A Squid in Need
It was a peaceful and quiet night in Bikini Bottom, and everyone had already turned in to sleep. The stars were twinkling in the night sky, and the moon was shining bright. However, the same peacefulness couldn't be said for a particular house shaped like an Easter Island statue which was right next to an orange pineapple house. Inside, a cephalopod was tossing back and forth rapidly in his bed: the person in question was Squidward. After a few seconds, Squidward immediately sat up and let out a scream that was so loud it could be heard in the area vicinity. In the house next door, Spongebob was asleep and he could hear the scream as his eyes suddenly shot open and he turned his bedside light on. "What was that?" Spongebob asked. He jumped out of his bed and had a look outside the window to see that the scream had come from Squidward's house.
"Something must have happened to Squidward. I better go see if he is all right." Spongebob commented. With this, he started to head downstairs and made his way out of the pineapple to go over next door. At the other house, Squidward was struggling to compose himself as his breaths came out in deep, panicked gasps. He could feel his heart racing in his chest, and there were several panicked thought racing through his mind at once. Squidward frantically looked around to register where he was while struggling to catch his breath and he soon found that he was safe; he was no longer trapped in that living nightmare. This was his own sanctuary and he wasn't stuck in a near identical replica that made him feel the most frightened that he had ever been. After a few moments to register this, Squidward let out a long sigh of relief. "Oh, what a nightmare... But it's finally over..." Squidward whispered. However, his brief moment of relief didn't last long as he suddenly heard a knock on the door downstairs.
"That can't be who I think it is, can it?" Squidward asked, as he started to shake in fear once again. He was starting to fear that his worst nightmare was slowly becoming a reality without him realising it. After a few seconds, another knock could suddenly be heard and Squidward promptly hid under his bed while trying his best to stay calm and not freak out. "So long as I don't answer, I'll be safe. Don't answer the door and spare yourself the torment." Squidward said to himself as he covered his eyes while continuing to shake in worry.
Outside, Spongebob was knocking on the door and he wasn't getting a response. "Squidward, is everything okay? Can I come in?" Spongebob asked, as he knocked on the door once again. He waited for a few moments and he still didn't get a response. "Something must really be wrong. I need to find out for myself." Spongebob said. With this, he opened the door and stepped inside, turning the lights on to the living room. He then started to look around to see whether or not Squidward was around somewhere. "Squidward? Squidward, are you here?" Spongebob asked, looking around while calling out Squidward's name. But then he remembered that Squidward would be up in his room, so he headed up the staircase and opened the door to find that Squidward wasn't in his bed. "Squidward, where are you?" Spongebob asked, approaching the bed to see if he could find where Squidward was. As he was looking around, Squidward slowly peeked out to see two familiar black shoes in front of him and looked up to see Spongebob looking around for him.
"I knew it... My nightmare is coming true." Squidward silently gasped. Hearing something behind him, Spongebob turned around and a bright smile crossed his face when he saw Squidward hiding underneath the bed.
"Squidward! What are you doing under there, silly? Come on, let's get you out from under there." Spongebob said, as he bent down and grabbed Squidward's tentacle to help him out from under the bed. As Squidward noticed this contact and then looked up at Spongebob, all he could see were images of what happened in his nightmare flashing before his eyes, and then he suddenly pulled his tentacle back screaming in panic. "Squidward, are you okay?" Spongebob asked, noticing Squidward's sudden panic attack and took a step forward to see if he could help his neighbour.
"No! Stay away from me!" Squidward cried, and then he scattered out from under the bed and rushed out of the room, while Spongebob watched on in surprise. Spongebob stood there wondering what that was about for a few moments, before he figured that something really bad must have happened for Squidward to be acting like this, so he started to run after Squidward wondering if he could help.
"Squidward, what's wrong?" Spongebob asked, as he ran out of the room towards the staircase. As Squidward rapidly ran down the staircase, he looked back to see Spongebob in hot pursuit; he could only see the terror that probably awaited him and he didn't want it to happen to him a second time. "Squidward, come back! I want to help you out!" Spongebob called as he was struggling to keep up with Squidward; he could really run fast when he needed to.
"You won't make me go through that again!" Squidward yelled out as he arrived at the bottom of the staircase and rounded the corner to head into the living room. Spongebob followed not too far behind, since he wanted to know what was happening with Squidward. He stopped when he saw that Squidward wasn't there and started to have a look through the room to find Squidward, unaware that the squid was hiding underneath the small table near his couch.
"Squidward, come out wherever you are. I might not know what exactly happened with you, but I just want to help." Spongebob said. Squidward then climbed out and held the table up, prompting Spongebob to turn around and see him. "Squidward, what are you doing?" Spongebob asked.
"You can help...by staying away from me!" Squidward said, before placing the table down trapping Spongebob underneath it. Seeing that Spongebob was subdued for now, Squidward then rushed back upstairs and ran into the room where his self-portraits were hanging around the walls and slammed the door behind him. After stopping to catch his breath, Squidward let out a sigh of relief. "He's gone, for now. Hopefully that will get the message across to him." Squidward commented as he stepped away from the door. However he was proven wrong in no less than a few seconds as the door burst open and Spongebob stepped inside.
"Squidward, there's really something wrong with you, I can tell." Spongebob said. Squidward then screamed out in panic and ran out of the room while Spongebob followed not too far behind. "Don't you get the message? Stay away from me! I don't want to go through that torture again!" Squidward cried out scattering back down the staircase while Spongebob followed right behind him.
"Squidward, how am I supposed to help you if I don't know what happened to you?" Spongebob asked. The two ran down the staircase and back into the living room. Squidward soon found that he was trapped in a corner and turned to see Spongebob slowly coming towards him. "Finally, you slowed down. I was wondering how long it was going to take me to get you to stop." Spongebob said. Squidward soon realised that he had nowhere else to run and dropped down on his knees.
"Okay, you finally got me. But I beg you, please don't take me back there! I've suffered enough as it is, so please don't make me go through that again!" Squidward begged, as he closed his eyes and lowered his head in obvious despair before starting to quietly sob. Spongebob's smile faded and he had an expression of concern when he saw how emotionally torn Squidward was. After a few seconds, Spongebob slowly approached Squidward and held his tentacle which prompted Squidward to look up at Spongebob with tears in his closed eyes and streaming down his face.
"Squidward, all I want to do is help you get through whatever you experienced. So whatever torments you saw, I can safely promise you that I won't do any of it to you." Spongebob explained as softly as possible. Squidward slowly opened his eyes and found that he wasn't seeing the horrible things that he had seen in his nightmare; all he saw was Spongebob gently smiling at him and holding his tentacle to let him know that he was perfectly safe.
"S-spongebob...is that really you?" Squidward somehow found himself able to ask underneath his sobs. "It really is me, Squidward. I just want to help you and I can only do that if you'll let me." Spongebob replied slowly nodding in confirmation. Squidward stared at Spongebob for a few moments to ensure he was really seeing this and his mind wasn't just playing tricks on him. Once he realised that nothing in his sight was acting up, he slowly started to smile and threw his arms around the yellow sponge while tears continued to stream out of his eyes, from sheer joy this time.
"Spongebob...it is you. Oh, thank Neptune..." Squidward whispered in between quiet sobs. He never thought he would be so relieved to see Spongebob, but there was never a time he could have asked for Spongebob to be here more than now. Spongebob stared at Squidward in surprise for a few moments, before he smiled and gently wrapped his arms around Squidward; it was clear to him that Squidward realised who he was looking at, and it was the real him.
"That's right, Squidward. It is me, and that will never change." Spongebob said as he held Squidward tight to reassure him. After what seemed like minutes, the two let go and Spongebob sat down beside Squidward. "So, Squidward, would you care to tell me what happened? You sounded really scared while you were trying to run away from me." Spongebob said. Squidward then realised that he hadn't let out what had been happening with him, and he wasn't sure of what Spongebob would say after letting this out. But since he knew that all the little yellow sponge wanted to do was try and help, he figured that he should come out with it. So he took a deep breath to calm himself, and then looked down at Spongebob.
"Well while I was asleep, I was having a terrible nightmare." Squidward started. "That much I could tell from the panic in your voice when you screamed." Spongebob replied. Squidward darted his head at Spongebob realising that he heard Squidward so he figured that now would be as good of a time as ever to be honest.
"What happened was that you were pestering me to come visit you, and you wouldn't clam up about it." Squidward said. "Well, I do like when you come to visit, but I normally wouldn't go that far to ask you." Spongebob commented.
"Anyway, what you did was that you 'borrowed' my vacuum cleaner so I could come over to get it back. And that was when I received an unexpected shock: you had renovated your house to look exactly like mine." Squidward continued, moving his tentacles in wind motions at the word 'borrowed' to show what he thought it meant. Spongebob was listening to this all the while, and he had to admit that it was quite a shock to hear that this was what Squidward saw in his dream.
"You mean that I had broken into your house enough times to remember every detail, and then completely replicate your house's design right down to the chip in the paint from when you moved in?" Spongebob asked speaking in an almost fast rate. Squidward stared at Spongebob for a few moments before he nodded in agreement.
"Basically. And how did you know about the chip in the paint?" Squidward asked. "It was there when I first came to visit you." Spongebob replied showing a modest smile. Squidward then realised that he had nearly forgotten about that, so he simply nodded and then decided to continue with his explanation.
"Anyway, the more I looked around to see how you had completely replicated my house, the more uncomfortable I felt. It was like I was being trapped in someone's sick joke, and the victim was me. I had never felt so scared, and that feeling was something I didn't want to experience. I tried to convince myself that this was some act, but it didn't seem to work because it was really happening around me. The final straw came when I found that all of my self-portraits had been replicated, one by one. That was when I became convinced that I was part of some psychotic act, to torment me as much as possible..." Squidward finished, his voice slowly breaking into sobs as the images that he had seen in his mind flashed before him once again and tears built up in his eyes at the memories. He then started sobbing once again, and Spongebob wrapped his arm around Squidward and let Squidward rest his head on his shoulder for him to let all of his pent up despair out. Spongebob gently patted Squidward's back as his neighbour was sobbing; he wanted to be there for him in a time like this, and he was glad that Squidward was actually letting him.
"Squidward, it's okay. Everything that you saw in that nightmare won't happen in real life." Spongebob said. Squidward then looked back up at his neighbour; he wanted to believe Spongebob more than anything at a time like this, but he still wasn't certain.
"How are you so sure of that?" Squidward asked. "I'll show you. Come on, let's go over to my house and I'll show you that it's not true." Spongebob replied. With that, the two stood up and headed out of Squidward's house to go over to Spongebob's place. As the two were on their way, Squidward was wondering about how Spongebob was so sure of what he was talking about.
'Spongebob's really sure of what he's talking about. I want to believe him, but that nightmare seemed so real. Who's to say that it couldn't be happening?' Squidward thought. To be completely honest, he wanted to know that Spongebob was telling the truth: every part of his body was pleading to Neptune above that Spongebob was right. Of all of the times that Squidward wanted to be proven wrong, he wanted it to be this time. The two soon came to the door of Spongebob's house and Squidward closed his eyes as Spongebob opened the door and led him inside.
"You can open your eyes, Squidward." Spongebob said. Squidward slowly opened his eyes and found that he wasn't staring at a replicate; this was genuinely Spongebob's house and inside was the fishhook hung up on the wall, the orange chair with the life raft in front of it, the table with the pot of flowers on it and the green chair with the blue mattress on the floor. Squidward felt a bright smile cross his face as he realised that Spongebob had been telling the truth this whole time, and he had been tricked by his own mind.
"Spongebob, you're right! Your place looks just like how it should be. Oh, you have no idea how much relief this is for me. Thank you so much." Squidward smiled as he turned to Spongebob and tightly hugged the yellow sponge while also sending silent prayers of gratitude to Neptune; he had never felt so relieved to be proven wrong.
"Not a problem, Squidward. You let me know whenever you need my help again." Spongebob replied; he was also glad to see that Squidward was letting him help, and it had benefited Squidward greatly to let out what the cause of his panic had been.