Three steps behind me. Then silence. I wait for the fourth. The moon caught briefly in the branches As I followed the path downhill Something moved where the trees grew closer Then everything around me went still I looked back. Nothing. Just the narrow trail And the shape of my coat Caught in a tangle of branches Then I heard my footsteps again From somewhere I hadn't been I held my breath The forest held its own I started walking Something followed home There's something in the hush between The last leaf falling The space where nothing breathes It wears the dark like borrowed skin And waits for you to answer it Don't turn around Don't give it a name It learns your voice And gives it back again When the whole wide world goes still The Hush is listening The birds fell silent as I passed A fox slipped underneath the roots I heard a twig snap somewhere behind me Then another, keeping time with my boots I called out into the darkness My voice came back, but something had changed The words were mine The breath was mine But I had never spoken I stopped to listen The footsteps stopped as well I asked, "What are you?" The answer came from my own mouth. "You know." There's something in the hush between The last leaf falling The space where nothing breathes It wears the dark like borrowed skin And waits for you to answer it Don't turn around Don't give it a name It learns your voice And gives it back again When the whole wide world goes still The Hush is listening I thought the woods were watching me I thought the dark was drawing near I blamed the shadows at my heels For every reason I was here But nothing moved behind the trees The branches hadn't stirred at all I looked down at the empty path And saw no shadow there. Not mine. Not anymore. It wasn't following me. It was following you. No... It was me. There's nothing in the hush between No other shape beneath the trees The birds fall silent when I pass The forest knows me. It always has. I wore the dark I gave it form I was the thing they feared before the storm And when the whole wide world went still I heard them running I heard them pray I watched the last light drain away And understood Why nothing stayed. Three steps behind me. One step more. Still following.
