2. Affect Veil - Locke

[Verse 1] I put a wall across my face A lock beneath my skin Not to look pretty in the storm Not to stand above the din I learned too young the price Of a tremor out of place A glance that gets dissected A weakness they can trace So I cut away the signs Made my calm turn cruel Put my fear behind glass And my heart under Affect Veil [Pre-Chorus] Don’t search inside my eyes For what I never gave If I smile a little better It’s the mask that learned to lie [Chorus] Affect Veil Bite into my skin Hide the cracks Cut off the excess within Affect Veil Keep me standing through I hate you But I still need you If my face does not break It doesn’t mean I’m fine It means I paid the price To stop bleeding before the dogs [Verse 2] Low mode when I want to believe That someone might stay Moderate in the corridors So I can speak without giving way High mode when it hits too close When words find every nerve When pain becomes too solid And wants the light it doesn’t deserve Maximum, nothing gets through No blush, no cry, no sound I look clean on the surface While the circuits scream underground [Pre-Chorus] You call it control I call it staying alive I stitched my own straitjacket With chrome and frost inside [Chorus] Affect Veil Bite into my skin Hide the cracks Cut off the excess within Affect Veil Keep me standing through I hate you But I still need you If my face does not break It doesn’t mean I’m fine It means I paid the price To stop bleeding before the dogs [Bridge] I don’t want to be unreadable I just want them to stop reading My wounds like open targets My silence like a gunshot breathing I don’t want to be invincible I just want to choose the place Where I can become fragile Without it being thrown back in my face But look at what I made I took my own reflection Trained it, locked it, shaped it To become my replacement And sometimes I don’t know If I still protect myself Or if I simply agreed To disappear with better lighting [Breakdown] Stable face Quiet jaw Straight gaze Breathe low No blush No tear No fear No scene Smile better Speak less Fall elsewhere Not here Hide everything Hold on Clench your teeth High mode [Final Chorus] Affect Veil Bite into my skin Hide the cracks Cut off the excess within Affect Veil Keep me standing through I hate you But I still need you If my face does not break It doesn’t mean I’m strong It means I closed the door Before anyone could see why Affect Veil Stay on the surface Do not become my real face Affect Veil I made you so I’d stop hurting Not to forget how to live [Outro] If I lower the mask one day Don’t pretend nothing changed It’s not a glitch of love It’s me coming back.