"Mr. Empty-Belly"

Illustration by Audrey McEvoy

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**"Mr. Empty-Belly"** is the fourth tale in the ninth episode of the fourteenth season of the Nosleep Podcast. In it, a man stumbles across a strange board game from his childhood. Written by Alexander Gordon Smith, it has a runtime of 1:13:35 and was performed by Jeff Clement, Sammy Raynor, Nichole Goodnight, Erin Lillis, and Jesse Cornett. It is the 1753rd tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A man, George, heads back to his mother Mary's house to clean it out after her death. Mary became a hoarder in her later years, and as such there is a large amount of junk inside. George rarely visited his mother and has suppressed most of his childhood memories. While going through his old room, he sees the space where his desk used to be and recalls a friend he had when he was ten years old, Andy. Him and Andy would ride bikes and play together almost every afternoon. After a few more minutes of searching, all his memories suddenly come rushing back.

The memories begin with George and Andy playing a board game one afternoon. It is titled "Mr. Empty-Belly" and features a grotesque drawing of an obese naked man on the box. It advertises players to "Feed him before [they] get [themselves] sick". Inside is a gameboard with the same picture on the box printed, except there are holes in various spots over the body, such as the man's hands, head, stomach, eyes, and genitals. George has no memory of where the game came from.

Since there are no rules, the boys try putting various objects inside the holes, only for the board to buzz and a laugher sound effect to play. Andy has a bad habit of biting his nails, so when the two get bored and decide to go out and play, he leaves some clippings on the bed.

That night, George puts some of the clippings into one of the hand-holes and there is no buzzing. He falls asleep and has a terrible nightmare of a naked man crouched under his desk. When Mary comes in to comfort him, he realizes he is extremely hungry. Even after she makes him several sandwiches, his hunger cannot be brought down.

The next day at school, George convinces an unenthusiastic Andy to come over so he can show him how he got the game to work. He creeps his friend out by demanding more of his nails. However, the buzzer goes off when he drops the clippings into the other hand-hole. Andy gets bored and attempts to leave, but George corners him and snips off a lock of his hair to put in the hole on the head. After he does so, an overpowering feeling of satisfaction and calm overtakes him. When he comes to again, hours have passed and Andy is gone.

George once again has a nightmare about a naked man under his desk and finds his insatiable hunger is back. Andy avoids him at school the next day, uncomfortable with the previous day's events. He follows him to the street as Andy rides his bike, pleading with him to come play the game again. In a fog from the hunger, he pushes him off the bike, causing him to crash and loose his two front teeth. George scoops them up and runs back home, leaving a bloody, crying Andy in the road.

He puts the teeth in the mouth hole on the game and has another hours-long fog of pleasure. When he comes to again, Mary comes in and informs him that Andy and his mother, Annie, have arrived. Andy accuses George of pushing him off his bike and taking his teeth. Annie angrily demands them back. George denies this. Andy runs up to his room and shakes the gameboard, trying to make the teeth come out, but nothing happens. Annie sternly warns George to never go near her son again and the two depart.

A few days pass. George once again has bottomless hunger, deeper than ever before. Half-crazed and desperate to make the feeling go away, he stows the game in his backpack and steals a knife from the kitchen. That afternoon, he follows a terrified Andy on his way home from school. In the yard of a deserted house, he slits his throat and begins cutting off pieces to put in the empty holes on the board, getting blood everywhere. With each successive piece, his hunger goes down and the feeling of satisfaction goes up. He eventually falls into a trance, collapsing onto the grass. As he passes out, he feels a licking sensation where he got blood on himself and thinks he sees someone hunched over Andy.

When he comes to hours later, Andy's body is gone and there is no trace of blood. George throws the knife away and rides back to his house, where Mary is waiting. Andy's disappearance has been noticed and the cops have been notified. Over the course of the next few weeks, the investigation fails to turn up anything. A police officer interviews George and is even slightly suspicious, but in the end believes his alibi. Annie and her husband live in the neighborhood for the next few months, convinced that George had something to do with their son's disappearance but are unable to prove it. They eventually move away.

Back in the present, George is horrified as his repressed memories of what he did to his friend flood his mind. He stumbles into the garage and finds the game under his old desk. Opening it, he is horrified to discover that Andy is somehow still alive inside the board, a rectangular, compressed lump of flesh with yellowing eyes. He begs to be killed. Driven insane by the revelation, George slams the lid and collapses to the garage floor in tears of regret and horror.

## Cast

Jeff Clement as George

Sammy Raynor as Andy

Nichole Goodnight as Mary

Erin Lillis as Annie

Jesse Cornett as the police officer