A man sentenced to death is put in a dungeon to meet the destiny set to him by his torturers.
Doomed. Tic toc, tic toc.

As a helpless spectator of the horrifying sight, the tumult of feelings kept unreeling before my eyes.
“all sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, night were the universe.”

Torn between Fear and Hope (though the latter only seemed to emphasize the dreadfulness of the situation) the agony is palpable.
“After this I call to mind flatness and dampness; and then all is madness—the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things.”

“In the deepest slumber—no! In delirium—no! In a swoon—no! In death—no! even in the grave all is not lost.”

Poe masterfully keeps his reader on the edge of his seat, holding his breath, anxiously waiting for the main character's fate. This piercing short story took hold of my senses. I was hooked from he very beginning. I am POEsitively sure that any suspense enthusiast will love it!