[Intro - FEMALE | soft airy vocal | clean guitar and distant ambience] It keeps slipping. Maybe it was never mine. [Verse 1 - FEMALE | vulnerable clean vocal | restrained drums] You gave me something golden with fingerprints around the rim. Said your mother gave it to you, and hers was handed down from them. Every rule became tradition, every question became shame. You placed heaven on my shoulders before I even knew my name. [Pre-Chorus - FEMALE | emotional rise | soft layered harmonies] I kept bending it to fit me, kept pretending it felt right. But your circle of perfection always held a little tight. [Chorus - FEMALE | soaring emotional belt | heavy melodic guitars] This hand-me-down halo keeps falling off my head. Maybe I was never meant to wear the life, you left. Your heaven doesn't fit me. Your good girl costume shows. So, take back your commandments and your hand-me-down halo. [Verse 2 - FEMALE | stronger rasp | drums intensify] There's rust beneath the gold now, little cracks beneath the shine. How many women wore this thing and called the bruises divine? Did they shrink themselves to fit it? Did they learn to disappear? Did somebody call it virtue every time they swallowed fear? [Pre-Chorus - FEMALE | aching clean vocal] I don't hate where I came from. I just won't inherit the cage. Some things shouldn't be passed down simply because they survived age. [Bridge - FEMALE | intimate whisper becoming a scream] Maybe you wore it because you had to. Maybe nobody told you you could take it off. [heavy guitars enter] But I know now. [raw scream] AND IT ENDS WITH ME! [Final Chorus - FEMALE | powerful clean lead | emotional scream layers] That hand-me-down halo is lying on the floor. I don't need somebody else's heaven hanging over me anymore. If goodness means disappearing, then I don't want to be saved. You can keep the golden circle. I'll keep my own name. [Outro - FEMALE | gentle close-mic vocal] Funny... My head feels lighter.
