Out of sheer boredom and nostalgia, I re-read Joyce Carol Oates' short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. And, as it did my junior year of high school, it scared the hell out of me. So to speak.

Those of you who have read the story and the countless analyses of its spiritual content know that it's an allegory for the ways in which demons prey on people stuck on their own vanity. So you shouldn't wonder why I can't help but mutter, "Oh shit," when I read it.

He wagged a finger and laughed and said, 'Gonna get you, baby,'...