Ghost House

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Jeremy Haynes was diagnosed with OCD when he was only 5 years old. He had always been a neat child; his toys were always in their places and his bed was made near-perfectly every morning. His parents Kellianne and Michael Haynes didn't think anything of it and just assumed that he took to cleaning a lot easier than his two older brothers had when they were his age.

This was not the case.

Jeremy's organizational obsession began to spread to the rest of the house, including but not limited to the stacking of towels in the bathroom and the organization of plates and bowls in their kitchen.

He didn't care if there were five blue plates and four black ones; instead, it bothered him if they weren't organized by their respective colors. His parents got into the habit of organizing the dishes to fit his standards, and when they weren't done right, he became almost aggressive until they were reorganized.

They didn't think that it could be OCD until a specific accident with his two older brothers. Michael Jr. and Lucas Haynes had been picking on their little brother for hours one day; messing up his already made bed and throwing his toys onto the floor for him to pick up and reorganize.

Each time Jeremy had to fix something, he became more and more frustrated when he couldn't make it perfect again before his brothers had messed up another thing. They stood watching and laughing at him as he cried. They were only 7 and 8 years old and didn't understand the anxiety they were creating in the little blond boy's chest each time they touched his stuff. Jeremy himself didn't understand it.

Eventually, they left their brother to cry and piece his room together again. When everything was done and Jeremy's anxiety had finally settled, he headed downstairs to find his mother and tell on his siblings. He had thought about doing it before but became so overwhelmed with trying to fix his room that it had slipped out of his mind.

His mother, who loved baking and cooking and was typically in their kitchen, wasn't there when he checked. Instead, he found Mike holding Luke up so that they could make a mess of their organized dish cabinets. Luke grinned wickedly at his little brother who had tears dripping from his eyes once more as anxiety blossomed in his chest once more. The plates were strewn across the cabinet shelf.

Jeremy screamed.

Their parents came rushing into the room a few moments later to see Luke sprawled on the ground where Mike had dropped him, and Jeremy pulling at his hair, still screaming.

Michael Sr. immediately started yelling at his eldest sons while Kellianne consoled her youngest, or at least tried too. Jeremy couldn't pull himself from the overwhelming stress, and because he was so young, he didn't know how to handle it even a little bit.

"Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!" He screamed, his normally high pitched voice now raw and pained. His mother hugged his head to her chest as he cried and screamed.

"All we did was mess up the plates!" Mike yelled, his face wet and snotty from crying.

"Michael! Fix the plates!" She yelled over the sceaming of her little boy who was curled into his mother's chest. His father immediately began stacking the plates exactly as Jeremy needed them, and when he was done, Kellianne grasped the attention of her five-year-old.

Upon seeing the fixed plates, his anxiety lessened a bit, but not as much as he needed. He stopped screaming and his tears slowed, but did not stop.

"I need to wash my hands..." He whispered to his mom, feeling his once clean and dry hands feel wet with his tears and snot. His face felt tight with the drying tears and he began to wipe them with his palms, but only made the feeling worse as he smeared more tears and snot across his soft face.