i walk with my shack-mate, erica, and a girl who has no face & very long black hair out into an industrial wasteland. there is no sun. the sky is a dark greyish orange, an opaque color that visibly extends down to the air in front of my face.
we're up high, looking out at the barren smokestacked badlands from a sort of expansive rusty jungle-gym. this structure stretches out infinitely into the hellish horizon.
erica begins winding her way along narrow walkways and ladders toward her shack, which lies out of sight. she looks back and makes a nervous comment about how i'm going to hurt my feet because i don't have any shoes. my response is somehow cutting, surprising to myself, and it thickens the aura of tension surrounding her [us]. there are rusty nails sticking out of everything. i don't let my eyes wander downward past my toes because i'm pretty sure this rickety ass jungle-gym is suspended by nothingness. it's wavering, pushed by a nonexistent breeze. heavily silent except for the eerie squeaking of metal, and the girl with no face's voice telling me excitedly, "there's a shortcut but i can never remember where it is." she wants to race me to erica's shack, but i'm fairly certain i'm about to fall to my death so i don't pay much attention.
we're almost there, climbing through these disintegrating monkey bars when E disappears and i'm left navigating my steps on my own. the girl with no face calls out from a different part of the structure, "hey no fair! you found it first!" apparently i've stumbled upon her shortcut, but i'm uninterested and frustrated with her playful bullshit.
i stop for breath, fucking petrified. we've gotten even higher, and this area is swinging around much more dramatically. our next step is grabbing onto a hinged metal door frame and letting it swing us around to the other side of a gap in the corroded walkway.
the girl catches up and shimmies around me despite my protests. i tell her this is stupid, be careful, this isn't a game. she's laughing, swaying with the metal and i see her face for the first time.
it looks like one of those sexy teenager dolls for little girls (brat dolls?). she has big bright two-dimensional eyes with olive green irises, and above her huge mouth lies a pronounced mole on otherwise unblemished creamy coffee skin.
i yell, "stop swinging so i can move and get off this thing." she says with a mischievous smile, "it's not me, it's the wind."
very suddenly she loses her grip and falls out of my sight.
i hear her hit the ground like a meat hammer's dull thud. stand totally still for a moment without breathing or moving my gaze from the spot where she was just hanging, before deciding that if i look down at her body i'll never make it off the structure. shaking and blubbering, i grab the door frame and swing across the gap through which she just plunged. my feet hit dirt - i've made it.
i turn around and look down to see her. my dream perspective changes to an omnipotent aerial shot, slowly oscillating and zooming closer. she lies on her side, and she has three legs now. they're bent at the knees and tucked backward at a very awkward angle, fanning out behind her ass like a deck of cards. her three feet wear shiny black chuck taylors. she's quite bloody, jet black bruises are blossoming all over her face. she lifts her head for a moment and lets it fall again, dead.
