Vacuum Between Us

Verse 1 The hangar’s quiet after burns Metal cools and no one learns How loud a silence really gets When engines die and you’re not dead They say we rise, we don’t decay Just print a body and fly away Like consequence is out of reach Like death’s a glitch that maybe we can beat But something stays that won’t respawn Something lingers once they’re gone A shadow pressed behind my eyes A tally mark the dark can't hide ⸻ Pre-Chorus Immortal flesh in borrowed skin Doesn’t mean the soul walks in ⸻ Chorus I decide who faces night Who disappears beyond the light Who drifts alone in signal loss Who pays the unseen cost They think the medbed makes it right Like pain dissolves in sterile white But every time I say “Proceed” Something inside of me recedes Respawn resets the bone and breath Not the man who ordered death ⸻ Verse 2 There’s a loneliness in command No handshake helps you understand You stand between the void and them And choose which lives you’re risking when You learn to speak without the doubt You learn to lock the tremor out You learn that mercy’s sometimes wrong When hesitation costs too long And every launch feels less divine More like crossing a thin line Between survival and regret Between what’s saved and what you let ⸻ Pre-Chorus They call it strength to bear the load But strength is just a heavy road ⸻ Chorus I decide who breaks the flame Who wakes up changed, but not the same Who trusts the dark and who retreats Who carries scars beneath their seats They think the cycle keeps us whole But something erodes inside the role Each time I send another soul Into a fight I can’t control Respawn resets the flesh and breath Not the weight of living with it ____ Final Chorus (raw, strained) I decide who flies at dawn Who never sees another one Who believes the promise sold That dying young won’t make them old They call me steady. Call me strong. But strength feels like being wrong Over and over — and still standing tall Because someone has to make the call Respawn resets the skin and sight But not the man awake at night Counting ships. Counting ghosts. Counting what it costs.