer, of course, these two must have been conning him from the beginning. Matt stood up slowly, keeping his eyes locked on John. The blood from his knuckles dripped to the ground and Matt took in a few deep breaths.

"Get out," he growled, pointing toward the door. John faltered and attempted to straighten his wand arm. In a flash, Matt's wand had dislodged itself from his bedroom, zoomed through the air and into his outstretched palm. Hot, red sparks shot out of the end, "Get out!"

The man on the ground, the man that had once impersonated Caleb, groaned in pain. John lurched forward to help his accomplice up. Matt stepped out of the bathroom and strode down the hall, listening for the grunts and groans of the two men that had invaded his life. He stood just inside his bedroom door, ear keen to the sounds, and shut his eyes when the front door slammed shut. Silence filled the household and Matt slowly began to feel the throbbing of pain he'd endured and inflicted on himself.

What was he supposed to do now?