Can you look at a person and know them?
If you hear them talk, does that mean that you know them, then?
Should I tell you my backstory?
Will that make me more real?
I’ll listen and agree with you as you do me
Forging connections both social and emotional
But does that mean that you know me?
I choose what I tell you
As you choose what you show
I project the best of myself
Omitting all of the parts that will make you dislike me
I leave out the darkness that makes me dislike myself
So to you now, I’m funny
A little bit kooky
Kind of different
I’m caring to you because I know that will make you want me around you
But I don’t know where the truth in that begins or ends
I think I’ve figured out the right amount to show,
Just to get by, you know?
But what if I wanted to do more than get by?
What if I wanted to live a complete lie?
Could I make you buy into it?
If I stand in front of you and soothe your anxieties
Rub a salve over your insecurities and promise you that I’ll make them go away will you trust me?
Because I said it, will you trust me?
Or perhaps it’s something else you want.
A kindred kind of deception
Equally beneficial in its sinister end
So I pander to your greed in mutuality
As the fruits of deception grow all too easily
Tell me your fears and I will become your protector
Tell me your needs and I will be your provider
Give to me your sorrow because I am now a savior
Feed into my greed and I will lead you to destruction
Because I know you and I despise you
You do not equal me, because I have manipulated you
And you will serve me
This place is mine and you gave it to me
I wanted to see if I could and you let me
You joined in your own ruin willingly
So how can I respect you?
You’ve made it impossible for me to love you
You’ve forced my hand by putting me here and bound me to the lies that come
I started this, but you are the one that has forced it to go on
Cementing a walkway of despair and laying it down in front of us
Dragging the unwilling along for the agonizingly long walk of pain
You don’t want this anymore than I do
So at what point do we go back to what is actually true?
I never cared about you
I bludgeoned you in the face with who I am and yet still you clung to me cravenly
Like a nursing baby
Knowing nothing of personal boundary
I will inevitably abandon you
To fend for yourself
When you are most in need
Desperate dependency does not appeal to my greed
Now do you know me?
Or do you need to see more?
How bad does this thing here need to get, because I can go there
I can lead you to that bottomless regret
We’ve come this far
The least I can do now is leave a damning mark
Seer my brand into your wretched skin
The cold poison of knowing will start to sink in
Do I take you to the brink of death and destruction?
The nuclear codes await my instruction
Where would you have me go from here?
So you do still think you have some kind of a say?
The pieces are all laid out on the board now, my friend
This is, of course, the beginning of the end
