Intro (spoken)

Once upon a midnight the house goes quiet and then it starts,

one fingernail slowly dragged down the plaster in the dark.

Tap… tap… tap… I thought she was gone, but silence lied.

Verse 1 (male)

The clock keeps breathing slow, like it’s holding in a grin,

a shadow traces footsteps where the light used to begin.

Not a scratch — just a timid tap that keeps replying back,

I told myself she was a ghost that I already lacked.

Still thinking she was gone, still thinking I was free.

Pre-Chorus (male)

But there’s a pulse in the wall that wakes and learns to speak,

it starts like a whisper, then it pounds along my cheek.

I’m not afraid — I’m just puzzled why the night still knows her name,

a tiny voice that curls and says I’m never the same.

Chorus (woman — breathy / rough)

haa… haa…

I NEVER LEFT — I’m written in your walls, I never left,

I NEVER LEFT — I’m in the corners where you hid the rest.

You pulled my masks, you called me broken, you called me wrong,

I’ll sing my lines inside your head and make them into song.

I never left, I never left, I’m cheaper than therapy,

I never left — come look behind your memory.

Post-Chorus (whispered, overlapping)

tap tap… tap tap… cheaper than therapy… cheaper than therapy…

Verse 2 (male)

You said I’m honest now, you peeled a thousand lies,

I named you what they warned about beneath those pretty eyes.

She learned to haunt the corners where the cold light bends,

she learned that lonely ladders climb back to old regrets.

I let her stay because it cost me less than peace.

Pre-Chorus (male)

Heartbeat quickens, little drum becomes a roar,

a voice that keeps on knocking at my plaster door.

I laugh it off like gossip, I tell myself it’s fine,

but every midnight’s grammar spells her name in mine.

Chorus (woman — breathy / rough)

haa… haa…

I NEVER LEFT — I’m carved out in your wallpaper, I never left,

I NEVER LEFT — I’m humming in the pipes where love was cleft.

You called me names and unmasked me for what I would become,

I’ll stay like cheap decor until the house comes undone.

I never left, I never left, I’m cheaper than therapy,

I never left — I will outlast your memory.

Bridge (woman, whisper to scream)

I was always lonely, I was always small,

you unmade my edges, you let me fall.

(narcissist… abuser… manipulator…)

I will press my palms against your night, and count your faults aloud,

I will rattle every chain you hid and wear my silence proud.

haa… haa… HAAAA!

Final Chorus (full, male/female interplay)

I NEVER LEFT — (hearing it) I never left, I never left,

I NEVER LEFT — (she laughs) I never left, I never left.

You left my mask upon the floor, you called my name a sin,

so I moved into the wallpaper and learned to live within.

I never left, I never left — cheaper than therapy,

I never left… I never left… I never—

Outro (spoken, deadpan)

Best price I ever paid.

tap… tap… (a small, wet inhale)

She’s right behind the wallpaper.