"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.
Kalista's foot caught on something. Natalya dragged her on. The room got darker. Instead of flashes of lights, there was only demure half-light. The crowd spaced out more, so that Kalista could dug in between the spaces of people talking instead of squeezing herself between bodies. There were in the old locker room of the copper miners. Someone had put blankets, pillows, and thick white candles into the shower stalls to make little cozy spots. Natalya let herself fall down on top of a girl in a tube top, G-string, and fur sleeves on her arms and calves. That girl turned her head had and dreamily kissed Natalya on the lips. She looked very relaxed to the point of being in a kind of trance.
"What's wrong with that guy?" asked Kalista as she sat down.
There was a guy who was squatting. He'd shake his right arm three times and then turn his head left and right. He kept repeating that movement continuously. He was wearing trousers with suspenders and no top. He had a railroad hat on. His eyes didn't seem focused on anything at all. Nobody was talking to him. He was simply repeating the motion by himself, completely aloof of the music.
"Drug side effects, sestra," said Natalya.
Kalista had been sitting upright, eagerly looking at everything that happened around her. People were talking emphatically, yet their counterparts remained very relaxed. Natalya pulled Kalista's body close. Kalista let her body glide to the side. Her rib touched Natalya's shins. Kalista's head came to rest on Natalya's belly. Kalista put her arm comfortable to the side and felt the unknown girl's skin. The unknown girl was running hot. The unknown girl didn't pull back to the physical contact. Kalista could feel the unknown girl energetically embracing Kalista's presence. This was all very pretty and romantic in the shower stall on a pile of blankets and pillows. The beat was softly pumping from the other room.
"This is my lover, Isis. Do you like girls or boys?" asked Natalya.
"I like boys," replied Kalista.
"You are just like your sister Galina," said Natalya with a headshake of disapproval.
"Garcon," yelled Natalya. Her sharp voice pierced through the almost deafening sound curtain. Natalya was used to being at Zelenyy Medved.
A boy with an excited smirk on a milk boy face arrived in a squat next to them. His torso was bare and sweaty from dancing. He wasn't overly buff. He wasn't overly skinny. He was like the type of guy that's always active and moving around. He probably had an awesome dancing jam with his bodies. His eyes had a clear blue that made him intriguing to what was going through his head. Despite his feminine, almost gay energy, the heavy boots on his feet gave him a manly appearance.
Gracon produced an old fashioned whiskey glass. There was a syrupy, milky white substance at the bottom of the glass. The rim of the glass had many imprints of lips – some were merely oily imprints, some were pink lipstick imprints. He held it out to Natalya. Natalya graciously took the glass with long straight fingers that showed an air of elegance, a studied way of grabbing a glass from lots of experience of grabbing drinking glasses and conscious reflection on how to grab a glass for effect. The moment was a chance to draw attention to her thick metal rings.
She fully drank the liquid. She opened her mouth wide to show her tongue and the pearly white teeth. She slushed the white syrup around in her mouth. Then, she spit it back into the drink and passed the glass to Isis.
