Haunted
By Brenda Sutton
© 1986

This old house seemed dark and lonely, a good place to ease my mind
From the harshness of my former life, and the pain I'd left behind.
There was no one here to hurt me on this quiet strip of beach.
I divorced myself from the outside world, put myself out of harm's reach.

Chorus:

Someone follows, someone watch, someone whispers on the stairs,
Someone puts his arms around me, someone's fragrance fills the air.
Someone lies beside me in the night and gently strokes my hair,
But when I turn to find someone... no one's there.

There's a portrait in the study of a sad and lonely man,
And his dark eyes seem to follow me, doesn't matter where I am.
He was kept a lonely prisoner from the moment of his birth,
But he didn't die, for he never lived the short time he walked the earth.

Chorus

I suppose I should have feared him, but he always seemed so kind,
And I grew to love his cold embrace as his presence healed my mind.
He would softly play the piano, leave me flowers in the hall,
And one night I found his portrait hanging on the bedroom wall.

Chorus

Then one night I tried to join him. We'd be one when I was dead.
I put twenty pills and a glass of wine on the table by our bed.
But he knocked the glass from my trembling hand, cast the pills across the floor,
And I felt my lover leave me with the slamming of the door.

Second Chorus:

No one  follows, no one watch, no one whispers on the stairs,
No one puts his arms around me, no one's fragrance fills the air.
No one lies beside me in the night and gently strokes my hair,
But when I turn to find someone... no one's there.

I ran screaming in the night air, and I begged him to return.
I cried all night on that lonely beach for the lesson I had learned.
When the sun rose, I went back inside and fell sobbing on the bed.
As I went to sleep, he was in my dreams, and these are the words he said:

"If you love me, go on living, find the beauty in each day.
Seek the sunlight, not the shadow in your sweet and tender way.
Try to live the life I never lived, do the things I never tried."
And when I 'wakened from the dream he was lying by my side.

Third Chorus:

Someone follows, someone watch, someone whispers on the stairs,
Someone puts his arms around me, someone's fragrance fills the air.
Someone lies beside me in the night and gently strokes my hair,
But when I turn to find someone... he's always there.