[Intro – hushed voices, house settling] We locked every door. We checked every window. But the quiet outside still felt wrong.[Verse 1] We gathered in the living room because the bedrooms felt too far apart Mother kept the youngest pulled close against her side Father stood near the front hall even though none of us believed distance would help The older children sat on the floor between us knees drawn up, eyes fixed on the dark glass The power had failed across the whole block yet the silence that followed was heavier than the dark No cars passed No voices carried from neighboring houses Only the occasional distant sound that none of us wanted to name[Verse 2] We spoke in the lowest voices we could manage as if volume itself might draw attention “Stay away from the windows.” “Don’t open the curtains.” “If anything moves outside, we do not look.” The rules felt fragile even as we said them One of the children asked if the thing from the news had reached our part of the city yet No one answered right away We all already knew the answer from the way the streetlights had died and the way the air itself seemed thicker than it should[Chorus] We are the ones still inside, the ones the night has not yet chosen Holding each other in a house that suddenly feels too small They fall… they fall… they still fall… And we are only trying to stay on the side that has not fallen[Verse 3] Time stretched in the dark Minutes felt longer than they had any right to We listened for footsteps that never came yet the absence of footsteps was worse because the quiet kept growing as if the entire neighborhood had decided to hold its breath at once Father checked the locks again though we had already checked them twice Mother hummed something soft and broken that used to work when the children were smaller It did not work now The youngest had stopped asking questions and only clung tighter[Verse 4] We tried to make a plan in whispers Which room was safest Which exit we might use if the front became impossible Whether the basement would hide us or trap us Every option felt like a different version of the same helplessness Outside, the dark pressed closer to the glass We could not see movement yet something about the empty street felt occupied as if the night had taken a shape large enough to fill the spaces between the houses[Chorus] We are the ones still inside, the ones the night has not yet chosen Holding each other in a house that suddenly feels too small They fall… they fall… they still fall… And we are only trying to stay on the side that has not fallen[Bridge – quiet, strained] We used to believe walls were enough. We used to believe locks and lights and numbers in a phone could keep the worst things outside. Tonight the walls feel thin. The locks feel temporary. And the phone has no signal left to offer.We are still together. That is the only true thing we have left.[Final Chorus – low, almost breaking] We are the ones still inside, the ones the night has not yet chosen Holding each other while the city grows quieter than it should They fall… they fall… they still fall… And we keep listening for the moment it decides on us[Outro – long silence inside the house] No one speaks anymore. No one moves toward the windows. We only stay close and wait in a house that no longer feels like it belongs to the living part of the city.The night continues. And so do we… for now.
