A.N. I do not own SpongeBob SquarePants.
It was a few minutes before two in the morning. The entirety of the Krusty Krab was dark ever since it was shut down due to Mr. Krab's passing. Larry waited behind the restaurant nervously, yet patiently, for any sign of his friend. He used the dark to his advantage, for he didn't want to be revealed if SpongeBob were to show up.
Larry was wearing some swim shorts and a big hoodie. It wasn't cold by any means and it certainly wasn't hot; Larry just wanted to dress comfortably. But he felt stupid at this decision, wouldn't it had been better if he wore all dark clothing? That way if SpongeBob were to ambush him, Larry would be even more camouflaged in the dark.
Well, it was too late to change his mind.
Larry looked at the watch on his wrist. It was a minute past two o' clock. Maybe this was a waste of time.
Suddenly, Larry heard a low rumble from a distance. It was coming from the other side of the Krusty Krab - and whatever it was, it was coming in his direction. Some lights shone past the side of the building, and light quickly grew abundant as whatever object was getting closer.
The object revealed itself to be a boat. Its headlights were set to dim, possibly as to not alert anybody who might see it. Except for Larry, of course.
Larry held his breath as the boat came to an abrupt stop in front of him. The boat's window rolled down, Frank's face appearing on the other side.
Larry and Frank stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, when it was really only for a moment. Finally, Larry spoke.
"Hi…"
Larry was unsure what to really say. Frank disappeared for a good while, and seemed to be gone for good, but now he was sitting in the driver's seat of a boat without harm. Frank returned with a couple of words.
"Get in."
Upon hearing this, Larry's nerves immediately shot up. He tried to hype himself up to be calm and collected, but now that this was really happening, he wasn't sure how to act.
"What are you waiting for? Get in," Frank said. There was something about the way Frank said this that almost soothed Larry's nerves. Frank had said it so casually that it felt as if they were about to drive out for a nightly joyride.
"Um… okay…," Larry hesitatingly said.
Larry walked around to the passenger's side of the boat and opened the door. He was cautious about it, wondering if SpongeBob was waiting on the other side about to strike. But Larry swung the door open to see Frank looking at him from the driver's seat. Larry climbed into the car.
After closing the door, Frank put the boat into drive. The boat cruised along past the Krusty Krab and onto the open road. Larry watched from the side mirror as the Krusty Krab went further, further, then completely out of view.
The lights from Bikini Bottom were starting to fade off into the distance, too. This alarmed Larry a bit.
"Where are we going, Frank?"
It was dead silent since they first took off, so this question caught Frank by surprise.
"Huh? Oh, uh… home."
Home? What did he mean by home?
"But our houses aren't this way?"
Frank remained silent.
"Frank, please answer me, man. I've been dreading this moment for days. I'm freaking out! And you've been gone for so long! And… and…"
Larry felt as if he was about to pull a Eugene Krabs and have a heart attack right there in the passenger seat. Frank tried to soothe Larry as best as he could.
"Look, I know I haven't been around lately. I wish I could tell you what's been going on, but there's just so much at stake. The only thing I'm allowed to say is that I'm taking you home and that everything is alright."
Larry noticed the look of worry and concern across Frank's face. It wasn't the kind of concern held toward comforting a friend. No, there was something more to that look.
"At stake? Frank, what does that mean?"
"If I hadn't have gone with him, my whole family would be in trouble." Frank elaborated further. "All of my friends would be in trouble. That includes you. I couldn't risk that, and I went with him."
Larry was silent for a moment, then said this: "Well, now it looks like we're both at risk."
Frank stared ahead at the empty road in front of him, giant fields of coral stood tall off on the shoulders of the road. Larry continued.
"Like seriously, you couldn't have just run from him? Was he really that threatening to you? You've got the muscles of a boulder, and yet you couldn't take him?"
Frank started crying. Surely, there was something much worse that Larry didn't know about. He kept prodding.
"Gee, Frank. If you wanted to, I bet you could've just escaped SpongeBob. But nooooooo. He just had to stand there menacingly and you just…"
"I COULDN'T GET HELP!"
Frank's scream brought the boat back into an awkward silence. At this point, Frank was full on weeping. And through the weeping, he decided to speak his mind.
"What… what about you, Larry? You could've got the police-fish involved… you SHOULD HAVE. But no… no… you didn't think that far ahead, did you?"
"You told me not to!"
"But that's because he told me to tell you that! Everything's… everything's fucked, Larry. So fucked that you should have got help anyway."
"What?"
"They're all dead, Larry. All… gone…"
Frank's weeping got louder, but so did another noise. Larry's heart sunk when he heard the laughter coming from under Frank's seat.
"Now, Frankie, don't be such a downer now! We're almost home!"
The familiar voice gave way to a familiar face crawling up from the open space in between the seats. Larry forgot sponges could fit into small spaces like that.
"You know, it's too bad Mr. Krabs couldn't be with us to celebrate tonight. But it's okay! We've got our newest addition into the family." SpongeBob eyed Larry with eagerness; Larry returned this with a look of horror.
So much had happened in this moment that Larry didn't notice the boat going off the road and into the field of coral. When he looked back up, he thought they were about to crash. This might have been a better alternative if Frank wasn't carefully navigating through the field.
"We have a lot to talk about when we get home. I bet my curious Larry has a bunch of questions to ask me!" SpongeBob was beaming with happiness, it was genuinely adding to how uncomfortable Larry and Frank were.
The boat came to a stop at a gigantic piece of coral; however, right next to the coral was a rather big boulder.
"Now, I know what you're thinking Larry. 'Why did we stop at this boulder?' Well, it's not just a boulder!"
SpongeBob forced both of the two men to exit the car. Frank was still weeping, and Larry was on the verge of passing out. "Come with me," SpongeBob said.
Larry walked with the two and realized that the boulder was, indeed, not a boulder. It was a rock with a big hole in it; in other words, a cave. SpongeBob clapped his hands twice, and suddenly the roof of the cave lit up with strung-up lights. The lights were in various colors, almost like it was Christmas decor.
SpongeBob swung himself around to Larry and Frank, and raised his arms up high.
"AND WELCOME… TO THE GARY STATE!"
Larry and Frank looked at SpongeBob awkwardly. SpongeBob then put his hands on his hips and said something that made Larry shiver.
"And Larry's the main guest!"
A.N. Hello! It's been over two years since I last promised that I would finish this story. Oops. Anyways…
I've been extremely busy and down on my luck lately. It's not anything too bad, but I was severely injured by a car a little after writing that previous chapter. And I dropped out of medical school. Oh, and I'm working a dead-end job in a restaurant trying to make ends meet. Plus my family's house sort of burned down. Yeah… a lot can happen in two years.
But hey! We have a new chapter after two years, which makes this the fifth chapter of a story that's been continued for the past four years. Hopefully it doesn't take me another two years to write a new chapter, but who knows. Shit happens.
Thank you for reading so far! I plan on making the last few chapters pretty crazy and disturbing, so stick around if that's something you would enjoy. That's about it for now. Bye!