Short Stories

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Hi. My name is Natalie. I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD as it is more commonly known. For those of you who don't know, it is an anxiety disorder where people have repeated thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions. Basically, your life becomes a system of repeated patterns. The other day though, I experienced a fault in my own system.

I woke up that morning in my family home at 6:25 like I always do. I then stay awake for five minutes before getting out of my bed and touching my doorknob twice on the inside, then twice on the outside. I have to do it, I need to do it. Going into the kitchen I made myself my usual breakfast of tea - milk with two sugars and two pieces of toast. I refuse to have anything else to eat. It's not in my routine. My family tends to avoid me, since they can't seem to stand my OCD. I don't blame them.
     I sat down to watch the news headlines before heading to school. Though, watching the news headlines flash across the screen that day, something seemed to be...missing. I couldn't place my finger on what it was. Did I forget to do something? What was I missing? This strange feeling lingered around me on the drive to school. I loved having my P's. It gives me so much freedom, and I can take the same route to school everyday. The T.V kept puzzling me during my drive, straining my mind to think what it was I was missing. At school the thought faded from my mind.
     School was as usual. Year 11 is hard, not too hard, but hard enough to take my mind of my OCD. Before I knew it, the time was 3:25 and my school day was over. I hopped back into my car for the drive home.
When driving home, I always come to this intersection right before my house. There it was again. That 'missing' feeling. I tried to ignore it but that made my head hurt even more. I could see there was no-one at the intersection and so, slightly angry, I drove home.
     I pulled my car up into the driveway and got out of the car. A bucket of soapy water with a sponge sat by my garage. I usually always wash my car when I get home, always the front and back - never the sides. Today though I just couldn't do it. That feeling. Again. I sighed with slight frustration as I headed to the lake right next to my house.
It was a pretty deep lake with a wooden bench on my side. I sat down to help unwind. I always like the feeling of washing my hands in the river. After I had calmed my nerves I headed inside to catch some rest.

The next morning I woke up at 6:25, stayed awake for five minutes and headed down the stairs, making sure to touch to doorknob as always. I made myself my tea and toast and went to turn on the TV to watch the news. I clenched my teeth as my body began to tense up.
That Feeling.
I immediate turned it back off and finished my tea & coffee. I headed out to the car and headed in to get to work.
Today my work seemed to drag on, making me more agitated. I lounged in my car after work before annoyingly driving home. My attention slowly drifted off the road as I tried to figure out what I was missing. I was going insane. What have I forgotten? My focus drove back on to the road.
I snapped.
A person.
Our eyes locked and a look of shock came across his face. He dived to his right. I swivelled to my left.

CRASH.

Clunk.

Oh god.
I felt an object hurdle under my car. In a panic for fear of others seeing me, I chucked it in my trunk and drove home.
As I parked my car a grabbed some soapy water and a sponge. I began to frantically clean the blood from the front and back of my car, the sides were not necessary.
I hauled the body out of the car and headed towards the river, where I threw the body in. After seeing the bloody stains on my hands I washed them in the water, making sure to get every spot of blood off.
After I calmed down I ran inside to forget about today.

I forced myself to wake up at 6:25. I rested for five minutes reminiscing on the day that just passed. I touched the doorknob as always and grabbed my tea and toast. I turned on the TV and watched the news headlines.

"HIT AND RUN SERIAL KILLER STRIKES AGAIN"

I smiled.
Back to normal.