Screams

I'm surprised there's no discourse on this song; it's very hauntingly beautiful. Maybe because the general theme is pretty overt in the lyrics: it seems to be about a woman who was sexually abused when she was younger, perhaps by her father but "daddy's little girl became erased" could be a metaphor for loss of innocence. Then the rest of the song seems to reflect dynamics common in survivors as they grow up and try to move on.

"When she crawled across the sheets onto the A-list The attention took her tension away In the company of wolves there is no sympathy We feed on the remains"

Some survivors are often drawn to hypersexuality and abusive partners, perhaps because sexuality and being treated badly have become normalized, and/or an unconscious desire to re-exerience, gain mastery over, or otherwise resolve the trauma. Sex also may be a coping mechanism, hence it taking her tension away. Or perhaps she has entered the adult entertainment industry. Regardless, Chris likens these people who use her to wolves who eat their fill of what little remains of who she was.

The second verse is much of the same. Being covered in chlorine and cocaine may be the remnants of such a night with abusive partners. "The comfort of her deepest fears" - sometimes the devil we know is less intimidating that the devil we don't. In this case, the "devil" she doesn't know would be not being in this kind of situation at all, or otherwise finding someone to love her who will treat her well. But Chris correctly notes that love is not a cure-all for trauma, especially this kind of "love" she is receiving from the wolves. It may help to have healthy love to heal those wounds, but healthy love alone without say therapy, trauma processing, self-love, and other such journeys is usually not enough.

Then there's the line "She just rises into the Aether." I would propose either a heaven-like mental construct, and/or she's dissociating here and leaving her body. Perhaps more literally, she dies or nearly dies from this lifestyle.

What I get out of the chorus is a little more personal. If you develop PTSD, part of you after the trauma attempts to return to normal life and shut out all intrusions of the event, but the other part of you is stricken by nightmares, flashblacks, paranoia, mood swings, and various other symptoms. It's easy for this "normal" part of you to forget, or at least heavily suppress. At some point, the memories may be reawakened and the normal part will have to confront the wounded trauma part and the reality of what happened in order to heal and integrate into one whole person. An artist called Emilie Autumn has a great quote that ties into this concept - "Awareness is the enemy of sanity, for once you hear the screaming, it never stops." That trauma part of you is in constant agony whether or not you're fully aware of the event(s), but once you are you may not be able to shut it out anymore. At this point, symptoms usually get a lot worse before they get better. Alternatively, it's the narrator hearing these "screams" on her behalf, taken aback by the horrors she's experienced.

"Wake up, daddy's little girl" The narrator is begging her to wake up from this new life she's created in these unsafe situations and people, perhaps to find that daddy's little girl was always somewhere deep inside her and she may be forever changed, but she can return "home" to herself, to who she was but integrated, trauma and all.