Hello, my dark darlings. I'm Marquia, and this is the Something Scary podcast. To our veteran listeners and those just voyaging into the dark with us for the first time, welcome.

Anything that is worthwhile in life typically requires lots of hard work and sacrifice. And when you are compelled to achieve,

be it perfecting a skill or protecting your family, you must be disciplined to achieve your goals.

But when it becomes an obsession, you're driven by a bloodlust to succeed and nothing had better stand

in your way. First, bloodthirst plagues of family, followed by practice makes perfect, or it

will kill you. Then friends that literally drive you insane. Finally in our featured story,

a yearly sacrifice hits home. I receive hundreds of creepy story submissions every single week,

and of those, the scariest ones make it into our podcast, along with

the story that we've chosen to animate and post over at YouTube.com slash snarled. If you have a tale you're dying

to share, send me an email at something scary at snarl.com. If you'd like to support something

scary, then consider joining our Patreon. As a patron, not only can you help the show and see ad-free episodes,

but you can also be a part of the horror and hear your name featured in one of our

podcast or weekly video stories, visit patreon.com slash snarled.

So, want to hear something scary?

Bloodlust.

There are families that feel like the true meaning of family is loyalty, selflessness, and love.

But not every family abides by those standards, like in this story inspired by Ash.

Carmen would always sit in the very back of our history class.

She never talked much and spent most of class time drawing in her journal.

One day, we were paired up as partners for a project.

She was always quiet, but there was something

about her that just felt off. When I would work on our project, she would draw in her

...