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

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

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!”

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

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

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

(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

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