Hello, my dark darlings. I'm Marquia, and this is the Something Scary podcast. To our veteran listeners and those sheltering in the dark with us for the first time, welcome. Our earthly possessions are just that. Physical things of the earth that we can't take with us to the next life. What truly matters are our world

experiences and what kind of people we are when we interact with others. But often, we do place too much

value on the things we own, and they can turn into terrible totems and end up owning us.

First, heed the messenger or reap the wrath,

followed by a disturbing secret revealed at the cost of death.

Then a spirit is released and seeks revenge.

Finally, in our featured story,

Beware the obsession of the collector.

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. So, want to hear something scary?

Terrible Totems.

Our fascination with the grim, ghastly, and ghostly gives us such a thrill. But if you don't respect those who are at the center of the entertainment,

there will be grave consequences, like in this story inspired by Jessica. Thank you to one of our patrons, Dimitri,

whose name has been used as a character in this story. Deep in the south, Decatur, Georgia,

has the famous Haunted Highway 23. It is one of the oldest highways in Georgia, originally developed to make

it easier to travel from North Decatur to Claremont Road. However, when they were first paving

...