[Intro — single funeral bell; whispered female voice, faint mechanical clicking] Small enough to hold. Deep enough to disappear. [Verse 1 — low female contralto; mournful organ, slow descending guitar] In Paris, seventeen ninety-six, LeMarchand worked by candlelight. He fitted darkness into gold And made each hidden corner right. De L’Isle received me with a smile; The candles guttered, thin and weak. They turned my heart beneath his roof— And through me stepped Angelique. [Pre-Chorus — intimate female lead; low strings tightening] Come closer. Find the hidden seam. What would you surrender for a dream? [Chorus — commanding female belts; crushing funeral march, vast female choir] LAMENT! THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION! A little golden door to endless night. LAMENT! Your beautiful damnation! I call the priests beyond the reach of light. You solve the box—I open you. One final turn, and Hell comes through. [Verse 2 — smoky female voice; heavy, deliberate riff] I crossed the years in strangers’ hands, Through whispered trades and shuttered rooms. You turn my face; the walls divide, And something vast comes pushing through. The bell begins. The chains descend. The Cenobites step through the seam. They bear the gifts you begged to find— Until you beg to leave the dream. [Pre-Chorus — female lead; urgent beneath the slow pulse] Turn back the pattern. Seal the seam. Remember how—before you learn to scream. [Chorus — full female lead; layered contralto harmonies, tolling bells] LAMENT! THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION! A little golden door to endless night. LAMENT! Your beautiful damnation! I call the priests beyond the reach of light. You solve the box—I open you. One final turn, and Hell comes through. [Bridge — stripped to cello and pipe organ; female voice becomes cold and solemn] The maker died. The drawings lived. His bloodline carried what he knew: A gate could turn against its gods; A lock could be their prison, too. Elysium—a cage of light, A reckoning among the stars. One day the hands that fashioned gates Will teach the dark the shape of bars. [Brief Guitar Lament — slow, weeping bends; distant female choir] [Breakdown — enormous spaced impacts; deep female ritual chant] Turn. Listen. Open. Lament. [Female whisper — instruments fall silent] You wanted more than life could give. [Female belt — crushing guitars return] NOW FEEL HOW LONG A MOMENT LIVES! [Final Chorus — immense female lead; high and low female counterpoint] LAMENT! THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION! Hold all the weight of darkness in your hands. LAMENT! Your beautiful damnation! The door obeys what hunger understands. You solve the box—I open you. One final turn, and Hell comes through. [Final Refrain — slow, thunderous; female choir answers] You solve the box— [Female choir] I OPEN YOU. You solve the box— [Female choir] I OPEN YOU. [Outro — music-box mechanism winding down; close female whisper] The secret was never inside me. It was the hunger in your hands. [One metallic click. Silence.]
