This Present Darkness

Marshall Hogan rushes down to the jail in order to bail out his reporter, Bernice Kreuger, who had been reporting on the carnival the previous night and had had a misunderstanding with the police who were providing security late in the evening. Marshall and his wife, Kate, get Bernice freed from her cell and walk her out of the jail. Before leaving, Bernice tells Marshall that she thinks she saw Police Chief Brummel talking privately with the local megachurch pastor, Oliver Young, along with three other unidentified people. She insists that Brummel saw her arrest—a misunderstanding thanks to her interviewing two sex workers at the carnival—and did nothing about it.

Elsewhere in town, Hank Busche wakes up to a sunny morning with more hope in his heart than he had had the night before. These feelings are quickly dashed, however, as he notices that his house has been vandalized. His wife, Mary, tries to talk to him about an upcoming board meeting at the Church to discuss Hank’s recent decisions on Church discipline of a member caught in adultery, but their conversation ends when Mary discovers the graffiti on the house as well.

Marshall Hogan returns to the courthouse from which he picked up Bernice and heads to the police station looking for the captain, Alf Brummel. Finding him, Hogan confronts Brummel about Bernice being jailed all night, repeating her claim that the police chief saw her at the carnival. Brummel denies being at the carnival, and over the course of their conversation, Hogan finds himself swayed by Brummel’s manner of speech and seemingly hypnotic ability to persuade him of his side of the story. Feeling too tired to argue and convinced of Brummel’s good intentions, Hogan leaves the office.

After Hogan leaves, Brummel calls up Hank to try and persuade him to take a different course of action regarding the church discipline that he is attempting to invoke. Hank pushes back, arguing that he is simply doing the job that he was brough to the church to do: “Too many people don’t know—or don’t want to know—what the truth is anymore. We don’t stand for something, so we fall for anything, […] and then look for someone else to blame!” (35). Hanging up the phone, Brummel is shaken and upset.

A demon watches Hogan drive to the private college of Whitmore, where his daughter, Sandy, is attending classes. Finding the lecture hall she’s supposed to be in, he slips into the back of the lecture but is immediately noticed and kicked out of the room by the professor. Waiting outside the hall, Hogan notices the students exit and sees his daughter walk by without acknowledging his presence. He runs outside to catch up to her, thinking about how it seemed like the professor had seemed very hostile, and confronts his daughter. They have a fight, and it is clear that Hogan and his daughter have very different worldviews and a fraught relationship. Sandy storms off, leaving Hogan despairing of their relationship, but just as the demon who had been watching him the whole time was about to strengthen his grip on Hogan, it sees a blinding flash of light and is scared off.

Across campus, two angels descend to earth: Guilo, who is large and bearded, and Triskal, who is smaller in stature. The larger is restrained by the smaller from going after the fleeing demon “of complacency and despair” (43). Triskal tells Guilo that they have been commanded by Tal, their captain, not to fight. They travel to the small church, where they meet up with a host of other angelic warriors, including Tal. Tal summarizes their situation, stating that Rafar, the demon prince of Babylon, will soon arrive in town. Guilo is confused as to why such a thing would occur, and Tal responds that he does not know, but that “the Spirit” (46) wants them there. For now, they are not to fight, they are to watch and guard a few individuals in town, including Hank and Marshall.

Meanwhile, the demons hold their own meeting in the basement of the university. Complacency is confronted by Lucius, the demon prince of Ashton, who berates him for failing his mission of attacking Marshall. Before the confrontation can escalate, however, Rafar arrives and forces Lucius to submit to him. Unsatisfied with how things have been going, he announces a twofold assault on both Marshall and Hank that will be carried out that very night.

Late that night, Hank finds himself unable to sleep, and in the middle of the night is convinced that someone has broken into the house. He gets out of bed to check, praying the whole time. At the same time, Marshall is having a similar experience: He too is having trouble sleeping and even thinks that he’s hearing voices. He gets out of bed to check whether or not someone has broken into his home, and he finds the front door open and his daughter missing from her room.

Back at Hank’s home, demons assault him, driving him into the ground and crushing him. He is able to utter a prayer aloud, and the oppression is lifted; at the same time, Mary awakes and comes to his aid. The angels who had been assigned to guard Hank could only stand by and watch, but they rejoice when Hank proves victorious in his spiritual battle. Hank and Mary continue to pray deep into the night, while Marshall and Kate talk about why Sandy may have run off in the middle of the night. Bernice calls up to relate some suspicious occurrences, including her camera film being tampered with, and Marshall determines to confront Oliver Young, the pastor whom Marshall is beginning to suspect of dubious motives, the next day.

Wondering to whom he might turn for advice, Hank decides to call up the previous pastor of his church. Getting ahold of the previous pastor, Hank discovers that he too had been run out of town and had his reputation destroyed. The former pastor warns Hank and attempts to convince him to simply leave, but Hank is more determined than ever before.

Meanwhile, Marshall has a meeting with Oliver Young, the pastor of the large modern church in town, of whom he is not fond. Invited into Oliver’s office, Marshall immediately realizes he is being talked down to: “He began to feel a familiar tinge of intimidation; this whole office seemed designed for it” (73). They begin to talk about Sandy running away from home, but Marshall purposely shifts the conversation to bad influences on Sandy, singling out her teacher, Professor Langstrat. Marshall is convinced that Oliver was at the carnival with Langstrat, and asks him about it, but Oliver denies knowing her at all. Oliver also denies that he knows Brummel, but as Marshall decides to end their meeting, Brummel arrives for his own appointment with pastor Young.

Sitting alone in the college cafeteria, Sandy thinks over her life and her relationship with her father. “Why, Daddy? […] Why can’t you just love me for what I am?” (77). Crying at her table, she is interrupted by a young man, who asks here if anything is wrong.

Meanwhile, Professor Langstrat is in the middle of a meeting with Brummel, whom she is both counseling and interrogating at the same time. During the course of their conversation, she reveals that she has been speaking with Oliver and an unspecified number of others who make up their inner circle. Kissing him, Langstrat proceeds to manipulate Brummel, forcing him to continue obeying her in plans to work against Hank. Brummel leaves, and Langstrat is left in her apartment with the demon prince Rafar looking over her shoulder.

At the newspaper offices, Bernice and Marshall have a meeting to go over their various findings. They share information on Brummel’s relationship with Langstrat, as well as Oliver’s connection to both of them. They agree that something strange is going on that involves those three and determine to keep investigating.

The next day, Marshall and Kate are preparing dinner when the doorbell rings. At the front door is a young man named Shawn who says he is a friend of Sandy’s. They speak with him about how Sandy has been feeling, and Shawn reveals that he has brought Sandy with him; they all reconcile and sit down to eat dinner.

At the college, Bernice meets with a friend on the faculty, Ruth Williams, in order to ask questions about Professor Langstrat. Ruth doesn’t reveal much but tells Bernice she really needs to talk to Albert Darr, one of Langstrat’s colleagues in the psychology department: “From what I’ve heard, […] he rubs shoulders with Langstrat every day, doesn’t like her at all, and loves to gossip” (88). Bernice finds Albert and proceeds to question him about Langstrat’s character, discovering that Langstrat is part of a small group of like-minded individuals whom Albert has dubbed the “inner circle,” and she is attempting to make strides in the field of psychology that more resemble magic than science. Albert insists: “I don’t see Langstrat’s advances in these areas as anything other than foolish, neo-pagan witchcraft. I think she’s desperately confused!” (90). Albert gives her a few names of those he thinks Langstrat is in league with, including Oliver and multiple people involved in the college’s governance.

Hank counsels a woman who tells him she has been hearing voices while Bernice heads to the newspaper office to speak with Marshall. At the small Ashton church, Brummel arrives, turns on the lights, and prepares for the meeting in which Hank’s fate will be determined. The community turns out to be split down the middle, and the first vote for removing Hank as the pastor turns out to be a tie. However, right as the congregation is about to take a second vote, an old woman who is a long-time member of the church shows up, and Lou Stanley, the adulterer, turns up to cast a vote. After the second round, the votes are tallied, and Hank’s role is confirmed—the congregation voted to retain him as their pastor, but only by a margin of two votes.