The Black-Eyed Children of Abilene

It was a night no more exciting than this one. In Abilene, Texas, sometimes in the spring or summer of nineteen ninety six, Brian, a writer and journalist, had to go pay a bill at night. Remember this is the mid nineties and things are a little bit different. Imagine like when you had to go return or pick up Netflix DVDs back in the day. Well, let's go back even further. At the time, the Internet was in its early stages and we wanted to keep it running right. So Brian heads on over to a strip mall on North First Street to pay the provider, Camelot Communications. He was supposed to write the check and leave it at the dropbox. So there he is at around nine thirty pm under the light of a movie theater, marquee his panets gliding across the check book and finally finishes. He's still sitting in the car when suddenly he hears a knock on his window. Brian looks over and sees two boys around ten and fourteen years old. Nothing unusual on them, But even with that instance, that first glance at them, he felt a primal and overwhelming sense of dread, something he described as incomprehensible, soul racking fear. One of the boys speaks up. He has an olive complexion skin, curly brown hair, and wears a gray hoodie. In a quiet confidence, he said, hey, mister, we have a problem. You see, my friend and I want to see the films, but we forgot our money. We need to go to our house and get it. Want to help us out out. The other kid, with pale skin, a trace of freckles, and pale orange hair, was looking around nervously but stayed quiet. At the time, Mortal Kombat was in theaters, and sure he would have loved to help them out, but Brian was scared of the delivery and how the first kid had spoken. A child wouldn't ask for a favor that way, not in that quiet, calm, unnerving confidence. Brian thought it was weird and caught on right away, But so did the kid that spoke, because he tried to reassure Brian with a look, mister, we're just two little kids. We don't have a gun or anything or anything. Brian was trying to act normal and be logical about the whole situation. He looks up at the movie Marquee looks at the clock at his car, notices that the movie had already started. It was like twenty minutes over, so even if he did take them to get the money and drive them back, they would have missed most of the movie. But it was at that moment when he looked away from the boys that led to something that he still wonders to this day, because when he looked back at them, he saw their eyes coal black, no pupils, no iris, just two dark orbs reflecting the red and white lights of the Marquee. I was at that moment when his intuition was confirmed and he started panicking. Brian knew that he had to run away, so he started throwing excuses as to why he had to leave. He apologized and finally threw the car in reverse while rolling up his window. As he did, the kid that spoke looked furious and his expression changed to pure anger. He started banging on the window, his voice still loud even through the window glass, shouting, we can't come in unless you tell us it's okay. Let us in. Brian left that parking lot so fast, looking back into the rear room mirror. But at that spot, the sidewalk where the boys were supposed to be, there was nothing. They had vanished instantly, even though there was nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. Had Brian been visited by the infamous black eyed kids? In this episode, we're going to look into Brian's true account and more into the history of this sighting that unleashed a series of other people coming forward with their own retellings of visits from these other worldly children. My name is Edwin, and here's a horror story. Completely confused, Brian had managed to drive off and get home. Once he was safe and locked in his apartment, he remembers calling a friend, who then put him on speakerphone so that his girlfriend could listen to the bizarre account. The girlfriend claimed to have psychic abilities, and she stopped them just before he got to the creepiest part of his experience and asked him the children have all black eyes, and Brian confirmed it, and then she gave him this final thought, It's a good thing you didn't let him into your car. You would have been killed. Now, this was supposed to be a personal terrifying, yes, but still a personal experience, but it managed to get through the early Internet, a time where emails and forums were the primary ways of connecting with other people from around the world. Remember how I told you that Brian was a writer, Well, what else can writers do but to write down and share the experiences, right, That's what he did. He wanted to send it to a small group of friends that he trusted on a ghost related email list serve, and once they received it, they encouraged him to post it on usenet group called alt Folklore ghost Stories. And it was then when this story was copied, pasted, and shared across forums and other email lists, going viral, even before the definition of how we know viral to be existed, and have high and low for other stories about the Black Eyed Kids something that happened before this, but this one seems to be the earliest account of an encounter with them. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about or who they are, don't worry. I'll explain it in a little bit. After his story went viral, Brian began receiving emails from people all over the world. Some of them asked him questions about what happened, how he felt, and what he thought they were, but a significant number of them claimed something else that they had gone through similar experiences. This is what he needed to validate his encounter and in his own words, opened a frightening Pandora's box because he had uncovered a hidden, terrifying phenomenon the others had also experienced the subject of our story. Here is Brian Bethel who unleashed this black Eyed children, the black eyed kid phenomenon that spread all around the internet because after he shared his experience, he received a bunch of theories about what these children could have been. That's right, what and not who they could have been, because some people say that there are demons or alien hybrids. Others were saying that they are vampires, ghosts, or extra dimensional perhaps ultra terrestrial entities. And when he gets asked about it, he leans more into the extra dimensional theory, but he's very clear that he still does not know. I first learned about the black Eyed Kids when I was working on an episode for an earlier iteration of this show. But it's out there, so I'll link it in the episode, but here's the summary of it. Basically, the black Eyed Kids are typically teens of children between six and sixteen years old, with monotone voices that sound oddly formal, they have pale skin and completely black eyes. They are said to appear at night, showing up at doors, cars, gas stations, asking politely to be let inside or to be given a ride. The reason why it feels so unsettling is because these are children we're talking about. They're supposed to be safe and vulnerable, so when we feel an irrational fear toward them, we know something's wrong. And in his account, did you get the part about the let me in phrase? They said, if you watch Sinners or any of other vampire movies recently, you've probably heard that certain entities must be invited in. And this idea even goes to demonic entities and ghosts. Aluiji board, for example, is a way to actively search for responses from other realms, summoning as well literally asking for a demon to come in. But the black eyed children, well, they asked to be invited in as well. What happens if you do let them in? In an interview on the podcast Somewhere in the Skies, Brian actually tells a story and mentions one that he read somewhere around the internet. Here's how it goes. Somewhere in Texas, an elderly couple suddenly hear three loud knocks at the door. They open it and see two children, a boy and a girl. Our parents are coming soon. Can we come in, they said, without making eye contact. They were standing there motionless. The couple were hesitating and looking around. But eventually they'll let them both in again. A boy and a girl? Right, What could be wrong here? They sat at the couch while the wife made some hot chocolate. Asked them some questions. They wouldn't say anything. Then the wife noticed something strange. The cat was angry and scared, hissing at the children. They asked to use the restroom, and she showed them, but when she took a look at their eyes, she noticed pitch black. No iris, no nothing, just pure darkness. She comes to her husband, noticing that he's covering his face with his hand. Did you see their eyes? She asked, to see their eyes. The husband take his hands away from his face and it's full of blood from nosebleed. The power goes out, so the wife heads to where the kids are, when suddenly she hears them saying, our parents are here. The kids walked over the front door and leave without saying a word, and at the end of the driveway. There were two men standing there, tall and slender. The wife waved, the men simply stood there, motionless. They got in the car, the children climbed in and they left. It was only when the power came back on and throughout the following week that they noticed a few peculiar things. The husband was suffering now from this mysterious illness, something like strange burns and described as radiation sickness. Now, this encounter, retold by Brian himself in the interview, supported his story. Remember, he was describing his encounter to the early Internet, and although many people believed him and had genuine questions for him, he still underwent a lot of scrutiny. And it took me a while because I was also doubting this story to be honest. Here, I was looking for the emails in the exchanges, including a complete copy and paste of the chats, and I found them, including like a full conversation that they had in this chat room. There was something strange there though. There was this username Handel John NRTWD Northwood from what I pieced together, and it's this story that gave me the closest thing to prove from someone experiencing this encounter in another area, completely unaware of what Brian had experienced. Brian Bethel, again the subject of our story here in the original Black Eyed Kids encounter, had a friend, John Northwood. The assumption was correct in the username. He was a paranormal investigator and today as a foundational piece of the lore of the Black Eyed Kids. And that's because this account is especially significant. The reason is because the results in death. Here is what happened, as detailed in the transcripts. It was around eleven PM in downtown Portland, Oregon. John had left a software development seminar and was now in the third floor of a parking garage. The area was well lit and he was in his car. He was getting ready to leave when suddenly a man taps on his window. He snaps his head toward the window and to his relief, it's Doug, an acquaintance from the conference. But the relief didn't last very long. Doug was asking for a ride, even though he had his car. He said that there were some people standing outside of his car and he seemed pretty scared. So John let him in and they drove over to Doug's car to check it out and to his surprise, standing around in this vehicle were three kids. One of them was a goth girl around fourteen or fifteen years old, with the full goth look, the makeup, the hair, appeared to be smoking and looked pretty bored. With her were two boys. One was around fourteen and the other was maybe ten or twelve years old. Now these boys looked and I quote, way too intense for kids. So Doug and John are in the car right They're trying to figure out what they're doing there. So John slows the car down. They're getting closer to this car, to Doug's car. The two boys then approached the car where John and Doug were. The younger one started saying, it's scary out. They are all alone and we just wanted to ride home. And the older boy jumps in and says, you promised you would help us out. Now, Doug was in a panic now and he kept saying, I don't even know you, I don't know you. Who are you? He seemed even more confused, but Doug, in that alert state he was in, he tried to get out of the car. But John happened to glance back at the kids just then and noticed that They now looked a lot older, with faces that were a little stretched out. But he looked at their eyes he noticed that they were solid black again, no pupil, no iris, just a liquid black pool. John stepped on the gas and reversed to get away, and as they were leaving, the kids started chasing them at unnatural speeds, especially the eldest boy. He was able to get to the exit faster than the car. Now they had gotten to the street, and suddenly that feeling of pure evil went away. They went back to the car and thankfully the children were gone. Doug was able to get into his car, But then came the explanation. You see, Doug had met the youngest boy earlier that day gave him a short ride before getting scared by the older brother, which might have explained why the other kids were there. Doug's carr left parking garage and John was close behind when suddenly that feeling of menace, as he described it, hit him again. Just a few moments later, Doug ran a yellow light at an intersection and was hit by a car, killing him instantly. This time, John saw the black eyed children about two blocks away from the crash site, this time looking less pale. They weren't as skinny anymore. It was odd. Now to this day, Brian Bethel stands by his story, even after decades of scrutiny and the entire story of the Black Eyed Kids becoming the biggest Internet urban legend. The details of his story stayed consistent, and he says that he reported the event with the same journalistic ethics and integrity that he uses in his professional career. But when you ask him what he thinks he saw that night, he doesn't know what exactly those children were, but he is convinced that they were not human, that they were possessed with some malevolent intent, something like extra dimensional or auto terrestrial beings instead of aliens from another planet. There was one thing I was wondering though, which I'm glad, he answered in an interview with Somewhere in the Sky is the podcast, and it's what do you think would have happened if you had opened the door? And he said that he would have been dead. That instinct, that soul racking fear he felt was a survival instinct he trusted, and yet his experience and what he shared with the rest of us had spread into an entire genre of horror movies, comic books, and fiction, something that he thinks might be manifesting the phenomenon if we keep telling and retelling, reimagining these entities. I guess sort of what I'm doing here now. But he said he had made peace with it, saying that it taught him about himself and the nature of reality, realizing that the world is stranger than we assume, and still he wishes to never see them again. One strong lesson I got from his experience, and perhaps he realized this himself, is that we should trust our gut. When you feel like we're in the presence of something evil, our bodies react, and we should listen to it. There's something very primal about our gut feeling when it comes to surviving an attack from a predator, and perhaps evil creates that within us. If it feels sudden, irrational terror, you should listen to it. If I can leave you with some final thoughts about the Black Eyed children, it's not to go looking for them. There were messages that were sent to Brian about where to find the black Eyed kids, and he warned them that these aren't fun ghost hunts, but traumatic events that happen when you least expect them. Another is to never let them in if you encounter them. Doing so, according to the lore, will make you face illness, misfortune, or death. Remember the safety of our lives, no matter how mundane it might seem, is thinner than we think. And for a brief moment, with this and encounter with the Black Eyed Kids, the laws of nature as we know them seem to warp. So as you're sitting in your car leaving the supermarkets or taking that breather after work, if it's late and you're staring down at your phone, be wary of your surroundings because that knock at your window might be one of those things in the dark that we are simply not meant to understand. I really hope you enjoy this episode of the Black Eyed Kids. I know it's a very popular topic and it's one of the ones that we keep returning to. It's just so creepy. When I first found these emails, I'm like, we need to make an episode about this and talk about the very first encounter with them. If you happen to hear an earlier account than that, I really want to hear about it, Like I really want to want you to send it in again. You can find me just email me Edwinnett horror story dot com. I also want to take the chance here to reply to some of the comments and hear that we got in this episode or actually the previous episode when I talk about death as a saint. This one was a very interesting story because it involves a lot of cultural references and I'm glad you guys were able to keep up with it. It's really cool. Let me see, we have a comment here from Let's Rock about it, saying in these times, death as a saint is the only way we know that the universe will balance itself out. I don't know. To me, it was a little bit of a cryptic kind of message. But if I have to leave toward it, I think you might mean like, oh, well, obviously there's people that are worshiping that, well, they're gonna meet their fate, right, And I mean, I don't know. It made me think of, hey, what makes things worthy of being worshiped? Right, because you can say, oh, this saint that it can help you with work, or this saint that can help you with other things, like I don't know, I don't know if you're familiar with the Catholic beliefs. But I remember, like in Mexico, when you're roaming around sometimes you see little like little houses and you see the figure in there, like the saint figure there, and it always really wonder like who are they? Like what are these four? And I hear there's one for fishermen, there's one for work, there's one for like, there's a lot of different ones, And I'm like, what makes death a little bit different? Like what's the difference is it? Because it's creepy, Because this is why I made an episode on it, because it was definitely a creepy figure to look at, you know, you see like the skeleton. But anyway, I appreciate comment. Let's talk about it. Thank you for that, shaia Lynn says, saying I teach English. Oh it was saying this. I teach English as the second language in an American school, and currently all my students are Hispanic. So in addition to just enjoying the stories, I love the glimpses I get into various Hispanic cultures and life experiences. There are many other stories and some of the life experience bits, even though most of them never become relevant in the classroom I still feel they helped me feel a little more connected to them. Thank you for all you do. Thank you so much. Is it Shaya or Shaya? Thank you? Thank you for the comment. And I'm glad. I'm glad you find it interesting. I actually find a lot of this interesting too, because obviously I'm Mexican, like my family's Mexican. I was born in the US, so that makes me, I guess, Mexican American. And I say I guess because like there's a lot of different definitions floating around and now I'm like, oh, what am I? But I've also been trying to connect a lot with my culture and everything that I feel like I missed when I was growing up because I wasn't in Mexico or I wasn't surrounded by all these cultural experiences that you see sometimes now in movies are a little more common, but I missed a lot of them. So now through research, I've been trying to get back into that. So I'm glad it resonates with you. I'm glad you like it. We have more of those, but also we tap into a lot of different cultures too, So if you happen to know anything about a different culture, a different thing that interests you. Please let me know so we can make stuff about it, make episodes about it, especially if they're creepy. Obviously, if they're not creepy, they will make it to the podcast. But I appreciate this. Thank you so much for this last comment here that we got. I'm reading the comments here on Spotify, by the way, there's a comment section there. I don't think these episodes get published on YouTube yet, but if we do and we get comments there, well, I can go through through some of them here as well. J E. H was saying, I listen to your podcast at work. Very nice episode. Thanks a lot for the comment. I'm glad. I always say this people get to listen at work. Super lucky that you get to do that. Even if you get to sneak it in like sneak in an earbud in there, and you get to listen to these stories, I'm glad it helps you pass the time a little bit better, a little a little bit faster at work. Let me see. I've also gotten a bunch of suggestions, by the way, on new topics for the episodes, so I have a list a growing list of these, and some of them are really good. Other ones are really creepy, but we're gonna go with the ones that have obviously like a lot of substance and a lot of things we can go based ourselves on. But I'll start working on the research and come right back next week to tell you another one of these stories. In the meantime, you can find my other shows, like Paranormal Club. It's on audio and video. Find it on YouTube. If you want to watch video, it comeso find out on Spotify you want to watch video. Everywhere else is in audio. But it's Paranormal Club and it's me on the cover art where it's me sitting down with a little creepy doll in a chair. It's weird. It's weird. It's a weird little cover. Anyway, don't forget to follow and leave five stars for me in your podcast app. I really appreciate eat that and really helps out a lot. But that's all I got. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, Let's see you soon.