[Intro] Twelve signs. Twelve vessels. One configuration. I've spent my whole life trying to get outside the system. Tonight, I do. [Verse 1] Black glass, black clothes, black car, no driver Penthouse full of sigils, whole floor wired Old book, new money, blood on the fiber I don't pray to a god, I acquire I read what the dead left buried in code Found a crack in the world, found a way through the hole Every myth got a mechanism, every curse got a price Every soul's just a lock if you turn it right Twelve names in the ledger, twelve marks on the floor Twelve knocks from the other side of the door I don't need redemption, I don't need belief I need something ancient that remembers me They called it forbidden, I called it restricted They called it a curse, I called it a business The world ends once, then the world begins And I'm done being one of the men it buries in [Hook] Thirteen ghosts in the dark Twelve scars, one mark Open up the earth Let the old gods talk Thirteen ghosts in the room Black sun, blood moon I came here to take What was never given to you [Verse 2] Fire in the skull, iron in the horn Giant in the ruins where the house was born Two mouths, one grave, one body torn Mother in the water where the child was mourned Gold in the tent, white coat, cold case Blood on the scales, no law, no grace Wire in the woods, little goat in space Lightning in the clouds, salt in the waves I collected every fragment, every rumor, every bone Took the stories people whispered and I brought them to my home Every death a little doorway, every haunting just a thread Pull them tight around the circle, hear the living and the dead The temperature is dropping The candles burn without a flame The book is turning pages Though I never spoke its name Something in the walls is breathing Something underneath the floor And the shadows cast by twelve dead bodies Point toward one more [Hook] Thirteen ghosts in the dark Twelve scars, one mark Open up the earth Let the old gods talk Thirteen ghosts in the room Black sun, blood moon I came here to take— [Beat cuts] [Spoken] That's strange. There are twelve names in the binding. Why does the circle have thirteen points? [Verse 3] I check the translation, check the diagram Check the notes I wrote in my own damn hand There's a line beneath the line, there's a name beneath mine There's a date in the margin from before I was alive No. That can't be right. I found this book. I chose this night. I paid for the relics. I assembled the bones. I drew every symbol. I called every ghost. I made every choice that brought me here— [Whispered voice, layered beneath him] You were led. [Rap, increasingly urgent] I picked the location. [Whisper] You were led. I deciphered the language. [Whisper] You were led. I opened the circle. [Whisper] You were led. I thought I was hunting. [Whisper] You were— [Beat stops completely] [The Revelation — twelve voices, calm and intimate] You were the thirteenth. [Silence] [Spoken] No. [Voices, one by one, overlapping] The fire needed a head. The earth needed a grave. The twins needed a division. The mother needed a name. The lion needed an audience. The dead needed a cause. The scales needed a sentence. The poison needed a pulse. The hunter needed a target. The climber needed the sky. The storm needed a center. The sea needed a body. And the circle needed— [All twelve voices] YOU. [Impact] [Verse 4] Get me out— Get me out of the circle Get the book off the floor Get the blood off the symbol I command you— I command you— [Voices, in unison] You called us by name. [Man] I OWN THIS RITUAL! [Voices] You gave us a shape. [Man] I WROTE THE WORDS! [Voices] You opened the gate. [Man] I AM NOT ONE OF YOU! [Voices, close and dry] Not yet. [Transformation] The first ghost takes his shadow. The second takes his breath. The third removes the heartbeat. The fourth unthreads the flesh. Twelve hands around his body. Twelve mouths against his skin. Twelve dead things pull him under. Something else comes up again. [Final Hook] Thirteen ghosts in the dark. Twelve bound to the mark. The circle is closed. The king has a heart. Thirteen ghosts in the room. Black sun. Blood moon. I came here to take. Now the dead come through. Thirteen ghosts. No pulse. No breath. Thirteen ghosts. The thirteenth is death. [Outro] I understand now. The book was never a weapon. The circle was never a prison. And the ghosts— [Brief pause] —were never the ones being summoned. [Low whisper] They were the witnesses. [Long silence] I know who's next.
