The man had been at the Lincoln Memorial hospital for over a year. He was meeting with Dr. Ambrose today. Dr. Ambrose was sitting behind his desk and was reading his notes. He was sitting opposite him.

‘So, how are you feeling?’ - Dr. Ambrose asked, looking up and smiling.

‘Good, I feel very good.’

Dr. Ambrose smiled again - ‘It’s good to hear you’re feeling good. We’re meeting today so that I can tell you what I think happened to you. Is it okay if we have this discussion?’

He nodded.

‘You’ve been very honest with me - and told me many things that caused you deep upset. Now I’ll say that my job of helping people is made infinitely easier with this kind of honesty - however painful it might be to go through.’

Dr. Ambrose cleared his throat.

‘When you were young - you had an encounter with your mother where she caught you masturbating to pornographic material. During this encounter your mother denigrated you and called you a “filthy, disgusting pervert”. It is my belief that this encounter with your mother started a chain reaction fantasy for you - exacerbated by an underlying and undiagnosed psychiatric condition. I believe that you suffer from what is known as schizo-affective disorder. One of the characteristics of schizo-affective disorder is the creation of what is known as a delusional architecture - a fantasy world, if you like. In your case, the building blocks of this delusional architecture were being called a filthy, disgusting pervert by your mother, which your mind built upon. You imagined the sexual relationship with your mother, as an extension of being caught by her masturbating. You imagined and fantasized about having a sexual relationship with your mother, and built a complex - but delusional - architecture in your mind where your sexual activity with her, as you have described to me, became more and more sordid - more and more filthy, and disgusting, and perverted. After the passing of your mother, your delusional architecture required new material and an ever increasing level of intensity, so you started on the fantasy journey of becoming a serial killer, brutally killing sex workers within this delusional architecture. The connection between your mother having being a sex worker - of sorts - and you imagining killing sex workers within your fantasy and role playing the mother / son sexual dynamic, shows how your delusion required a continuity. Then you entered treatment, and the medication you were taking disassembled the delusional architecture, but never actually confronted it…’

Dr. Ambrose took a sip of coffee.

‘...we then arrive at the period where you stopped taking the medication, and you entered crises! The sudden withdrawal from the medication caused the reemergence of the schizo-affective disorder, and a hastily and chaotically built delusional architecture added new hallucinatory features. This new and chaotic delusional architecture returns you to the very beginning of your fantasy - Jesse Ryder, the model featured in the pornographic magazine you were caught masturbating with, who was speaking to you, and your mother instructing you to kill so she could be resurrected. As the schizo-affective disorder spiraled out of control - new and dangerous elements were introduced that were even more fantastical. The introduction of the alien - Annabelle - who was hunting you! I would note that dangerous forces pursuing an individual are a common theme of acute schizo-affective disorder. The introduction of the alien Annabelle caused the entire houses of cards to collapse - so to speak.’

He stared at Dr. Ambrose - ‘So none of it was real?’

‘It may have felt real - but much of your life has been the product of, and operated inside of, the delusional architecture that your mind created. How does this make you feel?’

Dr. Ambrose sipped his coffee.

‘It...it makes me feel good, I guess.’

‘It is a lot to take onboard - and your mind has really been on quite an adventure. I like to think of our patients’ stay with us here in exactly the same way the doctors think about their patients in all other types of hospitals. Just as someone with an illness, say perhaps pneumonia, will need to come to the hospital to be treated and cared for and nursed back to full health, the patients here also need time to be treated and cared for and nursed back to full health. You have suffered from an ailment, just like pneumonia, but with the right care, you will be ready to get on with your life.’

‘You think so, Dr. Ambrose?’

‘I know so - you’ve been through a lot, but with the right treatment and the right care, I think you’ll do just fine. The next step of your treatment will involve confronting this imagined past - and disassembling your understanding of it so that you can build a real future.’

He smiled at Dr. Ambrose.

‘There is one other thing…’

‘Yes?’

‘I have some students that come here every once in a while, students from a class I run at the University. I was wondering if you might be interested in meeting with a few of them, and letting them ask you a few questions?’

He thought of Brian….the king of the jungle.

‘Do you think it’ll do me good?’

Dr. Ambrose smiled at him - ‘As the famous American playwright, August Wilson wrote - “Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”’