(( Here it is, the end of the book! Almost exactly one year after the series began. How sweet~ I'll make a closing chapter after this with a short "what happened next" bonus so please read it <3

also to the line that is in no way intended to be sexual but most likely y'all are gonna comment on with lenny faces anyway let me just say i almost took it out? but i was like oh screw it its the end of the book let them have their line its entertaining ))

SMASH!

Vincent had gone first. Raising his arms up and swinging them down, he crashed into the metal of the vent. The resounding crash was physically painful, causing Scott to cover his ears with his hands. 

"Ahh- God damnit," he hissed, spinning away from the vent and clutching his arms to his chest, "Fffff--- hhh, ahh, that hurts! Is it even dented?" 

Scott glanced back at the control room before answering, searching for movement in the gloomy green light. After holding his breath for a few seconds he looked back. Back at the two large dents carved into the metal. The metal which hadn't broken at all. He didn't say anything, just stared at what was the visible embodiment of their deaths, like a prophecy on an ancient stone wall. 

"Well..." Vincent was visibly upset, no matter how much he would have denied it, holding his hands out, "Well, come on. We're not going to give up after one attempt, right? We'll take turns bashing at it. You go." 

Scott chuckled mirthlessly, "Yeah. Like I could do any better than you could..." he walked over to the vent, his fingers dancing over the grooves, "You think the others will even notice we're gone? Will they think we've just eloped somewhere? They'd never think to check here. There are probably other bodies down here, you know. Teenagers that have dared each other to go down here... police, security guards... technicians that have come back to check on the building they used to work in eight years ago..." he trailed off. 

"Hey," Vincent put a hand on his shoulder, "Come on, don't give up yet. If Eggs came back he'd escape, you know that. I know that just from what you've told me about him. And I also know that if he saw you down here just accepting your fate he'd probably slap you around the face and tell you to grow up. Come on. Here, I'll go again then. We have to be quick before Ballora comes to investigate." 

Vincent lifted up his arms again and threw them down, smashing into the vent once again. It made a shuddering lurch, the whole vent vibrating and wobbling. Scott gasped as one of the joins lower down the vent, about halfway to the control room, weakened, showing a split in the metal. Once there was a rip, Funtime Foxy could claw her way through. And if he got out, there was no chance of survival. 

"Oh God, faster,"  Scott pushed past Vincent and swung his leg back, smashing a kick into the side of the vent. It felt like kicking putty - it moulded to the shape of his shoe and stuck that way, a deep groove in the metal, "Screw it. Come on, Vincent, we're going to die anyway, just tear at it." 

"Now you're talking," Vincent muttered, before crashing into the vent once again. This time he hit right in the centre, just where the vent hit the wall, and with a groan the top of the vent pulled away from the wall. 

Scott whooped, "Alright, come on, just a little more!" With surprising enthusiasm, he suddenly leapt up, jumping on top of the vent. It creaked, the bolts tearing half out of the wall. "We're going to make it!" Scott laughed, jumping again and watching the vent pull further away, "We're going to-"

"Motion trigger activated: main entrance vent." 

Scott stilled on top of the vent, his breath catching in his throat as loud clanks echoed through the room. "Vincent," he whispered, "Please tell me that's you." 

Vincent shook his head slowly, his eyes trained on the end of the vent just at the control room's exit. It was shaking and bulging, as though some thing a little too big for it was forcing its way down. 

"Come on," he growled, turning back to the vent, "Come on, don't give up now, it's got ages to go before it reaches us. We can make it, come on..." He threw his leg back and kicked into the vent again, watching it shudder, "Come on, Scott!" 

"Right. Right, we can do this... We can do this..." Scott ignored the tears welling up in his eyes, the feeling of fear settling deep in his chest, as though Death themself was right behind him, counting down the seconds until Scott's heart stopped beating. He slammed into the vent again, jumping like a toddler that had been denied a new toy. It buckled dangerously under his weight, the vent starting to crumple in on itself.

"Be careful, Scott," Vincent warned, dropping to his knees and squeezing his fingers into the gap just at the wall, pulling the vent away with all his might, "The last thing we need is-" 

"AAgh!" Scott yelped, a loud smashing sound echoing through the room. He'd jumped again and this time the vent had torn completely under his weight. He gasped, his legs firmly wedged into the misshapen vent, "Vincent!" 

"It's okay, Scott, listen," Vincent ran over, his hands slipping under Scott's arms and pulling, "Listen, you might be able to wiggle through to the other side. Just... Just concentrate, see if you can move your legs, come on." 

"Vincent- Vincent the animatronic!" Scott gasped, hearing the rattling from behind him. So close now, so close. "Vincent, it's going to kill me, Vincent, I don't want to die, please... please help, please... help me, please." 

"I am!" Vincent snapped, "Listen to me, Scott, damnit! Move your legs!"

"I can't. I can't, they're stuck, Vincent. Please, do something, Vincent, please," Scott babbled meaninglessly, shaking his head fervently, concentrating only on the sound of the animatronic creeping closer. 

"God!" Vincent cursed, stepping away from the vent. He swore loudly, a few times, before running back to the end of the vent and kicking it. Again, again, again, he tore into the metal. Ignoring the pain in his hands and feet, the danger of the bones in his fingers breaking, he smashed into the vent. It pulled and groaned and finally the metal tore away from the wall entirely.

"Vin-CENT!" Scott yelped, his whole body shuddering, "VINCENT, it's right here! Vincent, oh God, it touched me, PLEASE!" He yelped, his eyes wide and frightened like an animal in a trap. 

Vincent swore again, pulling the Vent away from the wall. He pushed into the gap it made, the metal so sharp in places it tore through his shirt and left a gash in his side. Hissing in pain, he wiggled like a fish until he dropped through, down, into the vent and out the other side. He looked at the elevator. So close. So close until freedom.

"Vincent!" Scott screamed, "Vincent, please! Please help me, please! I don't want to die, please!"  

Vincent glanced at the vent and then back up at the elevator. He let out a deep breath, glanced at the vent again, and then turned and ran towards the elevator, hitting the button. 

"Vincent, God, I don't know where it is!" Scott's voice was broken, full of tears, "I can feel it touching me but I don't know if it's actually there, or if I'm already dead- Please," he gasped, his breaths wet and shuddering, "Please... please... I don't want to die like this..." 

The elevator chimed, the doors sliding open and showing a glimpse of freedom. Tantalising, tempting, torturous. Vincent glanced back at the vent, and then slipped inside the lift, pressing the 'close doors' button. 

The elevator doors slid slowly closed, and it was only in the last seconds, in the last twenty centimetres of space, that Vincent dived back through. 

"Oh, God, oh-" Vincent swore loudly, ducking down to peer through the vent at Scott, "God damnit, I hate you, Scott. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. Ugh!" He swore loudly again and pushed into the vent, "You better do exactly as I say or I'm leaving you here. God, I hate you..." He grabbed Scott's ankles, "Relax yourself. Now!" 

Without giving Scott much time for thought he yanked at his feet, hurling himself backwards and pulling most of Scott through with him, "Come on, you better not be dead or I'll kill you!" Vincent spat, and pulled him again until he was completely free. 

"Vincent, oh my God, oh," Scott sobbed, pushing himself to his knees and putting his hands over his eyes, rocking back and forth gently, "I'm alive, oh God, you saved me, I... thank you."

"Whatever, it was nothing," Vincent turned and hit the elevator button again, almost breaking it with the force, "The lift better be here or we're both dead and it's all your fault," he snarled. 

Scott curled into a ball on the floor, sobbing into his hands, "I was so scared, Vincent, I thought you'd left me, I... you came back, I... I owe you my life."

"It's not over yet," Vincent muttered, his face heating up from Scott's words, "Don't thank me, I only did what I should have done. I almost left you," he added, quieter, so only he could hear it. "I almost left you to die." 

BANG! 

"Aagh!" Scott yelped and jumped up, his whole body trembling all over, "What was that, what was that, what was that?!"

"Damnit," Vincent hit the lift button again, tapping his foot impatiently on the ground, "Damnit, the lift must have gone all the way up and we have to wait for it to come down again. God!" 

"Vincent," Scott whispered, "Vincent, don't move. Don't move a muscle."

"...Why not?" Vincent stiffened, his skin itching and crawling on his back, "Scott... it's not what I think it is, is it?"

"Foxy," Scott breathed, his legs and knees jelly. His head was spinning, filled with air, "Funtime Foxy followed us, she's just poking their head out of the vent, he's looking at me, Vincent, oh God!" he yelped as his legs gave way and he fell back onto the hard carpet. 

"Found you!" Funtime Foxy snapped, pushing forwards through the vent. She was a large, bulky thing, but she was far stronger than a dented, torn vent. He grabbed the sides of the vent and pushed his torso out through it, gnashing their teeth wildly, aimlessly.

"Are you serious!?" Vincent slammed the lift button again, and this time, as though right on cue, it dinged politely and the doors slid open. 

"Vincent, help!" Scott scrambled backwards across the floor to the vent as Foxy pulled himself all the way through, slamming a hand down next to Scott as though trying to pin him down. 

"Damnit!" Vincent ran forward and hauled Scott to his feet, "Come on, get into the lift!" He grabbed Scott by the hand and pulled running forward into the lift.

Scott stumbled along behind him. His feet were shaky but somehow, somehow he managed to get one foot across into the lift. 

One foot too late. 

Funtime Foxy launched forward, not so ready to give up her prey. Scott tried his best to whip himself out of her reach, but he wasn't all that lucky. 

Scott's back arched in silent pain as her teeth latched on around his left hand, a sickening crunch he barely heard over the white noise in his brain. 

"Scott- It's okay, Scott, stay with me," Vincent stepped backwards in the lift, pulling Scott hard, like a tug of war over a piece of meat with a wild dog. Scott's head lolled somewhat limply as Vincent stepped back again and then, with a sound like wet paper tearing, he came free from Funtime Foxy's mouth and fell into the vent. 

He came free, yes, but Vincent had watched. Funtime Foxy's mouth had not opened in the slightest to let go of her hold on Scott, which meant...

As the doors slid closed he glanced down at Scott, hunched over his left hand, which he was staring at in an odd sort of fascination. "There's so much blood..." he muttered, warm red streams running down his arm and flooding the elevator floor, "Huh... the weirdest part is, I can still feel them..." he waved his other hand through the space where the last three fingers on his left hand should be, where now there was only torn flesh and broken bone, "You know, you hear about this kind of thing, phantom limbs... but you never expect it to feel the way it does... So... much... blood..." with a strange smile and a sound somewhat like a whimper, Scott's eyes lolled back in his head, and he passed out.