Corridor State, Act III - THE DEATH OF ME

[Intro] I kept wondering who I lost Every time the room went quiet. Now I know. [Verse I] There was a boy who learned the weather From the tension in a room Built a language out of silence Made a shelter of the gloom There was someone after him Who wore survival like a name Swore if he could just keep moving He would never feel the same I remember every version Like a photograph that breathes I can recognize their faces But none of them are me [Pre-Chorus] Not anymore. And somehow that still hurts. [Chorus] This is the death of me Again and again Every name I thought would follow me Eventually ends I buried no body I watched no heartbeat cease I only woke one morning And found an absence where I used to be This is the death of me And I am still breathing [Verse II] There was one who needed anger One who needed to be right One who made a home of shadows Just to give the dark a shape One believed the wounds were sacred One believed the scars were proof One kept building explanations Just to make the suffering useful I will not call them failures I will not call them lies They carried what they could carry Until they could not survive [Pre-Chorus] They were me. Completely. And then they weren't. [Chorus] This is the death of me Again and again Every world I called forever Eventually ends No grave beneath my footsteps No stone above the deep Just rooms I cannot live in Full of people I remember being This is the death of me And I am still breathing [Interlude] Maybe grief was never asking for them to come back. Maybe grief was learning they cannot. [Bridge] I loved some of them I hated some of them Some kept me alive Some nearly consumed me But I will not rewrite them To make the ending clean They existed. They mattered. They were me. [Build] And this one will end too. The voice saying these words The hands holding this moment The shape I answer to tonight One day I will remember him From somewhere further down the line [Breakdown] SO LET THE OLD NAMES REST LET THE OLD ROOMS CLOSE I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE THERE TO KNOW THEY WERE HOME I DON'T HAVE TO SAVE THEM I DON'T HAVE TO LEAVE THEM CLEAN THEY DID NOT FAIL TO BECOME ME THEY FINISHED BEING ME [Final Chorus] This is the death of me Again and again And I finally understand Why every ending felt like death There was never one identity Waiting underneath Only life moving through a thousand forms And calling each one me So mourn me when I change Remember what I mean This is the death of me This is the life of me [Outro] No resurrection. No final form. No version waiting at the end of the corridor. Only this: I was them. I am here. And someday I will have been here too.