Black Eyed Children at the Door

Night had fallen on Abilene, Texas in 1996 and noted local journalist, Brian Bethel was sitting in his car as he squared away his bill payments in an otherwise empty parking lot. As he continued about his business, two boys in hoodies, approached his vehicle and knocked on the window. He rolled down the window, and the younger-looking of the two asked in a very dry and almost rehearsed manner that they wanted to see a movie at the nearby theater, and asked that Bethel give them a ride to their mother’s to get money. The reporter listened to the child’s spiel a bit further as the mysterious kids tried to convince him it was safe to give them a ride. Brian Bethel claims that in this moment it was almost like he was in a trance, and when he came to he realized his hand was reaching to open the door for them. Finally he truly looked at the faces of the two kids and discovered their eyes were entirely pitch black. As one would expect, he drove off as quickly as he could and when he looked in the rearview mirror the two boys were gone. Being a reporter, Bethel naturally sought out answers as to what he experienced, and he relied heavily on the growing reach of the internet. Soon he began to receive reports from all over the country of normal people, who were sitting at home or in their car when these black eyed children came knocking at their door requesting permission to enter. This was the beginning of the phenomenon of, the Black-Eyed Kids or BEK. This is a phenomenon which has grown with the internet making it one of the more recent elements of the paranormal.

The mysterious “children” in question seem to follow the same MO, they approach cars or homes at night and specifically knock on the door to notify the occupants. One account had a homeowner ask why they did not use the doorbell, and the BEKs seemed genuinely confused by the device. The BEKs ask to enter the car or home and often do so with wording that sounds stiff or rehearsed, as they are denied entry they continue to ask and many times their words become out of order in their requests. Those who have had the misfortune of encountering these beings claim that they fall between the ages of 6-14 usually wearing hoods to obscure their faces or sometimes vintage clothing. Most importantly their eyes lack iris or sclera, and are instead pitch black. It is believed that the BEKs have some low level of hypnotic abilities as their intended victims feel a draw to go ahead and invite them in despite the illogical nature of such a decision.

Paranormal investigator David Weatherly has become an expert in the field of BEK research and published the obviously titled book Black-Eyed Children. With so much focus on BEKs focusing on the time period beginning in the late 90’s, Weatherly poured through accounts and found encounters with this beings dating back to the 1940’s. He also found that strange encounters with these being were not just localized to the United States, as he found a particularly unnerving account from France in 1974. Which has led some to wonder if the BEKs are some old world entity which has immigrated to another continent and taken on new contemporary trappings.

Of course when it comes to the paranormal we must first look at any and all logical explanations. Naturally there are those who look to black full-eye contacts as a logical answer as nowadays they are available pretty easily. But one must look at the time period when these sightings were beginning to take off in the 90’s these contacts would have cost several hundred dollars, something a kid probably would not be able to afford. Even if a kid could get ahold of these contacts to goof on some adults, they are very uncomfortable, and children of the age to pitch a fit about the slightest discomfort would likely lack the patience for such an item for long. Medically speaking you can also look at explanations like: drug use, bust sclera, or some other head/eye injury. But this would not explain the fact that these “children” have pitch blackness covering the entirety of their eyes.

Going from the realm of the logical to the realm of the supernatural still offers little in the way of an explanation. In many elements of the paranormal, researchers and investigators have an idea of what is behind various phenomena. It is theorized that ghosts are energy left behind from the dead, and that Sasquatch and other cryptids are animals we have not discovered yet. But with the Black-Eyed Kids, nobody has solid theory to work from. One of the more recent ideas is that the collective belief that these things exist, gave them enough energy to manifest in our reality. Another hypothesis builds on years of alien abduction claims where abductees recounted seeing aliens experimenting in creating human hybrids. Those who buy into this train of thought believe the Black-Eyed Children are the product of these extraterrestrial experiments. But these are far from the only opinions as there are suggestions of: inter-dimensional beings, ghosts, products of the Montauk Project, or even vampires due to their need to be invited in.

Nobody is 100% certain of what the Black-Eyed Children want or why they need permission to enter a place to get it. After his terrifying encounter with these entities, Brian Bethel is convinced they are evil and has referred to them as a “predator” species. After all these years of collecting stories, in the back of Bethel’s mind he wonders about the accounts he does not hear about, because those would have told him opened the door when they heard a little child’s knock.