Spongebob sighed as he stood at the grill, poking his spatula into the bottom of the patty to keep it from sticking. He used his hand to wipe the sweat and exhaustion he felt from his eyes, having had little to no sleep last night, or the night before, not when he kept having these, dreams, more like, visions, like, he was this, thing, he couldn't describe, he was afraid, but for what?
He sighed as he closed his eyes, he was drifting in and out of it, he was just so tired, he jumped when he heard someone whisper in his ear, but it was more of a hiss, then a whisper, gasping as he looked down and nearly burnt his patty, if Eugene was here, he'd be barking at him right now, "Huh?" he looked up at the window where his old friend, Squidward stood, "Where's my order?" he asked, "Oh, yeah, sorry, i was, just a little distracted." he answered as he handed i'm his order.
'To think Ol' man Krabs put this place in trust with him'
Spongebob sighed as he stepped up to the bathroom mirror, he looked at his face, he looked horrible, rings around his eyes, sure, he was fifty, but he didn't have to look, and act like it, he wasn't that old, in sponge years.
He shook his head as he reached his hands down to the running water, thinking that if he splashed some cold water on his face that it might wake him up so tha he could stay awake to manage his place while he was still sane.
Spongebob smiled as he stepped out of the bathroom, seeing his wife and two kids walking into the building, he waved to them as he stood next to the boat.
"Daddy!" Lola shouted out as she ran to greet him, "Lola!" he shouted with equal excitement as he bent down to catch her, "How's daddy's little girl?" he asked as he hugged and kissed her head, she giggled, "hehe, good, but i am a little hungry though." she smiled, and he awed.
"Well, it's a good thing you came by, I can't let my little girl run around on an empty stomach, so, what do you want? A junior patty, with-" "Ice cream!" she pipped, and he laughed, "Ice cream? On a patty?" he questioned, and she laughed, shaking her head.
"Ew, no silly!" she said as she placed her hands on her hips, and he just chuckled, turning to his son who was on his phone, "Tommy?" he called him, "Hmm, what?" he barked, Spongebob sighed, "You're hungry too, right? What do you want?" he asked him, and Tom just shrugged.
"Wh, Hey!" Thomas shouted as his phone was yanked out of his hand by his father and held up high so he couldn't reach, "You're not even gonna say hi? Or tell me how your day was?" Spongebob asked, and Thomas sighed, "Hi dad, and today sucked, like all the other days, there, you happy now? Can I have my phone back?" he asked, and Spongebob hesitated.
"Right after you tell me what you want me to make you." he said, and Tom growled, "I don't want anything." he said, and Spongebob smiled, "Not even a krabby patty, with, your name on it, and- extra pickled peppers and a bottle of hot sauce?" Spongebob smirked, and Tom sighed, he couldn't resist it, "Fine." he said as he turned his head, and his father laughed, ruffling up his hair before he gave him his phone back.
"Hey." he said as he wrapped his arms around his wife, and kissed her, "Glad to see you guys." he said, and she smiled, "Yeah, well, I just thought that I should take the kids out to see their father at work after school, as well as to get something to eat." she smiled, and he sighed running his fingers through her hair.
"Well, you guys go take a seat, and ol pops will have it out in a a bit." he said before he disappeared into the kitchen.
Spongebob sat at the table with his family, smiling on at them as they sat down and ate their food that he'd prepared special for each of them, he multitasked between listening to his two girls and watching as his son drowned his patty in hot sauce, he scoffed to himself, that boy was almost as daring as his aunt Sandy, leave it to her to show her son the wonders of spicy foods.
He turned his head towards his wife who was sitting next to him, she'd stopped talking about her day with her mother, and decided to stare at him as he looked over his two beautifully made children, he smiled at her as she leaned her head on his shoulder, and he leaned down and kissed her lips.
"A, and he took this thing, an, and he, anyways, he said, if you believe in yourself, and with a tiny pinch of magic, all my dreams will come true!" Lola exclaimed, and Spongebob laughed, he remembered that show when he was a boy.
"So, Tom, how was school? Did you get to see the magician too?" he asked him, and Tom just shrugged, taking a bite of his patty, "Don't worry bout it." he said out from his lips as he chewed his food.
"He went." Lola broke into the conversation, "but he was too busy staring at Penelope to watch the show." she grinned, and Tom gasped, "I was not!" he shouted, his face already starting to change color.
Of course his father couldn't resist the opportunity to get in on this, "Oh, does someone have a crush on the princess?" he questioned with a knowing smirk, "Wha, No! She's lying! I don't have a thing for the princess!" he spat.
"Oh, I think someone had a little too much hot sauce." Laura joked as she raised her eyebrows, "Not you too!" Tom said before he turned to his father who laughed, "It's ok if you like her Tommy, she's a really sweet young lady, and she would make a great wife for you one day." Spongebob admitted, plus the thought of his son and his best friends daughter hooking up, sounded like a dream.
"I don't like her!" he shouted at him, having Spongebob scoot back a little, "Tommy doesn't like Penny, he 'Loves' her!" Lola snickered, "oooh, Shut up, pip squeak!" Tom growled, and Lola gasped, placing her hands on her hips.
"Who you calling a pipsqueak, shorty?" she barked back, having him gasp, while their parents sat back, they glanced at each other as they watched their kids get into it, Spongebob just sighed, and smiled at her, "Oh, just another day in paradise." he shook his head before looking back at them before he had to seperate them.
"Ok Kiddos, break it up, this is no place for fights." he said before he turned to his son, "You better watch yourself, son, you know your sister can hog tie you in less than five seconds, do you really want to test her?" he questioned, and Tom rolled his eyes, "Brat." he hissed, "Grr, Jerk!" "Homewrecker." he crossed his arms as he turned his head.
"Thomas!" Spongebob gasped placing his hands on his sides, "Grr, What old man?" he questioned, "Don't what me, Mister, that wasn't very nice, you better apologize to her, right now." he demanded, and Tom scoffed, "No."
"Or you're grounded, that means, no phone, or games, for, three, weeks." he glared at him, and Tom shrugged, "Three weeks, pft-" "Did I say three weeks? I meant, three, months!" Spongebob gritted his teeth, having his sister snicker at him, "You two, missy." Laura pointed at her, "Hold on, wait what?"
Thomas growled, turning to his little sister, "Do I really have to?" he asked, "Four months." "Ok, fine! Lola, you annoying little- I'm sorry- (sorry that you're such a pain in the ass)" he mumbled the last bit to himself as he hugged her.
"Thanks, loser." she smirked as she pulled out of the hug, and he hissed at her before he turned his back on her, snatching up his phone and pushing in his password.
"So, Penelope, huh?" Spongebob smirked, "Dad." Tom warned, "Ok, fine, sorry, I was just saying-" "Can you please, stop talking to me?" he asked, and Spongebob just smiled, picking up his patty, "It's kinda like how I was with you, huh?" he whispered to his wife as he nudged her shoulder.
Laura just blushed, sliding her hands around his arm, "oh, you." she giggled as she leaned her head against him, and he leaned in for a kiss, to this day, he could still feel himself falling more, and more in love with her, thinking of what more she could possibly do to make him fall even more in love with her, he was just so lucky.
Spongebob sighed as he turned to his patty, he didn't have long until his break was over and he had to leave his family to go back to work, but he gagged before he could eat it once he got a whiff of the patty, he looked down at it to find that it had grown mold and was dripping cloudy yellow ooze, it had gone bad, but how? He'd just made it. He dropped it and looked at his families patties, finding that theirs was the exact same.
He gasped as he watched as his daughter picked up hers and brought it to her mouth, Lola jumped when the patty suddenly flew out of her hands and landed on the floor, she then looked up at her father who'd smacked it out from her hands, "Don't eat that, it's- bad?" he said as he looked again to find that it there was nothing wrong with it, other then that it laid scattered over the floor
"Robert?" Laura called to him, and he looked at her, "Are you, okay?" she asked him as she reached her hand for his arm, and he nodded, looking at his daughter, "Pa?" and he sighed, "I'm sorry, Lola, daddy thought he seen something, I must be going crazy." he said as he slid her his plate, "Here, you can have mine." he smiled.
"but, what will you eat?" she asked him, and he shrugged, "I'm not that hungry, if I get hungry later, I'll grab a snack." he answered as he bent down to pick up the mess he'd made.
"What was that today?" Laura asked as she slid her night shirt over her body as she approached her side of the bed, she looked at her husband who was sitting off the side of his side, rubbing his tired eyes.
"I don't know, babe, i just, thought I saw something, but, I was wrong." he said, and she sighed, climbing in her side of the bed, "I think I'm going crazy." he admitted, and she shrugged, "Well, maybe, you should go see a doctor." she suggested, and he shook his head.
"For what? For them to tell me that it's all normal, and that all i need is a good night's rest?" he questioned, and she sighed, "I just need some sleep is all." he said, and she shrugged, "Ok, fine, well, if sleep doesn't help, i'm gonna drag you in that office, one way or another." she said, and he nodded, "Fair enough." he said as he climbed in and pulled the covers over himself.
Spongebob yawned as he turned to her, scooting as close as they were comfortable with, he sunk down and laid his head on her chest, he wrapped his arm around her waist and sighed, finding this the best way to get some sleep, falling asleep in the arms of your everything, he smiled, while she pet the back of his head as he drifted deeper into his sleep, finally, thinking that he might actually get some sleep, but that was until he heard a sound, he opens his eyes upon hearing a light switch on, he turns to the door where a light is shown, someone was up.
"Hey, Laura, I think one of the kids-" he looks to her side of the bed, to find that she wasn't in the bed next to him, looking at the clock, it read 3 in the morning, he sighed looking towards the door, wondering what she was doing out of bed this late, so he decided to get out of bed to investigate.
The floor creaking beneath his feet with each step he took, he approached the door that lead down stairs, maybe she was fixing herself a snack.
"Hey, Laura?" he called her name from around the corner of the steps before he could get to the bottom, hearing the sound of glass and metal clink against each other, he didn't know why but he felt, uneasy about this whole setting, it was until he stepped down the last step that the whole setting he was in, had suddenly changed.
He stood in the middle of four, large pillars, there were rows, upon, rows of them, cracked from the years of weather, and marked with graffiti, trying to figure out where he was but, couldn't, he'd never seen such a run down place in his life. He spun around as he heard something hum in his ear, but found that there was nothing there.
Spongebob then gasped as he heard a familiar voice, call out to him, "R, Robert!" he looked around for the source, "Laura! Where are you!" Spongebob shouted, he turned to his right as he heard the sound coming from the distance, and it sounded like, she was in pain.
"Huh? Laura! Wh, where are you!" he shouted, tears filled his eyes as he ran through the endless pillars, and he couldn't find her, "Hnn, Sp, Spongebob." she cries in painful ecstasy, and he stopped, he didn't know where to go, where she was, "please- hn, stop." she begged in his ear.
"Laura, where-" he flinched, and spun around as he heard the painful sound of something, like, nails on a chalkboard off to the far right, where he seen a shadow flash across his sight of view, he didn't even have enough time to see what it was, before he turned around again, hearing the darkest laugh he'd ever heard, it gripped him with fear, he'd never felt something so sinister.
"Uh, Robert-" he heard her shudder his name, he gasped as he turned around, and seen this, figure, sitting on the metal support beams of whatever they were under, it sat like a large gargoyle that didn't belong, it's wings stretched around it's body to cover itself. His eyes followed the long black appendage that hung low like a tail, which is could easily touch the ground if it allowed it to drop any further, but it just swayed like a cats.
"Wh, what are you! a, and, what did you do to my wife! Where is she!" he shouted at it, and it just laughed before it suddenly vanished into thin air, and then appeared a few rows ahead of him, it's features still blocked off from sight, the only thing he could see were what appeared to be horns, and it's tail that drifted around it's huge body.
Spongebob jumped as it had suddenly appeared with in three feet of him, fear struck him as he'd never seen something so big, and he thought he was big, but this thing, had to be at least, 10 or 11 feet tall, and 5 feet from shoulder to shoulder.
"Wh, where's my wife." he demanded an answer, he didn't care how big it was, or what it was, he just needed to find her, and the beast laughed, "She's dead." it spoke in a dark demonic voice before he'd suddenly blacked out.
Spongebob gasped as he sprung out of the bed, panting, sweat poured down his face, he looked around to see where he was, and sighed in relief as he found that he was in his room, and that his wife, was laying in the bed next to him. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, "Hnn, what's the matter?" she asked before he wrapped her in a hug.
"Oh, I had the worst nightmare, there was this, this monster, the same one from Tom's room, a, and, he'd, killed you- oh, baby, I don't know what I'd do if that ever happened!" he said as he buried his head in her chest, letting her shirt soak in the few tears that found their way out.
Laura just sighed, rubbing his back, "It's ok, i'm fine, I'm here." she calmly spoke, and he sighed, picking up his head, he placed his forehead on hers, "Oh, please, don't ever leave my sight, I love you, too much." he said before he kissed her, he shuddered, running his hand down the side of her face, feeling her soft brown hair as he did so, Laura just looked at him, it was 4 in the morning, she rubbed the back of his head to comfort him.
"I'm taking you to see that doctor." she said, and he nodded, "O, ok, hnn, just, promise me you won't leave me." he said, and she smiled, kissing his nose, "I'm not going anywhere."
