"The Trees Are Not What They Seem"

Illustration by Mark Pelham

### Narrator(s)

Mick Wingert, David Cummings, Peter Lewis, Mike DelGaudio, Atticus Jackson, Elie Hirschman, Matthew Bradford, Kyle Akers, Dan Zappulla, David Ault, Jesse Cornett, Jeff Clement, Nichole Goodnight, Erin Lillis, and Alexis Bristowe

### Season Pass Only

No (unavailable to free listeners during original airing, later included as part of Waiting for 12)

### Previous

"The Five Deaths of Margaret Ann Campbell"

### Next

"I Felt the Baby Kick"

**"The Trees Are Not What They Seem"** is the third tale in ninth episode of the eleventh season of The Nosleep Podcast. Written by Jared Roberts, it has a runtime of 1:27:30 and was read by Mick Wingert, David Cummings, Peter Lewis, Mike DelGaudio, Atticus Jackson, Elie Hirschman, Matthew Bradford, Kyle Akers, Dan Zappulla, David Ault, Jesse Cornett, Jeff Clement, Nichole Goodnight, Erin Lillis, and Alexis Bristowe. It is the 1335th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A logger, Greaves, is woken up by his neighbor in the next cabin, Weevil. Together, they go out to find the rest of the camp crowded around a dead tree. A formation in the bark and rotting wood resembles the face of the foreman, Calhoun. While a few of them are freaked out, most of the others find it more amusing rather than scary. A logger named Mikelson agrees to chop it down while the others head back to the mess hall.

At the hall, Greaves and the coworkers he is friendliest with, the camp's doctor (called Doc) and Grits, discuss Mikelson. He is a talented sculptor that makes wooden replicas of all of his coworker's hands. They are suddenly interrupted by a scream from the woods. The group returns to the tree with Weevil and the rest of the loggers: Mahone, Taylor, Alex, and Vibber. Mikelson is there, unharmed, claiming the tree screamed when he cut it in half. The face is now a woody pulp and is exerting a thick red substance. Greaves, Grits, Doc, and Mahone stay behind while the rest head back to camp. Doc realizes the red substance isn't blood, but sap that was warped by fungus. They hear screams coming from the camp and run back.

Mikelson has cut off his hands in the mess hall. Realizing he needs medical attention, Doc tells Taylor to take the camp's only truck and drive the long way back to civilization with Mikelson to get him medical attention. Taylor packs Mikelson's hands in a cooler and heads off, leaving the rest of the loggers stranded.

By late afternoon the next day, the men still haven't returned. The remaining loggers speculate whether Taylor crashed the truck, refused to go back to the camp, or is in some other way incapacitated. Calhoun orders Grits and Greaves to follow the truck's tire tracks. They do so for about two miles into the woods before they abruptly stop in the middle of the road. They search the woods around the area but find nothing. On the return trip, they stumble upon the cooler on the side of the road, which they swear wasn't there on their way out. Opening it, they find wooden replicas of Mikelson's hands instead of his real ones. They tell no one.

That night, Greaves is awoken by Weevil, who claims he heard something on his roof. Going out to check, he saw a clone of Greaves stomping on his roof. The next morning, Greaves decides to leave once and for all. Stopping at the mess hall to gather supplies, he finds the group already there, surrounding Alex in a circle. He has apparently gone insane, calling himself evil and claiming he made Mikelson cut off his hands with his mind. Doc and Greaves check Alex's cabin, only to find nothing except for a cryptic poem half-burnt in the fireplace.

Back at the mess hall, Alex tries to attack Calhoun with an axe, but Mahone and Vibber tie him up and gag him. Just then, Mikelson's voice comes over the radio, begging for help. Drawing straws, Weevil is left behind to watch Alex as Greaves, Calhoun, Grits, Vibber, and Mahone head into the woods to search for Mikelson.

The group spreads out. Greaves stumbles across a hatch on the forest floor, but he can't get it to open. Eventually, they all converge on a clearing, where they find a mutilated body with a pearl in it's mouth. Checking the clothing tags, they identify it as Alex. Hurrying back to the camp, they find the chair in the mess hall empty and Weevil dying of convulsions on the floor. Before he expires, a pearl expels itself from his mouth.

The group spends a sleepless night before agreeing to leave in the morning. Everyone shows up except for Vibber. While waiting for him to arrive, they spot a man with glasses standing near the edge of the camp. When Grits calls out, he runs away, leaving a photograph behind. Picking it up, they discover it is of a young woman wearing a pearl necklace.

Grits explains to Greaves the mysterious nature of the owners of the camp. They only contact Calhoun by mail. While checking the forwarding address out one day, he discovered it lead to an abandoned warehouse the locals claim is cursed.

Tired of waiting for Vibber, Greaves checks Mikelson's cabin. It is strew with wooden replicas of hands, along with strange messages carved into the floor. Returning to the group, they find Vibber's mutilated body in his cabin, murdered sometime during the night. A pearl has been placed in his mouth. The sight drives Greaves insane and he punches Calhoun before blacking out.

He wakes up in Mikelson's cabin with the bespectacled man. Blood is leaking from his nose and he tells him "It's too late." Fleeing the cabin, Greaves finds himself alone; the camp is completely deserted. Heading into Calhoun's office to call for help with the radio, he finds the door handle covered in blood and the room in disarray.

He stumbles across a newspaper clipping from sixteen years previously, detailing the disappearance of a young woman, Turner, from the woods where the logging camp is located. Turner is identical to the woman in the photograph the man with glasses left behind; she is even wearing the same pearl necklace.

The radio suddenly buzzes to life, with a message from a man named Chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum spouts off some strange phrases about Greaves "not existing the last time [he] checked" and claiming something called 'the Deterioration' is concentrated at the camp. Before he can say anymore, the radio cuts off.

There is a knock at the door and Greaves answers it, revealing Taylor. Taylor claims he just got back and asks Greaves to follow him into the woods to get back to the truck. Arriving in a clearing, they come across a large, misshapen oak tree. Taylor claims the truck is in there. Looking down, Greaves realizes his coworker's feet have been replaced with wooden replicas.

Greaves escapes into the woods before stumbling across a stump with a screaming face on it. The face is identical to Turner's. Nearby, he finds the hatch he saw earlier. It opens easily and he climbs down, uncovering a secret bunker.

He is suddenly struck with the memory of a shed in the backyard of an old lady in his childhood hometown that him and his friends were afraid of. Eventually, one of the friends, Marty, ventures inside but doesn't come out. An investigation is launched and the old lady is cleared, but Greaves saw her smiling evilly.

Back in the present, he stumbles upon a control room. A cylinder with a light in it stands in the center of the room, spinning. He is struck with another memory of speaking with Chrysanthemum on the roof of Weevil's cabin, talking about something called 'the spotlight' an how it defeats 'the Deterioration'. The voices of Grits and Weevil come from behind the closed door, imploring him to leave. He is struck with two more memories: Mikelson giving him instructions on how to turn off the spotlight, and walking past the shack from his memories with his girlfriend of the time, Diedre.

Greaves manages to turn off the spotlight, which causes it to fold in on itself until it disappears. A bright light erupts suddenly and he finds himself lying on the ground where the valve used to be. It is now missing. Stumbling back to camp, he gathers a few meager supplies and heads out by the main road.

A park ranger finds him the next day and he babbles about his time at the camp. She informs him that the camp has been closed down for over twenty years and no one works there. He implores to numerous people in authority that the camp existed and that he worked there, but nobody believes him.

He searches on the internet for any of his coworkers; the only one he is able to locate is Mahone. Going to his house, Mahone informs him he has never worked at a logging camp and has no idea who Greaves is.

He gets the address of the owner of the camp, an old lady. Traveling there, he finds a shed in the backyard identical to the one his friend Marty disappeared from. The same old lady from his memories comes out and asks if he wants to go inside. He remembers Chrysanthemum's words and declines. While walking back to his car, she calls out that she remembers him.

Greaves now spends his time unsure of what happened. He wonders if there is some sort of presence in the woods that can rewrite reality and how many of his memories are real and how many of them are fabrications. He spends his days searching for records of his time at the camp, Marty's disappearance, or anything else that could tell him any of it was real. He hasn't found anything yet, but is hopeful.

## Cast

Mick Wingert as Greaves

David Cummings as Grits

Peter Lewis as Doc

Mike DelGaudio as Calhoun

Atticus Jackson as Taylor

Elie Hirschman as Weevil

Matthew Bradford as Mahone

Kyle Akers as Alex

Dan Zappulla as Mikelson

David Ault as Chrysanthemum

Jesse Cornett as Vibber

Jeff Clement as the man with glasses

Nichole Goodnight as Deidre

Erin Lillis as the old lady

Alexis Bristowe as the park ranger