(( *** Anghelus! He was here before. Centuries ago, the city bore another name, and the pavement that now glows with neon was once slick with rain upon cobblestone. His love for a mortal, and intrigues that were plotted against him, made him betray the one who had made him what he is. A vampire! But the punishment of his kind was cruel — disfigured, banished, buried.

Yet he could not die. In the darkness of the earth, he heard the city above him breathe, grow, and forget. Stone upon stone, century after century. Until their voices woke him — the rumble of engines, the wail of sirens, the rhythm of heartbeats. The world had changed, but humans had not: blind, loud, far too sure of themselves.

Now he walks the streets again, in a body that moves like a shadow through glass and mist. No one recognizes him. No one believes in him. But he sees them all — the descendants of those who once betrayed him. Their faces flicker across screens, their names blaze in the lights of towers, their hearts beat within the same city that once burned him.

He smiles, softly. For he knows that patience is his greatest weapon. He waits, unseen, as the city hums and forgets.

And when it does — when memory fades completely —

he will rise from the dark once more.

And he will teach it to remember. *** ))

The lights are bleeding through the rain,

I walk unseen, I breathe your pain.

I know these streets, I know their sin,

I fade, but I was never in.

An ancient heart that no one hears,

still beating slow beneath your fears.

You dream in color, live in lies –

I watch you through a thousand eyes.

No one knows that I have returned,

my blood runs cold, my faith has burned.

You dance beneath a borrowed light,

I’ll wait until the city forgets the night.

(No one knows that I have returned)

The years have stolen every name,

but not the oath, not who’s to blame.

You thought the ashes meant I died –

but fire sleeps, it never lies.

I feel the pulse in every wall,

this cursed ground remembers all.

I drink the wind, your guilt, your sins,

the silence hums beneath my skin.

No one knows that I have returned,

my blood runs cold, my faith has burned.

You dance beneath a borrowed light,

I’ll wait until the city forgets the night.

(No one knows that I have returned)

I stand in rain, invisible,

a whisper in the interval.

My shadow hums a vengeful song,

revenge has slept, but not for long.

Just one kiss of the endless night,

and you’ll recall what hides from light.

No prayer can save, no mercy left –

I am the wound you can’t forget.

No one knows that I have returned,

my blood runs cold, my faith has burned.

You dance beneath a borrowed light,

I’ll wait until the city forgets the night.

And when it sleeps, when all is still,

I’ll take what time has yet to kill.

I am the shadow in your breath –

the name the city spoke to death.

(No one knows that I have returned)

(No one knows that I have returned)