In 1842, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a disturbing short story called “The Masque of the Red Death.” The story follows a character named Prince Prospero during a time in which a strain of plague is causing people throughout the land to bleed to death. Confident that he can outwit and escape “death,” Prospero seals himself and a large number of his friends inside of his abbey away from the outside world. He then decides to conduct a lavish masquerade ball. At the stroke of midnight, a strange guest appears, dressed as a victim of the Red Death. No one recognizes the guest, but one-by-one as people encounter the masked stranger, they fall over to their death. Stunned and angry, Prospero seeks out the masked intruder, but upon reaching out to him, he too drops dead on the spot. No matter how wealthy…