"I'll fucking kill you, bitch – mother fucker!"
Galina stomped her boots, laces undone and the boot neck rolled down, onto the hard frozen slash on the sidewalk. She was wearing panty hoses that let her skin shimmer through, black hot pants, and a wide open black trench coat. The bottoms of the trench coat fluttered in the icy air. Her lips were painted red and thickened with cosmetic bee sting injections an hour ago in the bathroom. Her blond hair was hardened with spray and bashed into wild and disheveled look.
A winter bare tree had a layer of snow left over from two weeks ago. An abandoned copper mining shag had black window openings. The windows were bashed in long ago. The equipment was gone a decade ago. A few segments of blackened chain link fence were still left over. Blackberry bushes had grown up the support of the chain link fence. All that was left of them were the dead limps and black leaves on the ground.
"Suka blyad! Natalya doesn't whine this much about bringing her little sister."
Kalista looked a little smaller and a little more baby faced. Her black, smooth hair went all the way down to her butt. She was wearing a black mini-skirt, high heels, and a black special operations military jacket that was two sizes too big. Her pantyhose was torn at the knee and the thigh. She hurried to catch up to her sister Galina.
Galina stopped, spun around, and spit at Kalista near the eye above the cheekbone. With her thumb, Galina smeared Kalista eye liner down an inch. Galina refreshed the spit on her thumb and smudged Kalista's red lip stick way past the lips. Then, she kneeled down to rip Kalista's pantyhose so hard that it wasn't simply a tear. A flap of pantyhose was hanging off. Galina hit Kalista on the cheek with the flat hand. She repeated the hit harder. Kalista's cheek was reddening.
"You better look cool. Don't make me regret this, sestra!" warned Galina.
Kalista trotted behind Galina. Kalista's mouth displayed annoyance. Her eyes displayed secret excitement. This was the first time that Galina would take her little sister to a witch house party. Miass was a copper mining city in the Southern Ural Mountains. For miles around the city, there is nothing but rugged terrain. This wasn't Moscow. Anyone who wanted to be someone went to the abandoned Zelenyy Medved mine shaft. A locally grown musical subgenre of witch house music had its worldwide epicenter here. Witch house is a dark, dangerous, and threatening sounding version of house music – fast and upbeat dance music originally.
A young lad, about twenty years old, very tall and skinny, was sitting on a stool in front of the wooden mine building. The freezing night had fallen. There weren't many stars out. Every working person was at home and holding onto the last sparks of heat under the blankets. The only thing out was the cold and frozen frog creeping through the streets and the forest around the city, except for the two sisters. The booming bass was coming through the wall and door from inside the mine. The sound had a creeping quality to it.
"Galina and her little sister Kalista!" said the lad. "Make sure that she behaves herself!"
Galina's metal ring decorated fingers reached into her bra to pull a folded money bill out. Kalista was proud to have her own stash of money in her a size smaller bra. Both handed a green bill with a hydroelectric plant over to the lad.
"Kalista, you know that you have to show me your tits," said the lad with an excited smile.
"Don't do that," said Galina as she pushed the door open and pulled her sister away from the lad.
There was a black curtain that they passed through. Galina could only see the sparkling residual light in her own eyes. Kalista's hand kept pulling her forward with a clear sense of direction. The sound of the bass embraced Galina. She started relaxing her body into the music. Her movement was informed by the rhythm of the music. The pastoral organ music samples put an eerie fear into her. Under the blanket of the witch house music was the loud smattering of young voices mingling.
They passed through a second black curtain into a large hall that was packed with people dressed in black. Around the fringes of the room were couches and chairs. Above the crowd was a female hanging head over. Her ankles were tied together and dangling from a rope that hang in the beams under the ceiling. She had her arms stretched out like an inverted crucified Jesus. Her face was painted pale as white. She was wearing a leather bikini set. Slowly, she turned in circles, savoring her sacrificial energy and the attention of people in the crowd who stole glances at her.
The voice of a priest rose across the beat. The voice was distorted to have an echo and sound more dramatic and more prophesizing. Each word of the Book of Revelations was pronounced with finality. Screams of women and groans of men were interspersed. The woman hanging from the ceiling writhed her body as if she were a demon and the biblical words were tormenting her. It was all for the effect of dramatic facial expressions and clawing then pointing fingers.
Galina walked through the crowd to the bar and put her hand on the shoulder of a young woman. The young woman had thick strands of hair that were glued together to make her head hair look like a flower with a thousand little petals. She was wearing a fur jacket with an overblown neck. Her face looked like it was presented on a platter of fur. The body of the jacket itself was so short that it revealed her bare belly with a jewel glimmering in her belly button.
"Natalya, I brought my little bother," said Galina with a sneer in her mouth.
"Oh, you are always too hard on Kalista. Let me be her aunty. I'll take her around," said Natalya blowing smoke from a black stick of unknown substance.
Natalya reached her hand out with wide open fingers. Kalista interlocked her fingers. An endearing smile like sunshine chased across Kalista's face. Natalya pulled Kalista into the crowd. The wall of people in black parted just enough for Natalya's body to slip into the mass and closed right after her, so that only Natalya's hand was sticking out. Kalista dared to dive in. Her feet jumped a little like bambi from the excitement that she couldn't suppress. Then she was inside of the mass of people.
Like watching the world inside of a fish tank, people were pressed against her. The room was so dark. The tall bodies made everything even darker around her. She could make out the faces, the tough guy faces, the dolled up makeup faces of girls, piercing chains and tattoos on faces, chokers like she had only seen in fashion magazines, alcohol glasses held close to someone's chest.
She had to lean with her shoulder into a guy's leather jacket to move forward. The hard jewel of a ring was pressing against Kalista's thigh as a girl lowered her hand. A tall blond girl on high heels got shoved and pressed her body into Kalista's face. An exuberant young man pushed Kalista forward, so that Kalista lossed her footing. She tried to brace herself with the push of her free hand. Yet, her hand only pressed against the soft flesh of a pierced belly button that moved out of her way without giving her steadiness. Kalista stumbled a few steps forward. Kalista re-gripped Natalya's hand to hold on dearly. Natalya occasionally appeared visibly in front of her before the crowd closed in, and all Kalista could feel of her was the hand pulling her forward, deeper into the rabbit hole.
