1. Desperation Part I

Peter and Mary, drive cross-country
Entering Desperation, Nevada
Red lights flash and their destines changed
As the patrol car pulls behind them

Collie Etrangian, arm of the law
Stops them and searches the back of their car
There in the trunk, some drugs in a bag
And they find themselves arrested

Pulled them over, to the side of the road
With a body that's bloated and bursting; too old
"We'll get this sorted out in Desperation

Tak!

Hated is burning, under his skin
And an evil power that eats from within
He bleeds from his eyes as he drives them by
The biggest mine in North America

Technology working anew in the depths
The soul of the mine now disturbed from its rest
Answers will be found in Desperation

There's a little dead girl, lying on the steps of the jail
And Collie guns down Peter as he stares into her eyes
The Carver family hears the shot from the cell
And wonders why their daughter had to die

Ralph and Ellie Carter, and their son, David, too
Staring from within the cell like animals in a zoo
Something brought them here to Desperation

With them is Tom, the only one from the town
His alcoholic's spirit is beaten and worn down
And Mary joins this group in Desperation.

2. Desperation Part II

Years of writing books
Long behind him now
A nihilistic confidence and a smile upon his face
Johnny Marinville and his Harley through the desert
One last ride to make him feel young again

He came back from Vietnam
Only one to escape the bomb
That tore apart the bar in which he drank with hi friends.
Living with the question
Of why he was the sole survivor
Fighting the dreams that plague him
And wondering when they'll end

This cynic smiles and feels the wind
As he speeds by the policeman on the road
He stopped and beaten, thrown in the cell
With the others the bleeding cop has found

Collie takes the one
The boy's mom Ellie
And drags her screaming away

Young David Prays to the God he found
When his friend, run-down, lie dying in his arms
And with his faith, the boys escapes
And frees the desert's other captives

The stumble across
David's dead sister
And they bury her with tears in their eyes

Only boy, only a man
Drawn together in God's plan
In the desert, purposes emerge
All are here to love and serve

All across this desert town
They see the butchered bodies of the dead
What could have caused this hell on earth?
Just what evil made this madness happen?

As even as they hide
Tak returns
Possessing now a different body

3. Desperation Part III

Hiding in the theater, listening to Tom
Telling whitewashed lies about the China Pit
Whatever has happened, started when they opened it
And brought out the carvings from the deepest part

David leaves the others and falls asleep while praying
A vision of sister then appears to him
Sent by God to show him, the truth of what transpired
And what the few survivors have to do

The Chinese came, and were made slaves
Deep in the mine they broke through, to the
Pirin Moh, the home of Tak
The Heart of the Unformed

The red eye of Ini, where its evil lies
Smoke from it drove the men mad
And they murdered each other, except for two brothers
Who caused the cave-in as they escaped?

Blamed for the cave in, and hung by the town
But Tak is one of them and swears his revenge
A hundred years later, the mine is reopened
And the madness begins again

Bodies wear out, but the souls must survive
Evil and good are eternal
The path of the truth is much crueler than lies
But it sacrifices us in the end

Mary hears a voice, and goes to seek it out
She thinks that she hears Ellen Carver somewhere near
But Ellen's rotting body is the vessel now for Tak
Who captures her and takes her back to the mine
David explains the truth to the others
Tak from the well of souls, another dimension
Took Collie's body, the evil awakened
And now the must destroy this affront to God

Bodies wear out, but the souls must survive
Evil and good are eternal
The path of the truth is much crueler than lies
But it sacrifices us in the end

Johnny now recalls, what really happened in Nam
Tak was in the Vietcong that planned the bomb
Could have warned the others were he less concerned with stealth
But he sprinted from the building and only saved himself

Deep inside the author knows
The boy is right and their path is clear
He finds a God he never knew
Closes his eyes and prays

Bodies wear out, but the souls must survive
Evil and good are eternal
The path of the truth is much crueler than lies
But it sacrifices us in the end

Bodies wear out, but the souls must survive
Evil and good are eternal
The path of the truth is much crueler than lies
But it sacrifices us in the end

4. Desperation Part IV

Johnny knows why he was spared in Vietnam
God has a reason for his sacrifice
Johnny knows David thinks it all will fall on him
But the message is clear and he knows he has a purpose

The writer descends into the heart of the mine
Down to the bottom of the well of souls
Falling through darkness, bloodied and broken
He spreads the explosives as death takes hold

Johnny stands a final time as his life slips away
Tak screams in anger and commands that he stop
But the heart of the unformed can no longer sway him
And he finishes his life's last task

God can be everything, God can be cruel
Sometimes He makes us live
Carrying a burden for thirty three years
They are no longer his sins to forgive

With the smoke of the ini rising up in the sky
Destroyed by the power of daylight
The four survivors leave the nightmare behind them
And head toward the open highway
In the back of the car sits a folder of photos
Materializ4ed out of nowhere

The handwritten label says they're from David's school
But the writing is in Johnny's hand

Two different lives. somehow intertwined
Two vantage points of a parallax view
Heaven and Earth, somehow connected
Giving a glimpse of the eternal truth

As he opened the folder, and pulls out the picture
Young David Carver's astonished
The picture's of Johnny and David's dead sister
Although they have never met

In the picture they're standing on the very street
Where David's friend Brian lay dying in his arms
Written at their feet, are the words First John 4/8
And Mary asks David what it means.

God is Love

God can be everything, God can be cruel
Sometimes He makes us live
Carrying a burden for thirty three years
They are no longer his sins to forgive

God can be everything, God can be cruel
Sometimes He makes us live
Carrying a burden for thirty three years
They are no longer his sins to forgive

5. Nocturnal

When we enter its domain
Will the answers follow
Or will the wind and rain
Predict tomorrow

Or will they combine
And dictate our fears
Feeding our minds
The violence here

We can end the apathy
Nocturnal

When we enter the darkness

Will our heart lead the way
In the land of thoughtless
Or will you just fan the flames

Or will they combine
And dictate our fears
Feeding our minds
The violence here

We can end the apathy
Nocturnal

We can end the apathy
Nocturnal

The blackest night before the dawn
Nocturnal

6. Window To Space

There's a kid who sees the world
A selfish kid: a good kid: a good kid
By his own means he knew the price of life
By his own means he knew the price for you
He must reveal it now, but to who?

A cluttered world. A damaged world
A lost world he lives in
He stammers for the door but it is shut

Get out of the bars young one
Reach for the stars young one
Reach for the stars and be free

Seek shelter in voices you hear in the night
Rid yourself of the world that surrounds you
They didn't care
Now you should go

Seek to find all that is
Reach high for life
"I'll search for answer and I'll search for friend
And I'll search for you 'til I'm gone.
Now I must go be free."

Climb towards the sun and burn your fingers on life
If you're lucky you'll burn your body and soul

Remember the dreams, remember the visions
Remember the morals and values you had
And never forget the view from above

"Shatter me true 'til I'm gone and alone;
heal me 'til I'm whole"

See her lying there in the shade
Listening to the sounds of the green
Wishing, waiting, wanting so bad
She seeks the knowledge of the dream you once had
And wonders if you can recall that day

You stood in the park while it got dark

And conversed among the souls of the dead

One hundred billion people sifting through the sands
Looking for love and searching for truth
How misguided they've become since their youth
Become since their youth

Twisted and rotting and smelling of death
Their minds lie wasted and yearning for breath
And wanting and wanting some air
They crumble and fall onto the ground in despair

And the gods look from the heavens
And the men look from their graves
And the gods cry "Damn!" and a light flashes forth
Silence is fallen all over the land
And a black void settles over the night

From the filth and the blood and the crowd does emerge
An angry young man with a poem in hand
A prayer in his head
A blessing in heart
And an answer to all on the tip of his tongue

"Let the smoke clear
Look upwards my friends
See the beginning of life
See life's tragic ends
And never forget the boys who have died
For a cause not their own but of the wise"

We still survive but the sun has been lost and it falls to blaze
Lost in pollution's excretion of haze
Individuals do emerge but so few and apart
They are unseen by the evil and stark
And the landscape that bears the immortals who share
Who give of themselves and receive only care

The care of one hundred trillion people in space
And the care of one hundred billion who live on the place

The ones far out and the ones who discover
Are the ones who inspire a man and his lover
From the dawn of time to the reaches of space
Companionship and trust are the keys to fate
We want to fear all of the knowledge that we lust

Why do we work? Why do we play?
Why do we kill? Why do we live?
I want to be happy and I want to know sad
I want to have knowledge and I want to be dumb

I wish for the day, and it will come
That I know all the answers
And I know what to be and I know what to search for
And I know where to achieve

And there it shall lie
My corpse in the gutter
With knowledge and love
And the taste of the better

Looking through the window to space

7. As I Lay Dying

As I lay dying I saw the eyes
The eyes of God. Thy kingdom come
A force so strong pulled me along
As I lay dying

As I lay dying I laughed as I
Had never laughed before
At circumstance and the evened score
As I lay dying

As I lay dying I touched the air
Felt the chill, the blinding stare
Of my mind's eye, began to cry
As I lay dying

As I lay dying I felt so strange
Although I bleed, I feel no pain
And just like life it seems insane
But now I'm dying

Look at your soul in the mirror
Every choice you've made is etched upon its face
Epitaph carved by your actions
Are we searching for a different state of grace?
No one is sure of the answer
Is this just a waiting room for something else?
How can you measure life?
Is it something we must lose to find ourselves?

Will it just go on
After I am gone?
I saw above my heaven
And beneath as well
The threat of hell
Will my sins be forgiven?

8. Something Wicked This Way Comes

Part 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 black'ning sky
Charles Halloway sits deep inside, surrounded by his books
A serious, lonely and sad old man whose youth has passed him by

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

Part 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
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

Three AM is midnight for the soul
Never is a man so close to death
The house 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

Part III: The Carnival

Late that night the boys returned
Watched the carousel spin 'round
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!"

Part 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, and 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 hid
And Mister Dark halts the procession, seeing the librarian,
He asks him who the boys are; fills with rage as the old man lies

Part 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 they 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

Part 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

(old man) Hear your breathing
(old man) Feel your hurt
(old man) See you're bleeding
(old man) Stop your heart

Part VII: Confrontations

(Halloway) ten lifetimes closer to death
(Somehow) finding the courage to laugh
(Laughter) searing in 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 a
(Volunteer): someone to give it a try

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

Part 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 under stand
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
A lifetime 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