[Intro — Apartment Ambience]
[Late-night room tone. A pipe clicks in the wall. Slow footsteps cross the ceiling, stop directly overhead, then repeat. A low, dissonant guitar pulse joins the sounds.]
[Verse 1 — Clean Vocals, Restrained]
At 2:13, the ceiling starts to move.
A measured step from one end of the room to the other.
I live on the top floor.
There is no apartment above me.
I check the stairs.
I check the roof.
The hallway is empty.
The footsteps begin again.
[Pre-Chorus — Clean Vocals, Building Tension]
I knock once against the ceiling.
The sound comes back from the wall.
I hold my breath.
Something above me holds its breath too.
[Chorus — Melodic Clean Vocals, Dark and Expansive]
There’s a neighbor above me,
walking circles through the dark.
I can hear him stop and listen
when I move across the room.
There’s a neighbor above me.
There’s no floor above my own.
Every night he takes one step closer.
Every night I wake alone.
[Verse 2 — Clean Vocals, Tighter Rhythmic Delivery]
I record the sound and play it back.
The footsteps stop before they start.
On the waveform, beneath the noise,
I hear my own voice say, “Don’t open the door.”
I move my bed into the kitchen.
The steps follow over me.
I leave the lights on until morning.
At dawn, they’re standing on the ceiling.
[Pre-Chorus — Clean Vocals, Intensifying]
I strike the wall.
It answers from beneath the floor.
I run outside.
The same footsteps cross the roof.
[Chorus — Bigger, Melodic Clean Vocals]
There’s a neighbor above me,
walking circles through the dark.
I can hear him stop and listen
when I move across the room.
There’s a neighbor above me.
There’s no floor above my own.
Every night he takes one step closer.
Every night I wake alone.
[Breakdown — Djent, Polyrhythmic and Heavy]
[Shifting time signatures, tight syncopated low-tuned riffs, sudden stops. Begin with clean vocals, then add high screams as the rhythm becomes more crushing.]
[Clean Vocals]
I knock on the ceiling—
[High Scream]
IT KNOCKS FROM BELOW!
[Clean Vocals]
I run to the doorway—
[High Scream]
IT’S ALREADY HOME!
[Scream]
ONE STEP ABOVE!
[Scream]
ONE STEP BELOW!
[Bridge — Sparse Clean Vocals, Gradual Build]
Tonight, I don’t move.
I don’t call.
I don’t turn on the lights.
The footsteps stop above my bed.
Then the ceiling bends inward,
slowly,
like something is pressing its ear
against the other side.
[Final Chorus — Full Band, Urgent Clean Vocals]
There’s a neighbor above me,
walking circles through the dark.
Now I hear him breathe beside me.
Now I feel him leave a mark.
There’s a neighbor above me.
There’s no floor above my own.
He has found the room beneath me.
I am no longer alone.
[Outro — Sudden Stop]
[The band cuts out. One slow footstep sounds from directly overhead.]
[Whispered Clean Vocals]
I live on the top floor.
[One knock from beneath the floor. Silence.]
