A/N: Written for the Five by Fiction Challenge on Livejournal, part 1 with table: #21.

The Dead Can Never Lie
4. A Rose by Any Other Name

His name came back

To taunt,
to haunt,

To dog his footsteps dark
in endless shadow

And it just wouldn't stop.

He could not escape
no matter how he blocked his ears
or ran
or screamed
to drown that echo in an ocean deep
and cold

And even from under his feet,
pounded into dust in the dirt,
it screamed

Stronger
than the pitiful lies of his mouth
that no-one would believe.