Torchbearer - Dead Children, Black Rats

[Music and lyrics by P. Johansson]

My journey had been long, I had not seen my hometown for weeks.
My spirits were hign for the prosperity I acquired,
When I walked in between houses and streets.
The morning was still, and yet but begun,
And the silence but pleasant and beautiful.
A strange smell lay light on a soft breeze...
As I came closer to my house it grew strong.
I knew not why, at that point, but something made me freeze and shiver cold...

Curiosity of a strange kind made me stare in through a window.
I knew the house I stared into belonged to a family of many.
Well. That's what is used to do.
Imagine my horror when I saw that pale face! With eyes still open, piercing at me through the dark.
Right then I knew who awaited me.
Death had come to gratulate my return.

As if a ghost to assist my horror, a door creaked and slowly opened wide.
I screamed, and my scream scared me further,
For it echoed uncanny between the housewalls.
As the fool I was, I fled in through another neighbouring door.

The smell was awful as I paced through the chambers,
And that was when I fell over something.
It was a little boy and his sister, still embraced in death.
Lying there on the floor I knew I would not rise
When the rats ran across the floor against me...
All I saw - dead children, black rats...