When you feel you're running out of breath

Yet feel okay

'Cause you ran a lot, and reached no key

To open the next door and turn and run for

Another next door

And door after door

O porta clausa, sine requie...

(Deliver the weary, release the stride)

Shadows stretching where the corridors collide

Grant rest to the runner, let the turning cease...

Da-ba-da, run-da-dun, ha-ha-ah...

Ta-ka-ta, breath-ta-ta, ooh-wa-na-na!

Ah—ah—AH!

tral Swell, Epic Opera, Fast Tempo]

What am I looking for?

What am I running for?

Another open door, to another closed door!

And turn and run for, and turn and run for, and turn and run!

Till you ran out of breath

And life equaled death

And life equaled death!

Breathe...

Breathe.

I carried hope like a burning torch down a hall of stone,

Counting every trial like beads on a thread of bone.

I swore there’d be a voice, a light, a guiding hand,

A reason written down in this hollow, shifting land.

I reached the threshold, whispered my defense—

And heard the lock click shut against all common sense.

No answer came.

The echo swallowed every plea.

Just an empty keyhole staring back at me.

Vox in deserto, clausae portae...

(A voice in the desert, locked are the gates)

The hammer falls, the silence waits.

No answer given, no pardon signed,

Only the labyrinth left behind.

So you run.

When you feel you're running out of breath, yet feel okay,

'Cause you ran a lot, and reached no key to open the way.

So you turn on your heels, take the turn, take the stride,

Hunting for a door that isn’t dead on the inside.

Door after door, after door, after door,

Scraping your fingernails raw on the floor!

Ta-ka-ta, run-da-dun, ha-ha-ah!

Ooh-wa-ri-na, breath-ta-ta, da-ba-da!

Ah—ah—AH!

What am I looking for?! What am I running for?!

Another open door to another closed door!

And turn and run for, and turn and run for, and turn and run!

Chasing the horizon like an unspent gun!

Through the trials that lead nowhere, the hopes that break in two,

Running till there's nothing left of me or you!

Wait...

My shins are lead. My lungs are cold ash.

The burning in my chest gives way to a hush.

The hallway is stretching, but my knees hit the stone,

And a strange, golden silence fills up my bones.

I try to stand...

I try to push...

I can’t.

I can't take another step.

And for the first time... I smile.

Sweet, blessed weakness. Beautiful arrest.

The race has abandoned me; my ribs are at rest.

I am happy the air is too thin to chase,

Happy the walls won't reflect my face.

The door stays locked, and I let it be—

Because running out of breath has finally set me free.

Requiescat in pace...

Let the corridor fade, let the arches fall,

No more searching through the hall.

The stillness is mercy, the ending is peace...

Till you ran out of breath...

And life equaled death...

And life equaled death!

Breathe.

Just breathe.