Piercing the Darkness

The second installment in Frank E. Peretti's spiritual warfare series, following This Present Darkness, takes place in a world where angels and demons wage invisible battles that directly shape human events. The story unfolds on two parallel planes: the physical lives of ordinary people in a small farming community, and the supernatural conflict between angelic warriors and demonic forces that surround and influence them.

On a Tuesday evening in Bacon's Corner, a small farming town, Sally Roe, a reclusive local factory worker, barely survives an assassination attempt at her rented farmhouse when angelic warriors kill her attacker. Wounded in the shoulder and neck, Sally retrieves items from the goat shed where the body lies and flees in her pickup truck. Simultaneously, Irene Bledsoe, a child welfare worker, speeds through town with Tom Harris's children, six-year-old Ruth and nine-year-old Josiah, whom she has seized under a court order. Sally's truck and Bledsoe's car nearly collide at an intersection, and the occupants see each other. As the angelic captain Tal later explains, this near-miss fits a larger divine plan by creating witnesses to Sally's survival. A neighbor discovers the body and calls police.

At the police station, Officer Ben Cole, a young Black policeman, discovers Sergeant Mulligan interrogating Tom Harris, a widowed schoolteacher and headmaster of the Good Shepherd Academy, a small Christian school. Mulligan accuses Tom of child abuse, and reporters from the Hampton County Star have already been tipped off. When police investigate the body at the farm, Ben notices evidence inconsistent with suicide, but Mulligan dismisses the findings and rules the death self-inflicted. A newspaper account misidentifies the dead woman as "Sally Beth Rough," leading Sally to realize the authorities believe she is the one who died. Ben later discovers that Mulligan's report and crime scene photographs have been altered.

The lawsuit against Tom's school forms the novel's central human conflict. Lucy Brandon, the local postmaster, withdraws her daughter Amber from the school and, coached by Claire Johanson, a legal assistant affiliated with the American Citizens' Freedom Association (ACFA), files suit against the Academy. The charges include outrageous religious behavior, physical abuse by spanking, excessive religious instruction, and church-state violations. They stem from an incident in which Tom attempted to cast out what he believed was a demon from Amber, who had begun manifesting a violent alternate personality called Amethyst after learning visualization exercises in her public school classroom. The ACFA orchestrates the case to set legal precedents giving the federal government authority over religious education nationwide.

Tom's attorney, Wayne Corrigan, takes the case, explaining that the ACFA chose Bacon's Corner because its Christians are isolated and unable to mount a strong defense. At a hearing before Federal District Judge Emily R. Fletcher, the court partially restrains the school but allows it to remain open. Tom's children remain in state custody, supervised by Bledsoe, who blocks his access to them.

Sally flees across the country, tormented by demons that have attached themselves to her since her years of involvement with the occult. She dyes her hair, assumes aliases, and retraces her former life. At a motel, she discovers that the ring she took from her attacker bears a gargoyle design she vaguely recognizes and that the assassin was carrying ten thousand dollars in cash. She visits the Omega Center for Educational Studies in Fairwood, Massachusetts, where she was once recruited through a program called Young Potentials and where she developed the Finding the Real Me curriculum now used in public schools. When the Center's director recognizes her, angelic warriors create diversions that allow her to escape.

Sally writes letters to Tom detailing what she has uncovered, not knowing that Lucy, pressured by Mulligan and her friends in LifeCircle, a local occult fellowship, is intercepting the letters at the Post Office and forwarding them to the Summit Institute, the conspiracy's headquarters.

Marshall Hogan, a newspaper editor from Ashton who previously fought an occult conspiracy there (as depicted in This Present Darkness), feels led by God to investigate the case. He and his wife Kate join Tom, Ben, Pastor Mark Howard, and Corrigan in Bacon's Corner. Marshall proposes that the lawsuit, the removal of Tom's children, and Sally's attempted murder are all connected. The team uncovers a network linking LifeCircle, the school board, the ACFA, and a Satanist coven called Broken Birch.

Sally's journey takes her to Bentmore University, where she confronts Professor Samuel W. Lynch, head of the School of Education. While Lynch briefly leaves his office, Sally steals four membership roster volumes of the Royal and Sacred Order of the Nation, a secretive fraternal society with powerful members throughout government, law, and education. She escapes in a harrowing chase, rescued by a Christian couple who drive her to Ashton.

In Ashton, Sally stays at a boarding house and meets Bernice Krueger, Marshall's assistant editor at the Ashton Clarion, and Pastor Hank Busche. Through conversations and her own reading of Scripture, Sally confronts the horror of her past: Ten years earlier, under the influence of a spirit-guide named Jonas, she drowned her infant daughter Rachel and was convicted of first-degree murder. Sitting in a park in Henderson, she surrenders her life to Jesus Christ, experiencing forgiveness and liberation from the demons that have tormented her.

Meanwhile, the demonic commander Destroyer sows strife within the Good Shepherd Community Church, weakening the prayer cover that empowers the angelic Host. Donna Hemphile, a church member secretly working for Broken Birch, spreads destructive gossip that causes families to leave. Mark heals the division by confronting lies and exposing Donna as the infiltrator.

Sally's last letter, mailed from a motel outside Chicago, reveals her location. The conspirators capture her and transport her to the Summit Institute, where the conspiracy's leaders, including ACFA senior partner Santinelli and Summit Institute director Goring, confirm the full scope of the plot: Sally's reappearance threatened their plan because she authored the curriculum that caused Amber's condition. Sally reveals her countermove: She deliberately sent her letters through Lucy knowing they would be intercepted. She has stored copies of all the letters, the rosters, and the assassin's ring in a Post Office box in Ashton, with the key sent to Bernice.

Events converge. Bernice discovers that Sally is the original author of Finding the Real Me, her name having been removed from the version given to the defense. A coworker of Lucy's confirms the mail tampering to Marshall, who confronts Lucy. At Lucy's home, Marshall and Kate cast out the demon Amethyst from Amber, freeing the child. Lucy drops the lawsuit and agrees to testify. Marshall contacts the FBI.

At the Summit Institute, Tal frees Sally from the basement, and she flees into the mountains. FBI agents arrest Khull, the Broken Birch assassin who has been pursuing Sally, and Santinelli in the parking lot. Destroyer, now revealed as Sally's former spirit-guide Jonas, pursues her for a final confrontation. Sally stands against him, declaring her faith in Jesus and renouncing his authority. Stripped of power, Destroyer falls to Tal's sword.

The conspiracy collapses. Owen Bennett, a Supreme Court Justice and Nation member, resigns under pressure. Claire Johanson and other conspirators flee Bacon's Corner, while Mulligan and Donna Hemphile disappear together. School board members resign, and Bledsoe is fired. Tom's children burst through his front door in a joyful reunion. Sally drives her old blue pickup back to Bacon's Corner and meets Tom for the first time, welcomed as a friend and fellow believer. Tal and his warriors settle on the roof above, marveling at the work of redemption.