Chapter 8: Search for the Sponge
(Note: It'll get depressing close to the end of this chapter but keep reading. It'll all be ok and worth it ^^)
It has been almost three weeks since Spongebob has disappeared. And since then, the sun didn't seem to shine on Bikini Bottom anymore.
Everyone, it seems, was overcome with sorrow. Everyone walked without a single spring in their step. And a lot of people seemed to loose their normal interests. Patrick had lost his love for Jellyfishing and Sandy lost her interest in science and karate. Squidward completely lost his interest in art or his clarinet playing (which some saw as a relief). Even Mr. Krabs had completely forgotten about money for once, and didn't even bother to count it. As for Mrs. Puff, she wasn't doing too well either.
Spongebob had not been to class the whole time. She was now reading a letter from the DMV, who plainly told her that if her student missed another class, she would be held to be negligent in her duties and face disciplinary measures. "Oh dear." she said. "What am I going to do?"
Plankton had even given up all attempts to steal the formula because it didn't seem "fun" to him anymore. Things in Bikini Bottom had indeed taken a turn for the worse. With Spongebob gone, happiness seemed to have vanished out of everyone's lives.
"What's happening here?" Sandy asked herself. "Every single happy feeling has vanished." she sighed. She was looking out her transparent treedome wall.
"What are we going to do?" she wondered. She had half a mind to leave the treedome and go find Spongebob herself. Sandy looked down to the grassy floor. A tear fell from her eye. She put her hand to the plastic wall. She collapsed to her knees. Sandy stayed in that slump for what seemed like hours. Then, she felt another emotion surge over her; determination. She got a look of intense focus on her face. She stood up and clutched her fists. "Spongebob," Sandy began. "I'm going to find you." She quickly got her air suit on and left the her home. Her face bore an expression of pure determination. It's often said that a person determined is like a tank; nothing can stop them. That was Sandy to a T.
Sandy passed by Patrick's house, which strangely, was open. She figured she was going to need help to find Spongebob. "Patrick?" she called out. Patrick looked up from his couch. "Hey Sandy." he said in a doleful tone. "I need your help." she called. "With what?" Patrick asked. "I'm looking for Spongebob and I need all the help I can get." said Sandy. "You in?" "In what?" Patrick asked. Sandy smacked her helmet. "To help me find Spongebob." she said. "Oh." he said. "How can I help?" "How else?" Sandy asked. "You help me look for him." Patrick seemed confused. "How do you look for him?" he asked. Sandy just looked at him. "Are you going to help me or not?" she asked. Patrick seemed to think about it for a moment. Sandy growled. "Patrick!" she shouted. "Oh." he said. "Uh, ok, I'll help." "Then let's get going." said Sandy. "We need to round up as much help we can get before we start looking." "So we need to look for people that will help us look for Spongebob to look for Spongebob?" Patrick asked.
Sandy sighed. "Yeah, that's about it." she said. "Ok then." said Patrick coming out of his den. "I'm coming too!" cried out a familiar voice. Squidward. He had been watching from his window. He came to Sandy and Patrick's side. "Squidward?" Sandy asked. "Why would you want to help us find Spongebob?" "Yeah." said Patrick. "You can't stand him." "I.." Squidward began, "had a change of heart." "You had a heart transplant?" Patrick asked. "No, it means he changed his feelings about Spongebob." Sandy said with a smiled. "Just until I can focus back on my art and music skills." Squidward said defending smiled knowingly "So, you guys are in?" she asked Squidward and Patrick nodded. "Good, let's go." said Sandy. Soon the three left to get some more help in the city.
When they got to the city area of Bikini Bottom. It was just as sad and gloomy as before.
The gloom was so intense it seemed to pierce Sandy's heart like a spear. But she couldn't allow her own sorrow to affect he mission. She fought the feelings away and focused on the task at hand. Sandy cleared her throat. "Excuse me." she called out, hoping the people around her would hear. No one even looked at them.
"Hey, can we get a little help here?" Squidward said. "Yeah, Spongebob is missing." Patrick called out.
The crowd just went about their business. They were disappointed. It didn't look like anyone wanted to…"I'm telling you, it was that untalented cephalopod!" Someone shouted. "Huh?" Sandy Patrick and Squidward all said together.
"No, it was that squirrel." Another person said. " I say it was that cheapskate Krabs that did it." said a woman. "What's happening?" Patrick asked. They all saw many more fish folk go to see what was going on. And all joined in the argument. Who was the one that drove Spongebob away. "They're arguing about who drove Spongebob away." Sandy said. "Who drove Spongebob away?" Patrick asked. "Apparently they're trying to answer that question." Squidward said. "What question?" Patrick asked. Sandy and Squidward sighed. All three went to the expanding crowd of quarreling fish. The crowd continued to argue amongst themselves. "I still say it was the bald and big nosed one." said one fish.
"Who are you calling big nosed!?" Squidward snarled. "Well Squidward," Patrick began. "have you seen your nose?" Squidward shot him a death glare. "No, it was Krabs." said another fish. Sandy had had enough of the shouting match. She drew a deep breath. "QUIIIIIIIEEEEET!!!" she shouted. Everyone parted from Sandy, leaving her in the very center of a circle. "Have you all gone crazy!?" She shouted at the top of her lungs. "Why are you arguing over something so small and insignificant as 'who's fault is it'!?"" "Well someone had to be the one who drove Spongebob out of town." said a random fish in the crowd. "Does it matter?" Sandy asked. "No it doesn't. What matters now is he's out there somewhere, and we have to find him." "Oh no." said a female fish. "We're not following you again." "Yeah." said a fish with an Australian accent. "I remember you running us ragged when Spongebob ran away once before!" Sandy frowned. "So I'm pretty sure you drove him away." said the Australian accented fish. "No it was Tentacles!" said another fish. And so the arguing continued. Squidward was fed up with their arguing. "Will you all SHUT UP FOR TWO SECONDS!!!!" he roared. The crowd went silent again. Sandy spoke once more. "Listen." she said. "We all drove Spongebob away." "What are you talking about?" The Australian fish asked. "It's simple." Sandy said. "We all did something to make him feel rejected. So we're all to blame. And that stupid holiday we came up with hit the nail on the head." said Sandy. "What holiday?" Patrick asked. "So what do you want us to do?" Another person asked. Sandy rolled her eyes.
"Help us find him." she said, exasperated. "Admit it we can't live without Spongebob." Sandy added. "Not even Squidward." "Since Spongebob disappeared," Mr. Krabs began. He too was in the crowd.
"Me restaurant business has plummeted to the ground."
"I'll say." Someone in the crowd said. "Spongebob was the best fry cook around. No one could beat his burgers." Everyone nodded in agreement.
Sandy smiled.
"Ever since he left, my plans just don't seem any fun anymore." A voice piped up. They all looked to see Plankton standing there.
"My music and art has really gone downhill since he left." Squidward said.
"Not that it was any good to begin with, but now it's gotten worse." "I can't even think straight anymore without my best friend." said Patrick. "Yeah we noticed." Squidward said. "I can't stop crying." Sandy said. "Spongebob was the first friend I made here, and look what I did, what we all did, to him." She sighed."I've lost interest in everything." Sandy continued. "I can't even bring myself to do Karate anymore." "My boating career is in jeopardy now that Spongebob is gone." said Mrs. Puff.
"Seems every one of us is affected somehow." Squidward said. "So we ALL must chip in to find him." "Now who's with us!?" Sandy exclaimed. Everyone in the crowd raised their hands, it seemed.
So the search for the sponge was on.
The entire population of Bikini Bottom were searching high and low for their long lost yellow friend. From Jellyfish Fields to Goo Lagoon, everyone kept searching. Squidward even searched through the city dump, in the offhand chance Spongebob picked it as a place to hide, thinking no one would look there. "Blech." he sais as he wrinkled his nose at the smell of rotting food and garbage. Patrick picked around under every rock eh could find, big and small.
"Spongebob!" he called after picking up a pebble. Mr. Krabs searched in the city area. No Spongebob. But at least he found some loose change on the streets. "Ah, what luck." he said as he pocketed it. Mr. Krabs continued looking.
Sandy was searching through a kelp forest just outside of town. The darkness gave her a slight sense of the creeps. But Sandy couldn't let her fear get to her now. She was on a mission. "Spongebob?" Sandy called out. As Sandy kept walking she silently prayed. She asked God to help find Spongebob and that he would be ok. As though He had acknowledged her, a breeze blew, making the kelp wave majestically.
After a while everyone met together in a sandy area by some cliffs. They were all pretty tired.
"Whew, what a day." Squidward said. "I know." said Mr. Krabs. "And we still haven't found Spongebob."
Squidward rubbed his feet. "Anyone seen Sandy?" he asked. Sandy wasn't resting like the others.
"Sandy?" Squidward asked. Krabs shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Sandy didn't seem to hear him. She just kept walking. Patrick walked up to Sandy and poked her on the shoulder. "Sandy?" he asked. Sandy turned to him. "Yes?" She asked. Squidward ran up to her and Patrick. "Don't you think you should sit down and rest for a minute?" he asked. "We've been looking for hours." "No." said Sandy. "I promised myself that I would find Spongebob no matter what."
"You're exhausted." Squidward said. "I insist that you rest." "No." said Sandy. "I'm going to keep going until I find him." "Hey guys!" someone shouted. "Mr. Krabs." Sandy exclaimed. "What is it?"
Mr. Krabs rushed over to them. "I found something, lads." he said. He didn't sound too happy. "What's wrong?" Sandy asked. "Follow me." Krabs said. "And prepare yourself." The others shrugged and followed him. Curiosity came upon the rest of the citizens of Bikini Bottom. They all followed in suit. Krabs led them to the edge of a cliff. "See for yourself." He said. They all saw it. A pair of square pants hanging from a branch. Spongebob's pants. Sandy, Squidward and Patrick gasped.
"Oh no..." Sandy began, tears forming in her eyes. "Spongebob… he must have…" Sandy couldn't even get the rest of her words out. Squidward felt sick. He felt like he was about to throw up. Everyone else arrived. And after seeing Spongebob's pants fluttering in the wind, over a thousand hearts became broken.
The next day was the memorial service for Spongebob. Taken place by the cliffs where his pants were found. Everyone brought flowers and shed tears. Sandy could barely keep herself from breaking down and sobbing. Neither could were both shaking as sobs erupted in their beings. Everyone gathered at the cliff's edge.
Prayers were being said all over the place. One by one everybody tossed their flowers in apologizing for what they had done. When Sandy was to toss her flowers, she held them closed for a moment.
"Spongebob." she said. "I'm so sorry. If I only knew how much this was hurting you, I never would have gone through with it." One last tear was shed from Sandy's eyes before she tossed her flowers.
Patrick was next. The tears were flowing like a river. His flowers were missing. "Patrick where are your flowers?" Sandy asked. "Uh, I was hungry." Patrick said, embarrassed. The flowers then popped out of his mouth and fell down the cliff when he belched.
After the service was done, every Bikini Bottomite left the cliff area with their heads hanging in sorrow. "Why the long faces?" A voice called. "Who's there?" Patrick asked. "I know that voice." said Sandy.
Red was standing on a rock outcropping. "What do you want?" Squidward asked.
"I saw you all gathered 'round and I was wondering why everyone is so sad." Red said. "We have a good reason to be sad." said Mr. Krabs. "Which is?" Red asked. "We're too late." said Sandy. She sniffled. "Spongebob's gone forever."
"You don't mean…?" Red said. "I'm afraid so." said Squidward. Red frowned. "We deserve this." said Mr. Krabs. "Yeah." Patrick said in agreement. "We never should have treated Spongebob like we did." Sandy said. Squidward shook his head.
Red kept frowning. "No, no one deserves to suffer the pains of loss." he said. Red then started chuckling.
"What's so funny!?" Sandy shouted. "Yeah haven't you heard of respect?" Squidward asked sternly. Red started laughing a little harder. "You guys, he's not dead." Red said.
"What are you talking about?" Sandy asked. "No, you're playing a trick on us, you devilfish." said Mr. Krabs. Red chuckled again. "The trick was…myself." he said. "Red doesn't exist. He's but a mere shadow of another person." "Huh?" everyone asked. "You see." Red began. "I'm really not Red. " He put both of his hands to his cheeks and grabbed on to them.
"I'm ready!" he shouted. He pulled his cheeks until they came apart like tissue paper. It was revealed that "Red" was just a disguise. And in that disguise was none other Spongebob Squarepants himself. "I'm ready!" Spongebob said again. The crowd gasped. "You're alive!" Sandy exclaimed. "That's right." Spongebob said. "I never really left Bikini Bottom." Spongebob laughed. The others couldn't help but laugh with him, so great was their relief… Squidward didn't laugh though. He was confused. "Wait." he said. "You scared us to death to get back at us?"
"No, of course not." Spongebob said. "And how did you come up with this plan by yourself?" Squidward asked. "Yeah. You're usually not one to come up with something so well planned." said Mr. Krabs. "It wasn't by myself." said Spongebob. "I had a little help." "Who?" Sandy asked. "Me." said a female voice. A person in an air suit like Sandy's came to Spongebob's side. A raccoon. "Kelly?" Sandy asked. "That's right Sandy." Kelly said. "It's me." "Can someone tell me what's going on?" Squidward asked."It's simple." Kelly said. "Care to start?" Kelly asked Spongebob.
"With pleasure." he said. Spongebob then motioned for the murmuring to quiet before he began the story of how the whole event started.
(Spongebob's alive!! And he was Red the whole time. How did he come up with this plan? More will come ASAP)