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MONDAY, JULY 21, 2025
Legend of the Black-eyed children

Splash

Maria Mohsin
13 March, 2020, 12:50 pm
Last modified: 31 October, 2023, 09:51 pm

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Legend of the Black-eyed children

A dozen of stories keep circulating, all following a very similar pattern

Maria Mohsin
13 March, 2020, 12:50 pm
Last modified: 31 October, 2023, 09:51 pm

They might knock on your door on a late wintry night. You may see them approaching your car while you are waiting at the signal or a gas station. It might seem like they need help or they might just stand still for no reason. 

These children do not look threatening. They would want to get in your house or your car. They will be persistent. Suddenly, you will notice something is not right about these children. Their eyes, pure black, from lid-to-lid, dead black orbs devoid of sclera or iris will chill up your spine; you have finally come across the black-eyed children.

Black-eyed children or black-eyed kids is an urban legend of paranormal creatures that resemble children between the ages of six and sixteen. These creatures with pale skin and black eyes have reportedly been seen hitchhiking, panhandling, or at the doorsteps of residential homes.

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A dozen of stories keep circulating, all following a very similar pattern. Kids with eyes completely blacked out appear at people's home or vehicle, knock on the door, and then insist upon getting inside. Anyone who encountered them has almost immediately felt an overwhelming sense of dread. 

Besides blacked-out eyes, these children typically appear normal. Sometimes, their attire seems outdated. In extremely unusual instances, people have reported encountering creatures with talon-like feet. 

No one knows where or how these creatures pop up. Conspiracy theorists believe that Black-eyed children are aliens trying to reach out to their "Earth". Demonologists believe they are children of the devil himself and if you let them in, you are allowing the devil to enter your life. They want to enter your home to call their parents, however, upon making eye contact, it seems like there is a much sinister plot to the story.

Some people claim that these children have existed since the 1980s; however, most sources say that the legend originated in 1996 in posts written by a Texas reporter named Brian Bethel where he wrote about two alleged encounters with the black-eyed children. 

He said that he encountered two children in Abilene, Texas, with pale skin and black eyes. In 2012, Bethel retold his story on the TV show Monsters and Mysteries in America; he then wrote an article for the Abilene Reporter-News where he described his experience again.

One of the stories goes like this; in the snowy town, within the middle of nowhere of Vermont, an elderly couple heard the sound of three loud knocks on their door. They opened the door and saw two children, a boy and a girl. "Parents will be here soon, may we come in?" The children did not make eye contact and just stood there in the doorway. The elderly couple were hesitant but after a while, they let the boy and girl inside.
The kids settled on the couch while the wife made some hot cocoa and the husband asked them questions that went unanswered. The wife returned and noticed that her cat was scared and angry with the children. "May we please use the restroom?"

The wife looked at the kids and she finally saw them. The children's eyes were as black as a starless universe. She directed them to the bathroom and returned to her husband who was covering his face with his hand. "Did you see their eyes?" the husband then show her his hand full of blood from a nosebleed. 

The power suddenly went out and the house turned as dark as the kids' eyes. The wife headed to the restroom and was confronted by the voice of the kids at the end of the hall uttering, "Our parents are here." The kids then exited the house leaving the door wide open. The wife then noticed that there were two men at the end of the driveway. The men were very tall and slender; the wife waved but did not receive the same friendly gesture. The two men and children then drove away together in one car.

The power then came back on a little later after the kids left. Throughout the next week, weird things happened in the house; three out of four cats went missing and the fourth had been found dead in the pool of its blood. The husband continued to have nosebleeds and finally went to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with very aggressive skin cancer.

This legend even crossed bodies of water and landed in the great land of the UK where in 2014, the Daily Star wrote three front-page stories about sightings of the black-eyed children in the haunted pub in Staffordshire. Ghost hunters who believed that the black-eyed children were extra-terrestrials, vampires or ghosts took these alleged sightings very seriously.

Nowadays, people still claim to see the black-eyed children when driving late at night down an empty road, or outside of their window late at night, or even lurking in the shadows of their room. Many people have reported seeing the black-eyed children standing in the corner of their room during their episodes of sleep paralysis or even waking up in the middle of the night because they sensed someone was watching them and in the shadows were these children.

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legend / black eye / Spookfest

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