Mysophobia

Yang Yi was not related to John. If anything, the man was a mentor but even that had only been for about two weeks. Yang Yi was still just as shocked as Kate was; he was scared too. However, he had the type of character that focused on the logical steps first. Calling the ambulance was the most obvious response in this type of urgent situation. Maybe John could be recovered.

John was murdered; at least Yang Yi assumed he was. And if he was murdered, how safe were Yang Yi and Kate, who were inside the house right next to his dead body? Yang Yi thought they should leave as soon as possible, but Kate had lost her composure already. Yang Yi remained calm. Someone had to stay alert; he was the only option.

Yang Yi pulled Kate's arm to get her attention after noticing she was just standing around idly, "We have to leave this place now! We have to go! Call the ambulance when we get outside!"

Kate was unable to accept the reality of the situation and snapped. She pushed off Yang Yi's hand and shrieked, "What are you trying to do? What the hell are you talking about?!"

Kate took out her phone and tried to call an ambulance, but she had already lost control of her senses. Her fingers trembled. She was only able to watch them jerk in front of the screen unable to type the three digits she needed to make the call. She put down the phone since it seemed her body was rejecting the option of making a call.

She grabbed John's body and laid him down on the sofa. She yelled at Yang Yi in a commanding voice, "You call the ambulance! I will try to resuscitate him!"

Yang Yi was thinking and completely ignoring Kate's futile attempts to save her father. He murmured to himself as he paced around the room, "No... It should not be like this… something is wrong…"

Yang Yi was trying to figure out what about the situation felt so wrong. He suddenly turned to Kate, who was quite offended by the fact that he was obviously ignoring her, "We were not attacked when we came in which means the perpetrator is no longer here. We have to call your mother. Now! Your father is already dead, but we may be able to get to her before it is too late!"

Kate's hands shook as she held the phone, but she still managed to make the call. There was no answer and she froze as she realized the seriousness of what was happening. She looked at Yang Yi. Her face was pale. No matter what there did not seem to be enough time for her to do anything and she had no idea what she could do anyway.

Yang Yi pressed his hand to his forehead. He could feel a headache starting, "Call her again! No, no. Call Ryan, Wales, or Daniel. We need to get everyone together. Call all of them and tell them that they are in danger."

Yang Yi assumed Kate would have everyone's number, but she only shook her head. "I do not have their numbers. I only have Kadipur's."

"Call him then! Hurry up!"

The phone call was actually answered this time. Kate rushed to explain the situation since Kadipur had picked up, but before she could speak Yang Yi took the phone. He spoke into the phone in a low voice, "This is Ross. Where are you?"

"I am driving and looking for a customer. What is it?"

"There is an issue with Mr. Jones. Kate and I are at the house right now, but we need help, urgently. Can you contact Ryan and Wales? Let them know they need to come here, as well."

"What happened to Mr. Jones? Nevermind, I will come right away. I will also call Ryan and Wales. Just wait for us."

Kate snatched her phone back and tried to contact her mother again as soon as Kadipur ended the call. She scolded Yang Yi as she entered the number, "What are you doing? Call an ambulance... why not tell him the truth?"

Yang Yi turned and looked around the room once more. They did not have any time to spare. Yang Yi tried to sound as gentle and reasonable as he could when he spoke, "We have to leave this place now. I am sorry, but he is dead. He is really… dead. He is not going to come back; do you understand? We should be thinking about our own safety now. We are the ones whose lives are at stake."

Kate stopped dialing and put down the phone. She implored weakly with eyes full of unshed tears, "My mom...She will not pick up. What should I do?"

The phone rang just after she asked. Kate picked up the phone in relief. It was as if her anxiety had disappeared, but as soon as she realized it was not her mother the same sorrow and despair reappeared on her face.

"Kadipur…"

"I cannot contact Ryan or Wales. Something is not right! They would never ignore my call. Our contract has not even ended yet. They are supposed to remain in touch until it is over! What happened to Mr. Jones?"

"Give me the phone!" Yang Yi exclaimed before he attempted to snatch the phone away from her.

Kate passed the phone rather submissively over to him this time. It was strange and very unlike the way she usually would have responded to him. Yang Yi spoke after he accepted the phone, "Kadipur, Mr. Jones is dead. We cannot contact Jenny. Since you cannot contact the others, I think every member of the team is in danger. We should meet up somewhere."

"What?!"

"There is no time to explain anymore! We need to meet up somewhere safe. We need to at least try to do so!"

Yang Yi ended the call and shouted at Kate, "Is there a gun in the house?! Go grab it. We will go find your mother once we leave. Hurry!"

Kate was still sitting absent-mindedly, overwhelmed with her sudden loss. She only came back to her senses after hearing Yang Yi shout. She turned her eyes towards John. His body was already cold where it lay on the sofa. Kate was desperate. She wanted to continue hoping and find a way to recover her father. She asked in tears, "So we just leave my father here? We should at least take him to a hospital. Better yet, you stay here and take care of him. I will go find my mom."

Yang Yi reached out to Kate. He grasped her shoulders tightly and said, as he looked her in the eyes, "Calm down. I need you to be strong right now. I am sorry, but Mr. Jones' body has already gone cold. What we need to focus on is finding your mother. We might still have a chance to save her."

Yang Yi's words were logical. They made Kate realize she could not afford to hesitate anymore.

"There is a gun here, in the house. I will go get it," she replied.

Yang Yi looked around again and whispered, "We will go together. Wait just a minute."

Yang Yi walked into the kitchen and came out with two butcher knives. He handed one to Kate and instructed, "We will do a search of this place as fast as humanly possible. Make sure to grab whatever you need. We need to leave here as fast as possible. Be quick!"

Kate took a breath but did not take the knife. The first room she went in was John's bedroom. She reached into the wardrobe and pulled a double barrel rifle out, "Here, take it!"

Yang Yi was a bit stunned when he saw it, "We cannot take that, it is too big! Do you not have a pistol?"

Kate had Yang Yi hold the rifle while she took out a small bag and drew a revolver from it, "Here!"

She had the gun in one hand and a pack of bullets in the other, but she did not hold on to the gun. She handed the revolver to Yang Yi. Yang Yi could tell, from a glance, that the revolver was older than its owner was. He took the gun and checked the engraving on the frame 'Webley Mark III pistol, .38 in diameter.' The revolver was also marked with the date of production, 1936.

It was a gun, but it was an antique. Yang Yi did not even know how to use a modern gun, let alone an old model like this. He thought he could learn how to use it just by seeing it, but shook his head once Kate handed it to him, "I do not know how to use it…"

He coughed, "What I meant to say was I do not use guns."

Kate grabbed it, opened the break-action barrel, and scanned quickly to check if the revolver was loaded. After confirming it was loaded, she stuffed it back into Yang Yi's hands and walked off, "Keep the gun. We should go find my mother."

Yang Yi grabbed a handful of bullets and put them in his pocket. Yang Yi was much more composed now that he could feel the weight of a weapon in his hand. "I will go first and search upstairs. Go make another call to your mother. Take all the essentials like money and IDs.

Kate refused. She was growing angry at this point, "Why do you want to do this now? We need to go!"

Yang Yi grabbed Kate's shoulders again, "I know you are in a rush to find your mother, but trust me on this. This could be our last chance to take what we need from here."

Kate looked at Yang Yi. She took some time to calm down and finally nodded in agreement, "Fine, but be quick about it!"

Jenny was still not answering the phone. It only increased the bad feeling Yang Yi had about this entire situation.

They walked past John's corpse and Kate hesitated, "Are you sure we cannot call the police or an ambulance?"

"That is not our priority. Get in the car; we will go find your mother. Wherever she is."

Yang Yi cracked the door open enough to look outside. He scanned the surroundings to the best of his ability and found nobody in sight. He ran with Kate to her car. They got in the car as fast as possible. As Kate started the car's engine, Yang Yi drew out the revolver and checked the area outside the car through the window.

"We are leaving."

Yang Yi spoke as calmly as he could. His voice was low and grim, "I do not want to say this, but there is probably someone coming after us. All of us."

"Why did this happen…" Kate said looking out the window and wiping away her tears.

"I do not know."

"My father looked fine. No… I mean he looked like he had a heart attack or a stroke. Why… Are you certain he was murdered?"

Kate's face was red and scrunched with the pain of her emotions. She was unable to resist letting her tears fall. Yang Yi decided to let her cry her heart out for now even though he had previously told her she needed to remain calm. She was only a girl in her early twenties after all.

Yang Yi sighed and said, "The whiskey glass in front of your father had a square bottom. Not round, but square."

The seemingly random statement confused Kate. She asked in a shaking voice, "The hell? What are you talking about?"

Yang Yi was quite confused by her response, "You did not know? Your father only used the glass that had a round bottom. He never used one with a square bottom. Wait, no, it is not about the shape. Your father had a very severe condition, mysophobia. He would never use one of the glasses reserved for guests, and he would never let somebody else use his glass." (EN: Even though the translation notes mysophobia as the correct condition for the character, in reality, the condition involves far more than what little is described here. Please see this link if you would like to learn more.)

Kate was a bit lost. She did not understand where the conversation was going, "What are you talking about? My father does not have mysophobia."

Yang Yi just reaffirmed his previous statement, "No, Mr. Jones had mysophobia and it was a very severe case. He just hid it very well. Did you not know your father had mysophobia?"