The Bell Knows

[Intro] Don’t ring yet. Don’t breathe loud. The house has ears, and the floor looks down. [Verse 1] Candle on the stair keeps bending sideways, like the flame heard something I denied. My hand on the knob feels borrowed from me, cold as a coin on a dead man’s eye. There’s a room past the hall with a sleeping crown in it, one soft throat under all that gold. I tell myself the night gave permission, but the latch in my palm says no. My wife washed fear from the edge of my jacket, kissed the doubt like a stain she could lift. She said, “Only do what your future demands.” I heard, “Become what you cannot forgive.” Now the boards count steps in a language of warning. Now the dark leans close to my clothes. Before the blade, before the blood, the bell already knows. [Chorus] The bell knows. The bell knows. I can lie to the room, but the iron won’t. One more breath, then the red door closes. I ain’t done it yet, but the bell knows. [Verse 2] There’s a shape in the air where a knife might live, silver thought with a handle of smoke. I reach for nothing. Nothing reaches back. That’s how a bad idea learns your bones. Every saint in the wallpaper watches. Every shadow moves like a witness turned. I could still go back to being almost. I could still let the candle burn. But almost is a coward with expensive perfume, and tomorrow keeps tapping the glass. I see a throne with teeth in the moonlight, see my own name split down the brass. If I walk away, I hear laughter forever. If I walk in, I hear ghosts. Before the scream, before the crown, the bell already knows. [Chorus] The bell knows. The bell knows. I can lie to the room, but the iron won’t. One more breath, then the red door closes. I ain’t done it yet, but the bell knows. [Bridge] Don’t call it fate. Fate don’t sweat. Fate don’t stand with a blade half-kept. Don’t call it hunger. Hunger asks. This is my hand making a mask. No thunder signed it. No angel spoke. Just one small sound in an old black throat. And once it rings, the air will split. I’ll spend my life walking out of it. [Final Chorus] The bell knows. The bell knows. I can lie to the room, but the iron won’t. One more breath, then the red door closes. I ain’t done it yet— God, the bell knows. [Outro] Don’t ring yet. Too late now. The house held still, then the night bowed down. [End]