The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries, . . . falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. . . . The [window] panes here were scarlet---a deep blood color. . . . In the . . . black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme. (Poe "Masque" 874-875).
The protagonist in the story "Tell-Tale Heart" also has an intimate relationship with evil and its consequences. He is also obsessed with evil. He does not know why he started thinking about killing the old man, but it is clear that he saw in the filmy eye of the old man some reflection of the evil within himself:
I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture---a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees---very gradually---I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of t
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