Escaping to end Chord mode is passed to host

[mashtonian]

When I press Escape to exit from a chord mode, such as the one below, the Escape key is passed to the host OS and then onto the focused App.

super + ctrl + s : {j, k} pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ {-5%, +5%}

An example of this causing an issue is if I am watching a full screen video in YouTube, then use the chord above to adjust the volume up a few notches. When I quit the chord, using Escape, it passes the escape to Firefox and exits full screen you tube.

It seems to me that sxhkd should consume the escape press and not pass it on to the OS / focused app?