A famous short story is "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. This stunning story describes how the seemingly perfect girl, Connie, is terrorized by the most abnormal man, Arnold Friend. Some would argue that he is the devil. Any argument that Arnold Friend is Satan can be used to say he is nothing more than a psychotic serial killer. While this prospect is horrific, it is considerably less disturbing than the devil knocking at your door. Though his persuasive behavior, unusual appearance and almost omniscient knowledge of Connie and her life are eerie they are explainable in the natural world.
             From the moment Arnold Friend and Connie see each other he appears to have a kind of magnetism that she can not help but notice, "He stared at her and then his lips widened in a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't help glancing back..."(363). His bravado is just one of the facets of his control over Connie. When he and his friend pull up to the house "the horn sounded four short taps, as if this were a signal Connie knew"(366) and asks Connie if he was late. This kind of confidence would probably be attractive on some level to Connie who was used to the sweet gentle ways of the boys her own age. Serial killers are often described as very charming and magnetic people. Arnold seems to be implying that he and Connie already have an established romantic relationship through the generous use of endearments like "sweetheart" and "honey" he uses when talking to her. Perhaps as an attractive girl, Connie is used to this kind of talk but she does not seem to care as the omniscient narrator describes after Arnold tells her she is cute, "she pretended to fidget" (366) and "She couldn't decide if she liked him or not"(367). Her indecision could be explained that she rather liked having her ego stroked. ...