Arnold Friend strips away Connie's innocence, using vagueness that allows the imagination to scare. During her meeting with Arnold, Connie is told to never touch her phone. The narrator tells of Connie's desperate struggle for the telephone and her failure, as "she screamed, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start to jerk back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend he was stabbing." again and again without tenderness (Oates 424).” It is unknown whether Arnold is actually stabbing Connie, beating her, or raping her. The reader uses their imagination to create terror, choosing what type of fear to experience. In this way, the story evokes mental fear. Furthermore, Connie's realization that she can no longer fight back or escape is the most tangible part of the story's fear. Towards the end of the story Connie allows Arnold to take her away from her home. During this, “[s]he thought, I won't see my mother again. He thought: I will never sleep in my bed again (Oates 425).” Connie realizes she's not the adult she thought she was. In the end, all she wants is for her family to protect her, but she knows she'll probably never see her again. Her innocence to the world has been taken from her, and what the world has left to offer her is more disturbing than any ghost or demon could.