Room of Keys

Forty keys on iron rings Each one screams and each one stings Rust and silver, brass and bone Labels written in blood alone First key: "The Drowned Bride's Chamber" Second: "Where Father's Rage Still Lingers" Third one smells of burning hair Fourth unlocks the servants' stair Fifth: "The Garden Where Nothing Grows" Sixth: "The Mirror That Always Knows" Seven through twelve are stained with red Thirteen just says: "The Unfed" Forty keys on iron rings Every lock remembers things Forty doors I should not open Forty sins the blood has spoken Fourteen's wrapped in human hair Fifteen's cold beyond compare Sixteen through twenty — ritual names In Latin, scratched, still bearing flames Twenty-one: "The Thornwood Heart" Where the house and body part Twenty-two through thirty-three Are rooms that breathe and bleed and see Thirty-four's the heaviest one Labeled: "Where It All Begun" Thirty-five through thirty-nine Mark the doors of the bloodline Forty keys on iron rings Every lock remembers things Forty doors I should not open Forty sins the blood has spoken The fortieth key has no label. Just a symbol — thorns wrapped around a throat. I know exactly which door it opens. I've always known. Turn the key, turn the key See what blood was meant to see Turn the key, turn the key Become what you were meant to be Forty keys on iron rings (I take them all) Every lock remembers things (Every single one) Forty doors I'm going to open (Watch me) Forty sins the blood has chosen (It's already chosen)