CHAPTER 26: BUSTING OUT

Now even though Mrs Hampton had already left the chateau with full confidence that this was gonna be Ed's last day on Earth due to her locking him up in a cage in a building that was set to blow with explosives,she didn't take into account the fact that he had come there with Herman and didn't even see him on the way out,so she was gonna be in for quite a rude awakening if Ed was gonna be able to bust himself out,keyword being if since he was on a very severe time crunch now. Once Herman had made it up to the attic and burst through the door to see what was going on,he was absolutely bewildered and dumbfounded to see Ed frantically trying to open up a cage he appeared to be locked in as the wolf gasped and asked while he walked up to the cage's door "What the heck?! What happened to you?! Where's your mother?!" only for Ed to nervously decline to answer in a panic "We'll talk about this latter,you gotta get me out of this cage! The chateau is gonna blow any minute!" to which a still confused Herman nodded his head and used his strong teeth to rip the door right off,allowing the boy an opportunity to climb out.

Ed and Herman immediately wasted no time talking and instead ran down the spiral staircase and the floors like their lives depended on it,and once they made it to the bottom floor and saw the front door still open,the two of them tried to make a break for it only for a sudden explosion of fire to knock them off their feet and send them flying,even Ed's fedora and eyepatch were knocked right off and blown off to somewhere else,and more and more explosions began to come up one after the other as the entire chateau was quickly becoming a raging inferno.

Meanwhile on the same highway that the kids were driving on their way to the forest where the chateau was,Tyrone appeared to be driving down it in his car and was quickly caught off guard by a massive pillar of smoke and fire rising from the trees up ahead as he gritted his teeth and thought to himself while he increased his speed and went down the dirt roadway the kids took earlier "Oh no,if that's what I think it is,I hope I'm not too late."

Back at the utter hellscape that was formerly known as the Chateau Of Harmony,everything in sight was on fire and whatever wasn't was now falling apart even more so than before while Ed and Herman were lying on the floor after getting knocked back by the first explosion,and after about a few more moments of silence they finally started to slowly get themselves back up while the former nervously stated "Oh man,everything's getting incerated here!" before Herman fearfully whimpered while he tried to avoid any of the falling debris "What are we gonna do?!" to which Ed frantically suggested on a dime "Uh,I know! Let's go through the cellar! Usually places like this have a second entrance other than an outside one!"

"But where would it be?! We can't stay here too long or all this smoke is gonna kill us!" Herman frantically questioned in response while he began coughing due to the increasing amount of smoke that was forming from the fire to which Ed started looking around at a breakneck pace to try and find some kind of entrance to the cellar,and thankfully he didn't have to look too long because he soon spotted what looked like a down going staircase in the distance as he pointed at it and exclaimed "There! I see a staircase over there,that has to lead to the cellar! Come on!"

"Right!" Herman nodded his head and instantly agreed to do so before the two of them bolted over to the staircase and went down it as fast as they could,and pretty soon they managed to come across a door that led straight to the cellar just like they were hoping it would,but just as they were gonna briefly celebrate with a high five,they would both be cut off when they suddenly heard another explosion from way up high along with the cellar ceiling started to rumble like it was about to cave in to which Ed asked in bewilderment "Jeez,how many explosions does this lady need?"

"I don't know,but we better skedaddle or we're gonna be flattened!" Herman frantically suggested in response as he pointed up at the slowly crumbling ceiling to which Ed quickly made his way over to the cellar door and tried to open it,only for it to stay shut and not budge an inch to which the hermit threw his arms up in the air and angrily exclaimed "Oh of course the cellar had to be locked! Now what are we gonna do-" before he suddenly realized that they could go through the secret passage and brought it up "Wait a second,we can go through the secret passage Pierre told me about!"

"Well genius where do you think that is?" Herman rolled his eyes and bitterly yapped in response while Ed started looking around for where the secret passage could have been,and after about a few seconds he suddenly noticed a lazily built brick wall tucked away in a corner as he quickly walked over to it and pulled out one of the loose bricks in the wall in the hopes of it being the entrance,and much to his relief,pulling out the brick seemed to reveal none other than a passageway as he happily called out to Herman "This is it! Come on let's move!" which was followed by him crawling over the rest of the bricks with Herman following suit. However just when the two of them thought that they were finally out of harm's way for the time being,they still realized that they had some hurdles to jump through when they felt even more rumbling than before along with them seeing some of the ceiling cave in behind them to which Ed shouted at the top of his lungs "RUN FOR IT!" before the two of them started running as fast as they could while more of the ceiling started to cave in.

Ed and Herman kept on running and running for as far as their legs could possibly go with the destruction behind them not seeming to be slowing down anytime soon,but it was when they entered what looked like a small cave area underground and saw a shining light up ahead past a rock bridge,that they thought that they had found an exit as Ed smiled and cheerfully stated "Hey Herman,I think I see a light up ahead! I think we're gonna make it!" only for Herman to not give off any kind of response to which the hermit stopped in his tracks once he made it across the bridge and looked behind him to see that Herman was lagging behind due to exhaustion,and what seemed to make things even worse was that yet another explosion from above had caused a giant piece of rock to slowly start coming down from the cave ceiling before it eventually crashed into the bridge and left only nothing but air and a deep,dark abyss below.

"Oh come on!" Ed angrily lamented after seeing the bridge be destroyed as he shook his fists up at the ceiling before he looked over at his wolf companion and encouragingly shouted "Herman,you're gonna have to jump buddy! Come on the exit is right here!" and since more and more of the cave was starting to collapse thanks to the explosions,Herman knew that he would have to take a leap of faith as he took a deep breath and stepped back as far as he could go before he ran as fast as he could toward the edge and leapt towards the other side of the bridge.

However it was right then and there that Ed came to a horrifying realization,because when taking into account how far the wolf had backed away due to the collapsing cave,he realized that Herman wasn't gonna be able to make the jump unless he caught him at just the right time as he gasped in a panic and grabbed ahold of Herman's legs just before he missed the mark,only for another problem to quickly reveal its ugly face. For it turned out that Herman's weight was slowly beginning to drag him as well as Ed off the cliff,and despite just how much the boy was trying to pull himself and his friend back up,it was clear to Herman that Ed was gonna be pulled down with him if this kept up,and that he had to make a special decision.

It was at this point that Ed was dragged as close to the edge of the cliff as he could possibly go without falling off as he exclaimed in a pained and frustrated tone of voice while he closed his eyes "Oh my god Herman,why are you so heavy?! You need to lose some pounds when we get out of here!" before he reopened his eyes to see a strange sight in front of him,and that was Herman looking up at him with sad eyes yet simultaneously wearing a smile on his face to which the boy nervously confronted him about it "Herman,why are you looking at me like that?" only for the wolf to meekly ask instead with a slightly shaky voice "Do you remember the day we first met? When you found me in the woods?"

"Yes I do,what about it?" Ed timidly responded with a raised eyebrow while he continued to try and pull his friend up only for Herman to not respond and instead continue smiling at the boy,much to his own confusion as he wondered what was going on "Herman what are you-" before he suddenly connected the dots together and realized what the wolf was going to do with a jolt to which he gritted his teeth and fearfully demanded "Herman,do not let go,please." only for yet another explosion from above to loosen Ed's grip with Herman's legs and cause yet even more rocks to start falling down,making it even more obvious what needed to be done.

"Ed….you'll always be my best friend. Always remember that." Herman quietly requested as he slowly began to willingly loosen his grip while tears started to well up in his eyes to which an equally as tearful Ed timidly retorted "Please Herman…..please no-" only for him to be cut off when the wolf had completely let go of his hands and had fallen down into the dark abyss below which caused the hermit to immediately shout at the top of his lungs "HERMAN! HERMAN!" before some of the falling rocks landed on the cliff and caused it to break apart,taking Ed down with them into the abyss before he could even get back up.

Meanwhile back on the surface,the chateau had been completely enveloped in flames from top to bottom,every single painting,pot,pan or piece of furniture that was inside was now nothing but ash,with only a few pieces of paper and other lightweight items managing to fly out,one of these was none other than Ed's fedora that was now halfway burnt off and laying in some of the now flaming grass. As the chateau continued to burn like the raging inferno that it was,Tyrone suddenly walked up to Ed's fedora and picked it up off the ground before he sighed with disappointment "Why? Why did it have to come to this? I really hope any of you kids weren't in there,I could never forgive myself if y'all were."

NEXT CHAPTER: DARKNESS