Standing in the dark

(Intro – clean, ambient, slow)
I stayed too long
Now I can see

⸻

(Verse 1)
I built a life
That fit the shape
Of every fear
I wouldn’t face

I learned to bend
Before the break
Call it survival
Call it safe

I told myself
This path is fine
But something pulled
The other line

⸻

(Pre-Chorus)
And late at night it comes alive
Not dreams but versions of my life

⸻

(Chorus)
I see them standing in the dark
The callous words, the broken hearts
Every choice I never made
Still breathing just beyond the frame

They don’t scream
They don’t accuse
They just exist
Without excuse

And I can’t tell
If I escaped
Or if I’m the one they replaced

⸻

(Verse 2)
There’s one of me
Who took the fall
Who risked it all
Who lost it all

There’s one who burned
There’s one who ran
There’s one who turned
Into a man

And here I stand
Still undecided
Living safe
But divided

⸻

(Pre-Chorus 2)
Every shadow splits in two
Every what if feels like truth

⸻

(Chorus)
I see them clearer every day
The paths I watched just fade away
Every fire I never lit
Still burns somewhere I’m not in it

They don’t hate
They don’t forgive
They just show me how they lived

And I can’t tell
What’s worse to face
The life I kept
Or what I erased

⸻

(Bridge – soft to build)
If I could step across
Would I even recognize
Which one was me

Or did I choose so many times
That I dissolved between the lines

⸻

(Breakdown – heavy, syncopated)
You chose this
You stayed here

No accident
No unclear

No rewind
No exchange

Just one life
Split by change

⸻

(Final Chorus – half-time)
I see them now they look like me
But everything I couldn’t be
Every road I left behind
Still walks beside me all the time

They don’t reach
They don’t plead
They don’t need
Anything from me

And I don’t know
If I’m alive
Or just the one
Who didn’t try

⸻

(Outro – clean, fading)
Deep water
Different lives

Still mine
Just not this time

Progressive djent metal, atmospheric clean verses, haunting regret theme, syncopated heavy riffs, emotional chorus