Prompt / Lyrics
[Verse 1] The calendar says twenty, soon the clock strikes twenty-one But I’m still standing in that hallway, staring at the gun. They look at me and see a woman, steady and refined But I’m a graveyard of the secrets that I had to leave behind. From fifteen to this moment, it’s been a jagged, blood-red line I traded in my girlhood just to keep the others fine. I don’t know how the air still finds its way into my chest When I spent five years screaming while I laid my heart to rest. [Pre-Chorus] I grew up in a heartbeat, I grew up in a flash Building up a kingdom from a pile of bone and ash. I’m a mystery to the mirror, I’m a stranger to the light Just a girl who learned too early how to survive the night. [Chorus] How am I still breathing? How am I still here? When I’m made of five long winters and a thousand tons of fear. I’ve been the shield and I’ve been the ghost, I’ve been the sacrifice I’ve paid for every "next day" with a heavy, hollow price. I survived the choices that my mother made for him Now I’m standing on the shoreline, learning how to swim. [Verse 2] I look at twenty-one like it’s a planet far away I never thought I’d see the sun move past that Tuesday gray. The trauma is a shadow that’s grown tall as I have grown It sits at every table, it’s the marrow in my bone. I don’t show them how it hurts, I don't show them where I bleed I just give them all the strength that I know I’m gonna need. But sometimes in the silence, when the world is fast asleep I wonder how a heart so broken finds the strength to keep. [Bridge] (The beat intensifies—industrial, dark, and pulsing) I’m not fifteen anymore... but she’s still inside of me. Asking how we made it out, asking if we’re free. I don't have the answers, I just have the scars I’m a collection of the wreckage and a handful of the stars. (Vocal climbs to a haunting, ethereal high note) I survived! I survived! I survived! [Chorus] How am I still breathing? How am I still here? When I’m made of five long winters and a thousand tons of fear. I’ve been the shield and I’ve been the ghost, I’ve been the sacrifice I’ve paid for every "next day" with a heavy, hollow price. I survived the choices that my mother made for him Now I’m standing on the shoreline, learning how to swim. [Outro] (Music strips away to a low, vibrating synth) Twenty-one is coming... A birthday for a girl who wasn't supposed to stay. I’m still here. Against the odds, against the gun, against the ghost. I’m still here. (Fades out with the sound of a slow, steady heartbeat)
Tags
Dark Alt-Pop / Emotional Noir female voice
Duration
4:19
Instrumental
No
Created
2/5/2026