Tale of Terror: Living with Schizophrenia (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781958889749)

Lucy Manor is an attractive young woman, 22 years old, an only child with loving parents and a mother who loves to cook. She also is a schizophrenic, and has auditory and visual hallucinations that can torment her for hours. Medicine helps for a little while, but sometimes it makes her diagnosis scarier. Her story begins when the living room becomes a complete mess, the lamp overturned, the bookshelves on the floor. The police come, but there is no evidence of a break-in, no fingerprints.

Then Lucy meets Brian, a wonderful and affectionate young man who teaches disabled children in the fifth grade, but Lucy is ashamed about telling Brian she is not working and puts Brian off. She can't work because of her sickness, she wants medication that will let her work, and her doctor gives her some. She starts seeing Brian, starts going with him to church and enjoying life with her family. Lucy starts applying for jobs, gets one at a clothing store she likes, has a good start at it, but then she breaks down at the store, and throws shelves and clothes on the floor. The job is over, and Lucy is in the hospital. She goes back to her doctor, who tells her she can't work because of her illness. Can a young woman with schizophrenia date?

Brian calls to see how she is, a pleasant life begins together, but that doesn't stop Lucy's hallucinations. One night she has nightmares all night long. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she feels a man's presence in her bedroom. Then she hears "Lucy. Lucy." She looks out to the tree line trying to see if someone is there. She hesitates then slowly moves closer to the small open field but doesn't see anyone.

Lucy gets new medication and starts her life with Brian again. Dining out, the art museum, a musical, a gallery opening for an old school friend. But then Lucy has a horrid nightmare and wakes up screaming. Her name is called from the window again. Her parents help her recover, and she spends time with Brian again.

Brian tells Lucy he wants to marry her and have children, but Lucy tells him she can't marry him. She can't have children because of her illness. Brian does not understand, but they stay together.

Lucy returns to the painting she did when she was younger, and shows Brian some of her paintings. He is enthusiastic and wants her to have a gallery show. Lucy does a painting of Brian, they show it to the owner of the gallery. he likes it and tells Lucy she can have a show at his gallery. Brian and Lucy are excited, go through Brian's photographs, and Lucy picks several to paint for her show and paints a pair of elks, a turkey, a father and son flying kites. And a white terrier sticking his head out of an old red truck window.. Then Brian's roommate moves out, and he asks Lucy if she would like to rent a room in his apartment. She thinks about it.

The time for the art gallery show of Lucy's paintings arrives. It is a charity show that is given for a young boy who has Leukemia. Everybody loves Lucy's paintings, all of them sold, and a magazine is going to do an article on them.

All is well. Lucy is sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch. She follows a voice, which takes her further into the woods. Someone behind her grabs her and holds a cloth over her face. It's the last thing she remembers before she opens her eyes in a dark, cold room. Her hands are tied behind her chair, and her feet are latched tightly together. The voice says, "I told you I'd get you, I've been waiting a long time. I had to trash your house so I could put a camera in your vent." Lucy is sedated, tasered until she screams, and kept in the dark.

Suddenly Lucy wakes up in the middle of the woods. Her hands are no longer tied, her feet are no longer latched. Her parents take her home. When she wakes up she is in a hospital room, and her hands are restrained.