Described as childlike beings with eerie coal black eyes, no iris or pupils, and pale, white skin, a scourge of mysterious black-eyed children have been reported all over the world.
There are hundreds of reports of black-eyed children, often seen in groups of two or more, who ask for permission to enter the person’s home or vehicle.
Witnesses often report an overwhelming feeling of dread and despair in their presence. What the black-eyed children seek is not known.
Reports of black-eyed children increase in 2014
In August 2014, a woman reported an encounter with a black-eyed child after hearing deathly screams while on a walk with her daughter near the marshy countryside of Cannock Chase in the county of Staffordshire, England.
“My daughter and I were walking through Birches Valley when we heard the screams of a young child. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl, but they definitely seemed in distress and sounded very close to us, so we instantly started running towards the noise.
“We couldn’t find the child anywhere and so stopped to catch our breath. That’s when I turned round and saw a girl standing behind me, no more than 10 years old, with her hands over her eyes.
“It was as if she was waiting for a birthday cake. I asked if she was OK and if she had been the one screaming. She put her arms down by her side and opened her eyes. That’s when I saw they were completely black, no iris, no white, nothing. I jumped back and grabbed my daughter. When I looked again, the child was gone.”
Another encounter with a black-eyed child was reported in Cannock Chase a month later on September 13, 2014.
“My wife and I were walking though Cannock Chase near to Stile Cop with our dog. Once we had entered the woodland, and the road was no longer visible, we started to hear the giggling noise of a little girl. To our amazement, a child, no taller than one meter [3 feet] in height appeared as if out of nowhere further up the path in front of us. We stopped dead in our tracks after noticing her eyes had no color… She stared at us for around five minutes before running away into a densely grouped area of trees.”
An investigator told Daily Mail that the reports of black-eyed children have begun to increase since 2013. He said that during interviews with witnesses, descriptions of the black-eyed children were always similar and noted that during the past two years they have been receiving an average of one black-eyed kid report every other month.
Black-eyed children have been reported in Staffordshire since the 80’s
Reports of black-eyed children are nothing new in Staffordshire – they have been recorded in the area since the 1980’s including this report from journalist Lee Brickley of a black-eyed child seen by his aunt in the same area as last month’s sighting.
“In the summer of 1982, my aunt was 18 years old, and she and her friends would often meet on Cannock Chase in the evening time… One evening, just before dark, she heard a little girl frantically shouting for help.
“Rushing to locate the sound, she stumbled upon a dirt track and caught sight of the girl, about six year’s old running in the opposite direction. When my aunt caught up, the girl turned around and looked her in the eyes, and then ran off into the dark woodland. Her eyes had been completely black with no trace of white.”
According to Brickley, the aunt considering giving chase but decided against it, a decision he felt may have been lifesaving.
“It seems likely that even if my auntie had continued to chase that little girl, she would never have caught her, because it wasn’t a child at all, but an evil force.”
Mysterious black-eyed children spotted in Staffordshire, EnglandMore than ten years later (1996), American journalist Brian Bethel described his terrifying encounter with two of the strange black-eyed creatures.
“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.
“Both boys stared at me with coal-black eyes. The sort of eyes one sees these days on aliens or bargain-basement vampires on late night television. Soulless orbs like two great swathes of starless night.”
What are the black-eyed children?
Several theories exist regarding the terrifying black-eyed children spotted around Staffordshire. Some feel the children are some sort of alien creature while others allege they are the followers of the infamous Slender Man, childlike vampires, or the ghosts of murdered children (a string of child murders reportedly occurred in the area during the 1960’s).
Still others believe that Staffordshire’s black-eyed children are evil entities seeking to enter the witness’s vehicle or home for reasons that have yet to be revealed.
Other stories from others about their encounters with black-eyed children
The following are a collection of black-eyed children stories gathered from various sources. Each story was reported by the witness themselves, in their own words.
May we use your phone?
“It almost felt like a dream. I woke up to my dog, Lucy, barking. She was upright on the bed where my husband and I were sleeping with our 22 month old daughter, staring at our door like an unknown stranger was out there rummaging around. I thought she was just freaking out over a house noise.
We’d only had her for 3 months and she was still a puppy. It could have been anything- our roommate, a creak from the house settling, the awnings moving outside in the breeze- I wasn’t too concerned initially.
I decided the best bet would be to open the door and show her nothing was there. It sounds a bit silly, but it’s what we do with our daughter when she gets scared, and I figured it should work with a puppy, too. I opened the door and she raced to the front door.
She stood there, snarling at the door. It was an angry, violent growl, one I had never heard her make before. I looked groggily at her and opened the baby gate blocking the doorway, planning to open the door and show her everything was OK.
The second my hand reached for the deadbolt, Lucy went wild. She started barking and jumped toward me, and when I touched the metal, she suddenly changed her temper. She whimpered, almost like she was afraid and backing down. As her mannerism changed, so did mine- I wasn’t calm anymore. My heart was racing and sinking at the same time. I had been flooded with a mixture of fear and dread. I looked through the peephole. I can’t explain why I looked, but I did. Outside were two kids.
[One] was slender and pale. Her hair was a light shade of honey blonde, and she wore it long, about mid-back, with long, thin, blunt bangs in the front that covered most of her eyes. She wore jeans, a light-wash that’s popular right now, and a thin-looking olive colored pullover style hoodie.
She held the hand of a small girl, who looked to be around 3 or 4, in the same style jeans and a button-down ivory cardigan. The smaller one looked at the floor shyly, but had the same shade of hair, tied back in a ponytail. She held a stuffed toy under her free arm, and it was identical to one my daughter has- as was their style of dress.
Had it not been for the feeling of overwhelming dread and fear, I probably would have asked these children in and given them some tea or hot chocolate to get them out of the bitter cold. Something about them seemed off. At this point, I hadn’t made any noise- I hadn’t shushed the dog or grumbled, nothing- I hadn’t turned on any lights, these kids had no indicators I was at the door. The older one spoke.
She had a voice that was mature, confidant, strong, and accentless. She held her head tilted downward, and I couldn’t see her eyes. She said “We have to use your phone.” I stood frozen in fear. How did she know I was there? She raised her head to face me directly, and that was when I saw her eyes.
There was a reason I couldn’t see them through her bangs before- they were black, or midnight blue, or a dark, dark purple- they were otherworldly. She said. “Our mother is worried…”
I did not answer her. Slowly and silently, I backed away from the door, Lucy still cowering at my ankles. She kept talking. “Just let us in to use your phone.” I took another step back, and with that step, the tone changed. At first, she seemed polite. When I took that second step back, she became commanding, almost hostile. We’re not going to hurt you. If we wanted to do that, we would have broken in. I’ll ask again. May we come in and use your phone?”
Lucy snarled at the door, and I inched backward, though something inside me seemed to be slowly pulling me back toward the door. It wasn’t a physical pulling so much as a subconscious need to go back and let them in.”
You must let me in
“Before my experience I had never heard of anything having to do with the black eyed kids. I was 12. I was sitting outside of a hairdressers in an old Chevy pickup waiting for my mom to get her hair cut. About 15 minutes had passed and I saw some kid walking back and forth along the sidewalk in front of my parked car.
At first I thought I recognized him as one of my friends from school so I banged on the front windshield until he looked my way. It was not anyone I knew. At this point I was not scared at all. Not yet. The boy walked over to the side of my care and just stares.
I think to let me get a good look at his eyes. To freak me out. Let me tell you.. If you have never seen a black eyed kid.. You have no idea what to imagine. Pupils black as the night sky.
The boy whispers “You must let me in” and then I locked the car doors and ducked down into the space below the seats. Five minutes later he was gone. When my mother got into the car she told me a boy with black eyes had come into the hairdressers had insisted for my mother to give him the keys to the car.”
May we use your telegraph?
“Just as I dosed off I heard a thumping coming from the front porch. Startled at first I open my eyes wide and scan the room. Realizing it was most likely my cat scratching himself on the front porch I dose back off. Then again, the thumping… I got out of bed to run him off the porch only to see he wasn’t there any more…
A few minutes [later] I felt the sudden urge to look up at the kitchen window, there they were. The tops of two short statured people’s heads cresting the stairs just above my window frame.
The people were just short enough to not see in the window but I could see out… Pissed off I went out to the kitchen, unlocked and opened the door ready to run around to the side of the house and kick some little idiots ass. Standing there looking up at me were two 10 or 11 year old boys. The feeling of dread and the smell of mold almost made me vomit.
The smaller of the two then spoke “May we use your telegraph?” Huh? I just stared blankly at these boys, horrified of what I then realized. Their eyes were pitch black. He asked again to use my “telegraph”.
There wasn’t a sound to be heard no crickets chirping, no dogs barking, no cars driving by. Nothing. I tried to play it cool and ignore the fact that he didn’t say telephone, or phone, or cell, anything that would have made any sense of the situation and calmly replied “I don’t have service at my house sorry.” The expressions on their faces turned to rage as I finished my sentence.”
Sources: Huffington Post, Reddit, Wikipedia, Mirror UK, Buzzfeed, Daily Star
