Prologue

Haley is trapped by their hands. They  are all around her, bathing her scalp, rubbing, chanting inaudible sounds, laughing steadily, burning suds flooding down in front of her eyes and cheeks.

She is frantic and screaming, begging them to stop.

They pay no attention to her terrified screams. They're demonic and wild, quickly closing in on her. Peering hands reaching and stretching for her wet hair wrapped tightly around her head.

“Why? Why are you doing this to me? Who are you?” Haley cries out.  

Her scalps burning intensely as they continue to penetrate, pant, and chant.

Haley cannot move. Her wrists and ankles are bound tightly to the arms and legs of an old unpainted wooden chair. The ropes around her wrists are digging into her flesh as she anxiously tugs at them.

There's a dim light in the distance, but she can't see their faces. She's in a murky unfamiliar cold cellar. The floors are of dirt, walls made of old granite, and it smells morbidly damp.

She could see shadows of their bodies. Their fretful hands are her only clear sight. Their voices are not of man, they have deep, hoarse, gruff voices for women. Their emotions are contagious to each other; they are like a pack of wolves stalking its prey.

She tries to get her drenched head loose from their grip, but their force overpowers Haley’s strength. Her neck and back is painfully tight with tension and her resistance is growing weak.

No one can hear her underground, yet she screams for help as loud as her tired voice is able. Suds continue to drip and splash from her scalp, down her face. She's unable to wipe her burning swollen eyes.

“Why are you doing this? What do you want? Please just let me go!"

Haley is unable to put any force into her voice.

She's breathless and wheezing with exertion.

The croaking women are screaming and shouting as if they were possessed. They are feeding off Haley’s fear, losing control, thrusting and penetrating her scalp deeper and deeper. Their noisy breathing fills the room like a windstorm. Their exaggerated emotions are building. Chanting louder, dominated by hysteria as they repeatedly screech an unknown language.

They are speaking tongues...