"Ok guys, you stay behind me... If anyone asks, I'm just taking out for your nightly walk..." David chuckled at his joke as Scott cuffed him on the back of the head.
"Very funny," muttered Saul as he glanced around the dust-cloth-laden furniture of the old mansion.
"Man, this place must've been worth a fortune..." muttered Timothy as he looked around. "I mean, the stuff that's here, alone, would make any antique dealer delerious! Why'd he have to sell stuff to the salvage yard?"
David shrugged. "Eccentric billionaire dies and leaves a magic box to a complete stranger who runs a salvage yard? I've heard of worse plots..."
Scott cuffed David's neck again.
"Ow! Quit it!" he snarled back, rubbing his neck.
Scott rolled his foxish eyes. "Well, knock it off with the attempted comedy; this is no time for jokes..."
David kept rubbing the back of his neck and stepped away from the big, muscular fox. "Ok, Ok... Don't be so touchy..." His neck hurt; Scott probably didn't know his own strength. In fact, as he rubbed himself, he started feeling a bit ... odd. Warm, in fact.
He tried to shrug it off as the four of them walked around the main foyer, looking into adjacent rooms. Everywhere, the lights were off and the mansion was only lit by dim light coming in from around the shuttered windows. The wind blew heavily against the house as the quartet continued and wandered into a large, sitting room with an old, cold fireplace.
"Wow, this place looks like something out of the Addam's Family..."
Timothy nodded to Saul and kept close to his former lover. "Mixed with a bit of Hitchcock's 'Psycho'..." he added.
Suddenly, David pitched forward, clutching his stomach. "Oh, God... Guys... Some...something's ... wrong!" With that, their beleagured friend bent over, double, and held himself up against the couch.
The three foxes, their eyes seeing nearly perfectly in the darkness, watched with shock and amazment. A faint, white sheen of delicate fur was growing over David's face, arms and neck. His messy shock of brown hair was also lightening, growing more blond as his ears rose and stretched upwards along the side of his head.
"Oh, gods... Guys! Get ... get the chest; from the car!" he called, trying to keep his balance as his legs shifted shape and his feet began to feel cramped in his size-nine shoes...
Scott turned and quickly made his way towards the main entryway. Suddenly, though, the large, double doors they'd come through swung shut, booming into place with a click of a deadbolt slamming shut.
A similar boom shook the room as the only other door out slammed shut of its own accord and locked, as well.
"Guys, what's goin' on, here?" shouted Saul, staring at David as he young man fell onto his back and kicked off his shoes.
As Scott pulled hard on the door, Saul and Timothy stared down at David, unsure of what to do. The hapless man only could groan as his feet lengthened and grew; his socks starting to rip as the white fur covered his feet. His groans filled the room, along with Scott's cursing as he moved to try and open the other door.
David's ears rose and lengthened along the side of his head, soon becomming long, and white ... like a rabbit's... Indeed, as Saul and Timothy looked down on their friend, he slowly became a lean, humanoid, white rabbit!
Finally, the changes seemed to slow and David looked up at his friends with a shocked look in his eyes. Slowly, he looked at his hands -covered in white fur- and turned them over and over. "Oh no, no, no..." he muttered, repeatedly.
Scott walked over to the other three and shook his head. "Both sets of doors are locked," he said. "I don't understand it; I thought this place was abandoned..."
"Abandoned by the living, yes..." came a low voice.
Spinning towards the fireplace, the four men watched as the ashes swirled up from the grate and seemed to form a ghostly shape; a form of an elderly man in a robe. "Welcome, at long last..." he said, his ashen features moving smoothly like dust. "Now, the fox hunt can begin..."