Redemption - Something Wicked This Way Comes

Текст:

I. Arrivals

October's a rare month for boys
When life is simple, pure and sweet.
And the foolish youth can overlook
The wolf outside the door.

Come hear a tale of Halloween
And one October not long past,
Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway
Would never be quite so young anymore.

Fury, the seller of lightning rods,
Foretells the coming storm.
The light's on in the library
Beneath the blackening sky.

Charles Halloway sits deep inside
Surrounded by his books.
A serious, lonely and sad old man
Whose youth has passed him by.

A sinister black train
Pulls through the countryside.
Stops just outside of town,
Dark's carnivals arrived.

Jim and Will, the librarians son,
Take to the streets at night.
The smell of cotton candy seems
To linger on the wind.

A carnival flyer flutters
Through the cool October air,
Promising all hopes and dreams
To those who dare to venture in.

And Jim and Will conspire
To ride the carousel.
Could set their souls afire,
Could send them straight to Hell.

II. Torments

Far away but much too close for comfort
Carnival's calliope is playing.
Halloway sits in the darkened library,
Thinking dark thoughts.

Son at home he doesn't really know,
Fifty-four years seems so very old.
Throws the carnival's ad in the fire,
The flames grow higher.

Long after midnight, children awake,
Journeys await them, chances to take.
Run through the streets to the carnival
Grounds, hoping to ride the merry-go-round.

3 A.M. is midnight for the soul,
Never is a man so close to death.
The hour of temptation is at hand,
Souls are damned.

What's the purpose of a life of virtue?
What you don't know certainly can hurt you.
Every step he made he second-guessed
Life of regret.

Ride's out of order, no one's around,
Hardly a whisper, hardly a sound.
Thinking that they're alone but they're not,
Gloved hands encircle, now they are caught.

III: The Carnival

Late that night the boys returned,
Watched the carousel spin around.
Turning old man into young,
Bringing darkness to town.

Carousel turns and turns,
Years can scorch and time can burn.
Dark's accomplice, age reversed,
Now becomes a boy accursed.

Jim and Will stumble in
To this whirling world of sin.
Forward spins the carousel,
Cooger ages, dies and goes to Hell.

Mister Dark knows at once
That the boys have seen too much.
As they call for the police
He and the witch wait for their
Plan to be unleashed.

Boys return with the law,
Try to tell them what they saw.
The witch throws her voice and the old,
Dead man seems to come to life again.

The ruse has worked, no one believes
The tales of what the boys have seen.
The witch locks eyes, they fear her most,
She wishes them a "short, sad life for both!"

IV: Pursuits

Late that night the witch
Takes to the sky above the town,
Searching for the boys who know
The secret of the carousel.

A black parade of circus freaks
Led by Mister Dark, scours every
Street for the boys to drag
Them down to Hell.

The boys have seen too much and now
Their death will be their silence,
The freaks have caskets fashioned
For the little boys who hide.

And Mister Dark halts the
Procession, seeing the librarian.
He asks him who the boys are,
Filled with rage as the old man lies.

V: The Autumn People

Late that night inside the town's old library,
Circled by arcane and evil books
Scouring them for any hint of knowledge.
Charles, Jim and Will!

A father's son who doesn't know his dad,
Suddenly he wishes that he had as
He sees that this old lonely man
Could be the only hope they have.

The Carnival has been here many times,
Its history is found between the lines.
Comes by every forty years or so
Since more than two hundred years ago.

They feast upon the sins and fears of men,
Promise you just what you want and then.
When they're through they'll steal your
Very soul, entomb you in their sideshow.

And as the church bell rings
They hear the opening door,
The boys hide for their lives
As Mister Dark arrives.

VI: Temptations

Temptation tearing at his soul
To take a second chance, to right
The wrongs to live again.

No more regrets,
No more living as a man
To old to know his son.

Resistance, he turns the offer down
Not willing to exchange his soul
For what he wants the most.

Mister Dark crushes Charles' hand
And tells the witch to give the man
A taste of precious death.

Hear your breathing,
Old man...
Feel your hurt.
Old man...
See you're bleeding,
Old man...
Stop your heart.

VII: Confrontations

Halloway, ten lifetimes closer to death,
Somehow finding the courage to laugh.
Laughter searing the witch's face,
Laughter burning her wicked soul.

Standing, knowing he's beaten her back.
Smiling, knowing the time is now.
Striding purposefully into the street,
Knowing that he can save them somehow.

Mister Dark leads the boys into the streets,
Will to be made into a toy for freaks.
Nightshade to be his partner for life
After the carnival's over tonight.

Carnival, one last attraction to see!
Shoot the witch, gypsy who cannot die!
Mister Dark gazes out over the crowd for
Avolunteer, someone to give it a try.

Halloway calls out from deep in the crowd,
Mister Dark cannot believe his eyes.
Halloway's good hand picks up the gun
To steady it he calls for the help of his son.

VIII: Departures

Far away, trapped in the mirror maze,
The whole town calls his name.
And Will awakes the spell the dust
Witch placed upon his head.

Halloway, father and son standing as one
As Mister Dark gives them the bullet and
Charles carves into a crescent moon.

Mister Dark stares at the bullet,
He doesn't yet understand the
Meaning of what Charles has done,
So he let's the game proceed.

But the moon he carved isn't a moon at all,
It's his smile the bullet carries and this
Totem finds it's way to the witch's heart.

The gun cracks
And the Witch knows
This and now is dead!

Chaos spreads, and Charles and Will
Run to the maze to rescue Jim.
Charles walks in, confronted by
Reflections of a million ancient men.

Staring back and making him older,
Alifetime full of regrets.
A man who never knew his son,
A man whose deeds were never done.

Halloway rises from the
Hall of shattered mirrors,
He picks up his son and runs with
Him across the carnival grounds.

Nightshade, still upon the carousel,
Charles and Will help him down.
Another boy appears saying:
"Mister Dark's gone and the
Four of us must give chase."

Halloway looks at the strange young boy,
He sees him for what he is.
Mister Dark made younger again by the
Power of the carousel.

Charles picks the boy up,
Holds him close and feels his hatred.
And with grave determination lets his
Heart fill with love for his life and his son.

And returns the boy's hate with this
Love and it courses through Dark's
Young body, and he withers and dies.

As the carnival tents
Disappears, the three of them
Spring laughing back to town.
Two boys and one middle-aged man
No longer quite so old as he thought.

Far away but much too
Close for comfort,
Far away but much too
Close for comfort.