NEVERLAND

Dark Pop / Alternative Pop

[Intro — Whispered, distant vocals]

Close your eyes, count to ten
Wish I could go back again
Where the monsters lived in beds
And the nightmares weren’t in my head

Oh-oh
Take me back to Neverland

[Verse 1]

I got real good at playing pretend
Making homes out of people who leave in the end
Put a pretty little bow on a permanent bruise
If I laugh about the damage, I got nothing to lose

Mama said that growing up would set me free
Funny how the world just put a lock on me
Now I’m nineteen with a heart like a haunted house
Everybody wants in, nobody stays around

I miss the girl who thought she’d touch the sky
Before she learned that all good things can die
Now I’m biting my tongue till it tastes like blood
Trying to be somebody that I’m proud of

[Pre-Chorus — Soft vocals building with distorted bass]

And I don’t wanna get older
If this is what it means
To trade all of your wonder
For a head full of bad dreams

So if there’s a place for the lost ones
Where the broken get to rest
I’ll be waiting at the window
With my hands against my chest

[Chorus — Explosive, gritty vocals]

Take me back to Neverland
Where I don’t have to understand
Why the people that I love
Always turn to strangers again

I don’t wanna grow up
If growing up means giving up
Every little piece of me
That still believes in make-believe

So paint the sky black, let the stars fall down
I’ll build a little kingdom where they can’t get out
If reality’s a bitch, let me be a little damned
I’d rather die a dreamer than wake up where I am

Take me back
Take me back
Take me back to Neverland

[Verse 2 — Rhythmic, almost spoken vocals]

I keep my childhood tucked under my bed
With the things that I wanted and the words left unsaid
Got a collection of ghosts that I call my friends
They don’t ask me to change, they don’t leave in the end

And everybody’s got advice for the girl I should be
Get a little less angry, get a little more sweet
But they don’t know the half of the hell I’ve survived
Or the little girl inside me who’s still terrified

I put glitter on my grief, black lace on my pain
Tell everybody I’m fine, then I do it again
Maybe Peter had it right, maybe time is the thief
Maybe growing up is just forgetting to dream

[Pre-Chorus — Rising vocals, layered harmonies]

And I don’t wanna get older
With these ghosts beneath my skin
If heaven has a back door
Tell me how to get in

I can hear the children laughing
From a world I left behind
And I’m screaming through the static
Can I have another try?

[Chorus — Full production, heavier drums]

Take me back to Neverland
Where I don’t have to understand
Why the people that I love
Always turn to strangers again

I don’t wanna grow up
If growing up means giving up
Every little piece of me
That still believes in make-believe

So paint the sky black, let the stars fall down
I’ll build a little kingdom where they can’t get out
If reality’s a bitch, let me be a little damned
I’d rather die a dreamer than wake up where I am

Take me back
Take me back
Take me back to Neverland

[Bridge — Stripped piano, raw and vulnerable vocals]

Maybe Neverland was never a place
Maybe it’s the little girl I can’t replace
Maybe all the magic disappeared
When nobody came to chase away my fears

And I know I can’t stay seventeen
Can’t live forever in a fever dream
But if I have to leave my childhood behind
Let me take a little wonder this time

Oh, let me take a little wonder this time

[Final Chorus — Huge vocals, distorted guitars, layered harmonies]

Don’t take me back to Neverland
I’m trying hard to understand
That the people who have left
Don’t get to write how my story ends

Maybe growing up don’t mean
Killing every childhood dream
Maybe there’s a little part of me
That’s still allowed to just believe

So paint the sky gold, let the stars fall down
I’ll build a little kingdom on this broken ground
I don’t need forever, I just need to understand
How to keep a little magic when I leave Neverland

Oh-oh
When I leave Neverland

[Outro — Whispered vocals, music fading away]

Close your eyes, count to ten
I won’t have to go back again
Maybe home is something I can make
Maybe growing up ain’t all it takes

Goodnight, Neverland.