I’ll Pretend You’re Gone I Know You—Now Run: Part IV [OCTOPUS POP — 102 BPM • 8/8 body heart, restrained 3+3+2 departure steps and displaced 5+3 pull back toward the palace • intimate romantic body-horror becoming dark pilgrimage] [EIGHT ARMS — 1 piano Crown preserves the unanswered middle name; 2 bowed-glass Mirror reflects deliberate lies; 3 fretless-bass Body pulls toward the border; 4 viola Severed arm hides recognition; 5 skin-drum Ground follows her departure; 6 sucker-clicks release from each false memory; 7 reed-organ Skin carries the infection records; 8 formant-string Mouth turns grief into disguise.] [VOCALS — Female solo throughout. Cool silvery British female mezzo, extreme close mic, controlled breath, fragile chest mix and featherlight head voice. She performs grief convincingly while hiding determination beneath it. No male vocals, choir, belting or creature voice.] [INTRO — The male’s final question survives only as a damaged piano contour] What was your— What was your middle— What was your— [Female Vocals — Quietly Answering] You never knew it. [VERSE 1 — Female Vocals] You asked my middle name Like it had emptied from your head But the human in your pupils Looked in pain at what you said So I told you, “You forgot it You were wrong about the rest” And the mouths along your shoulders Slowly loosened from your neck I said, “You never knew me There is nothing left to save” Something living in your left eye Had to watch me dig its grave But beneath the hurt, I saw it: You were listening through the lie You had moved my scar between my hands To keep it from the right [PRE-CHORUS 1 — Female Vocals] So I moved it where you put it Called my greenest memory red Every lie you gave the hunger I repeated as I left If it learned me through your loving Then our love would disappear I made every word convincing While I prayed that you could hear [CHORUS 1 — Female Vocals] I’ll pretend that you’re gone Let the thing inside believe it I’ll say nothing human watched me When I turned toward the door I’ll pretend that you’re gone Let it loosen from my memory If it thinks there’s nothing left between us It won’t follow anymore I’ll grieve loudly through the village I’ll wear black beyond the wall If it listens through your body I’ll pretend you’re gone [Arm 2 reflects her false grief; Arm 4 preserves the truth without words] [VERSE 2 — Female Vocals] I told the guards you didn’t know me Told the court your mind had died Said the thing beneath your features Was the only thing inside I returned the jailer’s iron Left his keys beside the gate Then slipped beneath the sickroom While the bells announced your fate I took the palace physician’s ledger And the blood dried on the chain Wrapped a fragment shed beside you So it couldn’t learn my name Every page described the changing Every page concluded: lost But a note beneath the binding Named old cases never crossed— [Female Vocals — Stops Herself] No. Not yet. [The unfinished location transfers into bowed glass] [PRE-CHORUS 2 — Female Vocals] I let everyone keep mourning Let them seal the palace wing While I traced the faded writing Past the borders of the king They had searched their roots and poisons They had burned and bled the ill But their knowledge ended cleanly At the edges of the hills [CHORUS 2 — Female Vocals] I’ll pretend that you’re gone While I carry what infected you I’ll let every borrowed mouth believe There’s nothing left to learn I’ll pretend that you’re gone While I follow older evidence Someone saw this long before us Someone watched a body turn I’ll grieve loudly through the village Then grow quiet past the wall If it listens through your body I’ll pretend you’re gone [INK-CLOUD — Her public mourning spreads backward toward the palace while her true melody travels outward] [BRIDGE — Female Vocals — The Performance Cracks Privately] You remembered every detail You remembered every stain You knew which hand I carried Even while you changed its place You remembered I wore green When you forced yourself to say red You remembered my middle name That was why your eyes looked— [She cannot sing “hurt”; Arm 4 carries it instrumentally] I know why you lied I know what you meant You gave the creature someone false Then asked me where she went So I buried her between us Let it follow what we made You can keep the wrong reflection I’ll go find what makes it break [JET IMPACT — All eight arms turn away from the palace] [FINAL CHORUS — Female Vocals — Grief Becomes Forward Motion] I’ll pretend that you’re gone Till I’m far beyond its hearing Till the roads erase my footsteps And the glass forgets my face I’ll pretend that you’re gone But I’m carrying you with me In the blood beneath the stopper And the pages at my waist Let the kingdom hear me mourn you Let the creature think I’m lost I am not leaving you behind me I am searching past the wall I’ll pretend that you’re gone Until I bring the answer home…
