From a Balance Beam

There is a man holding a megaphone
So he must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels
Flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I saw one laying in the lawn with a broken arm
So I called 911
So that's one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin
Up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors
Leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I, I mean a miracle
So then I fell like that girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes were all holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that's all it takes

Now I'm staring at my wrist
Hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
And those little painted marbles
Spinning senseless through an endless black sky



He showed me... things today. Padriac.

He showed me what would happen if The Lonely Hearts get their hands on me again. What would specifically happen, not just a vague vision.

First, they would force me into submission by subjecting my mind to some sort of neutralizing force. After that's accomplished, they would fully utilize the power of the Key.

I would cause worldwide devastation. I would travel around the world, and would use the Key to absorb energy from.. people.

The energy inside of the Key is partially created by sacrificing other people.

I nearly vomited after learning that. 

And The Key inside of me is literally a key... that is also an egg. It's confusing. It's a key that will activate a door inside of the interior of the Key that will open and release a Fear.

Ultimately, the plan leads me to Kashmir; there, everything goes blank. Padriac doesn't know what's there. But whatever it is, it increases the Key's power significantly. Like, almost to demi-God power.

A year or so after that, I am scheduled to appear in the center of the Pacific Ocean.

In The People's Key.

As in... that's the name of an island.

An island I've been to before.

The island Arienette and I retreated to.

We retreated to... the island I'm destined to head to by The Lonely Hearts anyways...

They let me go there. They probably had their eyes on me the entire time.

I only got that far into the vision. I nearly drowned in my bathtub. I was partially submerged in the water.

When I sat up from under the water, I emerged as Padriac. I was no longer me.

I have no idea what he did. He didn't do much. We didn't leave the room.

I felt.. different once I regained control.

As if I was whole again.

As if the Demons were finally at bay.

But then it all came crashing down when I got that phone call;

Laura Laurent is being held hostage, and the ransom is going to be me.

It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been
I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
Still I was as helpless as a chess piece
When I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
My enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside
That holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
As it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh, my patient prisoner, you have waited for this day and finally
You are free! You are free! You are freezing"

Now I'm staring at the sun waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
Don't know when but it will come
And then we will finally know the way out of here

And I will throw away this wrinkled map
And my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
To avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
Of a graveyard gray and a garden green
And then we won't have worry no more
No, we won't ever worry again
About how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end