[Verse 1 – Elizabeth:]
You asked me why I gamble breath
Like I’ve got more to spare
Strange thing for you to question, Mark—
You live like you don’t care
But I remember London nights
Before the sky went wrong
A city that would hum you home
And pull your heart along
[Verse 2 – Mark:]
I know that look—you’re somewhere else
Not standing here with me
Chasing ghosts through burning streets
That no one else can see
You think the past is something
You can wrestle back by force
But I’ve seen men like that before—
They don’t come back, of course
[Chorus – Elizabeth:]
Big Ben ringing through my bones
London Bridge beneath my feet
Voices saying “mind the gap”
Like the world was kind and sweet
Now it’s ash and something worse
Where the brave and broken lie
If I don’t take every chance—
Then that city truly dies
[Chorus – Mark:(overlapping by end)]
I hear it in the way you breathe
Like you’re already gone
Like every step you take with me
Is just to carry on
You say you cannot fail at all—
That’s not a thing you choose
’Cause anyone who fights like that
Is planning how to lose
[Verse 3 – Elizabeth:]
Torchlight in the underground
As trains came roaring in
Golden light on tired faces
Hope beneath the din
Rain that washed the whole world clean
Fog that let you hear
Every footstep coming close—
Everyone was near
[Verse 4 – Mark:]
I’ve walked through towns that look like that
Just silence where they stood
And every soldier swore to me
They’d fix it if they could
But “no failure” breaks a person
Turns their heart to stone
You don’t save a city, Liz—
If you lose your own
✓Bridge – Elizabeth: (quiet, intense)]
She walks there now… something ancient
Twisting all I knew
If I stop, if I falter—
Then she wins it too
[Bridge – Mark: (firm, stepping in)]
And if you burn yourself to reach it
What’s left to bring it back?
A victory without a soul
Is just another crack
[Clash (duet, rising tension)]
[Elizabeth:] I don’t get to lose, not once—
[Mark:] That’s the lie that gets you killed—
[Elizabeth:] I will not leave London there—
[Mark:] Not if you’re the one it’s filled—
[Elizabeth:] With what? Say it.
[Mark:] With someone I don’t know.
[Final Chorus – Duet (resolved tension)]
[Elizabeth:] Big Ben ringing—faint but there
[Mark:] Then we fight to hear it clear
[Elizabeth:] London Bridge still stands in me
[Mark:] Then you don’t have to disappear
[Elizabeth:] Say “mind the gap” one more time—
[Mark:] Between the past and what is true
[Both:] We don’t win by losing ourselves
We win by making it through
[Outro – Shared, quieter]
[Elizabeth:] I won’t let it die…
[Mark:] Then don’t die with it.
[Elizabeth (after a beat):]
…Then stay with me when I run.
[Mark:]
Always. Just not off the edge.
ElCeviche
