I am a crumbling fortress of cowardice
Desperately patching the cracks in a wall of lies
The armies of the world make ready beyond my gates
I furiously guard the contents of an empty chest
As a fool protects his shadow

I wage cold war with a desolate perspective
That even you will one day betray me
That day will not find me unprepared
I will defend my cage to the very last
For it's all I have left

Silently I wait for the day to arrive
A day foretold when I was only a boy
When your true faces would be revealed
Exposing a sea of vipers and wolves

But that day never came

This kingdom of shame quakes around me
Fragments slip through my trembling hands
A life wasted protecting a useless iron core
Now only a battery keeping a broken toy alive
If only I could rip it out

Reborn to a world where I don't exist
A world I have rejected to protect a myth
The people who loved me, have they given up?
They gaze right past me, move right through me

Was I even here?

Has this all been a dream?
This self-induced seclusion
Years lost in a boy's delusion
Did this happen to me?

Am I even real?
Do you remember my face?
Or has the mask taken its place?
Was I even here?

I am a phantom among the ruins of my failure
I leave no footprints in the falling ash
I see no reflection in the eyes of those I've left
Their lives glide forward safely out of reach

I can’t live like this anymore
Trying to rip out this iron core

I scream to the Voice "Where are you now?"
"Where is the strength I was promised?"
I open myself, hoping to spill the pain
But the sickness runs deep, all I lose is blood

I have to hurt you just this once more
I’m going to bleed out this iron core

But it was not yet my time to go
God will not grant me peace
Nor allow me to seize it myself
And it all begins to make sense

I have amassed a great debt
It must be paid before I can go
I have inflicted immeasurable pain
And that pain must first be struck upon me

Now it's all so clear

This cannot be a dream
This self-sustained illusion
Years lost in a boy's confusion
This happened to me

And it's all too real
Do you remember my face?
Or have those memories been erased?
Am I even here?

The Boy:
“Ok I’m ready. Do your worst….”