Creatures of Habit

After changing therapists, an OCD afflicted mythology professor sheds his repetitive routines, but when monsters emerge from the woods and abduct his friends, he suspects his compulsive behaviors may actually be rituals intended to ward off an ancient supernatural force.

Professor John Habit is a man who is trapped in his own compulsive behaviors, as he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite being a professor of comparative mythology, John's life is ruled by the repetitive routines that he has created to cope with his anxieties. He attends group therapy led by Dr. Solomon Montag, but his condition only seems to be getting worse. John secretly hoards Native American artifacts and obsessively counts and arranges them, hoping that they will help him ward off the supernatural forces that he fears.

With three of his best research assistants, all students of Native American descent, having recently gone missing, John retreats even further within his neurotic routines. Obsessing over home security despite living within a gated community, he leads a neighborhood watch group with fellow group therapy members, and loyal friends, Walt, Virgil, and Nick.

John realizes his OCD is not getting better, if anything he's developing more "rituals." He confronts Montag, only to be prescribed a new medication. When Dr. Cassandra Littleton moves in across the street, she sees the bizarre habits he's a slave to, the relentless security protocols he's put in place that have imprisoned him and offers a new course of therapy.

John is immediately taken with Cassandra and does not take his new meds. That night, on patrol, John encounters an ominous Jackal headed intruder which shakes him to his core. He accepts Cassandra's offer and begins his first session of cognitive hypnotherapy. In his class lectures, John speaks of the Nomlaki myth of the Buffalo, the Bear, and the Wolf.

After reliving the trauma of the home invasion while under hypnosis, John oversleeps the next morning and is late for an important meeting which upends his morning routine abruptly. That night, a mysterious horned creature that resembles a buffalo invades the community and kidnaps his friend Nick.

John immediately accuses the Nomadz gang, a Latino-Native American gang based in the neighboring trailer park of Stony Creek, but cynical Detective Sam Haines is not so sure. The abductions are clearly a message to John, as each involves someone he knows, and includes a Native American artifact left at the scene. John investigates on his own and finds strange markings on trees behind the community, that correlate to the artifacts, and suggest black magic rituals.

As John continues on with Cassandra's therapy, he sheds more of his behaviors, and each night, seemingly in correspondence to his steps toward recovery, a new animal-like Creature appears to kidnap one of his friends. The eye of suspicion lands squarely on John.

John suspects that he is responsible, in that his habits are really rituals based in the supernatural to ward off the encroaching evil. Cassandra urges him not to give in to irrational fears and remain strong.

John must find the courage to continue on with his recovery and confront the strange creatures in his midst in order to solve the mystery of the kidnappings and rescue his students and friends.

CREATURES OF HABIT.

Break the habit, free the creature... face your darkest fears.

Copyright 2023 by Brefni O'Rourke. All Rights Reserved.