Kathy Liu’s Story: as told on a Sunday afternoon, sitting in the suite living room around 3pm- Kathy sat in the big blue chair, I sat on the couch, and Tanya listened from a chair at the table.

Background: Kathy is a USC freshman from Westchester, Pennsylvania. She is a Cinematic Arts major, 18 years old, and of Asian background but US born-and-raised. She is one of my suitemates this year. Tanya is another one of our suitemates.

Kathy: So I come from Southeastern Pennsylvania, and there’s this road, I forget what it’s called but, colloquially we call it “Devil’s Road” for this reason: so there’s a house in the middle of this, like, circular, windy path, and it used to be like a historic house- I forget if it like belonged to like the DuPont family or like something- some historic family, and there used to be like some really cultish activities going on and I think, I don’t know, but this is one of the things. But there’s something crazy about people in cement or something crazy like human sacrifices or something weird they did to people, and the entire road is kind of like enclosed in like shrubbery and everything. And the houses, no not the houses, the trees around the house actually grow away from the house- they all like grow in the direction away from the house (demonstrating with hands) which is a really creepy thing. And then at night, if you drive around the first time, a light will turn on in the house or something like that. And then a second time a black car with no headlights on will follow you, tailgate you. And then the third time that car will kind of like gently bump the back of your car a little bit, and really scary things- it’s got like no headlights or anything. And you’re not supposed to go a fourth time. Pause. Nobody knows what happens to you a fourth time. You’re not supposed to go. But yeah, that’s Devil’s Road in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Me: Did you know people who’ve tried driving?

Kathy: Kind of. Group, people, friends of friends of friends tried going. There’s like this one kid who goes around three times like often.

Tanya: Damn. Yeah, I kind of want to do it, even though I’d probably end up crying out of fear.

Kathy: If you visit me, (laughs), then we’ll go do it.

Me: Suitemates trip to visit Kathy.

Tanya: Lol. This ghost stuff just fascinates me.

Kathy: Cool.

After a bit of online research, we discovered that the DuPont family used the house to marry their cousins, so as to keep their wealth in the family. They would use the house to hide children from these marriages. However, it is difficult to visit the houses do to restrictions on the area due to popular interest in Devil’s Road and the Cult House.

Reaction: It was clear that Kathy believed in the legend, though she hadn’t tried to experience the myths of the house herself. She had heard the legends from her town and her friend had once attempted to complete the journey. I am not sure if I completely believe it. However, I have never been to southeastern Pennsylvania, and even if I were there, I would probably be much too scared to try it out for myself, certainly not alone!