[Intro – muted guitar, steady heartbeat-like drums] One foot down, then another Count the breaths, ignore the pain Every road in this new city Feels like someone changed my lane They unpacked our lives in boxes Hung the pictures, made the beds But you can’t call a place a home Just because you live in it instead [Verse 1 – restrained, quietly bitter] Mother says the light is different Like that makes the sky brand new Grandma cooks the way she always did And leaves an empty place for you There’s a stranger at the table Trying not to take your chair He is kind, and that’s the problem I still hate him sitting there I put my headphones on at dinner Let the guitars drown them out I learned every word for silence Now I’m learning how to shout [Pre-Chorus – drums begin accelerating] I was trained to hold my rhythm I was taught to watch my time But the finish line keeps moving And the starting gun was mine [Chorus – explosive, anthemic] There’s a red thread running From my hand into the dark Through the streets, across the ocean Through the hollow in my heart I keep running, keep running Like my feet can pull it tight If I’m faster than the sorrow Maybe I can make it right There’s a red thread running And it never lets me go I don’t know where it is leading But I know where it won’t go Back to you Back to then So I run the line again [Verse 2 – stronger guitars, rising anger] I have seen the ties between us Hanging red from hand to hand Some were love and some were duty Some I still don’t understand For a week I saw the whole world Every promise, every chain Then the colors slowly vanished But the power chose to stay Now I tie myself to rooftops To a doorway, to a friend Disappear in scarlet vapor Come out breathing at the end But I’ve tied your watch to photographs I’ve tied your coat to where you lie Every thread returns to something Never someone who has died [Pre-Chorus – voice beginning to crack] Naomi says a hero’s someone Who still finds her own way home But I became one for a reason I don’t tell her when we’re alone [Chorus – heavier, more desperate] There’s a red thread running From my hand into the dark Through the sirens, through the gunshot I invented in my heart I keep running, keep running Like my speed could change that night Like you’d walk back through the doorway If I finally ran it right There’s a red thread running Through the life they moved away They say fate brought me to Brightstone I say fate has hell to pay For your blood For that call For the groceries when they fell [Post-Chorus – instruments briefly drop away] I wasn’t there I was sixteen I wasn’t there It wasn’t me I wasn’t slow I wasn’t weak But every night I hear you speak [Bridge – quiet at first, then building into a roar] You say, “Haruka, stop your running” But your voice is only mine You say, “You cannot save the evening By arriving out of time” Grandma ties red silk inside The glove I wear to every fight She says threads are not just anchors They can lead us toward the light Maybe Mother didn’t leave you Maybe living isn’t wrong Maybe laughter at the table Doesn’t mean that you are gone Maybe home is not a country Not a grave or childhood room Maybe home is every person Who still leaves a light for you [Final Chorus – huge, defiant and hopeful] There’s a red thread running From my hand into the dawn Through the people I am choosing Through the places still unknown I keep running, keep running Not to leave you in the past I can carry what you gave me Without making sorrow last There’s a red thread running But it doesn’t pull one way I can love the life behind me And still live the one today I’ll be fast I’ll be brave But I know I can’t save Every soul Every night That does not mean I won’t fight There’s a red thread running From the girl I used to be To the one who crossed an ocean To the one I choose to be [Outro – drums return to a steady running rhythm] One foot down, then another No more racing yesterday I don’t know if this is home yet But I’m not running away [Softly] The thread is still there. So am I.
