"Blue Ridge"

Illustration by Lukasz Godlewski

### Narrator(s)

Jessica McEvoy, Jeff Clement, Jesse Cornett, Rock Manor, Alexis Bristowe, and David Cummings

### Next

"Strange Things"

**"Blue Ridge"** is the only tale in the fifth bonus episode of the fifth season of the Nolseep Podcast. In it, friends are terrorized while staying in a mountain cabin. Written by C.K. Walker, it has a runtime of 1:07:20 and was performed by Jessica McEvoy, Jeff Clement, Jesse Cornett, Rock Manor, Alexis Bristowe, and David Cummings. It is the 561st tale overall on the podcast.

It is set in the same universe as Walker's earlier story "Paradise Pine", which was featured in S4E04.

## Summary

Six friends (Ingrid, her boyfriend Lloyd, Ingrid's childhood friend Ash, Ash's girlfriend Melanie, and their friends Ben and Moss) decide to rent a large cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains to celebrate Ash's return from a tour in the army. Ben, Lloyd, and Ash used to be in a band before Ash left for Afghanistan.

It's the first time the group has been together in over a year, so the first night goes wonderfully. However, Ash starts getting paranoid about seeing someone walking on the treeline. Despite the other's insistences, he isn't able to relax fully. Moss writes his concerns off as not being fully recovered from his tour.

The next day, everyone goes for a walk in the woods. Lloyd and Ben argue about not keeping the band together. Ash gets paranoid that someone is following them, which scares Melanie. After the walk, Ben and Lloyd continue to argue, causing the latter to shut himself in his room for the rest of the evening. Melanie becomes frightened and refuses to sleep in the top floor bedroom, as she apparently heard someone walking around on the roof the previous night.

In the morning, Ash draws Ingrid a picture of the creature he thinks is stalking them. It resembles a stick figure. Paranoid and frightened, he calls the group together and announces that he is going to hike to the nearest cabin to get help. He also reveals that that the friends' phones are missing and their cars don't work. When they check, they discover he is right. Despite protests, he takes his gun with him and disappears into the woods, telling them he'll be back in five hours.

Melanie enters a cationic state. The rest of the day passes with tense worry. A storm starts up, darkening the cabin and sending rain down in sheets. Near the end of the day, Ingrid notices a grave has been dug in the clearing. As her, Ben, Moss, and Lloyd argue over if Ash is pranking them, Melanie comes out and goes deeper into her catatonia at the sight. Ingrid thinks she sees someone standing in the branches of the trees.

The four decide to take shifts for the rest of the night so they can keep their eyes out for Ash. After Moss changes positions with Lloyd, he fails to awaken Ingrid or Ben and disappears. When the three wake up in the morning, they find a second grave has been placed next to the first one.

Lloyd and Ben try to get the cars to start that afternoon while Ingrid and Melanie watch from the balcony above. After an hour or two, Ingrid hears someone walking on the roof and tells Melanie to watch as she investigates. Going to the top floor, she finds the stickman from Ash's drawing, tall and thin as a piece of paper, with no hands, feet, or face.

Ingrid runs down to tell the others, but is horrified to find Lloyd missing. She goes into the cabin and sees Ben returning from the basement, having gone down there to check the furnace. Hours pass and another grave appears when they're not looking. Melanie runs outside and digs up Ash's grave, only to find it empty. She also digs up Lloyd's, but finds a skeleton inside. After looking up on the roof and seeing something, she flees into the woods.

The night passes. Ben and Ingrid argue over if Ash is behind the whole thing. As they fight, Ingrid notices something off about the room but is unable to place it. Growls come from outside and they see the stickmen standing in the clearing. They hide in the basement and come to the conclusion that Ash was killed minutes after leaving. The two manage to sneak out, but Ben is caught by a stickman that was hiding in the cabin the whole time, which is what was off about the room.

Ingrid flees into the yard, where she sees Ash's corpse on the roof, picked clean to the bone except for his hands, feet, and head. She finds Melanie hanging from a tree in the woods and sees the stickmen stalking the yard. Though they could easily catch her, they let her run away.

Ingrid reveals that no one believes her story of what really happened in the cabin. The cars work on the first try and the missing phones are found easily inside.

## Cast

Jessica McEvoy as Ingrid

Jeff Clement as Lloyd

Jesse Cornett as Ash

Rock Manor as Moss

Alexis Bristowe as Melanie

David Cummings as Ben