The Man Who Won't Stay Dead
Told from the other side: the designers of a cruel game throwing everything they've got at one stubborn player and getting more and more annoyed that he keeps getting back up. It was fun to imagine life being frustrated with me for once.
We wrote the code, we built the game, a perfect, elegant machine
Designed to break the proudest will and keep the players keen
On misery and quiet toil, on hope that turns to ash
A beautiful and tragic, and predictable, slow crash
We've run a million subjects through, they follow every line
They learn to love their prison, and they toe the god-damn line
But there's a glitch, a single bug, a ghost inside the code
A stubborn piece of angry meat who will not take the load
What do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've hit him with a hammer, put a price upon his head
We've broken every single bone and filled his heart with dread
So what do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've shown him every horror, every terror we can find
He just collects the data and he leaves the fear behind
He's not supposed to get back up, he's not supposed to mend
Just tell me how the hell you make a story like this end!
We gave him parents built of glass to fill his soul with cracks
We gave him loneliness and pain and covered up his tracks
We gave him just enough of hope to make the poison sweet
And then we laughed and pulled the rug right out from underneath his feet
We broke his heart, we broke his bank, we broke his will to try
He looked us in our cosmic eyes and he refused to die
He took the fire we used to burn him, called it his own sun
This wasn't how this tragedy was ever meant to run
What do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've hit him with a hammer, put a price upon his head
We've broken every single bone and filled his heart with dread
So what do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've shown him every horror, every terror we can find
He just collects the data and he leaves the fear behind
He's not supposed to get back up, he's not supposed to mend
Just tell me how the hell you make a story like this end!
He sings his hymns up to the eagle, writes laws upon the stone
He's building his own, better hell and calls the place a throne
He's not a hero, not a saint, he's just a stubborn weed
That grows inside the cracks of every single, sacred creed
We don't know how to beat him, 'cause he doesn't play to win
He only plays to be the final man who won't give in...
What do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've hit him with a hammer, put a price upon his head
We've broken every single bone and filled his heart with dread
So what do you do with a man who won't stay dead?
We've shown him every horror, every terror we can find
He just collects the data and he leaves the fear behind
He's not supposed to get back up, he's not supposed to mend
Just tell me how the hell you make a story like this end!
He's still there
Damn him
Damn him