Cast down with open hands

(Verse 1)
I was raised in a kingdom of watching eyes
Where the meek learned early how to memorize
Every tremor before it could take its form
Like a choir boy bracing for holy storm

They said, “Child, there’s a gift in the way you see—
How you kneel to another’s misery”
So I bent ‘til my back learned the shape of grace
With a borrowed sorrow upon my face

(Pre-Chorus)
Oh, I was taught to listen where Heaven wouldn’t speak
To be strong for the broken, and silent for the weak

(Chorus)
So I carried their sins like a fallen son
Cast down, but the work not done
Every wound they confessed, I would make it mine
Like a sacred sign
Oh, I wore every grief like a crown of thorns
Felt reborn in the torn
But what kind of God leaves a soul this way—
Half in light, half decayed?

(Verse 2)
There were halos cracked in the ones I’d save
There were devils dressed in the ones who gave
And I couldn’t tell where the line was drawn
Between what was right and what I’d become

Laid my hands like a rite on their aching heads
Spoke in tongues of the things they never said
‘Til their darkness took root in the breath I’d take
Like a pact I was born to break

(Pre-Chorus)
Oh, I mistook their fire for a holy test
Now there’s ash where I laid to rest

(Chorus)
I was buried in sins that were never mine
Like a cross I was made to climb
Every tear that they wept, I would bleed it too
Like the chosen do
Oh, I gave ‘til my name was a thing erased
Just a vessel of grace
But salvation don’t ask you to disappear
Just to keep someone near

(Bridge)
If I’m cast from the gates for refusing this—
For unlearning the martyr’s kiss
Then let Heaven close its doors to me
I will choose to be free

Was I angel, or just undone?
By the weight of everyone
Let me fall from the need to atone
For a suffering not my own

(Break / Whispered)
Not every soul is mine to save
Not every cross is mine to raise

(Final Chorus)
I lay down every crown they gave in pain
Every borrowed chain
I am flesh, I am fire, I am not divine
I don’t need to shine
Oh, the curse was believing love required
I be self-expired
Now I walk where the broken and whole both stand
With an empty, open hand

(Outro)
Let the heavens write me out their lore
I am not what I was before
No more altar, no more throne—
What I carry… is mine alone

Dark indie folk with cinematic build,deep baritone vocals,sparse acoustic start,swelling to a haunting,emotional release