The Answer Walks Through You

Prompt

STYLE: Gothic alt-rock with folk-horror bones. 132 BPM, driving 6/8. Weathered baritone trading with a clear soprano. Hammered dulcimer and tack piano under distorted guitar; industrial kick against a live snare. Strings enter cold at the bridge and never leave. Choir on the last chorus. End unresolved — a door left open, not closed. [Intro — dulcimer alone, train rhythm fading up] [Verse 1 — baritone] Three plates stacked in an empty dark the middle one is ours magic bleeding from the center out till the far edge dies of hours There's a rail line running through the pines where the moonlight can't get down and a car of children playing grown on the last train into town [Pre-Chorus — soprano] One of them is lying and the lie is not a lie [Chorus — both] Every word of it was true every word of it was true Ask the question, get the answer, let the answer walk right through you He said gap year — maybe three said the blade's just family and he never told you nothing that you couldn't check was true [Verse 2 — soprano] She draws a bow no hand can bend and they laugh and pass it round She left the green to guard the ones with no magic in the ground And the boy with cold light in his eyes comes from the city that says no — they burn the magic out with magic and they'll never, never know [Pre-Chorus — both] Something reached across the rim and something reached back [Chorus — repeat] [Bridge — half-time, strings cold, choir beneath] A god will fit inside a sword a sword will fit a hand and the hand goes down from son to son older than the land There's no soul left in the boy he sold it and he won and the thing that keeps him breathing keeps him breathing till there's a son [Verse 3 — building, near-spoken] Fear is a seed. Fear takes root. Four scared kids in a hollow room make the ground that makes the thing they'll come back and kill in June So swing the lamp, so set the fire, so call it training, call it school — every hunt you ever win is a deposit in the pool [Final Chorus — full, choir] Every word of it was true every word of it was true Ask the question, get the answer, let the answer walk right through you [Outro — dulcimer alone, unresolved]