Marcus Saadi was uncomfortable. Most furs came to Phoenixbrook for its historic setting, its magical atmosphere, its charming residents and its unsurpassed market, the likes of which no other city could match. But not him. No, instead of coming here to relax and take in all the wonders this unique town had to offer, he had to come on business. To make things even worse, his employer, the fur Marcus was waiting for, was on holiday, was here to relax. And that just irritated Saadi. Wasn't there a law out there somewhere that said employers couldn't order their employees around when the employers themselves were off work? But then, Saadi's boss never really followed all the set laws, and that was one of the reasons Saadi was so nervous. It wasn't that he was here to work;it was the exact nature of his work.

From the moment the e-mail had arrived, Marcus knew this wasn't going to be a simple, nice task. Oh sure, he had done plenty of those in the past: fetching the boss's nephew, flying out to meet a potential client or partner, even tasks as mundane as stopping by the docks to make sure everything was running up to speed. Saadi's boss did plenty of legitimate business, most of it through the international shipping industry he had inherited. It was a perfect corporation, not a scratch on its record, and all the work was neat, clean and legal.

But it was all a front.

And this job was different. All the unspoken clues in the e-mail told him that.

For starters, the e-mail was encrypted. That could only mean one thing: that the sender or Saadi's boss didn't want anyone else seeing it. Of course, that was a fairly standard procedure - one didn't want competitors seeing corporate secrets - but when the level of encryption was so high that even the Venuvian government would have had a tough time getting through, it was pretty evident that the message contained more than just who was shipping what where.

Second, there was the actual message: "Meet me at the enclosed coordinates in three days."

Straight and to the point, with no room for wriggling out of the assignment and more importantly, no additional details. Saadi was as in the dark to what was going on as anyone who managed to crack through the encryption, meaning nothing could be pulled out of him. And measures like that were only used when there was a chance someone would want to try and pull information out of him, measures that would be superfluous for a menial, legitimate task.

Finally there were the coordinates themselves. When fed into a navigational program, they would lead one to a spot in the middle of the ocean, a spot that would most likely be empty when the day came. The only way the coordinates would ever point to someplace logical was when they were first fed in reverse order through a complex geometrical sequence, the exact nature of which only Saadi and a few others knew, and one that changed every two weeks. Anyone who did manage to crack the e-mail would find the last digits of pi long before he or she found exactly where Saadi was being sent.

So much security. It was obvious that the task wasn't a simple job for a shipping agency.

Unfortunately, Marcus didn't like working against the law, with the fear of being caught constantly looming over him. True, he had nothing to lose; no wife, no little cubs at home, not even a girlfriend. Maybe that was why his boss liked him so much… he was expendable. If things went to hell, no one would miss a single red fox living in a basement suite. No one would care; no one would stop and wondered what had become of him. He would simply disappear like all the other problems his boss had had.

That was probably it. His employer had probably found another problem, and needed Saadi to make sure the problem "went away." Oh gods, he hoped not. He hated jobs like that; they made him sick. He had on a pad of paper in a hidden safe back home a list of all the best assassins and how to reach them… his stomach churned whenever he looked at it, and nearly jumped up his throat when his boss forced him to actually use the list. For years he had considering just leaving… no more thievery, no more arranged killing, no more lies… but he couldn't. In for a penny, in for a pound, right Marcus? But something had to be done eventually… he knew he wouldn't be able to handle it for much longer… even now his paws shook every time he tried to reach one of his "contacts"… and they were shaking now, for sure. Shaking in anticipation, shaking in cold from the wind...and shaking because of that damn house.

He didn't know what it was about that abandoned old farmhouse, but for some reason it was driving him insane. He couldn't put his paw on it; there was just… something about the place. And that was the other reason he felt uncomfortable: the looming house.

It seemed to absorb what little warmth was left in the autumn air, leaving the surrounding area an icy, bitter cold. Once or twice while he was waiting, he could have sworn he saw frost accumulation on the ground by the base of the wood. He was really going crazy now… Frost in October, in Aredria. This job was really getting to him now.

The wind picked up and twice snatched the frameless lenses right off the fox's muzzle as he waited, forcing him to warm himself up slightly by chasing them. On the second occasion, the wind decided to throw them into one of the nearby trees, causing them to hit the bark with an audible smack.

"Dammit!" Saadi exclaimed as he retrieved them from the branches. The left lens had a horrible scratch that tore diagonally over the glass. And of course, his lens mending materials were at home. This was the last straw. He couldn't stay out here another minute in the freezing cold and the impossibly high winds that were threatening to snatch him up next time. Keeping his head low to stop his glasses from flying away again, he ran quickly to the door of the farmhouse. It was a little stuck, but he managed to get it open relatively easily and dashed into the dark, closing the door behind him to shut out the wind.

However, the door did little to shut out the cold. In fact, Saadi could have sworn it was colder inside the barn than it was outside. Colder, and much gloomier. The sole source of light inside was given by the spots of white where the sun was able to get through holes in the rotting walls and the boards that were badly placed over the windows. But there was enough light that he could see his way around… if there was anything to see. Which there wasn't, other than a few scraps of furniture on the verge of falling apart, some cobwebs, and dust. Lots of dust. Every surface in the room was completely buried under a layer several inches thick of dust. The place really was abandoned; if he had had to guess he would have said no one had been here for at least a few months, if not more. Why was that? He began to wonder. The place could have easily been torn down and replaced or maybe even fixed up a little. At the very least, some rebellious teenagers could have used it as some sort of hideout to have fires and sneak some more or less illegal smoking, like he used to. Why just leave it alone out here?

As if to answer his question, Saadi's mobile began to cry for attention, puncturing the silence with a cacophony of sounds trying in vain to resemble musical instruments of some kind. Surprised, the fox jumped before realizing what was going on. Cursing his foolishness, he pulled the phone out of its pouch and flipped up the small view screen. The icon representing a new text message flashed on and off, beneath some text representing who had sent it. It was the name registered to the safe number his boss used for sending such messages.

"That area is a little too hot. Let's meet somewhere else. Contact you later."

Saadi stared at his phone in complete disbelief, which soon gave way to anger. The message was a simple code, and it meant that his boss thought the house was too dangerous to meet in, for some reason or another, and that Saadi should go home and wait for new coordinates in the usual manner. In other words, Saadi had just wasted a lot of time. Time flying out to Aredria, time trying to find the damn house, time freezing outside in the cold, time having his glasses scratched up… all for nothing! Just go home and try again some other time… well, that was just great. Grumbling angrily, he turned to leave, ready to storm back to Phoenixbrook and try and find a hotel or someplace to stay for the night before returning home the next day, when he froze mid step. His ears swivelled around, listening in the silence. He could have sworn he had heard something from further inside the house… he wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was definitely something.

He stood there, one foot still in the air, listening. Nothing. But he could have sworn he had heard something… the problem was that now he had to go check it out. What was it his boss had said in the message? The house was "hot"? That usually meant the house was being watched… if someone was upstairs, Saadi had to deal with it. Otherwise, he could find himself being shot out of the woods on his way back… something he didn't want to risk. So there was no choice… he had to turn around, silently, and make sure the house was clear.

Carefully putting his other paw back on the ground, Saadi started to inch his way down the hallway into the gloom, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a well-concealed handgun, clicking it into automatic. He wasn't exactly the best shot in the world, but even an idiot could take someone out with an automatic… just point in the general direction and hose them with bullets… at least some of them would have to hit the target… at least, Saadi hoped so. At least body armour probably wouldn't be a problem, since most furs now used sonic weapons. Real guns with real bullets were considered antiquated and barbaric, and were rarely seen so few furs bothered to properly equip themselves against them. Again though, that was just another hope.

Saadi moved into what was probably the kitchen, and looked around quickly. There was no one in there, but something caught his eye: a flight of stairs, leading to somewhere upstairs. Saadi thought for a moment. The upper floor would be a perfect vantage point… good for listening to what was going on downstairs, as well as for taking people out as they went outside. So, after a few seconds consideration, he carefully traversed the kitchen floor and made his way up the stairs, his back flattened against the wall. This turned out to be a mistake as his jacket was throwing dust and cobwebs in all directions, and he had to fight hard not to cough. Then he stopped breathing altogether as his next step produced a disturbingly loud creak of protest that reverberated throughout the house like an old church choir.

CRAP! Saadi's heart started to race as he flattened himself against the wall as much as he could. There was no possible way whoever was upstairs hadn't heard that… he was screwed now. All possible hope for an ambush was gone. Dammit! Now he just had to go up there hoping that he could fire faster than whoever was waiting for him… a small hope indeed, one that didn't help calm Saadi's nerves one bit. But still, there was no sound from upstairs - if there was anyone even up there. Whoever it was, they weren't showing any signs he or she knew the fox was coming. Maybe that was because the fur was already waiting… some sort of massive weapon in paw, ready to pump millions of rounds into the fox. In any case, Saadi wouldn't know unless he actually just went up there and found out. Or… he could just wait it out.

No, no, that wasn't an option. He couldn't just sit here and wait forever, or his nerves would kill him. And given the choice, if he was going to die, he'd rather get it over with and die quickly from a bullet or a sonic blast, not from extreme stress, nervousness and total fear. Yet his legs wouldn't move at first… they seemed to refuse to listen to his ideas and stood rooted firmly in place, as if to say, "You're not getting shot, you're staying right here."

But after a few seconds hesitation, and a few seconds of no further noise from upstairs, the fox finally managed to slowly put one foot onto the next step, carefully stepping over the creaky step, in case whoever was up there had decided to move away, which he - or she - probably hadn't, and climbed up the stairs once more. When he reached the landing, he took in a deep breath, bit his lower lip, and then spun around, his firearm pointing up the stairs, his knuckles white beneath his fur as he gripped his gun like a vice.

Nothing.

There was nothing up the stairs but dust, and as he rose to top of the flight, he could see that the whole hallway was empty except for more layers of dust.

No time to calm down now though, he reminded himself. There could still be someone in one of the various rooms. Moving quickly, no longer caring for silence, he dashed into each room in turn, swinging his gun in large arcs from wall to wall to wall. Still nothing. Finally he allowed a big sigh of relief and fell back against one of the walls, his legs giving way as all the tension flowed out of them. He slowly sank to the floor, breathing heavily in the aftermath of the excitement, even though nothing had actually happened.

But his breath caught in his throat as he felt a deathly cold paw clamp down on his muzzle. In surprise, he tried to cry out but only a muffled sound could escape his tightly sealed lips. He struggled a bit, then stopped as it dawned on him: he was against the wall, whoever was holding him was reaching through the boards… slowly, his eyes moved to look down over his muzzle.

There was nothing there.

His eyes dilated in their sockets as his body once again began to struggle within the invisible grasp that held his head firmly against the wall. He kicked wildly, but only hit thin air as his shoes sent piles of dust into the air, making him want to cough. But he couldn't do so under the tight grip of his invisible oppressor, and that only made him struggle more, yelping madly in muffled panic. When he felt the unmistakable sensation of a wet nose grazing across his ear, though, he froze stiff. The fur on the back of his neck began to stand on end and his heart strained against his ribs as it beat the steady, staccato rhythm of fear.

The muzzle that was pushing against his ear opened slowly, and Saadi felt a tongue slip its way across the tip, sending a shiver through the still as stone fox. With the tongue came a soft breath, colder than ice, and carrying a single syllable barely audible against the thumping of his heart; a raspy whisper like that of a dead man's last words:

"Mine."

Then Saadi's vision went black as his body was engulfed in pain, a fiery burn that tore through his body. He screamed in anguish, and this time the paw wasn't there to muffle his voice. His howl let loose and shot through the house before joining the echoing howl of the wind. Every muscle in the fox's body contracted in agony, knocking him to the floor and pulling him into a fetal position as he writhed in the dust violently until-

Until it was over, as quickly as it had begun. The pain vanished and his vision returned to normal. And the paw, or whatever it was that had been holding his muzzle, was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Or tried to… but his lungs wouldn't respond. His muzzle wouldn't respond. Suddenly caught up in a sense of panic again, he tried to widen his eyes, an instinctive action, but he couldn't even do that. He tried to look around, to get up, to run away, to leave this damn house and whatever was lurking inside it, but he couldn't do anything. His body simply refused to respond to his thoughts.

Am I dead? he thought to himself.

Then, to his utmost horror, another thought floated to the surface of his mind, a thought not of his own, and an answer to his question.

Far from it.

Marcus mentally shot his eyes open in shock, but that was nothing to what he witnessed next. He watched from his own eyes as his body rose from the floor and stretched, as if he had just woken up from a long night's sleep. Except that he had no control over any of it… something else did, another… another mind it seemed, another voice inside his head. It had pushed him into the backseat of his brain, and now it was doing the driving.

Precisely. Greetings, Marcus Saadi… it's been a long time, but I think I'm going to enjoy the use of a fully physical body once again.