The Mouth in My Ear

The Mouth in My Ear

By Antonino Giannetto

“We’re over Helen! Got it? We’re over! I want you out of my life. This has gone on far too long. You are too much. I can’t take it. I’m quitting my job at Amazon.”

“You better think twice. I'm begging you, don’t do it. I will track you down. You can’t leave me!” She pleaded.

“I’m leaving you” he said, putting his foot down.

“No stop. No don’t. I need to breathe. Stop, you will kill me if you leave me.” She was in full blown anxiety mode.

They both worked at the Amazon distribution center and caught each other’s attention when they clocked in that very first time last summer. His last name was Meder and hers was Metter. Everyone called them Meder and Metter like they were an inseparable couple. Now nothing mattered anymore. It had to end. He had to get away from her. It got to the point whenever he would see her, he would pretend to be on the phone with his Earbuds.

There were 15 minutes still left that leap year, 11:45 p.m. to be exact, when a neighbor called the police to Thomas’s apartment, The Chagrin, number 3, 97079 Cedar Road, on a report of a man and woman arguing as the woman sat on the roof of the man’s car, a Kia Optima.

When they arrived, Thomas informed them that he had ended contact with that woman and had ignored her subsequent messages. He had just hung up on her as he thought that would be the last time that she was in his life, his ear and Earbuds.

“She became upset and texted me several times since November and she was even able to enter my building. On one occasion she proceeded to knock on my unit door for an hour before she gave up and left."

Thomas told the police he was 27 years old and had not responded to the woman since Halloween.

“Who is she? What is her name?” asked the responding officer Jenkins.

“Her name is Helen. Helen Metter.”

Earlier that night, February 29th, as he walked out to his car, Helen, 28, of Youngstown, was there. She began to argue with him.

“I got in my car, I prepared to drive away to go to the gas station for a pack of smokes, but she jumped on my car. She was beating on the roof and swung from the top and hit me in the head, in my ear, while I was sitting in the driver’s seat. A group of boys were standing nearby when I yelled out, Hey man! Call the police this broad is absolutely insane crazy.”

“Where is she now?” “That’s her over there, exiting the gate at the stop light.”

Officer Jenkins quickly drove up behind her, but she didn’t go and proceed through the green light. He put his siren on and pulled her over.

“Mam your license and registration please. Helen Metter? Did you just have an altercation and assault a Mr. Thomas Meder?”

The woman admitted that she drove to the apartment to confront the man.

“I can’t stand him. He stole my Earbuds. I wanted them back.”

“Miss, have you been drinking?”

“No sir I have not consumed any alcohol at all. I took my Clonazepam pills to help me earlier in the day.”

She thought this would help her through her panic attack.

“Is it a crime to take 10 seconds to move when a red light turns green?”

She asked from her Honda vehicle

“Is that a lane violation?"

“Miss…” not able to finish the sentence.

Helen interrupted, “Well, is it?”

They asked Thomas about the Earbuds, but he said he didn’t have them.

“You liar, you always have those things in your ear” Helen insisted intently.

She was told by officer Jenkins to leave and not contact him anymore.

Thomas calmly stated, “I do not want to pursue a charge for being struck by a woman.”

No charges were filed and she drove away.

Thomas went home to try to sleep off the pain in his ear and the reoccurring pain of this relationship.

The following morning, March 1st, as the sun started to rise. At first Thomas heard nothing other than his own voice recounting the horrible encounter the previous night with Helen.

Opening the window, he heard no wind, no birds, no traffic. Panicked, he turned on the radio, nothing. Even his own footsteps were silent. He yelled to no one in particular.

“What the hell is going on?” He ran and picked up his now useless phone and Earbuds and heard nothing. Dead.

Then a voice in his ear whispered “Thomas?”

He put his finger in his ear and felt a mouth. He instinctively jumped back. What the hell is that? What is going on? Afraid to put his finger back in his ear he ran into the bathroom to grab a mirror to see if he can angle it to see inside?

"Keep your cool Thomas".

This whole nightmare might be just a dream, he said to himself, relax he kept repeating, relax, relax. Slowly he lifted the gold gilded mirror to his left side, lifting it as slowly as he could, frightened at what he might see out of the corner of his eye. He squinted and lifted his eyelid and looked. He dropped the mirror. It shattered.

The mouth was glistening in saliva, chewing on its own tongue, smiling back at him. It looked like it had lip stick or maybe it was blood. He couldn’t tell which.

“Thomas, help me…. you know me”

His head hurt. His headache throbbed in an unnatural rhythm. The front of his head, the back of his head, but his ear hurt the most.

“Please…” the unfamiliar voice trailed off.

“Who are you?”

“You know me, Thomas.”

“Who are you? Tell me. Are you Helen?”

“I will soon.”

“When?”

“Please, go to sleep.”

“I can’t. Tell me now!”

“I AM YOU.”

“No, you are not!”

“But I am, I am.”

Thomas screamed out loud as the sound was swallowed up in a black hole void. He was shaking and went to the sink and put his head under the faucet. Now his ear was screaming.

“Stop, please stop. I’m drowning, stop! Please stop!”

“I’m going to kill you. Get out of my ear Helen!”

“Don’t kill me. Don’t kill you. Don’t kill us. We need to breathe! You’re drowning me. Can’t breathe."

"No this has to end."

"I...can’ t….stop…sto…hel…help..me…nooo..”

“Die! Die!”

There was only silence.

He heard nothing ever again.

Nothing.

Dead.