[Dark Folk] [Cabaret Piano] [Haunting Strings] [Atmospheric Ambience] [Male Vocal: somber, weary tone] [Verse 1] [Acoustic Guitar + Upright Bass Rhythm] In the shadows of Willowbreeze Manor, I was born to serve and kneel, A boy in a world where nobles smirk, where they tell you how to feel. [Distant Percussion Enters] Derrick, the lord’s own blood and pride, eyes like steel and tongue so cold, A tyrant of youth, and jealousy’s flame, his envy fierce, his heart grown old. [Chorus] [Haunting Strings Swell] [Ghostly Female Harmony: soft “ah”s] But summer days, they held me close, with secrets whispered low, By the garden shed, where waters run, and hands begin to roam. Sixteen years, with a man’s strong touch—God, I craved it, needed more, But Derrick’s eyes burned bright with wrath, and he swore to settle the score. [Verse 2] [Piano Returns, Light Drum Pulse] He called me liar, called me child, said he’d see my sin undone, The gardener’s life, the gallows called, for what I’d lured beneath the sun. In that instant, fury took me—blood like fire in my veins, And all went dark, a moment lost—then silence, and crimson stains. [Chorus] [Ghostly Harmonies Layered] But I swear I can’t remember how his skull met that stone so fast, A blind red rage, or was it fear, that brought his life to the past? They say he fell by accident—my hands clean, yet stained so deep, I lost my home, my best friend too, and now in nightmares, I can’t sleep. [Chorus] [Echoed Backing Vocals: “Restless shadows...” whisper] (Restless shadows,) blood runs red, Every step I take, the past is bled. (Restless shadows,) voices call, In the dark, I see them all. [Bridge] [Strings + Drum Crescendo] Ten long years, a world apart, in shadows I roam alone, The ghosts of Eastgarde call my name—“Murderer, sinner, you’ve no home.” I lost my heart, my peace, my soul, but his memory won’t let me be, And now, a monster hunts me down—a shade of the boy he used to be. [Interlude] [Soft, Echoing Vocalization: haunting “Ooooooh” layered with reverb] [Breakdown] [Minimal Bass + Piano + Snare heartbeat] (Restless shadows,) blood runs red, Every step I take, the past is bled. (Restless shadows,) voices call, In the dark, I see them all. [Verse 3] [Male Vocal: cracked emotion] [Full Band Re-enters] Derrick walks with death in his eyes, he won’t rest till he finds my breath, A revenant’s curse, his rage unleashed, he’s come to claim my death. Is this justice, fate’s cruel jest— (or do I deserve this doom?) I see his face in every shadow, feel his hand reach from the gloom. [Outro] [Soft Guitar + Piano Only] [Ghostly Female Echoes return] I hear the whispers in the night, calling me back to where it all began, To Willowbreeze, to blood-stained ground, where a boy became a man. If his hands take my life tonight, if his rage drags me to my end, I’ll know it’s justice come at last—the reckoning of a life I couldn’t mend.
