Season's greetings, 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. We use the holidays as an excuse to relax from the everyday stresses. Cheerful music, good food, and bright lights can distract us

from the supernatural horrors that are happening in our very own neighborhoods.

Enjoy, but know that you won't be able to hide from the terrors for long.

First, no good deed goes unpunished, followed by a gift of death. Then a night that will

haunt you forever. Finally, in our featured story, a Christmas killer hunts its prey. I receive

hundreds of creepy stories submissions every single week, and of those, the scariest

ones, make it into our podcast, along with a 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. And if you'd like to support all the work we do at something

scary, join our Patreon. You get ad-free episodes every week, and we also use our patrons' names as characters and our stories.

So, want to hear something scary?

Bloody festivities

Sometimes, if you get a gut feeling about something, you can't. Bloody festivities.

Sometimes, if you get a gut feeling about something, you should trust it, since looks can be deceiving.

Like in this story inspired by Gia.

Zerif loved spooky stories.

Although he had a bookshelf full of them, there was one book in particular he just couldn't

put down.

It was about a little girl who lived in a haunted house.

At first glance, the ghost played silly tricks, a misplaced shoe or letter, but soon it was more serious. Medicines disappeared. Toys left on the

stairs for people to trip over and fires lit with no one around to put them out. Finally, in the story,

she faced the spirit end. That was it. The rest of his favorite book was filled with empty pages.

...