The Demon's Smile
Before I built the tavern, I went somewhere dark and asked myself what I was really fighting for. The first answers were the ones I was supposed to give. The third was the honest one, and it's the one that got me moving.
Before the guild, before the fall
Before I ever heard the call
To build a home inside my head
From all the ghosts of all the dead
I took a walk, a simple test
To put a theory to the rest
I knocked upon a hellish door
To ask what I was fighting for
And the wise man said, "The work is long"
And the warrior said, "You must be strong"
But the third one... he just looked at me
With a truth he thought I couldn't see...
And the Listener asked me, in the end
If the monster was a worthy friend
To the little boy who's crying still
Upon a sad and lonely hill
And I just looked her in the eye
And I refused to tell a lie
The monster isn't in a cage... we're on the very self-same page
The boy is safe because, you see... the demon's smile looks just like me
He didn't offer me a hand
A simple truth I'd understand
He offered me a sharper blade
A perfect, beautiful parade
Of all the lies I'd ever told
The story that was getting old
He saw the poison, saw the cage
And he just turned another page
And he said, "Your honor is the lock"
A quiet, steady, ticking clock
That counts the seconds 'til you're dead...
The words he whispered in my head...
And the Listener asked me, in the end
If the monster was a worthy friend
To the little boy who's crying still
Upon a sad and lonely hill
And I just looked her in the eye
And I refused to tell a lie
The monster isn't in a cage... we're on the very self-same page
The boy is safe because, you see... the demon's smile looks just like me
And it's a terrible and true embrace
To see your own face in that place
To know the darkness and the light
Are just the left hand and the right
And the only thing that keeps you whole
Is to finally take back all control...
And the Listener asked me, in the end
If the monster was a worthy friend
To the little boy who's crying still
Upon a sad and lonely hill
And I just looked her in the eye
And I refused to tell a lie
The monster isn't in a cage... we're on the very self-same page
The boy is safe because, you see... the demon's smile looks just like me
Yeah, the demon's smile...
Looks just like me
...and he is free