The Sweet Up and Down

The Devil House was once located at the intersection of 93rd and Paulen Roads in Shawnee County. Rumor had it, a family used to live there who practiced Satanism. One night, their daughter snuck out and rode to Topeka on a white horse and was beaten and raped. She was able to make it back home but discovered she was pregnant. When the baby was born, the mother, ashamed of the bastard child, took the baby and drowned it in a nearby pond. The girl snapped, murdered her parents and then rode away on the white horse never to be seen again.

While that's a good story I do find some flaws in it. 1)Why would Satanists really care about a "bastard child?" That's more of a God-fearing, Christian thing. 2)But when this story would've happened (1890-1927), Topeka would've been a good distance away and would've taken most of the night to ride there and back. 3)A murder like this would've made the Topeka paper and even the Richland paper, a small town near the House but no verification has been found. While I do believe this all could happen, I think it's pieced together from different legends.

When I first saw the Devil House (part of the Kansas Devil's Triangle of Rochester Cemetery, the Devil House and Stull Cemetery), it was very imposing. The house was all boarded up and one small NO TRESPASSING sign was nailed to boards on the second floor. When me and a group of friends went to the house in the daytime, we explored more of the grounds. We saw the foundation of what we figured was a barn or stable and several watersheds. As we walked down a trail through the woods, we actually came across a pond which tied in with the story. Unfortunately, Randy got scared and ran away so we didn't explore any further but came back at night and explored the house.

At night, the house seemed much more imposing. Since the exterior wall were a yellow color, the house really stood out in the dark. All the doors and windows had been boarded up so we walked around to the back where the cellar door had been busted down. You could see remnants of previous visitors littering the small staircase to the door. The basement was completely made of dirt and dirt basements are creepy. We could see a couple of mice roaming around and two good-sized holes were made in the above ceiling for access into the actual house.

We were able to climb into the first floor fairly easily and could see the damage inflicted by vandals and time--mainly vandals. We calmly walked around looking in vain for some evidence of what supposedly transpired at this location but found nothing and were unable to gain access to the fabled third floor where the Satanic rituals and killings took place. Sadly, the house was torn down and replaced with a newer house. So any mystery associated with the Devil House will remain a mystery, only a memory to those who know the truth.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian

February started out good. The best month in a long time but even as I was happier than I've been for almost six months the quality of the month steadily went downhill. I'm in a sort of personal crisis and I don't know how to get out of it. It's not even my fault, I was placed in this situation by someone else and for that I will not forgive. Had it been my responsibility or my fault then I wouldn't be upset but I don't like it when someone else's mistakes reflect badly on me.

I've been responsible my entire life, which I have pointed out before, and have nothing to show for it. I may not even know where I'll be living within the next week because of blatant irresponsibility. I have good friends who have been pointing out possible solutions and a girlfriend who has offered up her place to me and my son but I refuse to be placed in this situation again. In a perfect world I would not have this much responsibility but I do and I actually enjoy it because it shows everyone that I can do this. I am an adult with all the perks that come with it but I don't want to be included in someone else's failure because I am better than that.

On a side note, I am getting Randy back which I am ecstatic about because even though we saw each other back in February of 2007 in Denver we didn't exactly get much time to hang out and be ourselves because we were stupid and in love and talked mostly about our relationships. I guess I'll admit that Randy is my best friend and I will probably never say that again to hopefully Randy savors that sentence. I guess the plan is to go out and eat, drink and be merry so that'll be fun. It's been a while since I've done that.

Until next time, I remain...
~Brian