Chapter 7

When the door finally opened and they left the prayer room, they saw an awful, decayed version of Allison standing on the other side. Her decomposition was accelerating. They liked Allison and all, but neither wanted to talk to her when she was in this distasteful condition, so they slinked by her and ran back to the den. By the time they were let out, it was mid-morning and although they knew they should continue with preparing their escape, they were just too exhausted from both a lack of sleep and the nightmare nap they each endured. They were on their fifth day in the house and it seems it was conspiring to keep them fatigued. They locked and salted the door and they both held each other on the couch, and both seemingly completely drained of all their energy, drifted to sleep.

When they woke up, it was 5am on day six. Just like Allison was accelerating in her decomposition, they were weakening from being in the house too long. If they stayed too much longer, it would be harder and harder to wake. They would sleep for longer and longer, until one day they would just never wake up. Neither still were hungry nor thirsty. They realized they had not eaten in six days. Rick's beard looked the same also, it should have been a woolly mess, but it was exactly the same length as when they first walked into the house.

"Do you think we are one of the dead and don't know it?" Asked a weary Michonne tears welling in her eyes, "and we are stuck here forever trying to get out? Is that why we are not hungry or thirsty?"

"Don't talk like that Michonne," pleaded Rick.

"How else do you explain not eating or drinking anything for six days Rick? And how else do you explain why we are always so tired now?" Michonne questioned now fully sobbing.

Rick did not say anything. He needed to believe they were not dead. He needed to believe he was going to get back to his children and his friends and get back and make a life with Michonne. He needed to believe that what she was saying was not true. He wondered why no one had come for them. Surely, they could see a door from the outside and they would knock or try to kick the door in. Rick was starting to worry. But he had to stay strong for Michonne. He hated to see her like this, scared and exposed. She was always so larger than life to him. The Katana wielding giant. She was fierce. Still is, but he never really stopped to observe the vulnerable Michonne. He liked that she was not always so tough like he thought. Then he looked at her physique, God she was tiny. He was amazed that someone that small could appear larger than life. How she always appeared invincible to him. He loved her more just thinking about how she carried herself in strength, but right at this very moment, she needed his intensity, his focus, and his savagery. And he would be that for her, he would be her everythang if she let him.

"We need to stay focused Michonne, we are getting sloppy. If we stay the course, we can get out of this. Allison would not have us do all this if she didn't think we had a good chance to get us all out. But we need to concentrate. We still don't have pillowcases or luggage or anythang to carry those bones," said Rick. Michonne nodded and wiped away her tears and Rick held her face and kissed her for comfort then pulled her close to his heart and held her there until she calmed. They then let loose from the embrace and started to search through the den looking for more rope and anything that could help them. It was still dark outside, and the sun would not rise for another few hours. Then he thought about why Allison had not come to them while they slept in the den.

"The salt Michonne, the damn salt!" Exclaimed Rick startling Michonne. "We have the salt blocking the door when we sleep, she can't get into our dreams and tell us what we need to do. We need to move the salt and let Allison in!"

"But then he can get in," said a scared Michonne. Michonne did not want to relive another one of Wilfred's lucid nightmares. One was enough and she was just so worn-out.

"We are gonna have to take that chance, if not, we are done for Michonne. We need a plan to either get out that window upstairs or have that door magically appear, and I am betting on that window in the prayer room. Besides, I think when he pulled you in it made him weak, that's how the door opened," reasoned Rick.

Michonne knew Rick was right. She would rather die trying to get out of that evil house then to give up. "OK, Rick. Now or tonight?" Asked a spent Michonne.

We only have a few hours till sunup, so let's go look for the luggage today, and if we find some, we can try to go down to the basement and at least start to get the bones, be productive. If we see, the Allison out there, then we can try and tell her the plan, I guess. I don't really know if she understands us in when she is in her decomposed state, but one step at a time," said Rick with renewed vigor.

"That's less of a basement and more like a grave," cautioned Michonne, "but it sounds like a plan Rick."

At sunrise, Rick and Michonne went back upstairs and decided to just get pillowcases since the linen closet was easily assessable off the hallway. They did not want to take the chance of getting locked in anymore rooms. They each took four large pillowcases and figured that would be more than enough, and they would not have to come back to the second floor until it was time to break out of the house. They noticed things had calmed down. It was mostly quiet, and remembered Allison saying Wilfred was weak also. They figured it was the calm before the storm, so they wasted no time in finishing their task.

They went to the prayer room figuring it was relatively safe if they stood just outside the room and Rick took a knife that he grabbed from the kitchen and ripped the doorknob off the door. It was easy to do without Wilfred using all his strength to protect it. He also took the shovel iron and tore the door frame from the wall. If they had to go back in there, and for whatever reason needed to get back out, they did not want it to be a problem. They were about to walk away, and Rick decided to just take down the whole damn door. They took it straight off its hinges and both he and Michonne walked it to the end of the hallway and tossed it over the bannister and watched as it crashed at the bottom of the stairs.

"Let's see that som'bitch try to lock us in there again," fumed Rick.

"We are doing the same to the basement door," agreed Michonne.

They drowsily walked down the steps and went to the basement door, both fully yawning, and took that door off its hinges also after dismantling the doorknob. They ripped the frame also for good measure. If it was fixed when they needed to go down there, then hell, at least they made it difficult for Wilfred. They would no longer make it easy for him. They went to the pantry and got more salt and salted the basement entryway, then ran back upstairs and salted the prayer room threshold for good measure. The job wore them both out, and they went to the den and salted the door so they could get some rest and be ready for what was to come.

That night Rick, while holding tight to his iron, ran his finger through the salt and created an opening. They waited and hoped Allison would come though quickly. After about an hour, just when they were about to give up, they thought they saw Allison appear. They must have fallen asleep because all of a sudden, they were back standing in the field in front of the farmhouse.

"Are we dead?" Michonne asked Allison directly stepping towards her.

"No, not yet, but if you don't hurry, you will be. That house is depleting you. Both your energy and your spirit. But right now you are alive," replied Allison to an encouraged Michonne. Rick squeezed her hand to comfort her further and both breathed a sigh of relief. "Then why are we not hungry or thirsty?" Asked Rick.

"That I do not know," replied Allison "But I can assure you that you are still alive and well, not really well, but I guess well enough."

"Nice," said an annoyed Michonne, "You have a great bedside manner."

"Sorry," said a genuine Allision, "I just want you to know that you are weakening, that's why you are so easily exhausted, so keep your will and determination to get out of the house strong and push through that fatigue. If you feel tired, Do Not go to sleep, fight it."

Rick and Michonne starred at each other and nodded relieved none the less that they were weak, but still alive. "Wilfred said that he would never let us leave, how can he do that?" Can you give us some information as to why he would even want to keep us here?" Questioned Rick.

Allison told Rick and Michonne any necessary and pertinent information she knew that could help them to escape and thereby helping herself and the others. Wilfred was psychopath, a crazed serial killer with no conscience, and Edna was his faithful follower and his wife. Wilfred was, and still is, obsessed with beauty and perfection, and wanted a representation of that by his side, willing or unwilling. Edna was so deep into his cult of personality that she eventually began to help Wilfred as he lured unsuspecting women back to their home. Her goal in life became to help her husband in his quest. None of the women that they lured made it out alive. Each of the women held captive were pretty, but eventually not faultless to Wilfred. There was always something that turned him off eventually. He always ended up seeing what he thought were flaws, and many of them he caused as a result of holding them hostage. When he tired of each they became disposable. He did desire to keep what he believed were the most perfect parts of them in the hope that one day he would be able to pray to whatever dark lords he served to put them together and build his unflawed new wife. He took those bits and pieces and persevered them in jars and threw the rest away like trash in the hidden room in the basement.

Edna eventually had two children by Wilfred and although she was loyal to her husband, she was afraid that he might one day hurt them, maybe even use them for parts, so she made a prayer room where she spent most of her time along with her children as a way to protect them from him. She figured whatever dark God he prayed to, she would at least have her children connected to the light. She knew praying to the God depicted in the bible would do her no good, she had traveled too far down that evil path with Wilfred to expect any type of forgiveness. But she wanted her kids to have a chance. She made sure to line the room with bibles and crosses and any other religious artifacts she could find. Wilfred found it harmless and even funny and decided to let her have her hobbies, especially if it meant she and the kids he did not want to be a father to would leave him to his business in peace. What he did not expect was the power that room would have over him in death. Because the room was blessed, it was difficult for him to control, and if were able, not for long and not without consequences to his own strength. When the world went to shit, the women of course stopped. Hell everything stopped and Wilfred killed his entire family. The new world was no life for him, and he was ready to join the horde he prayed to. He was ready for the real power he would possess in death.

He started with Edna, drowned her in the bathtub then shot her in the head for good measure and left her there a bloated mess. She begged for him to spare the children right up until she took her last inhale. He found his two children hiding under their beds and dragged both into the hidden basement room and shot them in the same way he did his wife. Then he ambled to the basement shelves and tenderly picked up each jar, each containing a part of what he believed to be an amalgamation of his true love that would never come to be. He affectionately kissed each jar, one-by-one and hugged them to his chest to say goodbye, this was the only true emotion the psychopath had and it was most disturbing. Then turned the gun on himself. A blow in his mouth and straight through the back of his head. Because he was into the dark arts, his soul remained interred with the house along with all he killed, including Allison. They are all tethered to him. He gained complete control of the house and every spirit that dwelled inside. Able to manipulate it and them to his every whim.

He had power over every room except the prayer room. He had to exert almost all of his energy just to enter it, and the rest to control it and even then, only for a short time. It was his Achilles Heel. So he focused everywhere else and tried to keep that room sealed off. Allison went on to explain that the women trapped that were unable to escape and move on until they are taken and released from the hateful house and buried properly and Wilfred's bones burned along with the house that became their prison. If not, they will be trapped with him for all eternity. The torture did not stop at death. Wilfred torments all of them in death worse than he did in life. They are suffering in the afterlife and are plagued to forever stay in that eternal anguish if he is not stopped.

"We got to get the fuck up out of here Rick. And I mean right now. Put farmer John away and start some savagery up in this bitch. I can't live like that," pleaded Michonne. "No offense," she told Allison.

"Ok calm down." He told Michonne. "Allison, can he stop us as a spirit, I mean physically harm us?"

"No, not right now," said a nervous Allison, "But he is working on it as we speak."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Screamed Michonne.

"He was into some dark stuff, and he is calling on demons to give him enough power to hurt you or any other person who comes into this house and tries to take it and us away from him. He wants you both as part of his macabre collection."

"SHIT, FUCK, SHIT, DAMN, FUCK," yelled Michonne as she stomped with her hand on her hips and her face in a scowl. Rick turned back to Allison, "How long we got?"

"He is close, maybe a day or two, maybe less. Could be hours. Whatever you plan to do, do it right now and remember, no more sleeping. You will feel exhausted, just fight through it and get out."

"FUCK," they both yelled at the same time.

Rick and Michonne woke up and got to work.