identify the tone of this excerpt from the masque of the red death:
“The red death headlong devastated the country. No pestilence never been so fatal, or hideous. Blood was it avatar need to seal the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, where the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour”.

a. dark and foreboding
b. uncertain and anxious
c. overjoyed and passionate
d. thoughtful and reflective