Monster Inside

There’s a room behind my ribs where the locks have rusted shut Every whispered prayer I made just turned to dust I hear claws in the static when the house goes still Something walks my bloodstream with a stranger's will I wear my smile like a bruise under clean white light But the mirror keeps a second face at night It knows my name before I speak, it knows my shame by heart And every step I take is a match struck in the dark There’s a monster inside me, breathing through the cracks I can feel it when I falter, pulling me back It wears my skin, it speaks my lies, it laughs when I break There’s a monster inside me, and I wake There’s a monster inside me, holding on too tight I fight it in the mirror, I fight it in the night If I’m the cage and it’s the key, then tell me what I am When the monster inside me has my hand I tried to drown it in the noise of crowded bars In the red-lit smoke, in the hum of borrowed guitars But every chord came back like a warning bell Every stranger’s touch just rang inside the well I’ve made a home from shattered glass and vacant pride Built a tower of excuses I can hide behind Still it breathes in the silence, patient as a thorn Feeding on the parts of me that should have been reborn There’s a monster inside me, breathing through the cracks I can feel it when I falter, pulling me back It wears my skin, it speaks my lies, it laughs when I break There’s a monster inside me, and I wake There’s a monster inside me, holding on too tight I fight it in the mirror, I fight it in the night If I’m the cage and it’s the key, then tell me what I am When the monster inside me has my hand Maybe it’s my hunger, maybe it’s my fear Maybe all the things I buried learned to steer If I call it by its true name, will it finally fade? Or is the beast just my shadow, unafraid? There’s a monster inside me, but I’m still here Blood on the ceiling, truth in the fear It wears my skin, it speaks my lies, but I won’t disappear There’s a monster inside me, and I’m still here There’s a monster inside me, I’ve carried it for years Now I hear my own voice cutting through the gears If I’m the cage and it’s the key, then I’ll break what I began And take back the monster inside me from my hand I take back the monster inside me I take back the monster inside me