In 2002, I was a 12-year-old boy. At the time, I didn’t have much good things to play with. My dad not having enough money to afford me anything as well. But one unforgettable morning, I invited one of my friends over ‘Joseph’ to go out in my backyard to play catch or something sort of like that, I can’t remember because it’s the least important part of the story. But when he arrived, he pointed out that there was a package on the doorstep that my dad didn’t grab yet.
I grabbed the package and bring it inside. Joseph called me back towards the door and told me there was another thing. I came back to where Joseph was standing and his right pointer finger pointing towards a clear, DVD case. I put down the box for my dad and I grabbed the case and opened it. Inside there was a disc with blue permanent text reading “SuperSponge_0502”. And on the bottom of the disc, it read “FOR PSX”.
And being a poor family at the time, I didn’t know what PSX meant. We bring the box and the case to my dad and showed him. He was happy that the box had finally arrived since it was filled with some silverware. But when he seen the case, he had a confused look on his face. Joseph and I were also confused since we thought my dad would know what it was.
He asked Joseph and I where we found it and before I could say anything, Joseph said “We found it under that box with the spoons and forks.” I smiled and looked at Joseph, “You could’ve said silverware.” I said with my obnoxious voice so everyone could hear it. He rolled his eyes like he normally would when I said something like that. My dad took the disc out and read the text out loud.
He starred at the “FOR PSX” text before he decided to put it in his DVD player that ONLY he had. I wish I had a DVD player at the time. But he inserted it in and it took about fifteen seconds until it said “DISC UNRECOGNIZED”. He took it out and went to his Windows ’98 Computer. He went on Google and typed in the search bar “PSX”. To my surprise, it meant PlayStation.
But I didn’t have a PlayStation, I had a Nintendo 64. And to be honest, I didn’t have any games for the console, it was just sort of there for no reason. I asked my dad if it was possible to trade in my Nintendo 64 for a PlayStation. But he wasn’t sure because he didn’t know if the disc that we received was a game or not. So he went back to Google and typed in the search bar “SuperSponge”. What appeared made me smile since I never actually watched the show.
But SuperSponge was a game inspired by the television show “SpongeBob SquarePants”. SuperSponge was a 2D platformer released about a year ago on the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. I asked my dad one more time if we could trade in my Nintendo 64 for a PlayStation. He sighed and told me that he’ll see what he can do. The rest of the day was just of Joseph and I playing things outside and watching some of the DVD’s that my dad had on his shelf.
The next morning, I invited Joseph over so we can play outside again. He came over and asked if my dad had gotten the PlayStation yet. I told him that he hasn’t yet, and then I realized that my dad wasn’t even home. I assumed that he was at work so we both went in the front yard and made up a game called “Fastball”. It’s a game where you take a squishy ball and chuck it at each other as hard as you can. The first person to fail at catching loses.
Joseph was always way better at the game than I was since he played baseball himself. About thirty minutes passed and my dad arrived home. We looked at him and just brushed it off our shoulders like it was every other normal day. I glanced at him one more time, he had a mad look on his face as if he was just in a fight with my mom like they always were. But I wasn’t really able to see my mom because she passed away when I was eight. Even Joseph’s mom has passed away too but he jokes around his mom all the time which I sometimes get mad at him for.
But my dad had a angry-upset look. He was carrying a bag that looked like a purse. He walked up to me and handed me the bag, it was the PlayStation that I asked for. He told me that it was a really hard thing to get from the store since everyone was in line trying to either get a PlayStation 2, a Xbox, or a Gamecube. But since my dad was the only one wanting an original PlayStation. He had to wait in a longer line since it was barely being purchased.
Joseph and I left the ball in the yard and rushed to my room, we plugged in all the cords into the right areas and turned on my TV. He asked if he could play too and not be that kind off friend whose like “You can’t play, but you can watch!” I looked at him a smiled. I told him that of course he would be able to play. I asked him “Friends play games together, right?” He smiled at me and said “Yeah, I guess.” We sat down and turned it on.
But I will admit, the start up screen sort of startled me. It showed the menu where you can go to the Memory Cards and things like that. My dad had bought me a 1 MB Memory Card and a game called ‘Final Fantasy IX’. We put in the SuperSponge game we received and hoped to god that it would work. The PlayStation logo appeared on screen as if the game was successfully read.
The game started with a legal screen, then a loading screen, then some small clips of which companies helped with the game. And a really cheesy intro with what I assumed was clips from the show introducing the characters. The main menu appeared and the same music from the intro played. The bottom of the screen said “PRESS START”, so I did. We went to the file selection screen and started the game. A cutscene played telling the plot of game.
And after that, we were looking at a map of some sort and delightful music was playing. We both started bobbing our heads to it and Joseph said “THIS IS MY JAM!” We both started laughing and then I pressed the X button on the first level. The level was called “Jelly Fields”. We both started joking around about the level being filled with Jell-O.
I started moving SpongeBob to the right and we both saw Squidward standing in front of his house. Joseph kept on telling me to talk to him, so I did. But when I walked up to him, the music dimmed down and a text box appeared on the top of the screen reading “Hi Squidward!!! Ready for another g e t d y t g t e , f i n ?” We both looked at each other with a weird face, we then both started joking around about the game not only being English, but also being Chinese. And when I pressed “X” to continue on, Squidward said his normal line.
But when I grabbed the Jellyfishing Net, SpongeBob said… He didn’t say anything, the text box was empty and the music went silent. Now we were really weirded out. But when we continued, SpongeBob wasn’t able to jump. I spammed the jump button like 100 times but he wouldn’t budge. So when I came across the first creature, I wasn’t able to jump over it.
I HAD to use the Jellyfishing Net. I catched a Jellyfish and threw it at the crab. The Jellyfish went straight through it and exploded. I ran up to the crab and didn’t care about anything much anymore, but when I touched the crab. The loudest noise ever made my heart pump out of my chest. It sounded like the noise of a race car screeching to a stop.
We both were extremely freaked out. I continued from the beginning of the level since I died. But to my surprise, I was able to jump! So when I encountered the crab again, I jumped right over it. But then there was another thing to kill, it was a slug. I wasn’t able to jump again. So I took another Jellyfish and threw it at it.
The Jellyfish went straight through the slug and yet again, it exploded. But this is when I got really creeped out. The slug stood in place and out of no where, started heading my direction in full speed. I ran the direction to where Squidward was but then I realized, I didn’t kill the crab in the beginning, I just jumped over it. So I died from running into the crab again.
But when I respawned, I couldn’t do anything. SpongeBob just stood there starring constantly ahead of him with happy music playing in the background. We both looked at each other, I could tell in Joseph’s face that he was creeped out, but when we looked back at the TV. SpongeBob was starring directly at us! I put down the controller and told Joseph to play. He called me a baby and grabbed the controller.
He started pressing random b*****s on the controller but SpongeBob just kept on looking at us. He put down the controller and we both headed to my dad. But when we were leaving my room, I swear to god that on the corner of my eye, I saw SpongeBob blink. I ran down the stairs as if I were part of my schools track team. We told my dad about what happened but he wouldn’t believe us.
So he followed us to my room to see what we meant by “SpongeBob knows where we are!” When we opened the door, we didn’t even bother looking inside. My dad walked in and I could hear him walking towards my TV. I decided to peak in my room to see what he was doing, it seemed to be that SpongeBob was now starring at my DAD. I watched in disbelief as my dad crouched down and waved his finger in front of my TV with SpongeBob looking everywhere his finger went. It’s like he knew where we were, it’s like he could see us through the TV!
My dad brushed it off as nothing scary. In fact, he was impressed because he thought the game had some sort of sensor or motion to trigger SpongeBob to look at you. But right as my dad was about to leave the room, we both saw something that even scarred the both of us! The background besides SpongeBob turned pure black, the music stopped, and the most terrifying part was that SpongeBob ran towards the screen with his giant smile.
He waved his arm in the air as he was trying to friendly greet me. So I awkwardly put my arm in the air and waved it aswell. And then SpongeBob looked up in the air as if there was something he wanted me to see. So I walked up to the controller and held the “Up” button.
The camera slowly moved up into the air until there was a sign that was really pixelated appeared which read “MISSING”. The box was red and the text was white. I let go of the “Up” button and the camera panned down in the speed of light to nothing but pitch black. But I could see something that looked like… A person… I could see a dim outline of a person.
I told Joseph to put his face up close to the TV and tell me if he could see the person aswell. He squinted at the screen and then out of no where, SpongeBob appeared back on screen. Making Joseph almost crap his pants. He crawled back to the my bed and didn’t even bother looking back. But this time, SpongeBob had a sad face. He looked up in the air with the sad face. So I pressed up hoping that it’s not the “MISSING” sign again. But it wasn’t, instead it was a text box reading “Do you know where Gary is?” I was extremely confused since I didn’t even know who Gary was.
But on the bottom of the text box, there were two options I could choose, “Yes, I do.” and “No, I don’t.” I choose the second option and SpongeBob had the smile on his face again. He looked down and looked back at me. And one final time, he looked up. I pressed “Up” one more time and it was another text box and it read in all capitals “LOOK BEHIND YOU!” Joseph and I slowly looked behind ourselves. And what I witnessed will never come out of my mind ever!
What I saw was my bedroom mirror. My mirror wasn’t scary alone but what I saw in it was. What I thought I saw was SpongeBob crawling out of my TV screen with a giant grin on his face and really huge pupils. I looked at the back but SpongeBob wasn’t crawling out the TV. Joseph shoved me towards my PlayStation and yelled at me to turn it off. I ran to the console and pressed on the off button as hard as I could. The TV screen went back and we both sighed in belief that it was over.
I unplugged the PlayStation from the wall and walked back to Joseph. I asked him what he saw in the mirror but he was to freaked out to tell me. We both decided to that we played enough video games for the day. We both decided that we should watch some of my dad’s movies again so we can stop being worried. But Joseph was so scarred, he called his dad to tell him that he was staying the night with me. And so he did.
While sleeping, I couldn’t stop starring at my TV. I was afraid that SpongeBob would crawl out without me looking at him. And on the left of me, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked in that direction scarred. But thank goodness it was just Joseph asking me if he could get a drink. But shortly after that, I imagined the part with SpongeBob waving his arm at me over and over again.
Joseph arrived back in my room with his sleeping bag and slept on the floor. But this is where I never wanted to think about that game ever again because when I looked at my bedroom window, I thought I saw a black-squarish figure standing there. It wasn’t moving though, it was just standing there. I slowly moved towards Joseph and tapped on his shoulder. He reacted the same way as when he tapped on my shoulder. I whispered to him “Is it just me, or is there something standing over there?” With my finger pointing at the direction to where my window and closet was.
He thought I was messing with him and told me to go to bed. And so I went to bed. I woke up at 7 A.M. But no one was home. Joseph’s things were gone so I assumed my dad gave him a ride home or he walked home. And my dad was probably at work or the store.
I grabbed some cereal and went in my room and wanted to try that Final Fantasy game my dad bought me. But when I came back, I literally dropped me cereal when I saw that SuperSponge_0502 and the case was missing from my PlayStation, my PlayStation was plugged in and my TV was unplugged. I grabbed my dad’s phone and a towel so I can clean the mess. I dialed in Joseph’s number as fast as I could and asked him what happened to the game. He denied about taking the game and til’ this very day, he still refuses about taking it.
And now to present day, Joseph and I are currently 27 since this was written on November 3-5 in 2017. I currently own two copies of the original SuperSponge and Joseph and I are still friends. Sadly, my dad had passed away in August of 2014. And not to recently, I asked Joseph about what he saw in the mirror when the text box told us to look back. He told me that he saw SpongeBob standing there, but he thought he heard his dead mother calling his name over and over. And to add things to the story. I took a screenshot of SpongeBob from SuperSponge and photoshopped it to look like the one I saw while looking in the mirror. And til’ this day, the game was never found by either one of us, which leads to one thing… Will you find it?