The Key

I hear her footsteps running towards me down the hall

And by the lantern light i see her body fall

She reaches out to me, the ward key in her hand

She speaks to me in noises i don’t understand

The key that taunted me, the key that drove me mad

The key that murdered any freedom i once had

Is offered to me know, can this be but a dream?

My trance is broken by this woman’s dying scream

The key now in my hand from quarantine i race

And when i reach the landing every ghostly face

Is waiting for me there commanding me to run

The walls are lifting, lockdown’s already begun

The staircase shatters as my fate i fly to meet

The wood is splintering beneath my stocking feet

At last i’m past the gate, at last i’m at the cell

That’s kept me from the sun and hidden me in hell

The key that locked us in is now what sets us free

The inmates have emerged and now they look to me

To lead them to the light, to lead them to the door

But as we flee i trip and fall down to the floor

Now, as i hit the ground, as painfully i land

The key for which i’ve waited years shoots from my hand

Then, quick as lightning strikes, the doctor’s heavy shoe

Comes down upon the key concealing it from view

His eyes are burning red with madness, this is when

He picks it up and turns to lock us in again

I leap upon him for i’ve nothing left to lose

He overpowers me and asks the girls to choose

He runs his blade across my throat as if to say

That he will take my life if they don’t walk away

Retreat they do at once, without a second thought

They only know that we were free and now we’re not

And then i feel my darling annie’s master key

From all those years ago, still tied above my knee

It glows against my skin but doesn’t cause me pain

What happens next i cannot possibly explain

It pulls me from the floor, it pulls me towards the gate

It fits into the lock and every last inmate

Is breathless as the bars swing open with a creak

And no one’s seen to move, and no one’s heard to speak

Then, all at once, the clock from fifty floors below

Is loudly striking four, and suddenly i know

What must be done – there can be no one left alive

The doctor’s all must die if we are to survive

It’s time to show our strength

It’s time that we unite

It’s time to change the game

It’s time we learn to fight

It’s time this house is ours

It’s time we take it back

It’s time for bloody war

It’s time for the attack!