[Intro - slow piano, single notes, like pressing elevator buttons]
[Verse 1 - piano + soft bass, hushed, secretive] Everyone stops at twelve Everyone skips to fourteen Nobody asks about the floor in between I built it young, I built it quiet Stacked it full and locked it tight Smiled at the lobby like everything was fine
I know the code, I know the door I just don’t go there anymore Haven’t been down since I don’t know when Afraid of what I’d find if I went in
[Pre-Chorus - electric guitar hums in, uneasy] But I can feel it underneath my feet Every single night when I’m trying to sleep The weight of everything I wouldn’t say The cost of keeping people safe from me
[Chorus - full band, heavy and controlled, not explosive yet] 13th floor Where the lights don’t work and the walls remember 13th floor Full of every August, every December Every word I swallowed, every tear I hid Every version of the truth I never said It’s all still there Right between the twelve and fourteen of my life 13th floor Is mine
[Verse 2 - bass drops heavier, more tension] I put the anger there at seventeen The thing that happened that I can’t unsee I put the grief there when I had no name for it Labeled it as fine and filed it in the dim
I put the love there that I couldn’t keep The promise that I made myself I’d never speak Every crack I plastered over, every scar Pressed behind that door, right where they are
[Pre-Chorus 2] But I can smell it in the quiet hours That stale air of everything I buried there Some nights I swear I hear it breathing Like it’s been alive down there the whole time, waiting
[Chorus 2] 13th floor Where the lights don’t work and the walls remember 13th floor Full of every August, every December Every word I swallowed, every tear I hid Every version of the truth I never said It’s all still there Right between the twelve and fourteen of my life 13th floor Is mine
[Bridge - strip to just Suki and piano, raw] I took the stairs one night I don’t know what I was looking for Maybe proof that I survived it Maybe just to check the door
I put my hand against the handle Cold the way old secrets always are I pressed my ear against the wood and listened And heard myself From very far
[Final Chorus - full band, loudest moment, drums crashing] 13th floor Where the lights don’t work but everything still breathes 13th floor Full of everything that makes me, me Every wound I weaponized against myself Every truth I hid from everyone but felt It’s all still there Right between the twelve and fourteen of my life 13th floor Is mine It’s mine It’s always been mine
[Outro - piano alone, the single elevator button press, then silence] …floor thirteen. …going down.