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"Cherish"


Timmy Vermicelli

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I originally intended to enter this in the scary story contest, but it's been starting to get a lil too long for something like a contest where the minimum is 300 words, so I thought I'd just post it as its own thing here and split it into parts. It was my first scary story contest attempt in a while, I feel. Hopefully it turns out aight. I'll also try entering someing else into contest shortly.

 

Chapter 1: Complications

"Mr. Krabs, I regret to inform you that...they didn't make it..." Dr. Gilliam informs, somberly. "I'm terribly sorry, deeply, I really-"

"What do you mean they didn't make it?!" Eugene angrily lashes out. "There's hundreds of thousands of them! You couldn't even save at least a fraction of that! What kind of 'life savers' are ya?!"

"I'm sorry, I really am, but the chances of pulling even that off were far too slim this early on in the cycle. If the eggs don't take the proper time to ripen before release, well then there just isn't much we can do for them, unfortunately. We had to clean the sac out now or risk your wife being afflicted with further infection."

"Could you-" Eugene stammers. "Could you at least tell my why? How? Anything? This is the fourth time me wife and I have tried making a go at a litter of our own, but they all ended up like this! The matin' season is almost over and at this rate, we'll have to wait til the next one, and that's if Neptune is willin' to see us through! And between you and me, I've been dumpin' enough bags of money as it is reserving the best matin' spots on the coastline." 

"Have you been giving her her space during the brooding period?"

"Yes! She had practically the entire house to herself these last two times!"

"Has she been getting enough energy-giving lipids in her diet?"

"I-I, well, I suppose! I don't quite know cuz I can't exactly be there to watch, ya know!"

"Well, has she shown signs of being sick at all throughout any of these pregnancies? Outside of the usual parameters when it comes to said pregnancies, I mean."

"She was fighting off somethin' fierce around the second go-around, but it didn't linger for long. We made sure she was back to her old self by our third try."

"She's a real fighter, I see."

"She's fought hard fer this, doctor. In all me days in the navy, nobody I know ever came close to her level of toughness."

"I seem to recall you telling one of my nurses that you were a pirate."

"Arr, don't tell me superior officers that." Eugene says with a nervous laugh.

"Anyway, I want to look more into what your wife might've had. See if that could be in any way connected."

"Do you mind if I can go in and see her?"

"Go right on ahead. I'm afraid this entire ordeal has really started to sink its hooks into her. She really could use all the comfort she can get during such trying times."

"Thanks, doc."

Gilliam pats Eugene on the shoulder, "You try and take it easy now too, Mr. Krabs. Tragic instances like these can affect both parties equally. This can be a lot of stress to handle."

Gilliam leaves Eugene with that, walking down the hall to the main nurses station.

Krabs makes his way to the door of his wife's room. He's greeted to the sight of her thousand hard state, obviously shook up from all she has been through.

"Aww, there's me darlin' treasure, glistening radiantly like always."

Her face becomes full of rage as the door closes slowly behind him.

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Chapter 2: The Next Chapter

A couple months later

Mr. Krabs and his wife are sitting at the table, sharing a candlelit dinner across from each other in the dim comfort of their own home. An air of awkwardness and silence fills the room. Krabs is going through his food fast, whereas his wife has barely touched her's.

"At least someone still has their appetite." She remarks.

"At least one of us is at least keeping some sense of normality in this house." He shoots back.

Another minute goes by of complete silence. Eugene contemplates just taking his wife's meal instead of seeing it go to waste, especially when it comes to a meal that he prepared himself.

"Are you-...umm?"

"By all means."

Eugene takes the food off her plate and puts it onto his own. He then hands her plate back. Another minute of Eugene chewing goes by.

"Pretty romantic, eh-"

"I'm sorry." She says, interrupting her husband.

"Don't be, darlin', you did nothin' wrong. I understand. It's been hard enough as it is on me, I can't imagine what sorta stress it be puttin' on you."

"No, it's not that, it's just..." Tears begin to well in her eyestalks as he pushes her plate away. "I know how much this means to you, to have kids of our own, to continue passing down the Krabs family name, and it's become painfully obvious in the worse way that nature can possibly break it to us that I can't even give so much as that to you after everything you've given me."

"Don't do this to yourself, Cherish."

"The doctor said that I was brooding less than half the normal amount of eggs and I still lost them too. Yet, he found nothing in me to really explain what happened. If I can't even do what Neptune put me in this ocean to do, then really what use am I to you?"

"There's more to us than just that. We've survived this long! If I can't carry on the Krabs name, then I've got hundreds of brothers left who can."

"But what good is it if we can never make something our very own together?"

"We've got the restaurant, the very same one that you helped me bring into fruition. Which in turn got us this house. This relationship has more legs than Mr. Squidward, so I don't know what it is you be tryin' to get at here."

"Then why the long nights when the restaurant closes at 6 p.m.?"

"Hey, managing a restaurant is a long and arduous task. There's affairs that I have to make sure are in order well after business hours."

"Oh, I bet you've got your affairs in order."

"Don't even try to insinuate what I think you be insinuatin'! I may be a lotta things but I ain't no dishonest sailor."

"...I do know that, it's just...what's the point in salvaging any of this? I mean, goddamn. A restaurant and a house is one thing, but to bring lives into this world, to contribute to our already dwindling population, to hold something in our arms and to have it hold us back, that feeling of us both having equal shares in creating, truly creating, something. It's something else entirely. It's more intimate than I can begin to describe. And I feel like we're reaching a point where we can never truly have that, no matter how hard we try and fight for it!"

"Well I don't know exactly about us having equal shares. I mean, I am meant to leave your side for majority of the pregnancy."

"...Well you do have a point there, Eugene."

They share a laugh.

"When I found myself in a pretty dark place after gettin' out of the navy, you went above and beyond to pull me out of it. Without you, my dream of runnin' me own restaurant would never have been a reality. I wanna help you out of your dark place by makin' your dream a reality. Now the doctor recommended to me, if we're serious, that we should look into, possibly, adoption."

"I think you mean 'adaption'." She corrects him.

"No. Well, I guess that word could sorta apply here too, but it is what I said."

"You can not be serious, Eugene, that sounds very unlike you."

"Dead serious! I even looked into all the processes and everything. There are hundreds, thousands of kids out there who are orphaned at a very early age. Whales, in particular, are one of the most abundant species that makes its way into the system thanks to those damned, merciless whalers."

"So you want to go ahead and adopt a whale?"

"Maybe not a whale, exactly. I'm just sayin'. I mean, we have options!"

"Eugene H. Krabs, sole proprietor of the Krusty Krab and father of whales." She playfully pokes at him.

"Well now that ye say it like that, then maybe I do want to get meself one."

"Just one?"

"I got to be wary of me bank account too, ya know."

"We would've given birth to hundreds of thousands of little crab larvae, dear."

"But one whale equals up to all of that and then some!"

"What would we even feed a whale?" She questions.

"We' e got the restaurant fer that! I'll even have Jim workdouble overtime to make sure she's well fed at all times."

"You are gonna pay him for that, aren't you?"

"We'd have a little one on the way! I'm sure he'd understand. So, what do you say? Do you wanna write this next chapter of our lives, together?" 

"...I'll sleep on it." She snidely replies.

"Oh, you'll sleep on somethin' all right."

"It isn't mating season."

"We don't need our love lives to be dictated by crap like that or moon phases. Better enjoy ourselves while we still can, a kid that size will be more than a claws full."

"I'm sure you can feel it in the pit of your wallet." Cherish laughs.

They both get up and kiss over the table. The candle goes out

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Chapter 3: Work-Life Balance

Another couple months later

Their adoption agent hands the couple their newly adopted baby girl.

"Aww, there she is! Our lovely daughter Pearl!"  Eugene happily exclaims as he grabs hold of her, taking extra care not to pinch her with his pincers.

Eugene finds himself straining to hold all the baby's weight, so he hands Pearl over to his nervous wife, who is looking rather hesitant.

"Eugene, I don't know. I'm starting to hav-"

"Just hold her for a while, me dear."

He officially hands Pearl off to her. Cherish and Pearl gaze upon each other for the first time as mother and daughter. Cherish took one look into Pearl's eyes as the baby whale reached her hands out towards mama Krabs' face. The future never looked so bright until this very moment.

"She's so precious!" the new mother cries out as she hugs her daughter. "Just like the real thing!"

We cut to the happy family painting the interior of their house white in order to properly signal their newest arrival. They are then seen taking their first family portraits, in which Pearl proved herself to be a handful. The next scene involves the Krabs family going to a festival on the boardwalk. Eugene partakes in all the delicacies the festival has to offer, performing firsthand research whether or not he can incorporate any of it into his own menu. They all then take a ride on the easygoing ferris wheel, which results in Eugene being the only one left throwing up after getting off of it. The scene after involves the Krabs family going out on a company picnic with Squidward, Not SpongeBob and Jim in tow. Cherish's appetite had long since returned as she and Pearl partakes in some of her hubby's world famous Krabby Patties. Eugene films Pearl having her first patty, but she spits it back up. Pearl then takes the time to pick the lettuce and the tomato out of the sandwich and eats those together instead. Eugene eats all her leftovers. The last scene involves Eugene getting ready for work. He tries to leave the house as quietly as he can, but Pearl wakes up crying anyway. There's only one way that Cherish knows that's guaranteed to make Pearl stop crying. She makes Eugene take his credit card out of his wallet and gives it to Pearl for her to play with.

Eugene is then seen at work, supervising the ground floor, making sure that all his customers are being kept satisfied. One customer in particular is about to throw most of his meal into the garbage bin.

"Didn't enjoy the meal today, sir?" Eugene asks, looking to get to the bottom of this blatant his restaurant's wares.

"Oh no! I'd enjoy the whole thing if I could, but I'm just so darn full." The customer replies back.

Eugene looks at the customer's bloated stomach. His story, somehow, seems to check out for now.

"Well be sure to come in with an empty next time! Ar ar ar!" Krabs tells him as a friendly reminder. "And a full wallet."

Krabs sees the bloated customer to the door. Krabs takes another look at the food he discarded into the trash. A part of Krabs honestly wanted to finish it off for him. It's just too substantial to let rot with the rest of the garbage. But Krabs had to contain himself. Him eating food directly out of the trash, especially on the ground floor, would certainly lose him customers. He wipes the sweat off his head and dances on over to a happy family enjoying their meals.

"And may I just ask how are we all enjoying ourselves and the service here?" Eugene politely asks with a smile.

"Oh, it's going great on both those fronts! Right, family?" The father replies.

"Best joint in town, that's what I always tell my family and friends!" The mother responds.

"Mister, this is the best burger I ever had"

A stream of clear, viscous fluid pours out onto the family and their food.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Eugene cries as he raises his claws up and shakes the fluid out of himself.

The family has little time do anything more than scream as another stream of the stuff immediately gushes out as Eugene lets out another scream. The parents grab their kids and run away, promising to never return to the establishment. Eugene desperately tries to convince them otherwise, but another stream of clear liquid exits him and tracks along the floor as he had given chase to them in his deluded hopes of keeping them around to order dessert. This is more than enough to wake Squidward from his bored stupor and even Jim peers out the kitchen window to see what the commotion is about, thinking it to be another rowdy homeless person.

"Mr. Squidward! This mess! C-Clean it. Up. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Eugene manages to bark as he keels over in pain. 

Other customers have begun to leave as well, losing their appetites from the horrid display. 

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Eugene leaks out more and more as he hobbles his way to the bathroom. He rushes to the nearest toilet lets out as much as he can. He tries to collect his thoughts with each passing stream. It got to the point where he had to already flush because the bowl got filled up that fast. This isn't your typical throw up, he somehow gathered in his scrambled thought process. It wasn’t coming out through his mouth. He never experienced such a thing before. It was terrifying, but at the same time, he felt something...more.

Once it seemed like he got out about as much as he could, Eugene stumbled his way out of the stall and to the sink. He slips just a couple of feet shy and cracks his head against the side of it before cracking his head yet again on the tiled floor. Squidward soon discovers his boss lying on the bathroom floor in a pool of his own blood mixed in with something else.

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Chapter 4: The Power of Love

Eight hours later

Eugene's vision returned as he slowly opened his eyestalks to find himself in a hospital room, hooked up to an IV. He can also feel the bandages wrapped around his head.

"Eugene! Oh thank Neptune below! Honey, are you okay?" Cherish sat at his bedside with baby Pearl resting in her arms.

"I uhhh- whoa, what the hell happened to me?" Eugene asked, genuinely confused and still feeling fuzzy.

"You took a bad spill at work. Jim drove you to the hospital, himself. He figured it'd knock the medical bill down a few.”

"Smart lad, sm-smart lad..."

"It sounded just awful from how Squidward explained it to me and the hospital staff"

"Darlin', please, you be knowin' how dramatic he can get it. He's one of them blowhard, artsy wartsy types, it's kind of his thing."

"Well, in any case, the doctor went ahead and performed some tests just to be on the safe side. You haven't been feeling sick lately, have you?"

"No...not really, I don't think."

"I have noticed that you've been downing way more food than you usually do in recent months.

"Oh darlin', you'll be finding yourself in the bed next to me if you keep worryin' yourself sick like this. It's really nothin'. I'm a man, babe. It's just how we men eat."

"Well, I don't think that men just empty their bowels all over unsuspecting families."

"...Touché."

Dr. Gilliam cracks the door open a bit and peers in for a second before letting himself inside.

"Ahh...Mr....Krabs, I'm glad to see you're back amongst the land of the living." Gilliam playfully comments.

"It'll take a lot more than a sink to the skull to keep down ol' Armor Abs, doc." Eugene fires back.

"It is very reassuring to know that your wit is still intact. I've gotten back some of the results of your tests. Would you mind if I borrow your wife and daughter for a few moments? Give you a bit more time to rest by yourself."

"You think I'm being a little too overbearing, doctor?" Cherish asked.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Not at all!"

"Have at 'em, doc. I could use a bit more shut eye and me wife has been cryin' harder than the kid. Ar ar ar ar!" Krabs winces in pain as he lets out that laugh.

"Forget you, Eugene!" She belts out as she follows Dr. Gilliam out of the room.

Gilliam leads her and Pearl further down the corridor and into a more darkened section where most of the patients are already asleep and a few nurses are on hand. 

"Doctor, this seems like an awful far walk for some test results, don't you think?" Cherish asks nervously.

Gilliam leads them through a set of double doors and seats them all down in an empty waiting area nearby. He lowers the volume on the television that’s set up for the guests, which is currently showing late night love ballad infomercials.

"'CAUSE I'M YOOOUUUR LAAAAAAADYYYYYYY!!! And you are my maaaaAaaan!" as sung by Celine Dion before Gilliam cuts the infomercial off.

"Mrs. Krabs, I really, really, really don't know how to even go about telling you this." Dr. Gilliam says with a tone of genuine unease in his voice.

"Just come out with it, Doctor. Is something wrong with my Eugene?!"

"Yes, I do believe that something is definitely wrong, but not in the way that you might be thinking."

"What do you possibly mean by that, not in the way that I'm thinking? The way I'm thinking right now is that he probably doesn't have much longer left to live!"

"See, not in the way that you're thinking."

"Well then quit leading me around and beating around the bush, doc! What's wrong with my husband, Pearl's father??!"

"This has me soooo thrown for a loop that I don't know whether to give in to the insanity of it all and just laugh my tail fin off, or try to keep my sanity and tell you to your face that your husband is pregnant."

Cherish finds herself absolutely floored by this, as if she instantaneously sank into her seat and was completely powerless to pick herself up out of it. The shock of this revelation causes her to nearly drop Pearl from her lap.

"Oh dear!" Gilliam yelps out as he helps to stop Pearl from falling and gets her back into her mother's arms.

Cherish snaps herself out of it enough to at least struggle to regain her bearings, "What the Davy Jones do you mean that my husband is pregnant?!"

A nearby custodian overhears that and awkwardly makes his way back up the elevator that he came down from.

"It's nyaahhh exactly how I said it, Mrs. Krabs! The CT scan alerted us to something going on in his body that was...not something I have ever seen brought up in a CT scan for a male before. We performed some blood tests and, really, the results came in conclusive that he's, well, you know..."

"How the *dolphin noise* is this even possible?!" She shouts out, doing her best to cover Pearl's ears as she did.

"I don't know. I am truly stumped. Never in all my years of practicing in the Pacific have I ever encountered a case quite like this."

"Look, you're sure?! And I mean absolutely?!"

"The blood tests do seem to suggest just that, yes."

"I don't want no suggestions! I want some damn undeniable proof!"

"Then it would be in my most professional opinion that he get an ultrasound as soon as he's discharged, and perhaps meet with your OB-GYN."

The mere thought fails to register to Cherish.

"My OB-GYN?! D-Do you have ANY idea how much his manhood means to him?! He's constantly getting himself into gonad measuring contests with his old navy buddies! I asked before and I'll ask again; how in the holy Davy Jones’ Locker is this even possible?!!!?!"

"And I will reiterate, I haven't the slightest idea! I mean, you don't have a...ya know...?"

"Of course I don't!" She yells back, taking some offense to his implication.

Gilliam retreats to his thoughts for a moment, "Then I'll reach out to some colleagues in the Arctic, Atlantic and Indian and see if they can help me make any heads or tails of this." 

"Well while you're off doing that, just what am I supposed to do with..."

"I'll inform...him...on the situation the best I can. In the morning. Aside from, well, that, the blow to his head shouldn't do any long lasting damage and it should heal up just nicely! I would at least prescribe him something, but..."

"Yeah, I know. Just please, Dr. Gilliam, do what you can to get to the bottom of this."

"I'll do all I can. Just try and get some rest, both you and your daughter. I know that this is a whole heck of a lot to take in, especially after everything that happened before. But, with all due respect to the miracle of life itself, congratulations are still technically in order. So, congratulations, to both you and your husband! I- uh, I suppose I'll be seeing you tomorrow, Mrs. Krabs, may you and your daughter have...as pleasant of an evening as you can..."

Gilliam gets up from his seat and heads back through the same double doors. Cherish sinks into her seat a little with Pearl on her lap. She remains there, processing all her thoughts until Pearl falls asleep in her arms. She eventually gets up to go to the nurse’s desk, requesting that they inform her husband that she and Pearl will be spending the night at home.

Once home, she puts Pearl to bed in her crib. She shuffles back out, seemingly losing the strength in her legs. She has to rely on the wall of the upstairs hall provide her balance. The last time she felt this way, it was during her last miscarriage. Cries echo throughout the house. She turns back to see that Pearl is still asleep in her crib.  Cherish somehow manages to feel her way to the master bedroom and tumbles onto the bed. Her vision gets fuzzy before everything goes black suddenly, killing the sound.

 

author's note: might be a bit of a delay for the next chapter, so expect it up either Thursday or Friday.

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Chapter 5: Morning Sickness

The next morning

When Cherish finally came to, it was already well into the morning hours. The sun's rays were beaming through the curtains and illuminating the room. Cherish sat herself up on her side of the bed. She was looking pretty out of it before rubbing her eyes.

"Was it all just a dream?" She wondered. 

She turned her head to the side to find something lying down right next to her in Eugene's usual spot. The shape of their body protruded through the covers. From the way they were positioned, they were laying on their side with their back facing her. With recent events still very fresh in her mind, she knew full well that Eugene was still back at the hospital.

She carefully reaches her hand over towards the head of the shape laying next to her. She pulls the covers back.

"Honey?" She asks, cautiously.

"What is it, darlin'??" Eugene asked with an irritated tone.

Cherish breathes of sigh of relief, seemingly brought back to reality after what felt like a nightmare.

"I'm so glad that you're okay!" Cherish exclaims with renewed joy.

"Why, of course we are, dear." Eugene turns himself around to reveal a very filled up egg sac protruding from behind his prized armor abs.

Cherish's pigment went white at the unnatural sight.

"They be kickin' up a storm, dear! Want to feel it?" Eugene clamps Cherish's wrist and brings her in closer.

"No..No...NO!" She shouts in protest.

Eugene doesn't listen as he forces her hand closer and closer, the egg sac protruding further and further out with each inch.

"This is it, dear. Our little miracles." He proudly says as he opens up his abdomen to bring the sac out into full view.

Thousands of indentations could be seen pressing against the sac, clawing out as if aware of what's about to make contact with them.

"Eugene, stop it!"

Eugene forces her open claw onto his sac and the thousands of little claws inside reaches out for it, some even managing to pierce through the sac itself. Cherish screams as the many claws clamp down on hers. She struggles to get herself free, but in her struggle, the sac breaks open, causing all the larvae to pour out onto the bed in a mess of blood and amniotic fluid. The larvae crawls out by the thousands, each of them converging onto Cherish and completely covering her. She convulses and shakes around helplessly in bed, soon hearing the sound of the phone ringing.

Cherish finds herself falling out of bed, landing on the floor below. She pats all around herself and shakes it off. She quickly realizes that there is nothing on her, but still, she can feel them all stepping and squirming all over her. The sun shone brightly into the room as it had in that terrible dream, but fortunately, she was the only one in the room. The phone continues ringing, so she scrambles to answer it.

"Hello..?"

"Good morning, or actually, afternoon I should say, Mrs. Krabs! This is Nurse Shark here at Bikini Bottom Hospital, just calling to inform that your has been discharged and is now ready for pickup."

"Oh. I'm so glad to hear! Thank you very much, nurse. I'll come down and pick him up right now!"

"Excellent! We'll go on ahead and send somebody to bring him down for you. You'll find them at the front entrance!"

"THEM?" Cherish asks with a slight sense of dread.

"Yes, your husband and the nurse who will be escorting him out."

"Oh thank Neptune. I'll be there right away."

"All righty, Mrs. Krabs, you take care now."

"Likewise." Cherish ends it off before hanging up.

Cherish could hear crying coming from outside her room. She steps out into the upstairs hallway and is relieved to know that it's just Pearl in her room down the hall. That relief quickly turns into panic upon realizing that she slept in much later than she intended, leaving Pearl to cry for who knows how long. She rushes over to Pearl's room, trying to calm her down.

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