Crimson V3

I used to work at a video store in Tampa, Florida. It was called “The Video Spot.” I worked there for a summer job in 2009 because my father had just been fired and we needed some kind of income. Anyway, the job at the video store was great. I would work the night shift with a few other people. One of those people was Tom.
Tom was a strange character. He was always talking to me and just saying weird things. He would say that he used to work at Nickelodeon back in the 90’s, but I didn’t believe him. He was about 35 in 2009 and just was a weird guy.
One day, he told me to meet him in the back for something. I walked back there with him and asked him what he wanted, since we were on the clock. He simply looked around and pulled a VHS tape out of his pocket with the word, “Test” written on it with a black marker.
He said since I was his best friend, he would let me in on a secret. He said that he actually did  used to work at Nickelodeon and he stole this tape from a storage room full of shit. I asked him what was on it and he said he wanted it to be a surprise. He left the room and went back to work.
I went to my car and put it in the passenger seat and went on with the rest of my shift. After the shift was over, I locked up the place and started to drive home. While I was driving, I kept eyeing that VHS tape. I was so curious what was on that damn tape. So, I drove back to the video store to watch it there since I didn’t have a VHS player at that time.
I unlocked the doors and walked inside. It was as barren as you could expect. I walked to the back room where the Tv’s were stored. I plugged one in, plugged a VHS player into the Tv, and put in the tape. 
The tape started with a familiar sight: The Spongebob Squarepants theme song. Who could have guessed. After the song ended, it showed the title card. The name of the episode was Squidward’s Suicide. This startled me a little bit. I paused the tape and took a minute to think.
I unpaused it and instantly laughed out loud. The happy music was still playing in the background. After this, it showed the opening credits. This was also weird. There were no names on the sand. It was just simply the sand. 
The episode then began. It started with Squidward on his bed, sweating profusely. He started to play his clarinet and hit a wrong note. He sighed and tried to play again when his playing was interrupted with the sound of laughter.
It was Spongebob and Patrick blowing bubbles. Squidward opened his window and started to speak. “Hey, can you please quiet down? My first ever concert is in a couple of hours and I would like to practice.” Spongebob told him that they would keep it down.
Squidward smiled and was about to play again when laughter interrupted him again. He opened his window again and asked them to be quiet again, this time a little more serious and stern. They nodded and Squidward thanked them. He was interrupted one more time before he snapped.
“Would you shut the hell up!?” I paused the tape again, my jaw on the floor. I could not believe that Squidward said this. It's a kid show. Kids shows usually don’t say swear words. I unpaused it and continued to watch. Spongebob and Patrick started to cry and ran back into the pineapple house.
Squidward was about to play again when someone knocked on his door. He went downstairs and opened the door to an irish fish saying he needed a place to stay. Squidward said no and closed the door. It was knocked on again and he opened it saying “Look I just told you that I can’t…” He stopped talking when he saw the fish. His eyes were rolled backwards and his jaw was all wide, ending at his waist.
Squidward then rubbed his eyes and when he did, the fish was gone. It showed squidward then running upstairs. A bubble transition then took us to a concert hall with about 200 fish there in seats. It cut to Squidward pacing back and forth, biting his tentacles. An announcer then started to speak.
“Alright, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for…Give it up for Squidward Tentacles!” Everyone started to clap and cheer. Squidward stood in the middle of the stage with his clarinet in hand. He then said a speech.
“Um…Hi everyone. I am Squidward and I’m going to play a song for you all that I wrote. But first, I just want to say thank you. Thank you all for giving me this opportunity to play here at the Clams Concert Hall tonight. It cost me a lot of money to play here tonight. I’ve spent over 15 years saving money so I could afford to play here tonight. But, It’s all been worth it. Now, without further ado, here is my song, A Squid's Journey…” 
He took a deep breath and started to play. It was beautiful. Every note played to perfection. But the crowd did not like it. Not one bit. They first started to mumble, then boo, then scream. Their faces started to morph and change as they screamed in anger. Their jaws elongating and their eyes rolling to the back of their head. 
Squidward kept playing though. The crowd then started to throw things at Squidward. He tried to dodge the things coming at him, but a rock hit him on the head and knocked him out. It then showed him waking up, confused and scared. He looked around and gasped. He found his clarinet in pieces on the floor of the stage.
He picked up the pieces of it and started to cry. He ran out of the concert hall in tears. Another bubble transition took us to Squidward's house where he sat on his bed, sniffling and still crying. He threw the pieces at the wall and started to cry even louder.
He then told himself that he should probably get ready for bed. He went to the bathroom and went to the mirror over the sink, which was also a cabinet. He opened it to grab his toothbrush, but when he closed it, he could see the grim reaper behind him in the reflection. He dropped his toothbrush and quickly turned around.
The entity and Squidward stared at each other for what felt like forever when the thing pointed at Squidward and just said the word, “You” Squidward ran past the thing and it chased him all around his house. 
The reaper chased him for a little while around the house when it finally ended at the bedroom. Squidward was then kicked to the side of his bed. The reaper stood over him, looking straight down at him. Squidward reached under his bed and grabbed a shotgun. The thing just stood still, looking down at him. Squidward warned him to stay back. 
The reaper started to walk towards him and he shot at the thing. It went right through him. Squidward crying and sweating at the same time looked down at the gun and pointed it at his skull. He closed his eyes for a moment and pulled the trigger.
The screen cut to black when he pulled it. It stayed that way for a few seconds. The screen came back on to a realistically drawn frame of Squidward’s body with flies flying around him and faint buzzing being heard in the background. We then hear a door open with Spongebob’s voice yelling Squidward’s name before cutting to black again.
The credits started to play with that jolly music playing. I had so many questions. Who made this? Why was this made? Why would Tom give this to me? I left the video store but accidentally left the tape in the player.
I came into work the next day to ask Tom why he gave me that tape and grab the tape, but he wasn’t there. I asked my coworker Amy if she had seen him and she said that he never came into work. I went into the back room to take the tape, but it wasn’t there. I asked all my coworkers if they had seen the tape but they didn’t take it. Even my boss didn’t have it.
So, I asked the boss where he lived and he told me the address that he put on his resume. So, I drove there and found a burned down apartment building that looked to have been abandoned for years at that point. I then called the police to tell them about Tom being missing, but they said that his name was not on any record of the town we lived in. There has never been anyone in Tampa with the name Tom Fraley.
Category:SpongeBob SquarePants