Dark Visitors: Black-Eyed Kids - Horror or Hoax?

So what are black-eyed kids? Is there a rational explanation for them? If not, then what could be the source of these creepy little ghouls?


A. Milhorn weote: The origin of the tale of the black-eyed kids is very hard to pin down to an exact origin point or a single source. The stories about them began slowly at first back in the mid- to late-1990s across internet message boards, which were at the time the Facebook or MySpace of the day. For years, the message boards were lit up with stories of encounters, and as the internet grew in scope, becoming more and more integrated into our lives, it also began to shape our experiences and the frames of reference in which we put things into.

While difficult to pin down the exact origin of the black-eyed kids stories, one source might have been the story of Brian Bethel, an Internet blogger/journalist who claims his was the first black-eyed kid encounter. It happened in 1996 in Abilene, Texas. Bethel’s encounter took place in the spring or summer of that year he reports:

I had gone down to the former site of Camalott Communications, one of the area’s original Internet providers, to pay my bill. At the time, Camalott was near the movie theater. I was using the light of the theater’s marquee to write out my check, which I planned to put in Camalott’s night drop-slot. Involved in my work, I never heard them approach. 

There was a knock on my driver’s side window. Two young boys, somewhere between nine to 12 years old and dressed in hooded pullovers, stood outside. I cracked the window a bit, anticipating a spiel for money, but I was immediately gripped by an incomprehensible, soul-wracking fear. I had no idea why. 

A conversation ensued between one boy, a somewhat suave, olive-skinned, curly-headed young man, and myself. The other, a red-headed, pale-skinned, freckled young man, stayed in the background. The “spokesman,” as I've come to think of him, told me that he and his companion needed a ride. They wanted to see a movie,Mortal Kombat, but they left their money at their mother’s house. Could I give them a ride? 

Plausible enough. But all throughout this exchange, the irrational fear continued and grew. I had no reason to be frightened of these two boys, but I was. Terribly. After a bit more conversation, I looked up at the theater marquee and down at the digital clock display in my car. Mortal Kombat’s last show of the night had already started. By the time I could have driven the boys anywhere and back, it would practically have been over. 

All the while, the spokesman uttered assurances: It wouldn't take long… They were just two little kids… They didn't have a gun or anything. The last part was a bit unnerving. In the short time I had broken the gaze of the spokesman, something had changed, and my mind exploded in a vortex of all-consuming terror. Both boys stared at me with coal-black eyes. Soulless orbs like two great swathes of starless night. 

I full-on freaked out inside while trying to appear completely sane and calm. I made whatever excuses came to mind, all of them designed to get me the hell out of there. I wrapped my hand around the gearshift, threw the car into reverse, and began to roll up the window, apologizing all the while. 

My fear must have been evident. The boy in the back wore a look of confusion. The spokesman banged sharply on the window as I rolled it up. His words, full of anger, echo in my mind even today: “We can't come in unless you tell us it’s okay. Let us in!”
I drove out of the parking lot in blind fear, and I’m surprised I didn't sideswipe a car or two along the way. I stole a quick look in my rearview mirror before peeling out into the night. The boys were gone. Even if they had run, I don’t believe there was any place they could have hidden from view that quickly. (Bethel, 2013).

From that single seed that Bethel let loose in 1998 on a ghost hunter forum two years after his experience, the legend of the BEK was released onto the world. For a time, reports seemed to flood into every ghost hunter’s inbox. Was this the result of increased sightings and encounters or simply a paranoid overreaction to everyday events? Strangely, the evidence isn't clear either way.

There has never been a shred of physical evidence to suggest that BEKs are physically present in any way, if they exist, nor has there ever been anyone to my knowledge that has been caught engaging in a hoax to scare unknown people by putting in contacts and running around asking to be let in. So if we cannot say the BEK are real due to lack of evidence that supports their existence, what else is there?

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