Gothic Skies - The Final Debt

The ledger lies open on the dust-covered mahogany
A trail of ink bleeding through the decades of rain
I counted every favor like a bird counts its feathers
Waiting for the wind to strip the wings from the bone
The copper coins are cold against my sweating palm

[Verse]

I walked the shoreline where the salt eats the iron
Thinking of the promises sworn in a fevered state
You were the shadow stretching long across my porch
A silent partner in a trade that had no name
Now the sun is sinking behind the jagged grey cliff

[Pre-Chorus]

The tally marks are carved deep into the doorframe
I see the sum standing still in the doorway
The ink is dry but the paper is burning slow
There is nowhere left for a tired man to go

[Chorus]

This is the hour of the final debt
The heavy price for the things we try to forget
No more extensions and no more grace
Just the cold reflection of a hollow face
Pay the tollman and let the curtain fall
Against the silence of the garden wall

[Verse]

I recall the winter when the harvest turned to stone
And we borrowed hope from a well that was already dry
We signed the bond with a steady hand and a blind eye
Thinking the reckoning was a myth for another time
But the clock has a way of finding its own rhythm

[Verse]

The dogs are quiet in the kennel by the stream
The neighbors have shuttered their windows against the night
I hear your footsteps heavy on the gravel path
Bringing the invoice for a life spent in the red
The ink is blacker than the sky above the pines

[Pre-Chorus]

The tally marks are carved deep into the doorframe
I see the sum standing still in the doorway
The ink is dry but the paper is burning slow
There is nowhere left for a tired man to go

[Chorus]

This is the hour of the final debt
The heavy price for the things we try to forget
No more extensions and no more grace
Just the cold reflection of a hollow face
Pay the tollman and let the curtain fall
Against the silence of the garden wall