"Bad Apples"

### Narrator(s)

Addison Peacock, Elie Hirschman, Jesse Cornett, Nikolle Doolin, Erin Lillis, Sarah Ruth Thomas, and Mary Murphy

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"Santanic Rituals of the Greater Butler County Area"

### Next

"Plan X Part 2"

**"Bad Apples"** is the fifth tale on the sixteenth episode of the thirteenth season of The Nosleep Podcast. In it, a girl befriends a strange young boy. Written by L.P. Hernandez, it has a runtime of 1:03:30 and was performed by Addison Peacock, Elie Hirschman, Jesse Cornett, Nikolle Doolin, Erin Lillis, Sarah Ruth Thomas, and Mary Murphy. It is the 1634th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A girl, Sadie, notices that a new family has moved in next door to her house. The couple, Grace and Dan, come over to introduce themselves to Sadie's parents. While hanging out in her treehouse, she notices a boy standing in the backyard. He introduces himself as Bruce and says he just moved in next door with his parents. Sadie and Bruce get to know each other.

Bruce is a sickly child who can't go outside for long periods of time and has several severe dietary restrictions. In order to make socializing easier, Sadie gives him a walkie-talkie that they can use to communicate from their bedrooms. Bruce reveals that he has so many medical problems because he was clinically dead for a few minutes following a number of years he spent with an illness. A month goes by and two become friends. However, Bruce sometimes leaves his walkie-talkie on and Sadie can hear him talking to his parents about strange things, like the fact that he his always hungry and his dietary needs.

When Halloween comes around, Sadie and Bruce decide they want to go trick-or-treating and ask their parents if they can go. Sadie's mom agrees enthusiastically, but Grace is apprehensive. After getting Bruce to promise that he won't eat any of the candy his given, she also agrees.

The pair spend the night trick-or-treating, going to the houses of the two women who give out the most candy in the neighborhood, Mrs. Chapman and Mrs. Dubois. Unable to resist the temptation, Bruce eats a candy apple Mrs. Dubois gave him, only to get sick and vomit it up, along with a large amount of blood-filled bile. Sadie is disturbed but Bruce insists they keep trick-or-treating. After returning to their houses, she avoids him for a month.

One night a few weeks later, Sadie spies Dan returning to the house carrying a crying infant. He takes it inside and shuts the door behind him. She tries to hang out with Bruce some more, but can't put the strange occurrences behind her. He tries to ask her why they aren't as good friends as they used to be, but she doesn't answer.

Bruce reveals he's going away to the city for the weekend for a doctor's appointment and asks if they can be friends again when he returns. Sadie sees Grace placing their house key inside a potted plant near the front door. After the family leaves, she sneaks over and retrieves the key before heading inside.

Inside the house, Sadie finds that all pictures of Bruce before a few years ago show him in a hospital or being escorted by a nurse. In the basement, she finds a metal table and number of carving implements. When she checks the freezer, she finds a number of infant's corpses, frozen and partially dismembered.

Just then, Sadie hears Dan returning upstairs. In her haste to leave, she accidentally knocks over a tray of knives. She hides behind some metal shelves as Dan heads down into the basement, on the phone with Grace. They discuss new infants to find and feed to Bruce to keep him healthy. She sneaks past him and starts up the stairs, but he sees her and chases her out of the house.

Sadie runs back to her own house and calls the police, who arrive later. They enter the house next door, but apparently find nothing and leave. As the cops pull out, Dan looks at Sadie through the window. She hides in her room, but hears Dan's voice over the walkie-talkie, claiming that he'll do anything for his son.

The next day, a moving van appears in front of the house next door and Dan, Grace, and Bruce move away. A few months later, Sadie finds the walkie-talkie she gave to Bruce in her tree house, along with a note from him claiming at he didn't ask to live this way.

## Cast

Addison Peacock as Sadie

Elie Hirschman as Bruce

Jesse Cornett as Dan

Nikolle Doolin as Sadie's mother

Erin Lillis as Grace

Sarah Ruth Thomas as Mrs. Chapman

Mary Murphy as Mrs. Dubois

## Trivia

* Sadie and Bruce later cameo in Hernadez's story from S14E06, "The Rat King".