[Verse 1] In a narrow hall of shadows, seventeen and seventy-three, Chalk and cinders on my fingers, all the laws of gravity. I was only ink and reason, living buried in my head, Till you walked in, Evelyn, and every theorem turned to red. You were lilac in the winter, you were dawn in dying light, I was pages, you were breathing, you made haunted halls feel bright. Till the fever found your heartbeat at the breaking of the day, And the bells cried through my ribcage for my lost Evelyn Grey. [Pre-Chorus] So I raised my fists to heaven, swore at every star and sign: “If the angels steal my bride, then I will tear apart their time.” [Chorus] Evelyn, Evelyn, hear the ticking fade away, I will tear the hands from every clock that tries to steal you far away. Every time I turn the wheel, rewrite the light of day, Every road still ends in losing you, my Evelyn Grey. --- [Verse 2] I drew circles into circles, copper wires and iron rings, Fed the engine dust and mercury, the bones of lesser things. Candles dripping on equations while the gears began to whine, Till the room grew thin and narrow like the throat of twisted time. Then I fell back through the hours to the day our vows were sworn, Saw you laughing, untouched, shining like the first unbroken morn. “Do not drink that wine,” I begged you, “do not dance upon that floor.” Still you slipped upon the threshold, and you never rose once more. [Pre-Chorus] Through your blood across the oak grain, I could hear the ages chime: “You can bend the shape of moments, but you’ll never master time.” [Chorus] Evelyn, Evelyn, hear the ticking fade away, I will tear the hands from every clock that tries to steal you far away. Every time I turn the wheel, rewrite the light of day, Every road still ends in losing you, my Evelyn Grey. --- [Verse 3] So I wound the world in tighter on a spool of blackened thread, Leapt to winters, leapt to childhood, watched the storm fronts overhead. Warned your parents, changed the rafters, moved the stones beside the stream, Chased each rumor of misfortune like a madman in a dream. Years collapsed in painted circles, every path I tried to save: If not fever, then a carriage; if not water, then a grave. Every turn a different story, every story ends the same, Stacked like pages in the darkness, every page your written name. [Pre-Chorus] Till my hair turned white from counting, and my eyes burned out with schemes, And my heart, a rusted pendulum, beat in short, exhausted beams. [Chorus] Evelyn, Evelyn, hear the ticking fade away, I will tear the hands from every clock that tries to steal you far away. Every time I turn the wheel, rewrite the light of day, Every road still ends in losing you, my Evelyn Grey. --- [Bridge] Then the laws that I had worshiped whispered low with iron breath: “There is one fixed point unbroken: every soul must drink of death. Not the cleverest of dreamers, not the proudest of the wise, Can erase a single ending that the grave already eyes.” [Breakdown] “Still I love you,” I confessed then to the black, unbreathing air, “More than reason, more than physics, more than I was built to bear. If I cannot keep your heartbeat from the teeth of stone and bone, Let the final page record this: you will not go through alone.” --- [Final Verse] So I set the dials to midnight on the eve your fever came, Left my notes in scattered fragments, left my proofs without a name. Took your hand beside the bedside, felt the tremor in your breath, And I smiled like one delivered to a long-appointed death. “Sleep,” I whispered, “gentle Evelyn, let these frightened doctors flee, Let the angels keep their ledgers somewhere far away from me. For this once I will not fight them, will not claw the threads they spin, I will lie here in your shadow where your ending burns my sin.” [Final Chorus] Evelyn, Evelyn, hear the ticking drift away, All the clocks can keep their hours; they have stolen all they may. In this single, final moment, where our closing eyes give way, Every road still ends in losing you, my Evelyn Grey. [Outro – spoken] In this narrow hall of shadows, where the dust and silence climb, Lies a broken clock forever, and a love outside of time.
