jay

Thermos
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Look at it, just sitting there. The top is back on again. Did you do that? No? I thought not.
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It looks so ordinary. Tell that to Ron.
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It happened so fast! Ron picked it up, started unscrewing the top, and the noise started. It didn't sound like it came from inside. It was everywhere. It came from the center of the earth. Ron flinched and dropped it. It fell to the floor. But the noise just got louder. High ear-splitting shriek. Louder and louder. Coming from everywhere.
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It lay there on the ground, and the top was still turning. Turning by itself. I looked at Ron. He was staring at it open-mouthed. Then the top came off. Ron stiffened and jerked and fell, his eyes wide, wide open, shocked.
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The moment he fell the noise stopped.
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I went to him. I've loved him all these years and knew something was terribly wrong. He was alive, breathing, eyes wide in horror, but not seeing. The last thing he saw was something men shouldn't see. Something that broke him.
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I knew then. It's a trap. It got part of him. I could hear it humming. An old empty thermos, humming low, like a hive of bees.
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I figured the trap had already sprung and I could pick the thing up safely. And with Ron all but dead nothing made any difference anyway. I didn't care. And maybe I thought I could help Ron. So I picked it up and looked inside.
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Nothing. It was empty.
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I put it to my ear. Beehive. Deep booming echoing beehive sound, deep, deep. Like the echo from a well. Muttering. People talking. Fragments of words.
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Ron was down in there somewhere.
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The paramedics said it looked like stroke. I set it down on the table and followed them as they carried him out. The top was still on the floor then. I certainly wasn't going to put it back on, rearm the trap.
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I rode with them. How long was I gone? Two hours? Ron died in the ambulance. Was that only this morning?
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I didn't know what to do but come back for the car. Nobody else has been here? How did the top get back on?
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Look... It's opening...