rock over scissors

This was another song I wrote during those same emotionally turbulent high school years in the mid-1980s. If "Breakin' My Heart" was about the immediate shock of betrayal, "Shattered Illusions" dug deeper into the aftermath - that hollow feeling when you realize everything you believed about someone was built on lies.

The opening line "Midnight shadows, a phone that won't ring" perfectly captured those sleepless nights, waiting for someone who was never going to call. I remember writing that verse thinking about how naive I'd been, how I'd "built castles on empty words." The metaphor felt so real to me then - all those promises and dreams just crumbling down.

What I'm proud of in this song is the pre-chorus structure. Adding that extra emotional build before hitting the chorus made the impact stronger. "Shattering my world" felt like the perfect phrase to describe how completely someone could destroy your sense of reality when you're seventeen and think you know everything about love.

The bridge represents growth - moving from victim to survivor. "I'm done with your lies, done with the pain" shows that progression from hurt to empowerment that I was learning to navigate as a teenager. The outro ties it all together with "Your love was fiction, but I'll rise from this fall" - probably the most mature line I wrote at that age.

Like my other lyrics from that time, this sat dormant for decades until AI technology gave me the opportunity to finally hear these words with music. There's something magical about bringing teenage angst full circle with today's creative tools. The song now has that dramatic, emotional sound that matches the intensity I felt when I first wrote these words.

Shattered Illusions

[Verse]
Dust in my lungs
Burning sand under my skin
Eyes like torches in the wind
He walks the dunes where life begins

[Chorus]
Anubis rising
Shadows crawl
Guardian of the final call
Weighed hearts break
Weighed hearts fall
Anubis rising
He takes it all

[Verse 2]
Jackal mask
Teeth of stone
The dead don’t walk this road alone
Fingers grip the thread of fate
Door of Osiris
Seal your weight

[Prechorus]
Scales of truth
They never lie
Do you fall or will you fly

[Chorus]
Anubis rising
Shadows crawl
Guardian of the final call
Weighed hearts break
Weighed hearts fall
Anubis rising
He takes it all

[Bridge]
Golden sands hum
The ancients sing
Serpent coils
A shattered king
The feather lifts
The blade descends
No beginning
No end

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