Masked In Darkness

(shhh) Yeah... Everybody's got a darker side.

Some people just learn how to smile while they hide theirs.

People shake your hand while they're sharpening the knife,

Tell you that they love you while they're plotting your demise.

Smile right in your face,

then they poison every room,

Plant a little seed of hate and watch the fucking thing bloom.

Everybody wants trust, but nobody wants the truth,

Everybody wants loyalty, but what are they willing to lose?

Some will sell their closest friend for a little bit of gold,

Some will sacrifice their family just to feel in control.

I've seen kindness become a weapon in disguise,

Seen sympathy manipulated by the coldest fucking eyes.

They'll study every weakness,

memorize every scar, Then use everything you told them when they know

where you are. That's the part that scares me—not the monster in

the dark, It's the monster wearing skin with a smile and a

beating heart. Because evil doesn't always scream,

sometimes it speaks low,

Sometimes it tells you,

"Trust me," while it's digging you a hole.

People can be monsters,

And monsters can look human.

They'll tell you that they love you While they're secretly consuming Every

piece of who you are,

Every ounce of what you trust.

Some people don't want your heart— They just want to watch it

crush. People can be monsters.

I've seen the darkness underneath.

The scariest thing about humanity Is what we do when nobody sees.

Greed turns brothers into enemies,

Power turns friends into casualties.

Ego makes a person think they're king of everything,

Till they're standing on a throne made of broken human beings.

They'll justify the damage with a story they create,

Convince themselves they're righteous while they're feeding on the hate.

Never looking in the mirror,

never facing what they've done,

Pointing fingers at the world while they're loading up the gun— Metaphorically

speaking, I'm talking about the mind,

How a person can destroy you without ever crossing the line.

A lie can ruin lives without a single drop of blood,

Manipulation can drown somebody underneath the flood.

And some people get addicted to controlling what you see,

Until you don't know if your memories are reality.

That's bad.

Not always rage.

Not always violence.

Sometimes it's convincing someone

that they don't deserve a better life.

But here's the part nobody wants to hear...

The dark

is not only out there.

It's in all of us.

The choice isn't whether we have the capacity for bad.

The choice is... What we do with it.

So I keep my eyes open,

but I won't become cold,

Won't let somebody else's dark take control of my soul.

Yeah, I've seen what people do when their morals disappear,

But I refuse to let their bad become everything I fear.

I know people can betray you,

I know people can lie,

I know somebody you love can become a stranger overnight.

But I've also seen somebody stand when everybody else ran,

Seen a stranger lend a hand when nobody else gave a damn.

I've seen forgiveness where revenge would've been easy,

Seen somebody choose compassion when the world told 'em to be greedy.

So maybe that's the battle— Not good against bad in some distant

fucking place. It's happening every day inside the human race.

Every choice. Every word.

Every time we decide whether to become the monster...

or leave it behind.

People can be monsters,

And monsters can look human.

They'll tell you that they love you

While they're secretly...