A tale of the strange and mysterious: "Inside the frightening phenomena of the Black-Eyed Children who knock on people's doors pleading for help then vanish." This appears to be a fairly recent urban legend:
The paranormal phenomenon traces its origins to a 1996 account from Texas journalist Brian Bethel, who claimed he encountered a group of children with completely black eyes while sitting in his car outside a strip mall in Abilene that left him petrified.
[snip]
According to Bethel, he was sitting in his car outside the former Westwood Theater in Abilene at twilight, using the glow of the theater marquee to write a check when two boys approached his vehicle.
The children appeared to be between nine and 12 years old and were wearing hoodies, he recalled.
What struck him first was not their appearance, but an overwhelming sense of dread.
'Immediately I am afraid. There is no reason to be afraid. There is no external thing going on that should be prickling my senses this way, but immediately I'm afraid,' Bethel said.
One of the boys asked for a ride, claiming they needed to go get money from their mother to see a movie.
Bethel said the child was 'real smooth - too smooth for a kid' and recalled becoming increasingly frightened the longer he listened.
'The more this kid talks to me, the more afraid I become. It doesn't make any sense,' he said.
The boy allegedly tried to reassure him by saying, 'We don't have a gun or anything.'
'That actually is when I really start to click into pure panic mode,' Bethel said.
'Something in my gut tells me that these kids don't need a gun.'
The children said they wanted to see Mortal Kombat, but Bethel noticed the movie had already started and realized they would miss most of it if he drove them to the mother's house and back.
When he looked back at the boys, he claimed their eyes were completely black.
'These kids have all black eyes. And I'm not talking just dilated pupils or anything like that. Just totally black,' Bethel said. 'Just soulless black void reflecting the light of the theater marquee.'
As he attempted to roll up his window and leave, Bethel said the spokesman became angry and began pounding on the glass.
According to Bethel, the boy shouted: 'Mister, we can't come inside your car unless you tell us it's okay. Let us in.'
Bethel said he immediately threw the car into reverse and sped away. Moments later, he checked his rearview mirror.
'There are no kids standing on the sidewalk and they don't have time to have gone anywhere,' he said.
After arriving home, Bethel said he 'literally' ran from his car to his apartment door and spent time trying to process what had happened.
According to the article, Bethel wrote about the experience a few weeks later and shared it online, after which he started hearing from others with similar experiences with black-eyed children.
Nearly 30 years after the first reported sighting, folklore experts and paranormal researchers remain divided over whether the Black-Eyed Children are an internet legend or something more sinister.
Jason Offutt, a journalism professor at Northwest Missouri State University who has spent more than a decade researching the phenomenon, said one of the most striking aspects of the reports is how similar they remain regardless of where they originate.
'I've talked to people from all across North America, talked to somebody from Portugal, England, Saudi Arabia, Australia - they've all had almost the exact same experience,' Offutt told the Daily Mail.
According to Offutt, witnesses often describe two children appearing together, with one seeming slightly older and more confident than the other.
Many accounts describe pale youngsters with black eyes, outdated clothing, greasy hair, bad breath and unusually mature speech patterns.
'They speak with confidence. They speak like they're much older than they appear,' Offutt said.
The article continues with more from Offutt including another encounter that he considers the scariest of those he has interviewed. The recurrent theme that the children need to be invited in to a vehicle or home reminds Offutt of other myths with similar features, including vampire myths from around the world where the vampires similarly need to first be invited into a building.
The article linked to the YouTube video below in which Brian Bethel describes his experience:
VIDEO: "The Night of the Black-Eyed Kids"
City of Abilene, Texas (29 min.)
The Why Files did an episode several months ago that included a segment on the black eyed children as well, which I've included below. This was one of The Why Files "campfire" episodes, so it just relates the story without the standard analysis of its authenticity. The segment about the black-eyed kids begins at the 15 minute mark:
VIDEO: "Witnesses of: Black Eyed Kids, Phone Calls from the Dead, The Cursed Heart"
The Why Files (40 min.)
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