[Intro] Can't move... can't scream... it's standin' there again... Same hat, same shape, same fuckin' corner of the room... [Verse 1] Wide awake but my body ain't gettin' the message, Chest feel like it's caught up under a heavy weight, pressin', Eyes open, can't blink, can't shift, can't turn my head, Somethin' tall and black stand still beside the bed, Wide brim hat, no face, just a void where a face should go, Been comin' every night since the meds stopped, maybe longer, I don't know, Time don't work right when it's here, clock just stop, Feel it starin' through me like it's countin' every thought, Told my psychiatrist, she said "sleep paralysis, that's all," Flat voice, didn't even look up, wrote it down, that's all, Runs in the family anyway, mama used to see things too, Grandpa in the home still talkin' to somebody, nobody, who, [Hook] (unhinged, half-shouted, half-muttered — paranoid cadence) Hat Man, Hat Man, standin' in the corner, Can't move a muscle, can't warn ya, can't warn ya, Hat Man, Hat Man, starin' through the dark, Every night the same shape, every night my heart stop, [Verse 2] Startin' to see it when I'm wide awake too now, Corner of my eye in broad daylight, watchin' me somehow, Startin' to think the paralysis ain't the real curse, Startin' to think it's just when the veil gets thin, gets— (beat drops out for a half second, comes back distorted) Everybody say it's stress, everybody say it's in my head, Maybe it is, maybe I'm the one that's really— (cuts off, restarts flatly, no emotion) Doctor upped the dosage, didn't change a thing at all, Some nights I don't take 'em, don't matter, it still crawl, (rapid paranoid stream-of-consciousness burst, chaotic internal rhyme, unraveling) Can't tell no more what's real, what's a dream, what's a memory, Every night it's closer, every night it's inside of me, Ain't got no hook to grab, ain't got no ledge to hold, Feel my mind start slippin' like a hand losin' grip on cold, Woke up screamin', wasn't sleep, wasn't paralyzed no more, But the hat man's standin' right there — right there by my door, [Bridge] (muttered, unraveling, pitch-detuned on the word "real") It's r-r-real, it's real, it's— (cuts off abruptly) [Outro] (dead silence, then a single whispered line, dry, close-mic, no reverb, flat delivery) I never told you I woke up.
