"The Iscariot 8"

Illustration by Lukasz Godlewski

### Narrator(s)

Nikolle Doolin, Jesse Cornett, Nichole Goodnight, David Cummings, Dan Zappulla, Graham Rowat, Mike DelGaudio, and Addison Peacock

### Next

"We Didn't Have Words Back Then"

**"The Iscariot 8"** is the only tale in the fourth bonus episode of the twefth season of The Nolseep Podcast. In it, an old woman battles a demon. Written by Olivia White, it has a runtime of 1:15:00 and was performed by Nikolle Doolin, Jesse Cornett, Nichole Goodnight, David Cummings, Graham Rowat, and Addison Peacock. It is the 1549th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A religious old woman, Marla, works as the janitor at her local church, which she holds dear to heart. To her displeasure, the church's leader, Reverend Jameson, agrees to let a film crew shoot a horror film inside the building in exchange for a share of the profits. Due to this, she is unable to clean the church for two weeks.

Returning after the crew has left, she talks to Rev. Jameson and the resident Sunday school teacher, Lana, about her displeasure with his decision. He states it was good for the church before him and Lana leave together. Before beginning her shift, she talks to and prays for her long-dead husband, Bill.

While in the middle of the cleaning, she begins hearing menacing whispers. A demon suddenly speaks to her, taunting her about her love of God, before revealing himself to be the Iscariot 8, a personification of the sins of Judas. Marla assumes the voice she hears is a result of her old age and dementia, something the demon keeps telling her is not true. Terrified, she flees the church.

Back at home, Marla prays to Bill for advice of what to do. Shortly after, she is visited by Rev. Jameson and Lana, who offer to take her to the premier screening of the film. She declines and they depart, discussing her appearant senility.

Marla returns to the church, convinced the previous night was just an episode, and is about to begin cleaning again when Iscariot 8's voice comes again. He taunts her with details of Bill's gruesome death and the rumors that he was a cheater and didn't like her at all. With nothing else to do, Marla insists everything she's hearing is part of her dementia and runs away again.

A few days later, at the supermarket, she runs into Lana. They have a normal conversation for a few moments before Lana suddenly begins talking about the film's perfection and insisting the church belongs to Iscariot 8 now. Terrified, Marla slaps her before realizing the whole second half of the conversation was in her head. The supermarket's owner, Davin, calms Lana down and helps Marla to her car with her groceries.

Back at her home, Marla considers suicide before deciding against it. She is soon visited by Rev. Jameson, who asks for a cup of tea. While preparing the teapot, she realizes that her visitor is actually Iscariot 8 in disguise. The demon throws off his form and taunts her again, saying he has already taken over the church and will now take over her home. She manages to fight him off before deciding she must end Iscariot 8's hauntings of her.

Returning to the church, she gets the demon to reveal the film had nothing to do with his appearance, but rather her absence. Her devotion to God is so pure that she kept all evil away from the building, and her not being there allowed him to come inside. Seeing her complete devotion in full while she recites prayer, Iscariot 8 appears to vanish.

The doors open and Bill suddenly walks in, wrapping his arms around Marla and telling her how proud of her he is. She sobs that she's waited so long to see him before he suddenly begins squeezing her hard enough to crack her ribs. Iscariot 8, taking Bill's form, tells her he need a physical body to be able to harm her and that she was stupid to fall for the trick.

Marla taunts the demon for falling for *her* trick before splashing him in his eyes with industrial-strength bleach. Snatching up a silver crucifix, she bludgeons Bill's body with it before it vanishes and Iscariot 8 is banished back to hell. Finally at peace, she collapses to the floor and dies.

Rev. Jameson and Lana find Marla's body the next morning and are tearful over her death. In her will, she leaves all her money to the church. Rev. Jameson gives her a top-class funeral, at which he reveals that the film was picked up by a major movie distribution company and that it will be dedicated to Marla.

## Cast

Nikolle Doolin as Marla

Jesse Cornett as Iscariot 8

Nichole Goodnight as Lana

David Cummings as Rev. Jameson

Dan Zappulla as Davin

Graham Rowat as Bill

Mike DelGaudio and Addison Peacock as congregation members