My Horror Stories

Round and Round We Go

(Y/F/N = your friends name
Y/O/F/N= your other friends name)

When I was a kid my friends and I would go and play games in the park, but our favorite game was "Ring Around the Rosie." We were still in 4th Grade at the time. Yeah, I know, a little old to be playing old kids games. But anyway, we would always play at recess and sing the song over and over again, although we never really knew what the actual song was mentioning. There was about four of us playing this game. But little did we know, things would take a drastic turn for the worst.

It was about late fall/ early winter and my friends and I were in the basement singing the song. It was about 5:00 p.m. and we decided to look up what the story was behind the old children's song. Oh boy, were we shocked as we read what the website said: ***"****** "Ring Around the Rosy," a common childhood song and dance, is really about one of the deadliest epidemics in all of history — the Bubonic Plague. It claimed millions of victims.

The opening words, "Ring around the rosy," represent the skin lesion associated with the disease that appears as a bright red, or rosy, ulcerated spot surrounded by a ring.The next line, "Pocket full of posies," has superstitious origins. Physicians used to carry scented herbs and flowers – usually posies – in front of their noses in an attempt to ward off the plague. Traditional 17th century London physicians wore long robes and a long beaked mask with posies stuffed inside.
The final verse, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down," symbolizes death by the plague."***

We just looked at each other and decided to not sing the song anymore. Big mistake... about two weeks later, one of my friends got the type of skin lesions that were bright red; it looked like a ring. She just shoved it off as Ring Worm but I had a feeling that it wasn't. I got texts from her one night and I could tell she was freaking out cause no matter what they put on it, they wouldn't go away. She would type in all caps yelling at me and saying that it was my fault that she sang that stupid song. I felt horrible about it but around 10:00 p.m. she stopped her angry typing. I found it odd so i tried to call her..no answer.. I tried again...no answer.. now I was worried she had not called back or texted me and I knew for a fact that she always kept her phone on her. So I called their house phone and her mom answered. She sounded like she had been crying so I asked, "What's wrong?" and she replied, "(Y/F/N) is dead. She was just laying on her floor, not moving at all, and (he/she) doesn't have a pulse..." I instantly dropped the phone, which made it hang up. I couldn't believe it.

The next day I shared the news with my other two friends. They just looked at me shocked and cried. They couldn't believe it and neither could I. Even as the day went on, we couldn't focus. All that was on our minds was, "What's going to happen next? Who is going to be next?" Once the last bell rang, I got my stuff and went home. It felt as if I was in a limbo of fear and worry. Then, as soon as I walked through the door, my phone buzzed. It was (Y/F/N). I look to see a picture of their back covered in what looked like blisters. I ask them, "What are those (yeah yeah but seriously tho)?" They couldn't even tell me. I told them not to worry about it. Everyday the blisters got worse and worse. They even tried putting herbs in them to try and stop them from getting worse. But it didn't help, (he/she) texted me in the same manner as (Y/O/F/N). But this time it went on until 10:30 p.m, then nothing but silence. And the same feeling of guilt washed over me. About an hour later, (his/her) mom texted you from their phone saying that they were gone. Died of blood loss because the blisters opened and began to bleed when he/she tried to stop them from opening. I just put my phone down and cried. "Why...why must this happen to me?" I kept asking myself that as I laid in my bed, crying into my pillow. And yet again I had to break the news to my now only friend.

We just couldn't take it anymore. We didn't understand why this was happening, or even why it had to be us. We never did anything wrong, all we did was sing that stupid song. Once I realized what was going on, I went to (Y/F/N) to tell him/her what I thought was actually going on. I told him/her,  "I think I understand whats going on now." He/she replied, "And what would that be?" "Think of the song for a second, and what the lyrics mean." Their eyes opened wide. "Oh my glob, it makes perfect sense. But that just means that only two parts left of the song need to be completed." I nodded in agreement but I was scared. Which one of us was going to be next? To be honest, we didn't want to find out.

-kind of a time skip-

It was now Friday, and nothing had happened to us yet. This just made us even more worried and anxious to find out who was going to be next.  But little did we know, that very night one of us was going to be next. I just sat in my room, waiting and waiting, but nothing happened. No text messages, no phone calls, no anything, just silence. I sat there in silence just looking out my window, but from time to time I would glance at my clock to check the time. And it was currently midnight. I sighed and glanced back out my window to see the sky a tint orange, gray, and yellow. This worried me because (Y/F/N)'s house was in that direction. I tried to call them, but no answer came, thinking they were asleep. I then went down to the living room and turned on the news... and lo and behold, it was (Y/F/N)'s house that was on fire. As I stood there in shock, horror, and sorrow, I fell to my knees and cried. All of my friends were gone and it was all my fault. I cried and cried and ended up crying myself to sleep in the living room. And even in my dreams everything would repeat over and over again. And they would yell "I died and it was all your fault!!"  But once they would stop yelling, they sang "Ring Around the Rosie" over and over again. Every time they would repeat the song I would be plunged into the deepest and darkest part of my mind, losing all sense of reality and feeling. It was as if I had become a empty shell. And even then, I knew that I would become the final part of the song.