Scary Stories to Chill Your Bones

Ring Around the Rosie

The symptoms of the Black Death included high fever, vomiting, heart racing, and chills. Nelli sighed. She was alone in the local library late one Saturday night, researching the Black Death for a project in school. She had learned that it was a plague that struck during the 14th century and killed over a third of England's population. Nelli honestly didn't care about the plague, but she had to write a report for social studies about it, so this was research she had to do.

After about an hour of complete boredom, Nelli decided to pack up and head for home. As she was just about to leave, all of her books carefully packed up in her backpack, she heard a high-pitched cough behind her.

I'm the only person here, Nelli told herself, trying to trick herself into bravery, though doing poorly. Don't be stupid; there's no one else here. You imagined that cough.

"Are you sure about that?" said a dreamy voice from behind Nelli.

Nelli's heart lept into her throat, beating so loudly she was quite confident that someone miles away would be able to hear it: thump, thump, thump. She casually turned around, and dropped her backpack, her mouth hanging wide open. The backpack landed with a soft thud on the floor. But her backpack was the least of her worries.

In front of Nelli stood a girl who she took to be about 6 years old. That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that the girl, dressed in a faded, bland blue dress, was transparent. True, Nellie could tell that the figure she was staring down at was a little girl, but she could she through the girl's skin. Another thing that made the girl creepy was that she didn't have any organs. Staring through the skin of this young girl, Nelli could see only space.

Nelli tried not to scream as the girl took one step closer to her. The girl looked up at her with eyes that had been with the girl's dead body for exactly 666 years. "You have no idea how lucky you are to live in a year like this: 2014," said the girl in the same dreamy voice as she had used earlier. It  sounded too sweet to Nelli. "I died on this day, November 28th, in 1348. That means that I have been dead for 666 years. 666 is the devil's number. The devil caused my death, and will cause you death too. Centuries, I have waited for this day, and now it's finally here. Because now you will suffer the same fate as I, being killed by a horrible plague: The Black Death."

Nelli felt a horrible chill run down her spine. She knew this was the end. The Black Death killed people within a week of them catching the plague, and it would probably kill her tonight. The sound of the girl's voice snapped her to attention, except this time it was singing.

The song the girl was singing was a song that many little kids sang merrily, oblivious to the fact that the song was actually about the Black Death.

The girl's voice was soft and sweet, though the meaning of the song was horrible. The song would have been bearable if she had sung it quickly, but she stretched out each word agonizingly.

"Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies. Ashes, ashes. We all fall down."

And that was the moment that Nelli suddenly felt dizzy, like she was sick. She looked down at her arm, and saw that a wave of black was crawling up her arm. Also, a horrible smell filled the air: the smell of rotting flesh.

The last thing Nelli did was throw up, and then the ghost of the Black Death stole her life away from her body, and never gave it back.

(A/N) Obviously this story isn't true, but the information I had about the Black Death is true. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it! :)