‘The Masque of the Red Death’, originally published as ‘The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy’ (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose ‘costume’ proves to have nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn.