Door Inside The Ashes

[Intro: distant crackling, lonely piano]

[Verse 1: fragile baritone]
We said the things that turn to ashes
Burned a bridge we used to cross
Watched the smoke erase the distance
Till we couldn't see what we'd lost
I kept a list of all your failures
Like a book I'd memorized
Then I saw you trying to change
With the sorrow in your eyes

[Pre-Chorus: ascending falsetto]
I won't pretend the fire was kind
But I can leave the flames behind

[Chorus: explosive major-key harmonies]
There's a door inside the ashes
There's a road beyond the pain
We can carry what we've learned
Without carrying every chain
I don't owe you back my trust
You don't owe me who you were
But I can leave a little room
For a better world to occur

[Break: soaring guitar over half-time drums]

[Verse 2: intimate legato]
You said the words without excuses
Then you changed what you could change
I could see a different person
Growing through the wreckage

[Bridge: beatless, sustained melody]
Forgiveness isn't forgetting
And healing isn't always staying
Sometimes it's setting down the fire
And choosing not to feed it

[Final Chorus: stacked choir, cathartic]
There's a door inside the ashes
And a morning past the smoke
We are more than all the moments
When our better selves were broken

[Outro: piano resolves to major]