This Present Darkness

Late on a Sunday night, two mysterious figures wander into the town of Ashton during the last night of a town carnival. Nobody seems to notice them as they make their way through the crowd of revelers until they spot a woman who they had been looking for. They make a suggestion to the woman, who is holding a camera, to look in a particular direction, which she does (snapping pictures as she does so).

The two figures move on from the carnival and arrive at the Ashton Community Church, where they repel a demon from entering and observe the local pastor, Hank Busche, praying in the back of the pews: “The two couldn’t help but just stand there for a moment, watching, studying, pondering. One identifies Hank as “the little warrior” (13).

The next morning, the new editor of the Ashton Clarion (the local paper), Marshall Hogan, looks for his star reporter Bernice, who can’t be found. The phone rings, and he discovers that she is calling from jail.

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.