Only a Dream

Intro

West Coast night

Window open

Ocean breathing through the screen

Eyelids heavy

Blanket pulled up to my chin

Dark room

Quiet hum

Somewhere between awake and under

I slipped

Verse 1

Then the room just fell away

Like the floor was never there

I was floating

Not in my body

But I could still feel the air

Some kind of pull

Some kind of tear

Right in front of me

A rip in the atmosphere

And through it I saw

Buildings I'd never been near

Columns and marble

A skyline I recognized from screens

But I was three thousand miles away

Staring at D.C.

Pre-Chorus

White House sat quiet

Capitol dome in the haze

Streetlights still on

Everything in its place

But something in the silence

Didn't sit right with me

A frequency under the noise

I wasn't meant to see

Chorus

I'm looking through a crack in the sky

Watching a city I've never known

Trying to scream but my throat is dry

Trying to wake up

But the dream won't let me go

I'm looking through a crack in the sky

And I don't know what I'm supposed to see

Trying to move but I'm frozen inside

Trying to wake up

Won't somebody wake me please

Verse 2

Then the light

Not a sunrise

Not a camera flash

It came from inside the frame

And it didn't pass

It just stayed

Growing wider

Bleaching everything white

And my mind couldn't process

What was happening to my sight

Alarms started ringing

From a thousand miles away

Distant sirens

Like a city learning how to pray

I watched the silhouette

Of a dome I learned in class

And the air around it

Turned to smoke and shattered glass

I didn't understand

I kept blinking

Kept staring

This can't be real

This can't be happening

I'm just dreaming

I'm just lying in my bed

But the fire kept climbing

Through the hole inside my head

Chorus

I'm looking through a crack in the sky

Watching a city I've never known

Trying to scream but my throat is dry

Trying to wake up

But the dream won't let me go

I'm looking through a crack in the sky

And I don't know what I'm supposed to see

Trying to move but I'm frozen inside

Trying to wake up

Won't somebody wake me please

Verse 3

JJ

He lives out there

Somewhere in that smoke

And I'm standing on the West Coast

Watching it all choke

I can't call him

Can't text him

Can't even close my eyes

I'm already asleep

And I'm watching somebody's life

Flash behind a cloud

That shouldn't exist

I keep whispering his name

Like a prayer

Like a fist

JJ

Are you okay

JJ

Can you hear me through this

I'm trapped on the other side

Of a portal I can't fix

And I don't know if he's safe

I don't know if he's breathing

I don't know if the dream is lying

Or if this is what believing

In something terrible

Feels like when it's true

All I know is I'm alone

And I can't get through

Bridge

Silence

No more sirens

No more ringing

Just the sound of my own heartbeat

And the knowledge that I'm clinging

To a thought that might be nothing

To a nightmare I can't shake

Am I still asleep

How much more can I take

I try to open my eyes

Try to feel my hands

But I'm trapped inside the vision

Like footsteps in cement

Then I hear my own voice

From somewhere far away

It says

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up

Final Chorus

And the portal snapped shut

Like it was never there

I sat up in my bed

Gasping for air

My room was dark

My window still open

The ocean still breathing

And the news wasn't broken

No alarms

No fire

No smoke in the sky

Just the moon

And the quiet

And the fact that I'm alive

I grabbed my phone

Checked the time

Checked the world

Nothing happened

Nothing burned

Nothing swirled

I opened my texts

Typed JJ's name

Just to see

He was online

He was fine

He was okay

He was free

Outro

It wasn't real

It was only a dream

I was never there

Nothing happened

I'm awake

Just a dream

Just a dream

Just a dream

I'm awake