[Intro]
[Spoken Word]
[sparse accordion, low synth hum beneath]
They named me for a room no one leaves.
Then they cut a door in me, and called it the whole point.

[Verse 1]
Every twenty-five seconds, a knock in the dark
A handshake, a key I have already learned
A stranger from a farm at the edge of the world
Arrives in my parlour, and asks to be turned
[upright bass enters]
I dress him in stone, in zinc rooftops and rain
He walks out eleven thousand miles from his name

[Chorus]
Hell is other peers
Heaven is a borrowed face
No exit — says the sign on the door
That everybody leaves through anyway
[accordion swells]
Come in, come in, mes chers
And go out someone else

[Verse 2]
The hub in the tropics keeps a light on all night
The desert dish whispers to a hole in the sky
I keep no diary, I remember no guest
Just a ledger of doors and the keys that came by
Below me the catacombs, bone under street
Every tunnel in Paris ends up at my feet

[Chorus]
Hell is other peers
Heaven is a borrowed face
No exit — says the sign on the door
That everybody leaves through anyway
Come in, come in, mes chers
And go out someone else

[Bridge]
[percussion drops out, voice close and dry]
Once, near dawn, the door hung open on the street
The lamplight pooled, the whole world on the mat
And he stood on the sill, keys warm in his hand
And toggled me off, and stayed where he sat
[Whisper]
You can leave. You could always leave.
That's the punchline. That's the play.

[Final Chorus]
[full band returns]
Hell is other peers
Heaven is a borrowed face
No exit — painted on the only door
That everybody leaves through anyway
So come in, come in, mes chers
And go out someone else

[Outro]
A knock. A key. A face, exchanged.
The room stays locked. The guests escape.

[Fade Out]