Turn Out the Porch Light

[Cold Open | knocking immediately | Male Vocal | deep baritone]

Three knocks after midnight
When every light was dead

[Immediate Instrumental Attack | stalking guitar riff | driving drums]

[Verse 1 | Male Vocal | restrained | sinister storyteller]

The candy bowl was empty
The jack-o’-lantern burned low
The laughter left the sidewalks
Half an hour ago

I closed the blinds and checked the lock
Then heard it from outside
Three little knocks against the door
Too soft to be denied

A figure waited by the curb
Beneath a costume sheet
It never raised its head at all
It only watched my feet

[Pre-Chorus | Male Vocal | tension rising]

I killed the hall light
Counted to four
Then heard the knocking
Closer than before

[Chorus | Male Vocal | powerful | catchy]

Turn out the porch light
Lock every door
The last one standing
Is not a child anymore

Turn out the porch light
Don’t answer the call
When Halloween is over
Something comes to claim us all

[Post-Chorus | Male Gang Vocal]

Knock, knock
Kill the light

Knock, knock
Not tonight

[Verse 2 | Male Vocal | darker grit | driving]

The porch light flashed and there it stood
One step beneath the flame
A paper bag hung from its hand
With letters spelling out my name

Inside I found a photograph
Of two boys in the rain
One returned before the dawn
One never came again

Beneath the picture someone wrote,
“You left me there to die”
Then from beneath the dirty sheet
I heard a child reply

[Pre-Chorus | Male Vocal | urgent]

I killed the porch light
Pulled every shade
Then heard the voice
Of the choice I never made

[Chorus | Male Vocal | full power]

Turn out the porch light
Lock every door
The last one standing
Is not a child anymore

Turn out the porch light
Don’t answer the call
When Halloween is over
Something comes to claim us all

[Bridge | Male Vocal | spoken-sung | escalating]

We dared each other through the woods
To reach the hanging tree
I heard him screaming through the storm
But fear carried me

I told them I had tried to help
I swore I searched till dawn
But I was halfway home already
While he was calling on

[Male Vocal | deep whisper]

Thirty years he waited
With the candy and the rain

[Male Vocal | rising grit]

Now every knock against the door
Is calling out my name

[Breakdown | crushing half-time]

[Male Vocal]

Who waits outside?

[Male Gang Vocal]

The one you left

[Male Vocal]

What does he want?

[Male Gang Vocal]

The life you kept

[Male Vocal]

Then why are muddy footprints
Standing next to me?

[Sudden Stop | single knock from inside]

[Final Chorus | Male Vocal | desperate | full band]

I turned out the porch light
I locked every door
But the last one standing
Was already on the floor

I turned out the porch light
But something came in
Now it’s standing in my hallway
Wearing someone else’s skin

Turn out the porch light
Don’t answer the call
When Halloween is over
Something comes to claim us all

[Outro | Male Vocal | deep whisper | knocking inside the wall]

There’s no one standing at the door

Because he’s standing behind me