Chapter 6: No Mercy.

Gary's eyes focused on Spongebob. "Hello Spongebob." Gary slithered through the bolted door, slamming it behind him. "It seems the tables have turned" He had a glare in his eye- Spongebob had a sense not to speak. "Notice your shackles are placed at each appendage. That is not an accident"

"Gary what are you are even saying?" Spongebob shouted.

"Mr Sponge, you're about to experience the most rigorous test of of your spongitude." He turned to a monitor, "Nerak", he pushed a series of buttons. "Start". The machine whirred and made a suction noise. "I've set the dial to 1, it goes to 5. Let's test your absorbency."

Spongebob pleaded, and cried but Gary fed off his tears. Water sprayed from the rooftops. Spongebob took every last drop of the water. Spongebob ballooned up, fatter than Mrs. Puff after her wife left her. Drops began to drip out of Spongebob's holes, splattering the neat concrete floor.

"We just waxed it!" Gary exclaimed. Spongebob was sweating, too full. "You look thirsty Spongey" He pushed a button, and another wave of water poured down. Spongebob couldn't breathe, his lungs were filled.

"Good… Good… You make a good sponge… But do you make a good cook?" Spongebob pulled at the chains of his feet.

"I'm a great frycook!" Water shot out of his lungs, into Gary's eye.

SCREE SCREEEEECH Gary shivered. "You've blinded my eye! You always ruin everything in my life!" Gary circled around, and pressed a button. Suddenly Spongebob felt hot, and not the normal hot he felt on a Saturday night. He felt a scalding sensation on his back. He was being cooked, like the innocent patties he murdered everyday. "Can't take the heat?" Gary's eyes locked with Mr. Square, malice erupted from his core. Spongebob was in pain, finally, but he did not feel complete.

"Would you like pickles with that?" He giggled, evilly. "This is what you get for being a horrible father - for being neglectant and a drunk!" He pressed another button, the dial was at 3 now. "You're the reason mom killed herself!" Gary screamed, "DO YOU LIKE BUBBLES SPONGEBOB?" A bubble enclosed spongebob, slowly shrinking.

"I can't breathe…. PLEASE Gary!" The bubble shrank and shrank, creating a plastic wrap around Spongebob. His chest felt constricted, he couldn't even wiggle, it felt like his whole body was being squeezed.

His gills felt like they were going to explode, and his body was showing it too. His face was turning from a light red to a dark purple. The world was fading in and out. Just before it was too late...the bubble popped.

"How do you like that? Does it feel good?" Gary chuckled.

"Aah." Was all Spongebob could force out of his voice box. He was choking now. Gary was smiling. Gary took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Now you're smoking? What about the baby?" Spongebob asked with one eye closed. It swelled so much he couldn't open it. Gary took a long drag before responding.

"I did what I had to. Just like you do." The smoke puffed out of his mouth in almost perfect shaped rings.

"Why...why are you doing this?" Spongebob pleaded. The body could only handle a certain threshold of stress, and he was reaching it. Not much time left…

"You kicked us out. Tossed us out on the street like we were garbage. David, my baby daddy tried to keep us together for as long as he could. Got shot after he tried to steal snail food. It didn't take long for the bullet that tore through his body to kill him. I guess in a way, you're my bullet." Gary said. He was crying. "No matter now. It's time I turned this thing up to 4."

A boatmobile descended from the ceiling. Its engine revved up, and started moving towards Spongebob. It was moving slowly, but it would hit him soon.

"You can't drive for shit. You're always crashing into shit, and this is the price you pay for that." Gary pressed a button and the boat revved up more, its speed increasing.

"Gary, no! It's gonna hit me! It's gonna hit me!" The boat pressed into his body, and he felt a crunch in his torso. The pain was almost unbearable...how could a living being do this to another?

"Oh god gary...please!" But Gary remained stoic.

"Five."

Two tubes appeared in the upper corner of the room across from him.

"This is where you will meet your end. The thing that was always going to destroy you from the start. The thing that destroyed everything." Gary explained. A low hum emanated from the tubes and the flow of a liquid followed soon after, pouring out a dark amber liquid. Alcohol. Spongebob had recently been diagnosed with liver and prostate cancer. Surely more alcohol would ruin this but...he would bask in it for just a while. The room was filling up now, and Gary had erected a platform for him and Nerak.

"Who...is Nerak?" Spongebob said, his voice faint.

"Oh...it is the reverse form of Karen, the wife of Plankton. Such a respectable business partner was able to find me a wife." He smirked. It was okay. Gary would live just fine without Spongebob. He had Plankton, who had untold riches. He had Narek, a computer wife alike to Karen. But Spongebob had no one. No one at all. He once had Sandy, but she met her bitter end, just like everyone else did. If only she were still around...maybe...just maybe he could be saved. Even if she was around, would she even make it in time? All this, without even mentioning Patrick. The one that started this downward spiral. Why did he have to die? Just for a second...Spongebob wished it was him in front of that knife, and not Patrick.

The knife, burrowing down towards Patrick's sternum, and opening it wide on the street. No one even did anything, either. They all just sat in indifference. Not wanting to intervene in fear of being involved with whoever that man was. Spongebob could remember his voice now, in the haze the alcohol was giving him. It was…

It was the same.

The same as the man who approached him at his house that one day. It felt like a regular day to Spongebob, breaking into his own home just so he could go to sleep...but that man...he couldn't see him, all he had was a voice to go off of. The voice was all he needed. The man who killed Patrick was behind him the whole time.

Spongebob gasped. It couldn't be over. It's never over.

"Gary! Stop. You're killing me." He pleaded once more.

"Oh Spongebob...that's the point. You ruined my life, so I'm going to ruin what's left of yours. That's the way the world works now. Sorry, but no mercy here." Gary responded.

"No...you don't understand...my time is running out anyway. I tested positive. Positive for cancer."

Gary turned the machine off.

"C-Cancer?" Gary gasped. He turned the machine off.

"What are we doing?" Nerak said in a robotic voice. "Turn the machine back on."

"No…" Gary whispered.

"The sponge must die." Nerak commanded. She rolled towards the machine to press the on button, but Gary pushed her into the pool of alcohol, shorting her out.

"This...can't be happening...no…" Gary said it over and over. "Sponge- Dad...I…I can't do it. I just can't…" Spongebob glanced up at Gary. "I always thought I'd be able to do it...but I can't. I just fucking can't! After everything...fuck!" He was sobbing now. The alcohol in the room was draining, and all that was left on the ground was sponge blood and Nerak's now deceased computer. "I've always wanted you dead...and now that you're on the brink...I can't...after it all...I'm...going to miss you!" He yelled out, and descended from the platform. "I can't do this. I have to go."

No snail had moved faster than Gary at that moment. Spongebob was left alone to his thoughts, again, and the room was empty. Spongebob waited, for 3 days in that room. In his outbreak Gary had forgotten to untie him. Spongebob was left to think, and for those 72 hours, he had come to terms with what a piece of shit he was.

He was rescued, when a neighbor nearby smelled his BO- which was a mixture of hopps and cleaning solution. Gary didn't come home for months, Spongebob never asked where he went, but when he came home- they talked.

They sat down at their table, TV blinking in the background. "I've gotten clean- since we last met" Gary was silent, probably ashamed. Spongebob wore his nicest collar today, he'd been planning this day for ages now. "I don't expect you to come home right away…." He crossed his hands. "But I'm hoping you'll reconsider meeting me tomorrow." He wrote on a piece of paper. "I know you hate me. I also know, you don't hate me enough to kill me. I can work with this… Just please hear me out".

Gary left the pineapple, he called a cab prior. Spongebob clenched his pen, and waved and smiled as the car faded away. Spongebob turned back into his house, and cracked open a cold Frickers Liquor. He sat on his couch, and watched the calm static of his TV. He finished his beer, and walked to his bedroom. The floor was caked in broken glass bottles, and body parts. He threw it against the wall- glass sprayed the already ruined floor.

The glass around the house was something similar to what his organs felt like. He refused treatment from the hospital and took a hefty prescription of pain killers. It wasn't long now. With his end coming...there was only one more place to go. Back to his roots.

Spongebob had to visit his parents.