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The Mysterious: Black Eyed Kids

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Archaeological Conspiracy Theories Cultural Supernatural & Horror

          It’s spooky month, readers! That means it’s time for me to cover topics that are near and dear to my heart. So this month’s mystery is one of the big ones I’ve wanted to cover. Are the Black Eyed Kids aliens? Time travelers? Vampires? Ghosts? Nobody knows! Here’s what we do know – they’re creepy as hell. Let’s explore.

Description

          Black Eyed Kids (also known as BEK) are entities known for approaching people and attempting to get permission to enter homes. They are also occasionally spotted in forests or other desolate areas. BEK are described as ghostly pale and have fully black eyes – pupils, irises, scleras and all. They typically wear clothing that obscures their faces – such as hoods and hats – to hide their eyes. If they do not have a garment to shroud their eyes, they will look down or hide behind their hair. Of course, this is not to say that every single encounter bears these hallmarks – I’m generalizing based on the dozens of stories I’ve read.
          The clothing that BEK wear varies from encounter to encounter. Some wear modern clothing, while some wear outdated outfits that include things like pantaloons and britches. It seems that they more often wear contemporary outfits, in an attempt to blend in and look normal. And they mostly succeed in seeming normal until they ask a question that shows they do not fully understand the time we’re living in, or human customs. They have been known to ask to use the “telegraph” or asking for ketchup…for their apple. 

(An artist’s representation of a BEK.
via Texas Hill Country & Measuring the Circle)

Encounters

          There have been so many supposed sightings of Black Eyed Kids, but I’ll go over here. There are links in the sources with more stories if you’re interested. Let’s begin in Abilene, Texas in 1996. A journalist named Brian Bethel was sitting in his truck in a parking lot, writing a check to pay a bill when two young boys approached and knocked on the window. They claimed to need a ride back to their house, because they wanted to see Mortal Kombat at the theater across the parking lot, but had no money. Except the last showing of Mortal Kombat had already started, so they would have missed most of the movie by the time they got back to the theater with cash. Bethel explained this to them, and the boys attempted to assuage his fears by telling him that they didn’t have a gun. Sketchy. Overcome by a feeling of dread, Bethel broke eye contact. As soon as he did, both boys’ eyes turned totally black. And Bethel peeled out to get the hell out of there.
          Next, we jump all the way to 2015. Cannock Chase is a forested area outside of Staffordshire, England. According to locals, a young girl with back pits for eyes had been seen wandering the forests since the 80s, scaring locals. There had only been eyewitness accounts until 2015, when a drone filming the forest caught a slight figure with seemingly black eyes on camera. In the clip, the figure seems to be trying to hide between some trees at the edge of the forest, watching the drone. It looked like a little girl with dark hair, wearing a nightgown. Now, some people claim that it looks like a lost little girl wandering around the woods. Others claim to be able to see dark holes where her eyes should be. The video isn’t great quality, unfortunately, so I’m not sure what I think I see. Here’s a link to the video so you can decide for yourself.
          Finally, in 2016, a couple in Vermont heard knocking on their door in the middle of the night. The wife made her husband answer the door in case there was an emergency. They found two kids, not dressed for the cold weather, on their doorstep. Despite having the moral idea that they should let the kids in out of the cold, something made the wife hesitate. She asked where the children’s parents were, and they claimed they would arrive soon. So the pair relented and allowed the children inside to warm up. Once inside, their cats ran from the children and hid, and the husband began to feel dizzy. When the woman handed the kids mugs of hot chocolate, she realized that their eyes were all black. A spike of dread hit her as something told her that she had erred in allowing these kids into her home. The husband’s nose began to bleed as the electricity went out. The children stood side by side and simply told her that their parents had arrived. They walked back out into the cold and met two men in a black car before driving away. The husband continued to suffer from strange nosebleeds and was diagnosed with skin cancer – he had previously been in excellent health. Could this have been the effect of the BEK? We’ll never know.

Theories

          There are quite a few theories out there regarding what, exactly, the Black Eyed Kids are. All we really have are context clues and the aftermath of supposed encounters to go on, so we are firmly in the realm of speculation here. I can see five options for what sort of beings the BEK are, so let’s tackle them from least interesting to most interesting. The first possibility is that BEK are simply kids playing tricks. They could be using makeup and contacts to make their eyes appear fully black and then act strangely to scare people as…a prank? Kids do weird things to entertain themselves, and that’s definitely a possibility here.
          The second possibility is that BEK are ghosts of children who died of diptheria. This idea stems from the encounters with BEK in outdated clothes and those that ask for outdated technology. Plus, a symptom of diphtheria was sunken, dark eyes. Going hand-in-hand with the ghost theory is the idea that these entities could possibly be demons. According to many, demons often present as children or “flawed” individuals – i.e. someone who is vulnerable or needs help. This works to lower their target’s guard to allow the demon better access for attachment. Demons are also said to need permission in some manner to stick around.                    
          The third theory is that the BEK are aliens. The theory I see spread most with the BEK being aliens is that they are visiting Earth to gather information about humans, but that doesn’t make sense to me overall. What does make sense to me is if these were young aliens, on par with human school children, visiting humans like we visit petting zoos. Gathering firsthand information about humans while on a sort of field trip. To me, that could explain the disconnect with social norms and current technology, and also may explain the radiation.
          Fourth, maybe Black Eyed Kids are time travelers, for essentially the same reasons that aliens are considered. Time-traveling field-trippers whose method of travel exposes them to radiation. Maybe the black eyes are not their actual eyes, but some method of protection utilized during the time-traveling process. Perhaps they could even be time-traveling pranksters.
          And lastly, the Black Eyed Kids could be vampires. This is hands-down my favorite theory. If these kids were “turned” in the past, it would explain why their clothes and knowledge of current technology are out of date. It’s also very common in folklore that vampires have to be invited into a home in order to enter. And who knows! Maybe vampires’ eyes turn black when they need to feed, or something. 

Sources

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1 Response

  1. steven serrano says:
    October 7, 2021 at 4:54 pm

    That’s spooky alright!

    Reply

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Join me every Friday as I research and present topics ranging from cold case true crime to folklore from all over the world, in an effort to preserve and uplift underrepresented stories.

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