midnight
`` Dale , '' he said slowly , `` for the past week I have been thinking things that I do not want to think and doing things completely against my will . Some outside power -- God knows what it is -- is controlling my very existence . '' He stared at me , and leaned closer across the table . `` Last night , some time before midnight , '' he told me , `` I was sitting alone in my den . Alone , mind you -- not a soul was in the house with me . I was reading a novel ; and suddenly , as if a living presence had stood in the room and commanded me , I was forced to put the book down . I fought against it , fought to remain in that room and go on reading .