EPISODE 13B: CHILD
Imagine that it is 11 pm on a Sunday night. You turned off the tv and are getting ready to head up to bed.
Just as you go to switch off the hallway light, there is a knock at your front door.
You pause.
who could be knocking at this time? You toy mentally with different scenerios……Maybe someone has had car trouble…or lost their dog…..
Suddenly, as if reading your mind, a Childs voice comes from the other side of the threshold:
“Excuse me miss, can we come in and use your phone?”
You walk towards the door, ready to open it and help the young inquirer….but something feels wrong…..really wrong about the situation.
Every fibre of your being is screaming at you: do not let them inside the house.
You decide the best course of action, is to peer through the glass instead.
Two children look up at you.
They repeat their question once more…..it feels deviously insistent this time.
That’s when you notice their eyes. They are completely black.
INTRO PLAYS
Every few years, stories of creepy encounters with the so-called Black Eyed Kids pop up on reddit, or in books…and they always leave a lasting impression on me.
If you’ve never heard of this phenomenon, you’re in for a real treatr.
Black-eyed Kids, aka BEKs (a term Im not crazy about), are…you guessed it….kids with black eyes.
And When I say black eyes, I mean the entire eyeball, not just the iris.
They are typically seen in pairs or groups of three, but sometimes alone, and most commonly appear on your doorstep, but people have come across them out and about in the world as well.
In these stories, the creepy kids always want to come inside your home or your place of safety.
Usually they say they need to use the phone to call their parents, or some other excuse, but it’s always something that requires entry.
People describe them as looking somewhat out of place. The clothes they wear are often said to be from a couple decades in the past. They dont don fancy brand logos, or the latest fads.
It’s like they are trying to be non-descript.
Sometimes they will have props with them, bikes or skateboards, but are interacting with the items in a strange way….as if they don’t actually know the purpose behind them.
They also use language that feels “off” for a kid. It has an adult style to it, like they are reciting a script.
Sometimes, they even come across as if they can read your mind, and answer the questions you’re thinking, but not saying.
They don’t show much emotion and could even be described as polite….that is until you say no.
No seems to trigger an intense and rageful response…… but even when angry they still don’t physically touch you or force their way in.
This is because they can’t seem to enter your house without your permission, which has led people to compare them to vampires.
That being said, they will bang on your window or chase you, but as of now I havent seen a story that involves anyone being actually touched…..
That’s not to ssay they can’t hurt you in other ways.
Some stories talk about people having let them in…only to die shortly after of illnesses or accidents.
Unlike many other paranormal stories, we actually know the origin story of black-eyed kids quite well.
When I say origin, I don’t necessarily mean the first ever encounter with BEK’s, but rather the first highly documented and spoken about encounter.
This story is so well known because it takes place in 1996, and is the real life account of a journalist named Brian Bethel.
Brian posted it online just as the internet and message board culture was taking off.
One night in 1996 in Abaline Texas, a journalist by the name of Brian Bethel was sitting in the parking lot of a strip mall complex, writing a cheque to stick in the drop box of his internet provider who had a storefront there.
He recalls using the light of the nearby movie theatre marquee to illuminate his checkbook. The glow of the neon lights that spelled out “Mortal Kombat” streamed in through the windshield as he filled in the piece of paper.
No sooner had he begun, when there was a knock on his drivers side window.
Brian was understandly startled by the sudden intrusion, and looked up to see two boys standing next to his car.
It is almost immediately that he feels the first of many waves of dread come over him, so he rolled his window down just a fraction.
The slightly older looking boy, who wore a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, was twelve, thirteen at the most. And He’s the one who spoke first.
The first thing Brian picked up on was his confidence.
A confidence that seemed unusual for a teenager.
“Hey mister, what’s up. We have a problem. My friend and I want to see the film but we forgot our money. We need to go to our house to get it. Wanna help us?”
Brian hesitated and noticed the younger boy look up at his friend.
He was the more nervous one of the pair and it seemed to be more towards Brian’s hesitation than his friends request.
He was looking to him for reassurance that their plan would work.
The spokesman repeated his question.
“come on mister, we just want to go to our house. We are just two little boys.”
The way they spoke was very strange.
As a journalist, Brian had interviewed kids before….they were often jumpy and their thoughts scattered….the complete opposite of this pair.
What worried Brian the most, was the fact that these kids showed no fear, when others their age had a healthy respect towards adults, and hesitation when approaching strangers.
He knew around this time….they weren’t kids.
“What movie are you going to see?” He asked them, trying to buy himself some time.
“Mortal Combat of course,” replied the spokesman, his friend nodding in agreement.
Brian looked up towards the marquee, the familar glow confirming what he already knew. The last showing had started over an hour ago.
Looking away was a mistake.
The kids knew for sure that Brian was stalling.
“Come on mister, let us in….we can’t get into your car until you do you know. Let us in. We need to go to our mothers house.”
Brian felt himself being drawn towards his door lock.
It was as if the kids insistence had power over of him….making him do things that he didn’t want to do.
Suddenly, he felt in control again, and pulled his arm back.
Another mistake.
The kids were angry…..he could feel it.
That is when he noticed.
The eyes.
They were pitch black.
A deep jet nothingness looking back at him.
Brian’s poker face must have slipped, and the kids knew he could see their eyes for what they really were.
“Come on mister, we won’t hurt you. You HAVE to let us in. Its not like we have a gun or anything….”
This was the final straw for Brian. He threw his car into reverse and pulled out of his parking spot, thanking god he didn’t hit anybody.
He could see the boys out of the corner of his eye as he turned the car and sped away.
A moment later, he looked again.
They were gone.
The sidewalk next to the theatre was completely empty, and there were not enough cars in the lot for them to have hidden behind.
When Brian got back home, he called his friend Chad and recited the encounter to him.
Chad was actually hanging out with a friend of his, who happened to be a psychic.
On speaker phone, Brian once again told them what had happened.
He was just about to tell the part about their eyes, leaving it for last, for some sort of dramatic effect, when the psychic said:
“they had black eyes right?”
“uhhh….yea….how did you know that?”
The women went on to tell him about a dream she had had just a few nights prior.
In it, there were kids outside her door, wanting to be let in.
She recalled them having something wrong with them, but it took her a while to figure it out…..to notice.
It was their eyes. They were pitch black.
“I knew if I had let them in, something reeally bad would’ve happened. They wanted to kill me. They would’ve killed you too if you had let them into your car.”
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