The NoSleep Podcast – Season 24, Episode 7: “Wicked Water: Transformations & Offerings”

Release Date: March 15, 2026
Host: David Cummings

Overview

Season 24’s watery horror voyage continues in this haunting anthology episode—three original tales themed around the shifting of forms, fates, and boundaries. Through tales of vengeance via ancient cacao magic, a soul’s debt on cursed mountains, and a brutal rite of parental abandonment, listeners are drawn into otherworldly reflections on transformation, justice, and the primal hunger of the supernatural. The episode’s rich atmospheric soundscape and immersive narration amplify each story’s journey into unsettling dark waters.

Episode Highlights and Main Discussion Points

1. Opening Theme & Introduction

(00:08–04:02)

• Host David Cummings sets the tone: water as a theme—its allure, its terror, and its connection to transformation and the unknown.
• Announcement of “Crime Wave at Sea 2.0” cruise ties into the season’s nautical horror theme.
• He previewed tonight's stories: tales of personal and metaphysical transformations, of people and their worlds shifting in terrifying ways:

“On this episode we feature tales about people who transition to new places or transform into new beings...these new states of being are sure to lead to general madness and mayhem. Just the way you like it.” (David Cummings, 01:19)

2. Story One: “After the Fall” by Fia Callahan

(04:03–23:27)
Cast: Ashe Millman, Jake Benson

Summary & Key Moments:

• Premise:
  A woman, tormented by her little sister Millie's unsolved murder, performs a magical cacao ritual to enter the afterlife and demand answers from William Mahoney, the convicted (and now-dead) killer.

• Atmospheric Ritual:
  The slow, detailed preparation of cacao is both literal and symbolic—a ritual imbued with ancient magic and personal rage:

  “Chocolate is old magic...It is darkness and passion and blood. Hope that you will never need it.” (Claudette, remembered by Narrator, 07:38)

• Crossing Over:
  Ritual cuts and cacao transport her into a sepia-toned afterworld full of lurking shadows and lost souls. She seeks Mahoney, driven by the unfinished grief of not being able to lay Millie to rest.

• Confrontation with the Killer:
  She finds Mahoney, who doesn’t realize he’s dead and is unrepentant.

  • He taunts her, sensing her rage:

    “Your anger. That’s where it begins...It’s only a matter of time.” (William Mahoney, 16:34)

  • She bargains for answers; he withholds, trying to strike a deal.

  • Shadows gather—the hints of a coming supernatural retribution.

• Climax:
  She threatens to leave Mahoney to the coming darkness unless he confesses Millie’s resting place. He finally reveals the location:

  “There’s an outdoor cellar behind the swimming pool...That’s where you’ll find her.” (Mahoney, 22:11)

• Catharsis & Punishment:
  She marks Mahoney with her bloody hand, refusing the temptation to become like him, and lets the shadows consume him. Her vengeance is both justice and a renunciation of further monstrosity:

  “I am not like him. Goodbye, William.” (Narrator, 23:04)

Notable Quotes:

• “Cacao magic is warrior magic, and the place I am going will have no patience for weakness.” (Narrator, 09:06)
• “All I need to do is find him, speak to him. Just one moment. For that I will brave anything this shadowland can throw at me.” (09:48)
• “You ever kill anyone before?” (Mahoney, 16:02)
• “You took until his land starved.” (Cielo, 37:54 – see story two context)

3. Story Two: “Fallow” by Pamela Jeffs

(26:48–42:55)
Cast: Ilana Charnell, Penny Scott Andrews

Summary & Key Moments:

• Premise:
  A woman bone collector makes her living scavenging and selling bones from a cursed mountain. One night, she encounters a mysterious woman, Cielo, who challenges the morality and consequences of her trade.

• Haunting Landscape:
  Bones, both literal and metaphoric, are currency and power; the land itself is both resource and casualty.

  “Bones are bones and bones are money, and I am nothing if not a woman who covets gold.” (Bone Collector, 26:49)

• Supernatural Encounter:
  Cielo—revealed as the sky spirit and sister to the mountain’s spirit—confronts the bone collector’s desecration:

  “You took and took the bones from these mountains. You took until his land starved. And then when the mountain spirit, my brother, had nothing left to give and he died, you...boiled them in your pot.” (Cielo, 37:54)

• Judgment and Punishment:
  Cielo paralyzes the bone collector, carries her to the summit, and enacts a magical/elemental vengeance: the collector’s body is fused with molten gold and ground into dust, a sacrifice intended to restore the mountain’s vitality.

• Resonant Closing:
  Cielo scatters the gold-and-bone dust from the mountaintop, praying for renewal:

  “Please let it be that bones are not only bones, but that they hold to deeper magic. Let the Bone Collector’s sacrifice return life to these lands.” (Cielo, 42:41)

Notable Quotes:

• “So you swap bones for gold?... The mountain’s own bedrock... is gold. You sell bones for bones.” (Cielo, 33:27)
• “Now you will give back what you took.” (Cielo, 37:59)

4. Story Three: “The Devourer of Unwanted Things” by Juan Cardenas

(45:40–69:20)
Cast: Sarah Thomas, Kristen Di Mercurio, Atticus Jackson

Summary & Key Moments:

• Premise:
  A young woman is driven deep into the mountains by her bitter, neglectful mother, only to realize she is being abandoned as a sacrificial offering to a supernatural entity in exchange for “good luck.”

• Realistic Despair:
  The story’s first half is grounded in everyday anguish: maternal cruelty, neglect, and the dread of being unwanted.

  “She was volatile, insulting, and often just cruel at home, complaining of how much she missed out on by raising me...” (46:15)

• Modern Fairytale Twist:
  The mother explicitly references Hansel and Gretel as she leaves her daughter with only a breadman to eat—a perverse echo of the folktale.

• Lost and Hunted:
  Abandonment morphs into terror as she realizes the forest is impossible to escape; a predatory, grotesque “devourer” monster stalks its sacrificial victims. Another castoff, an adult man, attempts to use her as bait to save himself.

• Grim Supernatural Sequence:
  The monstrous entity—part centipede, part infant’s head, bristling with jagged teeth—devours the treacherous man in vivid, disturbing detail.

  “It looked like a porcelain baby doll’s head, only jet black, with shiny yellow and white eyes...a mouth that opened wide, impossibly wide, displaying row upon row of seemingly rotten, jagged yellow teeth the size of kitchen knives.” (58:54)

• Narrow Escape & Full-Circle Justice:
  The protagonist finds shelter, survives, and is eventually rescued. Years later, she repeats the traumatic cycle, luring her thieving boyfriend to the forest as an offering.

  “I handed him the tightly wrapped breadman, giving him a quick hug...I proclaimed to the forest that he was my offering and sauntered back to my car.” (68:40)

Notable Quotes:

• “You’re an unwanted thing. I don’t know why...But I sure as hell know I’m getting out...Whoever brought you here lied to you and gave you a little bread guy and basically made you into an offering. A sacrifice in exchange for good luck.” (Man in the Forest, 57:58)
• “I guess it was for the best that the creature had gone away. No chance of me being able to shove that thing into an oven.” (Narrator, 65:35)
• “I felt a pang of guilt, but I had a bright future to worry about.” (Narrator, 68:56)

Memorable Moments & Quotes with Timestamps

| Timestamp | Speaker / Character | Quote / Description | |-----------|----------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:19 | David Cummings | “Tales about people who transition...new states of being lead to madness and mayhem.” | | 07:38 | Claudette (via Narrator) | “Chocolate is old magic...darkness and passion and blood. Hope that you will never need it.” | | 13:11 | William Mahoney | “Our past catches up with us all in the end, doesn’t it?” | | 16:34 | William Mahoney | “Your anger. That’s where it begins...It's only a matter of time.” | | 22:11 | William Mahoney | “There’s an outdoor cellar behind the swimming pool...That’s where you’ll find her.” | | 26:49 | Bone Collector | “Bones are bones and bones are money, and I am nothing if not a woman who covets gold.” | | 33:27 | Cielo | “The mountain’s own bedrock...is gold. You sell bones for bones.” | | 37:59 | Cielo | “Now you will give back what you took.” | | 42:41 | Cielo | "Please let it be that bones are not only bones, but that they hold to deeper magic..." | | 46:15 | Narrator (Juan Cardenas) | “She was volatile, insulting, and often just cruel at home, complaining of how much she missed out on by raising me...” | | 57:58 | Man in the Forest | "You’re an unwanted thing...Whoever brought you here lied to you and gave you a little bread guy and basically made you into an offering." | | 58:54 | Narrator | "It looked like a porcelain baby doll’s head, only jet black...row upon row of...teeth the size of kitchen knives." | | 68:56 | Narrator | “I felt a pang of guilt, but I had a bright future to worry about.” |

Structure and Tone

• The episode blends lush, evocative narration and immersive voice acting.
• Each story builds a unique folklore: the rituals around cacao, the legends of mountain spirits, and fairy tales reimagined as parental betrayal and monstrous appetite.
• The tone veers between melancholy, rage, and just a sliver of triumphant self-determination, with horror emerging from both the supernatural and the human condition.
• David Cummings’s framing and outro keep listeners anchored in the “wicked water” motif, using water as a metaphor for change, darkness, and secrets.

Final Thoughts

Season 24, Episode 7 is a masterclass in atmospheric horror. It uses the motif of “transformation”—physical, psychic, societal, and spiritual—to probe the boundaries of justice, retribution, grief, and otherness, all while delivering the podcast’s signature chills. The episode stands out for its rich world-building, gut-wrenching performances, and memorable imagery.

Listeners are left with unsettling questions about what it means to survive, to forgive, or to become the thing you fear most.

End of Summary