Hello, my dark darlings. I'm Marquia, and this is the Something Scary podcast. To our veteran listeners and those sheltering into the dark with us for the first time, welcome. It's easy to get fixated on one thing. One rule, one tail, one person's point of view, but when we focus on only one thing,

we lose sight of the bigger picture. And that can blind us to the dangers around us if we

don't look too closely. First, a game of hide and seek goes too far. Then we'll discover the true

intentions of a mysterious stranger, followed by a confession of a dark family secret.

And finally, in our featured story, the consequences when you misbehave. I receive hundreds of creepy story submissions every

single week, and of those, the scariest ones, make it into our podcasts, 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 podcasts or weekly video stories.

Visit patreon.com slash snarled.

So, want to hear something scary?

Don't look too closely.

They say rules are meant to be broken.

However, if you don't consider the consequences, something worse than the rule could break you.

Like in this story, written by Anonymous.

Crystal and her dad moved in with his new girlfriend Marcy, and right away, Crystal knew something was

off. Sometimes Marcy was very sweet, and other times she was cold and even mean to the girl.

When Marcy was mean, she would never look Crystal in the eyes and would always have a crooked

grin on her face. When Marcy was

nice, there was no grin and plenty of eye contact. Marcy's constant mood swings gave Crystal a

...