Listen to the tale I tell   a haunting dream I know so well   When walking home alone one night   my path revealed by candlelight   Ahead I see an open door   with no idea what's in store   I glance inside the door to see   a hall of mirrors beckons me   I take a breath and step inside   a tale of love and shattered pride   The door slams shut, I start to run   And it seems my journey has begun...      I run and turn from side to side   with fear and panic in my eyes   The vastness overwhelming me   mirrors far as the eye can see   I see myself in every one   I see the things that I have done   A thousand forms of flattery   the fear soon turns to haughtiness in me      Different mirrors, different shapes   my different strengths accentuate   Each mirror has a name and face   and all reflect me in some way   I look at them to see myself   to judge my life by someone else   The metaphors within replete:   the mirrors are the people that I met      Look at the man you see - in the mirrors   The things you can be - in the mirrors   The glory of me revealed in the mirror's eye   The mirror never lies   The fire in my eyes - in the mirrors   The vanity rise - in the mirrors   The power of pride comes alive in the mirrors      Gazing in the mirrors I behold   All the greatest chapters of my story ever told   In the mirrors   The world is turned to gold      [Orchestral section]      At the end of the Hall of Mirrors   I behold a golden door   I imagine all the beauty   the other side must hold in store   So I quickly reach out my hand   To enter the next room in this promised land   I pull the giant door open   To continue my journey, I step inside   But it slams shut behind me, and I'm back outside   The pouring rain welcomes me   into the arms of the coldest, blackest night      [II. The Stranger In The Storm]      The light of the mirrors has faded away   into distant memory   As the rain keeps coming down   My candle extinguished   I struggle to walk a path I cannot see   And the rain keeps coming down      The darkness grows with every step   I could cut it with a knife   As the rain keeps coming down   I can't see a thing and I've never felt   so alone in all my life   But the rain keeps coming down...      Caught in the fury of the storm   (The darkness suffocates)   Body and soul weary and worn   (Another twist of fate)   Never been so afraid before   (The ending of this tale?)   Never should have opened the door   (From euphoria to hell)      I question my fate, my end   to die in this storm   Maybe this was the plan   back from the day I was born   But in the hall of mirrors I had felt so high   I cannot walk another mile in this flood   So resigned to my fate, I just collapse in the mud   If I cannot go on, I'll just lay down and die      Suddenly a light I see, shining in the distance   I make my way toward it with my fading hope reborn   As I draw near, the light is clear   Though the rain beats its resistance   But I press on and pray this is a shelter from the storm   Advancing now toward the light   I'm quickly moving forward   This hope has given me new strength   I thought I'd never know   But I take a step, and fall right back   For the ground's gone beneath me   And I behold, illuminated in the light's warm glow   A dark chasm, a great abyss   A vast expanse of nothingness   A pit that has no bottom as far as the eye can see   It spans the whole horizon, and there is no way across   My lonely heart is shattered and all hope I had is lost      I'm startled to feel a hand on my shoulder   I turn to see a shadowed figure standing in the rain   But somehow I'm not afraid of him   Even when he speaks my name   And somehow I can tell that he means me no harm   Just by the peace that I see in his eyes   And even though I've never even seen him before   It's like he's known me all my life   "Why are you crying?" the stranger asks   As I wipe away the tears   I point toward the great abyss   The source of all my fears      "I must get across and get to that light   For it represents my only hope tonight   But when I saw the chasm, all that hope was lost   I've spent so long in the dark and the rain   That the sight of the light made my heart sing again   But the gulf's so wide, and there's no way across"      The stranger smiled, and took my hand   He said, "But you are wrong, my friend   You cannot cross the gulf yourself, that's true"   He led me down toward the edge   And pointed just over the ledge   And said, "Behold, I built a bridge for you"      [Solo]      I cross the bridge toward the light   The stranger saved my life tonight   I turn to try to thank him, but he's gone   A long way to the other side   I'll make my way without my guide   No time to waste, for I must carry on      The bright light shines forth from behind   A door beyond description   Blood and scratches mark the door from ages of abuse   I'm confused no more, for above the door   Is a weathered, old inscription   "All who would see reality, enter the Hall of Truth"   And so I do      [III. The Truth Revealed]      As I step inside   I can see another mirror   A mirror so bright   That my eyes must turn away   A mirror so high   I start to question all the others   And as I stand there in the Hall of Truth   my heart can only say:   "Show me the truth, I don't know what to believe   For the mirrors all showed something different to me   And my pride has given way to misery   I've spent so long in the dark and the rain   That the sight of the light made my heart sing again   And the stranger built a bridge across for me"      "BEHOLD THYSELF" a voice rings out   in paralyzing thunder   It echoes all throughout the hall   and sends me to my knees   When the voice calls my name   I'm overcome with fear and wonder      As I slowly start to rise   and face the great mirror in front of me   When I open my eyes, I have to close them again   But still the image is burned into my mind...   A face with eyes as black as night   A terrifying sight   The flesh rotting away in sickness and decay   It's mangled by disease   I'm unable to breathe   Tell me what manner of creature this could be   'Cause it's not me      I run away as fast as my feet will carry me   Back to the door leading into the night   Even the storm that almost claimed my life   was better than this   And so I throw open the door and see a man   (The figure of a man)   The stranger from the storm returns again   (To save me once again?)   I see understanding in his eyes   (He's seen this all before)   Maybe he can tell me what I saw behind that door      "Tell me what I saw in the mirror   Before I ran away   Tell me what I saw in the mirror   That face of sickness and decay   Tell me what I saw in the mirror   That left me terrorized   With the lifeless, blackened eyes?   Was it a demon   From the fiery waves?   Was it the undead   From beyond the grave?   Oh the face that I beheld in the mirror   left me paralyzed   Won't you tell me what I saw   in the mirror on this night?"      "The light from the mirror you saw from afar   The Mirror of Souls shows all men as they are   You entered the hall and you asked for the truth   The man that you saw in the mirror was you"      "No! Don't show me the truth   'cause I don't want to believe   What the Mirror of Souls   has revealed unto me   And the face I saw reflected cannot be me   Dying and lost in the arms of decay   I do not recognize the face I've seen today   And if you say that's my face I must disagree"      The meaning of these things I saw:   The mirror is the holy eyes of God   The truth unveiled before me   with these words of the stranger:   "The mirrors you saw in the hall long ago   Were mirrors of lies, not reflecting the soul   When you look unto others to see what they see   You see an illusion, deception, false reality"      I have seen my soul in the mirror   And it has broken me   I have seen myself so much clearer   Than I had ever seen   "Can't you take away all this sickness   from my soul and set me free?   You can save me...I believe"   And then he said, "Arise, my child   our faith has made you reconciled   Now gaze into the Mirror once again"   We walked together through the door   And I looked in the glass once more   But the only one reflected back was him   Somehow the only one in the mirror saw was him      Gazing in the Mirror of my Soul   Staring at the man who took my place   and made me whole   In the Mirror   The Mirror of my Soul