(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.

Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Night has fallen, and the moon is a glowing golden orb in the black sky.

See how it shines on the dark back roads of America, and on one road in particular.

Come with us, and we'll take a walk down the moonlit road, for the night is waiting.

And the moon is full.

The Moonlit Road presents, episode 25, The Bellwitch Cave.

Written by Craig Dominy and Babs Bagrianski, and told by Babs Bagrianski.

Music Liz was 16 years old and stuck in the middle of Nowheresville, USA, Adams, Tennessee.

While her parents thought she'd be happy spending the weekend with her country cousins while they were gallivanting about New York City was beyond human reason.

Peaceful, they said.

Beautiful scenery, they said.

Bucolic wonder, her mother had ventured.

More like bubonic, Liz thought, with the terminal disease of drop dead dull.

Her country cousin Jimmy was no help.

He seemed to think dodging cow chips was an athletic event.

Nashville was home.

Nashville was where things were happening.

All her friends were off to Halloween parties and spooky movie marathons.

Child's play, her father had said.

Halloween was meant for the young ones to trick or treat and get dressed up.

Older, mature folks had more serious business.

Yeah, she thought.

Like seeing the Rockettes and dancing all night.

Oh well.

At least she had her portable tape player that had dead batteries.

And it was too late to go to the store.

That meant hanging out with country cousin Jimmy, which was better than talking to the plants.

But not by much.

So Jimmy, whatever do you do around here besides milk cows and bring in the crops?

I don't know.

Fishing, ball games, I like to read and watch a little TV.

Oh, come on.

There must be something to do around here.

What is the coolest thing about Adams, Tennessee?

Jimmy thought about that a bit.

And finally he said, well, we got the Bell Witch Cave.

Liz thought, now that's worth talking about.

Why is it called the Bell Witch Cave, Jimmy?

He seemed right reluctant to talk about it.

Cause they say it's haunted by a ghostly witch.

Liz rolled her eyes.

Getting Jimmy to talk to her about this was like pulling eye teeth.

Whoa, don't stop there.

Come on.

What's the story?

You ever been there?

Did you ever see any ghosts?

Well, only been there once with some friends.

It was kind of icky, muddy and full of spiders and all.

Well, tell me about it, Jimmy.

Come on.

Will you get with the program?

Jeez.

So Jimmy, he sat down and this is the story he told.

A long time ago, there used to be this old farm out there.

That's where the Bell family used to live back in the 1800s.

They were pretty successful farmers.

Had a nice house, slave quarters and all.

And they went to church every Sunday and everybody in town liked them.

One day, they started getting haunted by this weird spirit.

It started out looking like an old buzzard sitting out on a fence.

And then it turned into this dog-like creature.

Then they saw this mysterious old woman walking around in the orchard.

And one day, she just vanished into thin air.

But then she came back as a ghost.

At night, they could hear her flying around their house making these horrible sounds.

She'd keep them up all night, knocking on doors and windows, making sounds like wings flapping against the roof and animals fighting and scratching.

And then she started getting physical, pulling the blankets off their beds and punching them and pinching them and pulling their hair.

One day, she started talking to them.

She'd make fun of them.

She'd argue with them about the Bible and sing these nasty drinking songs.

They'd ask her over and over again why she was bothering them.

She told them lots of things, like she was the ghost of an Indian whose grave had been disturbed or a dead settler who'd come back looking for buried treasure.

But most folks believed she was a witch conjured up by this crazy old woman named Kate Batts.

Kate Batts lived next door to the Bills, and she hated the Father John Bill because he'd ripped her off in a slave deal one time.

In fact, the witch said several times that she was going to kill John Bill one day.

Soon after that, John Bill got real sick and was taken to bed.

The next morning, they found him in that bed, dead.

The witch started laughing, said she'd poisoned him.

Sure enough, I did it.

I told y'all I would.

When they looked in the medicine cabinet, they saw that his medicine had been switched with a vial of poison.

The witch laughed and carried on all during John Bill's funeral.

Then she told everybody she was leaving but would come back one day.

No one heard from her again for a long time.

But some folks in town believe that the Bell witch has come back.

They say if you make fun of her or tell folks you don't believe in her, that bad things will happen to you.

And some say you can hear her laughing in that cave on the old Bell property, just waiting to put a fright into anybody who dares to go in there.

When Jimmy finished telling the story, he was sure that his cousin Liz would be scared to death.

To his surprise, she was more excited than ever, eyes bulging.

She said, let's go!

Boy, are you crazy, Jimmy said.

Come on, it'll be fun.

No, I'm not going there.

It's muddy and full of spires.

It's not safe.

And besides, it's dark and I'm not supposed to go out after dark without permission.

And it's on private property.

Oh, come on, said Liz.

It's too far.

Come on, we'll just sneak the car out.

What?

Are you chicken?

You are!

Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, the country boy's a chicken, the country boy's a scaredy cat.

Nyah, nyah, nyah.

Well, that did it.

Jimmy wasn't about to be called chicken by no girl, especially his holier-than-thou city -fied cousin.

When his parents fell asleep, Jimmy got the flashlight, and Liz taught Jimmy how to sneak out a car in the middle of the night.

They pushed it out of the drive and then down the road a bit and started that engine away from the house.

When they got near the cave, he pulled over, turned off the engine, and killed the headlights, and then very quietly opened and shut the car door.

As they crept past the landowner's darkened house, they hid themselves in shadows away from the bright moonlight.

They slowly made their way across the overgrown field until they finally saw it, a gaping black hole yawning out of the side of a steep, rocky bluff.

They climbed up the slope, and Jimmy held back a bit, but Liz barreled inside more excited than ever.

Jimmy sighed, entering more slowly with the flashlight.

They squeezed their way down that tight, winding tunnel.

They saw eerie rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites, and darkness.

Water was dripping everywhere, and they made squishy sounds as their feet moved through the muddy floor bottom.

They heard rocks plopping and sucking sounds, but no witches laughing or moaning.

Liz kept on going forward, and Jimmy had to follow until they reached a tiny crack between two massive fallen boulders.

Liz squeezed through, but Jimmy couldn't fit.

She mockingly called out, Here we are, you old bellwitch!

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Guess she's out painting the town, Jimmy.

Jimmy was really getting tired this cocky cousin of his.

He had risked his neck sneaking out going on private property and all just to prove he wasn't scared for some stupid reason.

And now he really was scared.

He handed Liz the flashlight and said, You can stay if you want.

I'll wait outside.

Liz laughed after him and she just continued into that cave where she saw more strange rock formations in beautiful colors and shapes.

She wandered down the tunnel in a trance, losing track of direction and time, always wondering what was beyond that next turn.

Then the passage ended with a very small crawl space, but she just couldn't turn back now.

So she wriggled in a little more and a little more until, oh, she was stuck.

As she tried to wiggle herself free, rocks and gravel fell around her, wedging her in even tighter.

She called out for Jimmy.

Sure, he was somewhere nearby, but he didn't answer.

Stupid boy.

Then of all the darn things, the flashlight went out.

Darkness.

Be calm.

Just be calm and try to move real slow like she said to herself.

But she was really scared now.

Then she started hearing eerie sounds moving toward her.

There was scratching noises and what sounded like someone gasping for air.

Then a scraping sound like feet dragging on the cave floor.

Jimmy, I'm stuck.

Pull me out of here.

Come on.

There was no answer.

Jimmy, come on.

Quit playing games.

Fun is over.

There was still no answer.

Jimmy, I said, get me out of here.

All she could hear were the eerie sounds getting louder and louder as they got closer and closer until they were almost on top of her.

Liz whispered.

She felt two massive, cold, scaly, non-human hands grab her legs.

They yanked her out of that passage like a cork out of a bottle and dragged her deep into the bowels of the cave.

Everywhere was dark.

Then the hands let her go.

Liz lifted her head.

And Cousin Jimmy was wiping mud from her face, waking her.

Jimmy, it was you.

I knew it.

You really had me.

I was sure there was a ghost that had that was a good one, Jimmy.

You're not so bad after all.

Jimmy just stared at her in disbelief.

I didn't pull you out of there.

Then they heard the cackling laughter of the Bell Witch as she floated back into the deepness of the cave.

It took them one split second before they began to run and terror as fast as their legs could back to that car, driving out of there like lightning.

They never looked back.

And though that old Bell Witch may return to the cave now and then, Liz and Jimmy never will.

And that's the story of the Bell Witch Cave.

That concludes this tale from The Moonlit Road.

Be sure to visit our website at themoonlitroad .com to find out more about our stories and let us know how we're doing.

The Moonlit Road is produced and directed by Craig Dominey, recorded and soundscaped by Henry Howard in beautiful Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.