Horror Short Stories

Little Things

I'd been diagnosed with OCD ever since grade school. Despite this, I'm still able to experience a semi-normal life. I have a wife, Marie, a steady job, and two kids, Carl and Paula.

I usually just stick to the routine, kiss Marie good morning, shower, get the kids off to school, go to work, come home, take a shower, eat dinner, go to bed.

Marie is a nurse so she works late, and I get home depending on how fast I can finish the different projects at work, but that's usually before Paula and Carl get home.

I woke up with a late start. Shit. My routine was thrown off. Quickly waking up Marie, I sprinted to the shower and skipped deodorant. Dropping off the kids at school only left me 20 minutes to get to work on a 40 minute drive. I made it 25.

I came home after work. Exhausted, but today had been a good day and I had gotten home a little early. Might as well just shower now, get the bad start out of my system, I thought.

Undressing and stepping into the bathroom, something felt... off. I inspected around the bathroom for the source of it. I checked the counter- tooth brush and paste were in the right spots... Shaving cream, seretonin... Everything seemed to be in order. Dismissing the feeling, I stepped into the shower and pumped myself 2 pumps of shampoo, and one of conditioner, as usual. After showering, I stepped out of the shower and saw that my deodorant had been moved.

This morning had been mostly a blur, but I remember not putting any on because it had bothered me all day. It could've been Marie... But my wife knows me well enough not to disturb my system. Putting the soap stick back where it usually was, I dryed off and when Marie came home, I asked her if she had moved it. She said no, so I tried to get my mind off it and eat dinner.

The next day after work, I went into the bathroom again. This time the deodorant and the toothbrush were pushed away from the mirror. Moving them back where they belonged, this time when Marie came home I asked her again whether or not she had moved my belongings. She replied with the same answer- no, but that she was starting to worry about me.