[Zizz Zelan]

My name is Marley.

I think it is, anyway. I can't be too sure of anything. I can't be too sure of anyone, least of all me.

My name is Marley.

I remember books...many books. Books that smelled of old paper with the smoke of a million candles in it. Writing...crabbed, fluid, beautiful, ugly, spiky writing that danced or slid or jagged or oiled its way across a thousand, a million pages. More pages than motes dancing in the light; many, many more. I read them, I did, old Marley-not-Marley-maybe-Marley sitting in a cushioned chair reading reading reading and writing writing writing, reading like I did then and writing like I do now.

My name is Marley.

I remember It. I remember It. I remember It hanging over her face, drawing her breath, scything her soul. I remember It. I remember It laughing. It was laughing at me while it took her, my beauty, my love, my life, my girl, my woman. It was laughing. It hurt to listen, but I couldn't stop. Cackle cackle cackle, and she-they were dead. Dead! I remember It. I will find It. I will kill It? Is Death death-able? Can Kill be killed? Murder and Plague and Famine and Plague and Folly and War and Battle and Plague and Sickness and Plague. So much of It. It's everywhere. It can't be stopped, they tell me. They they they are wrong wrong wrong! I will hunt It. I will kill It.

My name is Marley.

It isn't alone. It has a Mother. It reaps the wheat but She separates the chaff. I know this now. It is the Scythe, She is the Thresher. I call the Scythe, challenge the Scythe, kill for the Scythe, but the Scythe does not come. It will come. She will not. I must find Her. I will find Her. She is the Key, the Key to she-they. The Key to the door that returns them, spits them out like they did their blood-phlegm. The Key to the Door; the Key to Death's Door.

My name is Marley.

My name is Marley.

My name is Marley, and I am Here.

Where is Here?

Here is...L...?

It is Here.

(My name is Marley.)

She is Here.

(My name is Marley.)

I am Here.

(My name is...)

There will be a reckoning.