"The Fall of the House of Usher" ; By Edgar Allan Poe

The story begins with the narrator riding on horseback to the ancestral home of his childhood friend, Roderick Usher. After arriving and making his way through several long passages in the home, the narrator finds Roderick, paler and less energetic than he once was. Usher's sister Madeline, who also lives there, has become very ill with a strange disease that doctors cannot seem to reverse. The narrator spends several days attempting to lift Roderick's spirits, reading him stories and listening to the man play songs on his guitar.

Soon, the narrator discovers how appropriate the foreboding feeling he noticed when he arrived at the house of Usher was. Madeline dies, and Roderick decides to bury her temporarily in a tomb below the house. A few nights later, Roderick comes to the narrator's room, hysterical and in fear he might have buried his sister alive. Suddenly, wind blows open the door to the room, revealing a bloody Madeline who attacks Roderick as the last bit of life drains from her. Roderick dies of fear, the narrator flees in terror, and the house crumbles to the ground just after he escapes it.