And I Shall Persist

[Intro] (One low drone beneath a barely audible breath) Little white pills. So many. So few. [Verse 1] (Deep restrained tenor over a slow, crushing riff) I keep them hidden near my heart, pale answers without names. Each one quiets something ancient scratching softly at the frame. My hunger is born of greed. My need is excess. I consume because the silence is the nearest thing to rest. The past has learned to imitate the voices of the dead. Every failure I survived still waits beside my bed. [Pre-Chorus] (Drums enter as isolated, crushing impacts) I must always keep moving. Running while I feed. I make a law of appetite and call compulsion need. [Chorus] (Full band; voice opens into a deep, wounded howl) Little white pills, keep the wraiths from my soul. Little white pills, keep the fractures from the whole. I consume to be preserved. I devour to endure. There is nothing left inside me that can promise any cure. [Verse 2] (Riff bends gradually out of tune) This life has twisted passages that never lead me free. Every choice becomes another wall constructed out of me. At times I face what follows. At times I make it kneel. For one brief hour I remember how an unafraid man feels. But courage has a short half-life. The darkness knows my scent. What I conquer in the morning returns before the day is spent. I cannot shake the thought that what pursues me wears my face, that every ghost is what remains when I surrender to this place. [Chorus] Little white pills, keep the wraiths from my soul. Little white pills, keep the fractures from the whole. I consume to be preserved. I devour to endure. There is nothing left inside me that can promise any cure. [Interlude] (No drums; one guitar note bends beneath distant, indistinct voices) They show me things I almost want, beautiful enough to trust. Tender shapes with open hands that crumble when I touch. Mirage upon mirage. Promise after promise. Every mercy has a mouth. [Bridge] (Drums return slowly, each strike heavier than the last) Then let them place temptation in every chamber of my mind. Let them dress destruction sweetly. Let them make damnation kind. I will take it all within me. I will leave no trace behind. I will starve the things that hunt me by consuming what I find. And should I learn those wraiths are me, the selves I failed to overcome, I will not kneel before them. I will swallow what I become. [Final Chorus] (Massive sustained chords; the voice sounds resolute but no longer entirely human) Little white pills, there are never quite enough. Little white pills, make the failing spirit tough. I consume to be preserved. I devour to endure. I have long since stopped believing there was ever any cure. [Final Refrain] (Everything drops except distorted bass and voice) If I should fail. If I should cease. I'll purchase one more hour of this counterfeit peace. (Full band crashes back in) No matter what the past remembers, no matter what it makes of me, I shall persist beyond the terror. I shall consume. I shall be. [Outro] (The instruments decay into a single low vibration) The dead remain. The hunger remains. I remain. And I shall persist.