Darby weaves an incredible and compelling tale of spiritual warfare.
Usually, this subject matter is presented formulaically, or as per instructions. Not so in Darby’s version. Graphic descriptions fill in the spaces between the invisible (spiritual) and visible worlds we find ourselves living in.
Doreen(her legal name) “Cassandra” (her witch name) worships Satan:
making sacrifices to him on her altar and speaking dark things, she dedicates
her twin daughters, Rita and Maureen, to Satan’s service.
Little demons scatter themselves throughout the brush, inside the house of
the witch, even ride alongside “Cassandra” in her car. These beings are not elfin fairies but foul, malevolent, depraved creatures, spreading despair, disease, and death among the people in Cassandra’s life.
Cassandra frequently abuses the children both physically and emotionally,
particularly Rita, whom she calls “bad twin.” Cassandra does not love the
girls; she thinks of them as “unnecessary”, the result of a one-night-stand. The children grow thinking poorly of themselves. They don’t understand the witchcraft, and they live in a constant state of fear. As the Word says “The fear of God is the beginning of all understanding.”
Cassandra seduces a dentist with her satanic powers. “Tom” is just a
regular-type guy, not Christian, and the two wed. Soon thereafter, Tom
realizes he has made a grand error in marriage and in putting the house and cars in both their names . Cassandra locks him out of their bedroom,
and he knocks Rita down in his fit of rage. But Maureen he has his eye
on for future pleasures.
The twins are separated at the age of fifteen, and Cassandra refuses to let
Rita move back home. The twins are bereft without each other and
Left to fend for themselves. Maureen has to deal with Tom’s sexual
abuse while Rita moves in with a friend’s Christian parents. The Pickerings love and raise Rita and provide for her as if she is their
daughter. Rita notices that the demons cannot come into a Christian
home and marvels at it. Along the road to being saved, she has some
very touching scenes between her and the Lord Jesus.