Don’t Let Them In: Black Eyed Kids Encounters

Two children knock at the door. They say they need help. They ask to use the phone. But something about them feels wrong before you even see their eyes.

In this episode, we explore the unsettling phenomenon of Black Eyed Kids: strange children and teenagers with completely black eyes who appear at doors, in cars, in offices, in hotels, and on lonely roads, asking to be let inside.

We look at the famous Brian Bethel encounter, earlier and lesser-known stories, and accounts from the United States, Europe, and Northern Ireland. Along the way, we ask why these stories so often involve fear, thresholds, invitations, and rules that feel strangely familiar from older folklore.

Are they demons, aliens, fae, urban legend, or something else?

Whatever the answer is, the warning stays the same: don’t let them in.

New episodes released regularly.

Join Paranormal Mystery Author Terri Reid and researcher Andrew T. Reid as they explore ghosts, cryptids, alien encounters, and other unexplained mysteries.

If you'd like to share your opinion, thoughts, or your own paranormal experience with us, please contact us at vftattic@gmail.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I had a real encounter. I was working in an office that mainly did business-to-business sales and rentals. Since we weren't in a great part of town and we weren't exactly open to the public, I kept the door to our office locked. The only way to work the lock was with a key from either side. I had stepped outside to go on a sales call. We had tint on our door that allowed me to see out but was a mirror tint from the outside. I tended to look out before leaving because it was a rough area, and I was a young female working alone. I looked out and there were two young men walking about a block from me. No big deal. I could easily be safely to my car before they reached where I was. But before I knew it, the kids, both looked around 15-ish, were much closer than they should have been. Like they had walked a city block in a split second. My flight or fight kicked in. I had no reason to be afraid, but I felt deep fear. So I went back inside and locked the door from the inside. I'm not even sure how to describe the fear I felt that led me to rush back inside. These kids started banging on the door. Only one of the two spoke. He said, We need a phone. Let us in. I yelled, No, through the door. He kept banging on the glass door so hard it was vibrating. I threatened to call the cops. They kept banging and begging to use the phone. I finally got brave enough to get a better look at them so I could give a description to the police. And their eyes were pitch black. I'm not super religious, but I just yelled, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave. And they disappeared, just vanished. I had never heard of the B E K phenomenon before this event.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Listen closely, old walls still speak. Some things are hidden, not to be forgotten, but to be kept. The old house remembers what others forget.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

What is remembered is not true.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Listen closely, and you too may just hear voices from the attic.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

I am a YouTuber, uh editor, researcher, podcaster, and overall big giant friendly nerd. I'm also a son.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Hi. I did a real quick ADHD.

SPEAKER_05 3:05

She just disassociated suddenly. She was like, oh, I forgot that I'm supposed to be talking this.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

No, no, somebody, one of our readers, uh listeners, I keep doing that. One of our listeners wrote me and said that you needed to have a t-shirt that said big giant nerd on the back of the street.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

I didn't add the friendly, like the like the like the um um BFG, the big friendly giant. I like it. Or, you know, uh, if it's Doom, BFG stands for something else, uh I cannot say.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

In front of his mother. Hi, I'm Terry Reed. I'm his mom. I'm an author. Um, I'm a podcaster, researcher, um, grandma, um, believer in all kinds of weird and strange things. And we're really happy that you're here with us today.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

Yeah. Um, if if my calc if my calculations are correct. Um, this should be uh coming out on the week of July 4th. Oh, uh, our Independence Day. And also July 1st, Canada Day. So uh happy Canada Day to our Canadian viewers. Yeah. Uh thanks for coming here, E. Um, and for our American viewers, happy 250th. Uh that's why I'm wearing my uh that's where I'm Captain America. Wear my Captain America shirt for those who are listening and not watching. Uh I yeah, I'm wearing a Captain America shirt as well as uh like a plaid uh lumberjack. Lumberjack. Lumberjack shirt. Which I feel like both of those things are distinctly American. Even if lumberjacks happened before America was founded, I feel like the the plaid shirt and the suspenders, the Paul Bunyan look. I wish I looked like Paul Bunyan. I wish I was taller.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

And it could be Canadian too.

SPEAKER_05 4:51

I guess that's fair. It's also Canadian. So I'm representing maybe not with the the shield, I'm not representing you know Captain Canada, but I I am representing both with the the plant shirt.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

So anyway, hopes you're hope uh the weather's lovely, your picnics are wonderful, and that you take time to enjoy 250, the celebration of 250 years of this wonderful nation.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um so today. Oh, okay. So thank you to all of you who have subscribed.

SPEAKER_05 5:21

Yes, thank you. We've gotten, we're almost at 100 subscribers, which I really hope one day I go back and watch this and I go 100. Oh, 100 subscribers. So wow, that's so natural. But right now, that's a lot. It's like we're almost into the three digits, which is I feel like kind of a uh monumentous occasion.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

That's right. So if you haven't, please subscribe and help us to get to that monumentous 100.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Yeah. And in fact, if you could help us get to four digits, that would be even better. But we know right now, three digits, we're gonna stay at three digits probably for a while. But uh, yeah, if you like this and you're not subscribed, what the heck are you doing? Come on, come on. You we taught you better than this.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I'm so proud of him. That was like mom guilt, but exponentially put together. So yeah, please like, subscribe, comment. I love the comments we're getting.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

Yes, yes, yeah. It's really funny. Um, there's one comment because I keep on talking about how, you know, if I say something wrong, let me know and let me know in the harshest way possible. Make me cry. And one of the comments was uh somebody saying uh that they, you know, they wouldn't want to make me cry. I'm so grateful that, you know, uh mom is the one that um answers the comments, answers the comments, comments back. Because if it was me, I would be like, coward. Come on, you can do it. Make me cry, make me sad. Uh no, but but seriously though, we appreciate all the comments that we've gotten. Um, it's been incredible.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah, this is fun. It's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05 7:02

And please keep on commenting. Tell us any thoughts that you have. Well, maybe not any thoughts, you know. I mean a little bit of discretion, but specifically about the episode or about paranormal activities that you have in general. We would love to hear about all that.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yes, and we we've been getting some cool ones. So today we're talking about black-eyed kids. And I gotta say, uh, I did a Freaky Friday years ago after listening to um black-eyed kids being talked about on Astonishing Legends.

SPEAKER_05 7:33

Yeah, which Astonishing Legends did, was it just a one part or was it two part? Maybe even a three-part. I know they've talked about black-eyed kids a few times. As I was doing my research, I tried to avoid most of their stories, though there are some stories, obviously, you know, some big important black-eyed kids.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

And I didn't try to avoid any of them. I just thought that they were great.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

Which is fair, which is absolutely fair. But uh, that's also one of the reasons I avoided them too, because I knew that you know somebody else would be um taking them. But uh anyway, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I mean to interrupt you.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

No, so um it it kind of the the idea of black-eyed kids isn't you think it it's like this urban legend from like the 90s, but it's it's not. It came before that. But let me tell you about um when it really started to get like internet traction.

SPEAKER_05 8:21

And when it was named as well. I think that's part of it too. He named it the he named the kids the black-eyed kids or the black-eyed children. And um that's when that's when other people saw the patterns, and that's when it started to I I would say some of it probably is uh fiction, but I would say there's also I mean, even if even if most of it is fiction, if if there are one or two experiences that are pulled from these that aren't, that are just like real experiences, that's still incredible. That's still something that is remarkable and should be talked about. But yeah, go ahead and talk about the oh it was a three-part series.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Three-part, okay, and um and I guess you know there there are some people that say that uh Brian Bethel, who was the one that had the experience, did this as a creepy pasta. But a lot of but but a lot of people say no, no, no, no, this was his actual experience.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

And this was also like so this happened in the 90s, um, 1994, 1995, six, okay. Um but from what I remember, and I guess you'll you'll be able to correct me if I'm wrong, um, he didn't I'll be happy to do that. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm your mom and that's my job. Yeah, but also because you have the notes in front of you. Okay, that's too. But um but he didn't post this on any forum at first. No, and and not only that, like he when he decided to tell people about it, he wrote it down, which as a journalist, especially in this, you know, in the 90s, 2000s, you know, whatever, that's a very dangerous thing to do, because that you could lose your credibility right for for a lot of different places. And so, you know, it it doesn't it didn't it doesn't stink like someone trying to get money. What money did he get off of this? I mean, besides having a story, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

No, this was not this was not like getting views or anything like that, not in 1996. No. Okay, so let me tell you the story. Yeah. Brian Bethel was a journalist out of Abilene, Texas. Um it was believed that the BEK phenomenon had stemmed from a story Bethel recounted to colleagues in a personal email almost two years after the incident had occurred. It was 1996 when he was on his way to pay an internet bill at the local provider's office. Do you guys remember that when some of you might not? But like you would go and there would be like whoever your internet provider was would have uh a store right next to the Blockbuster video store that they don't have anymore. And you could drop in your um your check that nobody uses anymore through the Dropbox.

SPEAKER_05 11:12

Nowadays, uh the we we go onto their website and we click the pay now button.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Or it's automatically withdrawn from your account.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

Yeah, we don't have to do anything. Honestly, I appreciate that because that takes a lot of stuff off my plate.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah. So anyway, so this is in the olden days of 1996.

SPEAKER_05 11:31

He uh actually got his um into his uh horse buggy and he traversed.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

That's right. Um he pulled over near a movie theater using the marquee's light to write a check, and in those days people like wrote checks. It was in this moment when a knock frightened him. A pair of pale knuckles tapping his driver's side window. Bethel looked up to see two young boys with hooded sweatshirts covering their faces. An immense rush of fear suddenly rushed over him. And that's interesting because in a lot of the stories that I've been reading as I research this, that is one of the huge patterns. Yeah, yeah. Um the fear, as Bethel remembered, was incomprehensible at the time. The boy, who seemed to be the leader of the two, had curly hair and an olive complexion. The other boy stood in the background with red hair and freckles. Their appearance, though average at first glance, soon sent even more fear through his bones. The boys both had eyes that lacked any substance. They were just large swaths of pitch black, no life to them whatsoever.

SPEAKER_05 12:50

So this is not like black um contact lenses, so you can and you still see the whites of their eyes, but everything else is and not only that, from what it sounds like, if if they're you know voids, it sounds like there's not even, you know, uh when people wear like those those lenses that have uh that just black out everything. Right, there's if there's like any eye light or any uh light that gets into the eyes, there's shine, it sounds like it is absorbing that. Right. Even like it is no light is coming from those eyes at all. I'm not just talking about like, you know, people talk about how there's a light in in the eyes. Yeah, but I'm thinking like it's not even like uh, you know, your classic eye shine. There's nothing like that either, which is it's like black holes.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah, it's like sucking everything in. Yeah, sucking his soul in. Well, okay, I don't think so. But anyway, frozen in his car, Bethel listen as a leader asked if they could have a ride to their mother's house. They wanted to get money to see a movie at this nearby theater. It won't take long, the boy assured Bethel. We're just kids, the boy would continue. Ooh, as soon as someone says something like that.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Well, also that's another we can't one of the one of the stories that I I uh has one of the most sinister lines. Yeah, we can't hurt you, we don't have any weapons. It's like, yeah, you're acting like you need weapons to hurt us, their little little child, little teen.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Though these words were perhaps meant to ease Bethel's obvious terror, it only made him panic even more. Bethel's a smart man.

SPEAKER_05 14:30

I mean, that's everyone. Everyone seems like whenever these kids hit their or kids hit when it whenever people see these children, that fight or flight just kicks. Yeah. Everyone.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

He rolled the window up and put the car in reverse, ready to drive off. The boy yelled to him through the window of the car. We can't come in unless you tell us it's okay. Vampires, let us he didn't say vampires. I just did.

SPEAKER_05 15:01

As he's driving away, vampires! Like that, exactly like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I would have.

SPEAKER_05 15:08

I probably would have been too busy pooping myself.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah. Let us in. He drove away, quickly glancing one more time for the boys, but he saw nothing. Within seconds, they had completely disappeared out of sight. Okay, so then Bethel was actually then interviewed by the Astonishing Legends people, and he added a couple things. He said the boys asked for a ride because they said they had forgotten their money and needed to get home to get it. I looked at the marquee, and the last movie of the night was already playing. By the time I could have driven them home and back, the movie would have been nearly over.

SPEAKER_05 15:45

It was uh Mortal Kombat, wasn't it? Oh, I I don't know. I think it was one of the Mortal Kombat movies. Oh, well, see, there you go. I could be wrong, because it was the 90s. I don't know if I don't know if that was Mortal Kombat era or not.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

He also said that from the very start he felt uneasy about the boys but couldn't really place why. Then he looked into their eyes and saw that they were completely black. No whites, no irises, no pupils, just a black void, as we talked about. Yeah. Chills ran up his spine, and the boys seemed to sense his terror because that's when they pleaded that they were just kids and they couldn't enter his car unless he invited them.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

I hate that.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

So that is the black-eyed kid phenomena or the B-E-K phenomena.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

So not to be confused with the black-eyed peas, uh, which is a pop singing sensation.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Or the BK Burger King phenomena.

SPEAKER_05 16:45

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Uh, which is actually just uh uh a man in a king costume who's probably just as creepy as a honestly.

SPEAKER_05 16:53

If I saw that, if I if I saw that dude in the wild, I would I I my fight or flight would also take in. So also I think as I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

You start smelling the whopper, you might be drawn towards him.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

That's how he gets you.

unknown 17:08

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:09

Just take a bite of the whopper, really. I think Ash has the answer to our question earlier.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Was it Mortal Kombat? Okay, so Mortal Kombat would have been released in August of 1995. Um but it's possible this could have been a second run theater.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

That's right. Yes, I believe that's what they talked about, maybe. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

I don't remember if that was a conversation that they had uh on the thing itself, but the sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, would have come out in 1997. Okay, so it was if it was either of them, it would have been the first.

SPEAKER_05 17:39

It could not have been the second. Right. Mortal Kombat anyway, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So we solved that earth shaking. We did not, we did not solve it.

SPEAKER_05 17:52

We uh we far from it, in fact.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

So, okay, so we've got a lot of black-eyed kids stories for you.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

A lot of them.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Are they demons? Are they aliens?

SPEAKER_05 18:02

So I do have a little bit of research. I I figured we'd talk about it later, but since you're bringing this part up now.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

I will bring this part up now.

SPEAKER_05 18:11

Yeah, yeah. So um Well it fits into a large the the black-eyed kids fit into a larger pattern, it seems. Um there are two things that that like there are there are two parts of the pattern that really sta stand out to me. One of them was talked about on Assange Legends, though I will bring it up. Um in a few different articles, when they're talking about the black eyes, they mention either black eyes like a bird or black eyes like a rat. Where they, you know, some or or mouse. You know, there are some animals that have you know strictly black eyes. And then, you know, that starts to that could lead you to the thought pattern of um Do we want to pause real quick, actually? Because yeah, he got out of and I don't know how he did. Right. Uh so let's yeah, let's pause real quick. So you could describe their eyes as as, you know, they're they're black voids, but there have been some ways that people describe them to be almost animalistic. And if you take that thread of thought and then you kind of carry it into looking at the patterns of these guys and and what other entities are out there that have similar patterns, um you could either say, one, they fit into a similar pattern of of entities or or things that have animalistic qualities, or even almost human but off. And it seems like with these kinds of malevolent things, they try to pretend to be human, but they are off in some way. They're not allowed to be fully or they can't be fully human. Um, and so so that pattern um is followed by a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Okay, so so let me understand this. Yes. Okay, so I'd also heard some and I and I didn't copy the research because you're the research guy. There's also um a disease that some people I don't know if it's a disease or or a hereditary issue that some people can have like black eyes. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Um like like fully I actually didn't know about that. Like fully black or like like black eye, like as in as if they got black.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

That there's some kind of but but but and I get that that that probably you're gonna look that.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

I'm gonna look that up real quick.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

But the idea that it's fully black and but then they start they gather in groups and they start um trying to get into people's houses and cars. I mean, that doesn't it's like yeah, oh, here's this disease that your eyes go black and you have this uh urge to go into people's cars and houses only if you're invited.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

That that just doesn't seem to be and wear hoodies, and wear hoodies too bad and wear specific tennis shoes as well.

SPEAKER_05 21:27

Right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

That just seems a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_05 21:30

So there is um so we we did invite our dog up here, which is why you might hear uh whining every once in a while. He wanted to join us, he was really sad. Uh and so now that he's up here, he's realizing how boring it is.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

And so hopefully you guys aren't realizing how boring it is. Yeah, no, well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

He he doesn't he doesn't care about this kind of stuff. He just wants pets, you know. He just he just wants us to pet them all the time. And so when we don't pay attention, To him, you might hear him. Oh, well, I'm here. Pay attention to me. Anyway, um, there is a disease called um aneuridia.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 22:14

Um, a rare genetic condition where a person is born missing the iris, the colored part of the eye. This leaves a massively enlarged pupil that causes the entire eye to appear black. There you go. But it's not fully black, it's just a large pupil.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

So an overly large pupil. So there are some whites to the eye, but the eyes are but they're pretty hidden, it sounds like. If you're squinting, they're gonna think you have black eyes.

SPEAKER_05 22:39

Right, which I mean is that doesn't sound like in in a couple of these cases, it almost sounds like the eyes are larger. Um, but I don't know, maybe that's just the visual depiction, or maybe I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens. Could could be could be, but there are other creatures. Okay, please go on, yes. And this is just a a small group of them. There are so many things in mythology and encounters that people have um that have creatures that have characteristics. He's getting real curious about things.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

Yeah, he can He can chill there for a little bit. Okay, anyway, so uh a lot of things in folklore and and encounters that people have in mythology that um where there are things that are trying to look human, but for some reason they're wrong. For instance, the ghoul in um Arabic folklore, um the the human disguise has uh it can appear as a woman or lure travel travelers, but the tell is um a donkey's hooves, or you know, the way that it's described in Encyclopedia Britannica, an ass's hooves or hoof-like feet reveal it.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

That you know, that always gives them away.

SPEAKER_05 24:03

Yeah, there's a lot of hoofs, hoofed creatures. Well, and again the the the devil.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

I was gonna say, I was gonna say you go back then to the devil or demons.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

I mean, it seems like a lot of humanoid goat guys, you know, there's also Pan.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Um so if you're picking up a cute girl and she's got black eyes and hooves, don't pick her up.

SPEAKER_05 24:26

Unless you're into that kind of thing. I mean, you know, I I I don't want to yuck somebody's yum.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

So that was yucky. That was yucky.

SPEAKER_05 24:36

Um anyway, uh, there's the the huldra or huldrun, the skin from Scandinavian folklore.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

You did that very well.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

Thank you. Uh we'll pretend like it was uh accurate. Um, a beautiful woman of the forest, another beautiful woman. Uh there a lot of these, oddly enough, a lot of these appear to be beautiful women, almost like they're trying to lure a specific demographic of people away from uh you know, and I feel like children are another bait, it's another lure except for a different kind of lure. They're they're hitting a different instinct.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Well, we talk about those feral people and they make the women's sounds or the children's sounds.

SPEAKER_05 25:12

But it seems like these almost are are it's almost like a moral thing where it's it's a beautiful woman who will lure men away because and they're able to be lured away because of of their lust. Whereas the black-eyed kids, it's a different thing entirely where they are trying to, instead of trying to lure them away on a sense of morality, instead it's a it's a basic protection instinct. You know, they're trying to tap into that. I'm a child, I'm defenseless, help me out, please. Right. Um, obviously it doesn't work well sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Well, and I've I the couple of stories that I heard where somebody actually let them in and fell for it.

SPEAKER_05 25:53

It it doesn't end up going well for that.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Like people get cancer.

SPEAKER_05 25:57

Yeah, I actually have a story, and granted, they don't go into detail of what happens after, but um, I do have a story.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

All right, so you have um the sirens. I mean, that's kind of what but the tell for for the the huldra or huldr.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Uh I gotta say, right now the Muppet Chef is is dancing around in my my head.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Um the uh they have either a cow or foxtail, hairy animal legs, or a hollow tree like back.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

I went to school with somebody who, because it was cold. Were they a holdra? She was she didn't she didn't shave her legs for the whole winter because she wore I dated a girl who was very proud of the fact Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

Yeah, she wore leggings uh during the during the winter, but uh yeah, that was you know okay. What were the color of her eyes? Um brown.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Okay, good. Are you sure they weren't black?

SPEAKER_05 27:02

Uh probably not. Yeah. Um we won't talk about uh that anymore. Um uh this is uh uh Gleistig from Scottish folklore. Uh Glastig. Um, that was good. Thank you. Uh that was really bad. I don't know why I could say thank you with Scottish.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

We got commented that your Irish sounded like Scottish.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

But the human disguise, again, beautiful woman, or green maiden. I don't know what that means.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Well, okay, so green doesn't necessarily mean the color green. It could be uh like virginal, like you know, sure a green, a young woman.

SPEAKER_05 27:46

Yes, right. Uh the tell, often half woman, half goat. See, and but it's okay because the goat half may be hidden by a long dress.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

So you don't find out until you know she's wearing leggings and her her legs go the wrong way.

SPEAKER_05 28:01

I don't think uh the knee's supposed to bend that way. That's weird.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

And she starts nibbling on the cans and the garbage.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

You start kissing her and then she goes, Oh, come on, don't tell me you haven't had that experience.

SPEAKER_05 28:17

Well, we've all been we've all been there, guys. We've all been right, fellas. Am I right? Um uh okay. This one is terrifying. Uh, this is from South Asian folklore, so I don't know if I'm gonna pronounce this correctly. The true uh Truriel or the Trurail of South Asian folklore. This is a a beautiful woman who lures men again. But this one is backward facing feet reveal the spirit.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

See, I think that that would be a really easy thing to, especially if you run away from them when they trip.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

But you can't you can't push them back very easily. But if yeah, if you do run away from they're like, oh gosh darn it.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

I mean you push them back like a springboard, they'll just come right back.

SPEAKER_05 29:10

Um from the Dominican Republic, uh uh uh Siguapa or the or Kiguapa. Uh it's a C, so I don't know if it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:21

Um human female form, alluring or frightening. Um back this is another backward-facing feet and long hair. Um and so anyway, yeah, so there are a few different the few more, but there's just it there seems to be often it's the feet that that are the tail or the legs, but I mean, you know, the what I could easily see that being a similar pattern of it being, and especially considering there are some of these that were just backwards uh things.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

So what we're hearing from folklore is that when you have a beautiful woman who is standing before you statuesque, probably well endowed, yeah, that the men are not looking at her feet or her legs.

SPEAKER_05 30:10

I mean, depending on who the guy is, probably not. And that's all I'll say there.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

And maybe not even her eyes, because they're black.

SPEAKER_05 30:18

Oh, definitely not. Definitely, yeah. Yeah, I mean, we never none of these describe people as having black eyes. Oh. Um, but I mean, you know, because because this is just talking about other animal-like yeah, other instances of people trying to pretend or creatures trying to pretend to be human, but failing in in specific nuanced ways. Now I will say the the the glaze steak, I think, is closest because it's able to hide its animalistic and like if black-eyed kids wore sunglasses, you know. That's true, and but and they wear hoodies. They I mean they do they do try. Well, and it also seems like they have some way to because it seems it seems like people, when they first interact with them, don't notice it right away, right? Until they specifically try to pay attention to why they feel uncomfortable, and that's when it hits them.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

But they do notice the fear immediately, that like uh instinctual gut reaction, this is a bad thing, this is a bad place, kind of fear.

SPEAKER_05 31:18

Yes. Um, they also have another common pattern in folklore and legends and things like that, and that's the need to be invited in.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Which is like count Dracula.

SPEAKER_05 31:32

Well, vampires is probably the strongest direct parallel. Right. Um, it says here uh there are plenty of vampire traditions uh that hold that a vampire cannot enter a home unless invited by the owner, and after that, but after that first invitation, it can come and go freely. Right. So once it's invited once, it doesn't need a secondary invitation. Um and you're able to see it often is the case with you know with the black-eyed kids. I mean, the the one story that I have, you know, I'm sure some of your stories as well, like they don't really like when you let them in, they they don't stay around.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Right, right.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

They leave. And it's like, okay, did I just give them access to my house indefinitely?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yeah. Or what did they leave there? What what imprint did they leave on in your house?

SPEAKER_05 32:22

Right. Uh similar theme are demons or the devil, except this one is less of a like a specific invitation to your home, but more of you are morally something that you are doing invites a s uh a demon to abide with you or in you, you know, and so it's it's it's more of a moral thing.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

But you are giving them by your actions or your thoughts or whatever, you are giving them entry into you.

SPEAKER_05 32:57

I mean, we've talked about it doors, yeah, yes. Um, yeah, spiritual vulnerability. Um, and so it's not a literal, like directly entering your threshold, but it's more of a, you know, yeah, allowing giving inviting an access to your soul. Right. Basically, uh, which is also bad. Uh, and then another one, which I think would be very interesting for us specifically, yeah, the fee.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Um, so again, this one's uh less of a, you know, they can't enter your home unless invited. But when you enter contracts with them or or do things, you know, uh eat their food, you know, it's your actions that invite influence over you. Um if you somehow put yourself in like an unspoken contract. Exactly, into an unspoken contract, or uh yeah, if you put yourself in their debt, right? That's when they get power over you. And so, you know. And you lose control. Yeah, you absolutely, you you literally can't control your body when that happens. And so that's another classic. Um and I'm sure there are others as well. Those are the kind of the ones that that kind of came to mind. Came to mind. But there are a lot of examples of those ideas of like they're just not allowed in. And so the big question is why? Why are there rules that govern? I mean, even some of like uh when I think about you know Sasquatch. Right. So the I I'm thinking specifically of one of the Sasquatch uh um stories that we have where it was like trying to it was walking around the perimeter.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

But when he was looking in the windows, yeah. Why it why didn't it come in?

SPEAKER_05 34:43

Why didn't it come in? I'm sure it was probably strong enough to be able to bust in there. Why did it?

SPEAKER_00 34:49

And the window was like Yeah, what were we thinking? The windows were taller than we thought.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

That yes, because it they were it was like uh it was like uh I want to say like 12 feet off the ground. Right, right, right. I was able to like look in. And so, you know, why what what about what about a lot of these entities? Because a lot of cryptids, I don't hear about them. Breaking in.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Well, and you even you had that one story, the dogman story from Michigan from your friend, yeah, who he forgot to close the door, right?

SPEAKER_05 35:21

And so it could come in. It could, but not only that, it was also, I mean, and granted, the the black-eyed kids can't even enter the car, right? But I feel like there it does seem to be there are certain thresholds that can be broken. For instance, the Bigfoot encounter uh in um Ape Canyon, the when they were trying to break down the you know, trying to destroy the cabin, basically. Um for whatever reason, you know, they they weren't able to get in, but they were trying to. And so that's one of those where why was the rule different? What what what made it so that they could try to break in as opposed to other stories where they tr they they don't, they kind of leave you alone.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

So I kind of um and and I didn't put this in my notes, um, but in in one of the three episodes, they were talking about white-eyed beings. Oh that were like dressed in white, and these white-eyed beings actually came to take away the black-eyed kids. And and that's why it leads me a little bit closer to angels and demons kind of thing. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 36:39

Though I feel like angels, I mean, sometimes they I I don't know. It doesn't from all the other like angel-like stories and the ways that angels. They're more people-y, not yeah, or they they're, you know, um floating eyeballs with you know, millions of wings to represent the fact that they can move. Okay. You know, if you're talking about biblically biblically accurate angels, there's actually a huge meme right now going around when people depict biblically accurate uh angels, they are terrifying to look at.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

Uh there's a reason why they're like, be not afraid. A lot of it's probably symbolic because you know, you want to have all these different wings to enact or to to represent how they can move, how they can act, do all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Well, there's the stories about the cherubim who have six six wings, and some of them they do different things, and so yeah, but oh, it's or so maybe the the alien thing where there's a race of um or or a class of alien that's the black eye, and maybe there's the higher level aliens who are white eye, and and the black eyes weren't supposed to come and they snuck out.

SPEAKER_05 37:49

I mean who who knows? I I just know that it's it's it does fit some folklore patterns, but also it this interpretation seems to be fairly new, though that original 1996 story is not the first time that they were that they were talked about. That the other thing is.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Can I tell you one that's 20 years earlier?

SPEAKER_05 38:13

Absolutely. Uh that would be 1920 years.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

So 76.

SPEAKER_05 38:19

Okay, yeah, because I I have one even earlier than that. But yeah, you go ahead and tell me that one.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

So um it's according to an early witness report from the National Investigatives Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. Do, do you didn't do it?

SPEAKER_05 38:35

Do do it.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Thank you. It's N I C A P. Two men, known only as Elayan and Patrick, were making a leisurely drive through a small village in France, enjoying the autumn weather. It was around 3 p.m. when they decided to turn around and take a different route. Upon turning, Patrick noticed something near the last house in the village that made him hit the brakes. There in the courtyard of the house were five small figures. Three of them stood in the background, huddled together. Another was tracing its hands along the house.

SPEAKER_05 39:13

Hate that. Don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Yeah. The last figure stood facing Patrick and Elaine. Elayan rode down his passenger side window to get a better look. He reports that his blood ran cold when faced with the being. The appearance of the five characters was as strange as their behavior. They were all just over four feet tall. They were dressed alike in long garments that almost reached the ground. These garments were decorated with multicolored spots. It's like little tiny clowns. Terrifying.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

It is France. That is fair.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Did you have that loud when you said that?

SPEAKER_05 39:58

Oh well.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Okay, Ash said it's France, which was great, and which is why we laughed at that.

SPEAKER_05 40:03

So we we are not just laughing at our, you know, at our own jokes that we both thought at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Which we we do, though.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

Yeah, that happens.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

Okay. The beings themselves had earthly, earthy, earthy yellow skin, and long hair that fell down their backs and to their waist. Oh, it's another long hair. This almost seems like what is that?

SPEAKER_05 40:27

The ring?

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

One of them had their their neck just you know kicked to the side and going uh the rest of them were doing wait, that's that's that that's the grudge, and there's also the ring.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Wasn't that the upside like she was doing the crab walk upside down?

SPEAKER_05 40:43

Yeah, yeah. I think they both at one point did that. Did that but but yeah, she she was the she's the creepy one. I mean they're both okay, they're both creepy.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

So continuing with creepy, their noses were compressed inwards. Like a pug. Which makes compressed inwards. So is that like you can't wear glasses then?

SPEAKER_05 41:01

Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm assuming it could either be Voldemort type. Oh yeah. Or it could just mean that their nose was like it was just kind of pressed in a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Like as you said, a pug or a snake, or yeah. Okay. Um, and their eyes were described as enormous solid black hemispheres.

SPEAKER_05 41:21

This one is a big, enormous, enormous eyes as opposed to just typical size.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Size of billiard balls. I know.

SPEAKER_05 41:29

Uh that's like some coralline level. I know. This is just the button eyes, yeah. Alien.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Soon the being closest to the car began waving to Patrick and Alien, gesturing for them to come closer. Come here, boys.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Would you like to hear about our Lord and No, they didn't have uh button.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

They have head ties on. They didn't the motions scared Elian so much that he screamed in terror for Patrick to drive away. Patrick hit the gas pedal and they sped out of the area to a nearby town. Ugh. They told several locals about what they had witnessed. They returned hours later to find no sign of the small beings anywhere. Eight months later, an investigator finally made it to the scene. Oh, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

That sounds that sounds about right.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

I'm here as quickly as I could make it. And spoke with the nearby residents. Interestingly, he found a neighbor who had noticed the beings on the road in front of the home. He reported that he thought the beings he saw were children dressed in yellow oil cloth.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

So toss it over to you for an earlier one.

SPEAKER_05 42:45

Well, I so I actually had that same uh Oh, did you? I had I had a different version of that. Well, that was a different version, but uh uh I I the end of of mine says that when they interviewed the neighborhood said they'd seen they had once seen the odd little people on the in the road outside the house, and then it it ends with I think they are known in the area as the little strangers. Oh I don't know if that I don't know if that was means and they have been seen multiple times.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

So that me leads me more to Faye.

SPEAKER_05 43:15

The little stranger that does sound very Faye like. Um, but then that begs the question are these Faye? Are does that mean the black-eyed kids, you know, like the goblin things that are in the the I mean yeah, Tommy Knockers and those kinds of things tended to be. Because honestly, there are a lot of parallels, especially the thing that caught my eye, especially when comparing to the 1996. Uh caught my black eye. Sorry. Um when comparing this story to the 1996 one, it the there's a detail that isn't mentioned specifically in the others. They had yellow, or I guess he calls it olive, but tan skin. Yellow. Earthy yellow. They say in this one earthy yellow. In the nineteen ninety-six, he calls it olive. But that still's I I would say that could be describing a similar thing. See, mine uh 1996 is the original one, right? Uh not the original, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Well, but the one that we started with. I thought he said really pale. Olive to me is. Oh, he said olive. He said olive.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

It go go back and I I remember was it that one? Or it could have also been the first story that you told. Let's see. I swear one of those stories, he says olive.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

A pair of pale knuckles. Pale.

SPEAKER_05 44:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Because that's olive.

SPEAKER_05 44:37

Those are knuckles, though.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Okay. Uh all you're right. Two had curly hair and an olive complexion. Yep. And the other boy had red hair and freckles, which is different than that really pale or yellow. Good catch.

SPEAKER_05 44:53

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

You actually listened to what I read. I'm so proud of you.

SPEAKER_05 44:58

Sorry, what did you say? I wasn't listening. We have fun here. Um no, so yeah. So going. Yeah. So I that just is, you know, yeah, we think of them as being pale, but they they have different complexions, but also I think they could be considered, especially with that earthy yellow. Right. I I could see olive also being described in a similar way. That's true. Especially if you if you're paying attention to the to the the the black eyes, or if the black eyes, I don't know what that contrast would be, like to your mind's eye, if that would make your complexion look paler, saler. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what that would do to the two skin.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Isn't olive complexion the it it is an an a more yellowy undertone?

SPEAKER_03 45:50

Interesting. Oh yeah. Wasn't he also looking at this under the marquee lights?

SPEAKER_00 45:57

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

That is a very good point. I mean, I know the marquee here in town. I mean, that really kind of gives like a yellowy kind of hue.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

That is true. Though the uh the one from France, uh, by the way, I don't think I pointed this out before. That was that was Ash. Uh the man.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Oh, oh, that's right. Yeah. Hey, yeah, we have Ash, the man who knows all of the answers to everything.

SPEAKER_05 46:19

The knower of all things, uh, also our uh sound producer as well. Uh Jack of all trades, uh, and a master of Jack. Uh he leaves Jack locked up in his basement.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Um throwing out the key. I'm not on camera because I'm still stuck in the background.

SPEAKER_05 46:37

Um, but yeah, I the the the story in France though, it sounds like that wasn't in any strange lighting.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

So no, it's just open fields.

SPEAKER_05 46:46

Yeah, so I don't know why they had yellow skin, uh earthy yellow.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

That's so many like a dirty yellow, like a I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 46:59

Almost sounds like they had uh they had what what's that disease? Um jaundice. Yeah, jaundice, yeah. Yeah, almost sounds like uh uh a jaundice type situation. They're they're walking with bow legs as well, you know. They just need that's something different. Oh, I'm thinking of something. I'm saying think of the thing that you when you get don't have enough fruit.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Um scurvy scurvy scurvy scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

I'm thinking of scurvy.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

I don't know the other things is just it's it's a liver, it's a liver, so a lot of bad things happen. Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

You watch Billy Rubin.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Right.

SPEAKER_05 47:30

Um so here is one story that I found from 1950. I pulled it, I pulled the the details from uh jimharold.com.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Oh, I like Jim Harold.

SPEAKER_05 47:42

I do too. I this wasn't written by Jim Harold. It was it was a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

No, people call into Jim Harold.

SPEAKER_05 47:47

Yes, but this was also a blog written by somebody else who was posting it on jimharold.com. Got it. Uh and oddly enough, the person in this story is named Harold. I thought that it was really funny. This is so confusing. I know. Harold was 16 years old when it happened. He was making the long walk home from a friend's house as he made as he made way down the dirt road leading to the entrance, he noticed a small figure leaning against the fence in front of the house. As he approached, he noticed that it was a boy. Being a small town, everyone knew everyone. Harold was puzzled, having never seen this child before. He immediately started talking to the boy, but received no response. He asked if the boy was alright, and after a moment, the boy finally replied, I want to go to your house. Take me to your house. A chill rushed through Harold. He didn't know how to respond. It was it was in that moment. Uh Harold, hell no, is the appropriate response. He was 16. This is 1950s. Gosh golly, no way is probably the appropriate response. Uh in that decade. Um It was in that moment that the boy looked up at him. A pair of solid black eyes staring at Harold with a desperate assertiveness. Harold felt glued to the ground, terrified. He looked up the road, planning to run when the boy immediately shot back. Now don't you run away from me. You're gonna walk me to your house. That's another thing as well that I noticed in this story, kind of pausing here. A lot of the stories that we have, people have intentions to either say or do something, and the person responds to that immediate thought. Like they're reading their mind. Which is terrifying. Yeah. I don't like that. I don't like creatures that can read my mind. Or at the very least. Yeah, get out. This is for me and me alone.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

Um You're reading it at your own risk. You don't know what's in there.

SPEAKER_05 49:51

Enter if you dare. Don't you run away from me. You're gonna walk me to your house. Harold was now feeling threatened, obviously. He made a run for it, sprinting up the road. Too scared to look back. All he heard was a screeching wail, like that of a bobcat. Was it was it the child?

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Wait, screeching wail, like, okay, I'm hearing you.

SPEAKER_05 50:17

Because bobcats have horrifying Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

Like that kind of I'm sorry, could you do that again?

SPEAKER_05 50:25

I could be wrong here. Something like that. Finn didn't even budge. He's so happy to be with us. He didn't he didn't look at the weird noise.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

Obviously, he's used to you making those kind of noises.

SPEAKER_05 50:42

So anyway, um he made yeah. That the the noise. Was it was it the child? Was this a wail of anger for not listening to his threatening words? He wasn't about to stick around to find out. Right. The front door to the the his front door flung open as Harold barreled through the entrance. Startled, his parents asked him what was wrong. Struggling to speak, he finally explained that he had seen to his protective uh he finally explained what he had seen to his protective father. Soon the father grabbed a shotgun and headed down to the uh headed down the road, desperately searching for this boy. Which I mean, I don't know if that I don't know how fair of a response that is. It's also 1950s. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

I guess I was thinking he ran into the house screaming, and his parents said, Oh, Harold, your little friend is here.

SPEAKER_05 51:34

Oh, that'd be a horrifying.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

Wouldn't it walk and have that little black-eyed kid sitting on the couch next to mom and dad eating cookies and drinking lemonade?

SPEAKER_05 51:45

Ugh. It's like a twilight episode using his coffee mode.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Ugh, his coffee mug, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 51:51

You have a new little brother. And it's him, it's that child. Um, so he went down, the father went down, grabbed a shotgun, desperately searching for the boy. There was absolutely no sign of him anywhere. The family was left wondering just exactly what it was that Harold had experienced that night. His mother, fearing that it was literally the devil in disguise, brought Harold to a local clergy and had him blessed. And with that, the encounter with the screaming boy at the fence came and went with more questions than answers.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

I gotta say, the whole dad picking up a shotgun and going after some strange child is a little disturbing.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

I I agree. I feel like out of all the monsters in this story, maybe the dad was the worst one. Um but then again, he's also trying to protect his son, and it looked as-I mean, yeah, and honestly, like, especially, you know, looking at the facts that one, everyone knows everyone in this in this is a strange child. Two, it was a strange child who demanded to go into their house while the boy was already the 16-year-old child, his son, was already feeling threatened. And then three, this terrifying whale. That's true. I mean, I understand the reaction. It might have been a bit of an over-reaction, um, but we also don't know what state this was in as well. So we don't know the the culture and community that's true as well. Too I mean, there could be some people if they're like immigrants from Ireland or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

It's like, okay, this could be or any, you know, any of the the Northern European where scary things come out of the woods.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

Um, I'm trying to think of some, yeah. Um, some of those, yeah, north northern Europeans.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Why can't I think of any of the Croatian for some reason comes to mind, but I don't I have nothing to to base that on. It's just that idea of you know, some of those things that you mentioned, the crone and those things that come out and pretend that there's something in their I mean vampires come from that that's true area.

SPEAKER_05 53:56

That the the specific word of vampire, anyway, comes from that specific area. And the fact that the mom went and had him blessed and that the priest or whoever blessed him didn't think it was weird that she would come and get they could be orthodox, which would then also, you know, that very honestly a lot of a lot of patterns are lining up to it being kind of a and there are some terrifying right creatures in that lore. I actually would love to do more research in that area of the world because it's there's so much and I get it, because honestly, like looking at both their history as well as the region, there's just there's I mean, there's a lot. There's a lot of you know, a lot of history.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Okay, another story. So this was August of last year. I had just graduated uh about a week prior from college summer classes, and as part of my graduation gift, my parents and grandparents went in together to buy me a flight to Rome.

SPEAKER_05 54:53

I have heard this one.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

This is uh fun one. Okay, I'm a major history buff, so I've always wanted to go to Europe and Rome, Italy, especially. One of my friends also went along with me. I'll call him Caleb so I don't have to type out my friend a ton, but it's not his real name. Anyway, as both Caleb and I were recent college grads, we didn't exactly have a ton of money to spend on a vacation. So we stayed in the Rome Tremini area at a budget hotel. Oh, that sounded really good.

SPEAKER_05 55:24

Thank you. It was it was probably very bad, but I appreciate it though.

SPEAKER_00 55:27

So before I proceed, a few things about Rome. Because I had some misconceptions before going, the first thing is that Rome is dirty. I didn't know that. And just feels sketchy.

SPEAKER_05 55:39

We think when we think of Rome, we think of the Vatican, which is technically Vatican City. It's its own little yeah, its own little country. Yeah, actually. And so, yeah, but but Rome, I could I could believe Rome was a little dirty.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

I guess I think, and I'm am I thinking wrong, like Parthenon, and I mean, is that but that maybe I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_05 55:58

Those are also a lot of like the um because like Rome itself, like the actual city, because those places are there, but it's very touristy. I mean it's like the difference between, you know, going to like if you go to Ireland, going to Dublin versus going to the ruins of you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

And I and I need to correct myself. I called up Mara last last week when we were M-A-A. Yeah, it should be hill.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

Oh, the hill, yeah. Cause I've been yeah, the cliffs of Moor, which is M-O-A.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

More.

SPEAKER_05 56:34

Yeah. The mines of Moria. That's right. Okay. Sorry. Getting back to the city. That was a huge tangent.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Uh, because of this, the sketchy thing, you instinctively look over your shoulder, and I just felt paranoid. The area that Caleb and I stayed at was near Termini, the train, the main train bus hub of the city. While it was super convenient, a super convenient location, less than a five-minute walk, and we could access the metro or a bus to anywhere in the city or a cross city train, the area just felt run down with graffiti all over. I mean, more than usual in Rome. The other thing you should know is that Romans, and I I would say, I guess Romans is fine, Italians, anyway, like to eat long meals and eat very late.

SPEAKER_05 57:23

So uh I will say it makes sense they would uh differentiate Romans because there's also Sicilian Italians as well. There are different areas in Italy that have very different.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

So these folks um eat, whereas back in the here in the US, I typically eat dinner around 5:30 or 6 and generally finish well before 7.30. Some of the restaurants in Rome don't even open until 7 o'clock, which leads you to being out a lot later than you had intended. But the food I bet is amazing.

SPEAKER_05 57:54

Yeah. Well, and I I will also say it's different than American Italian food. Right. Because like their pizza, very different than our pizza. Our pizza has been Americanized a lot. Which they're from it, like the pizza's been Americanized by Italian American immigrants. Right. But it's still, you know, very different. It's different, yeah. Yeah. So it's still tasty.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Yeah. So one evening after dinner, it was probably about 9 30. Caleb and I were leaving the restaurant for the metro station to head back to Termini when we noticed two children following us. Now, you hear online that a lot of scammers use children to distract you. So I put my hand in my pocket around my wallet and walked a bit faster.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

I love that is the first instinct. It's like, oh, I'm being followed. That's right. I gotta make sure that uh I can't get pickpocketed. That's right. Smart.

SPEAKER_00 58:43

Both kids were probably around 10 or 12. The lighting wasn't the greatest. The sun had set, but they were dressed in dark clothing. Whether it was black, brown, or even maroon, I couldn't really tell at the time. One was a boy and one was a girl. The boy had a very short haircut, only slightly longer than a buzz cut. Whereas the girl was wearing a dark-colored beret and had long, slightly curly hair. I felt a bit of unease because something didn't seem normal at the time.

SPEAKER_05 59:14

Wait, pause. So one of them was wearing a beret? Yes. Is that what I heard?

SPEAKER_00 59:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 59:18

Dang. I because I know that the fashion changes slightly, but that's the first time that I've heard of any of them wearing like a beret. Not just a like not just a hat or a hood. Right. It's like a fashion.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

I know.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Yeah, it's it's it's slightly fashionable. What what year did they say what year this was?

SPEAKER_00 59:36

No, no, I didn't get that.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

That's all right. But it's uh I I mean it's probably 2000.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

In the 2000s, yeah, yeah. Um, okay. Uh I felt a bit of unease because something didn't seem normal at the time, but I didn't think anything paranormal, but I was worried about being mugged or pickpocketed. Understandable. Anyways, eventually I stopped hearing their footsteps behind me, and when I look back, I don't see them or anyone. The metro ride back to Termini was uneventful. I didn't particularly look for children, but I didn't notice them if they were around. Once at Termini, it was only a couple minutes to the hotel. Despite it being rather dark, Rome doesn't seem to have adequate street lighting for a city that eats so late. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Anyways, I went to my room and Caleb went to his. At this time it was probably about 10 o'clock at night, so I go to take a shower before bed, and midway through, I think I hear a knock on my door. I don't think a whole lot about it. This is a cheap hotel, and I doubt it's soundproof enough for someone standing outside my door to hear the shower running. So two minutes pass and I didn't hear any more knocking. I finished my shower, put on sweatpants and a t-shirt, look out the peephole, and see the two children from earlier just standing there.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:57

Uh oh. That's terrifying. It's I especially like any stories involving the shower and things happening. Well, like that is you're in a state of vulnerability.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:10

Oh, yeah. The shower stories. Ugh. Now the peephole distorts things. So I really didn't think I saw what I saw. But let me try to describe what I saw. The boy was wearing a maroon button-down shirt with brown pants. He had black hair just barely longer than a buzz cut. What stood out was his white skin. Maybe it was the lighting in the hall, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone with skin as white as his and his female companions.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:40

Which is interesting because so the other ones, when they had olive skin, I feel like olive or that like yellowish skin would probably be more expected. Yes. And here they have the opposite. They have super pale.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

It was almost as if someone had painted their skin white. It's very hard to describe without seeing it. It looked almost bloodless. I'm thinking of a mime. Yeah. There was just no warmth to it. His eyes looked black, almost as if someone was squinting, so they looked like they weren't there. It wasn't like someone had colored contact lenses at all. It was a very, very strange thing indeed. The girl was standing behind the boy, so I didn't get as good of a look at her, but she had very dark brown hair, clearly different than the color of the boy's hair, and it was curly. She was wearing a black beret and a black dress. She had the same weird, artificial looking white skin and the same eyes that looked like someone was squinting. Now, at this point I was freaking out a bit. After all, the hotel required a key card to operate the elevator to get to the second story where my room was, which made it rather odd that some random kid who we never did see with any parents would follow myself and Caleb halfway across Rome and end up in the same hotel on the same floor and randomly knock on my door.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:12

Yeah. Yeah, that's that's another common pattern with a lot of these things. These kids are able to traverse into areas that they should not be able to and leave in ways that don't like that defy all explanation. Right, like poof. Yeah, they're just there, they appear and they go.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

They they separate. Right.

unknown 1:03:31

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

So it's she says randomly knock on my door and not just knock, but knock and stand there for at least a couple of minutes.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

I hate that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

I didn't say anything to indicate that I'd be coming to the door. At this point, I double check the chain lock to make sure it's secure, but I think the kids must have thought I was going to open the door when I heard the boy's voice, or at least I assume it was the boy's voice, as it certainly didn't sound feminine, say, Aren't you gonna let us in? We're lost. I mean, they traveled halfway across Rome.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:07

Yeah, sorry. That's when you go, Well, talk to the to the police or Yeah, you know, that that's that's that's not my issue.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

Now, prior to hearing about the black-eyed kit kids, um, I thought this was the creepiest part of it because after four days in Rome, aside from Caleb, pretty much no one spoke good English.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:29

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:29

And the ones who did had a very clear accent. This voice, though, did not. It was clearly the voice of a native English speaker, and I couldn't detect any accent.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:43

I'm curious if this person what kind of English we're talking about. Is this is this the Queen's English or is this American English?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:50

It as in it didn't sound like anyone from England or have a noticeable southern accent.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:56

So so she's she's Midwestern, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Your your classic Midwestern slash crossover. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Yeah, fly over. Yeah. I decided that I'd had enough and I just didn't make another sound and moved to my bed. I must have just sat there waiting for an hour or so, trying not to make a sound or give any indication that I was in the room, hoping they'd decide their prank or scam wasn't having any effect and leave me alone. I decided against texting Caleb about it. After all, I was just probably paranoid about nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

And it was just me being nervous, being 5,000 miles away from home, mixed with what I probably would have considered rather funny and mildly annoying rather than scary if it was back in the United States.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:42

Sure, yeah. Having having children stalk you to your uh abode that's locked by a key card. Yeah, that's definitely yeah, that's pure over.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

Speaking of pure American accent and have black eyes. And have black eyes. I suppose eventually I fell asleep and tried to wipe the Memory of it from my mind. Caleb never mentioned anything about it, so I didn't mention anything to him either. But the memory has stayed around and really has only gotten fresher and a lot more terrifying after listening to that podcast episode about black-eyed kids. So I figured I needed to post this somewhere and let someone else know about the encounter I had in Rome. The rest of my time in Rome was without incident, and I haven't encountered anything like this in the United States.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:36

Um I guess I I I there are two stories I want to share, but I don't know which one to start off with. Because, you know, obviously this was a non-American story. Right. I have another one that's also not American.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:53

Uh, but I also have one that is very distinctly American.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

Oh, let's do American.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:58

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

So we can freak out all of you guys at home because ha, these guys are coming to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:02

Yeah. Yeah. Cause obviously, you know, the ones that we we had um the one that you shared was in uh was France. And granted, the the first one happened Rome, Italy. The one that you just shared, yes, was was Rome. The earlier one. The earlier one was in France. And then obviously the one uh before that was also American. Right. But you know, while this is not only an American thing, um, it definitely happens. I mean, America is just a big, a big, big, big country. I mean, it's it's the size of multiple countries put together. Um that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

So, you know, like yeah, I people are always amazed when they're from Europe. Yes, you know, the coolest thing that's happening right now, we're going off topic just a little bit. What us? I know off topic? Are all of these Europeans coming here for the uh um the FIFA? The FIFA, the yes, um, and their astonishment, amazement at the things that we kind of take for granted. It's really cool to see these things through their buckies, yep, through their eyes.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:06

I love buckies. I I think buckies, I I, you know, I mean, I I lived in Texas for a little bit. Right. I was able to to go and experience, you know, I feel like you have to go to Texas to experience authentic Buckies. There are other Buckeys outside of Texas.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

Right. I've had Buckeys in Texas, Bucky's in Florida. Oh, it was cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:25

What was it with the Florida man that you had the the Florida man who does all the things? Local, local Florida man.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:32

No, this was we did a girls' trip. The girl uh the girls and I we went to St. Augustine and there was a Bucky's very close to that. That's fun. So we went there. But Bucky's is like amazing.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:41

And so have they been going to Waffle Houses?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

They've been going to Waffle Houses and and then they're just amazed at the friendliness of people. They I guess they were in uh some I I want to say it was in Texas. They were there, and you know, they've been cataloging through um X uh everything that's been going on. So the people knew that they were coming. And so a local donut uh cupcake shop had already left in their hotel room before they even arrived. Oh gosh, the all of these special cupcakes for them. That's awesome. They're just they have just been really impressed with the warmth and friendliness and the vastness, yes, of the United States. You know, you can drive and drive, we know this. You can drive and drive and drive forever, and you're still in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:34

You've been there, done that. Yeah, no, I our some of our states are bigger than multiple countries put together. When you look at the size of Illinois versus the size of like Germany, right? I mean, there's I think Illinois is bigger than Germany. I I believe so. Yes. Yeah, I know it's bigger than the UK because that's a you know um, but it's like Texas might be the whole European Union.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:58

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:59

I don't know if that yeah, Alaska might be though. Alaska, that's fair, especially if you're looking at it based on the map, because you know, if you have a flat map, it's distorted. Right. I feel bad for Canada and Alaska because talk about the effects of distortion, because it's a you know, they're trying to put a a globe onto a map. Um, it's you know, it doesn't it doesn't work. And they just get on on like flat maps, they just get wildly overblown. I don't know if you knew that. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Uh maps, a lot of like world maps, when they have the United States is like kind of right in the middle. Well, not right in the middle, but you have United States, like uh North America and and South America, because of how relatively close they are to the equator, they're they don't really get too distorted, but the further you go from that middle point, the more distortion.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:49

So they don't just take the measurements and use that as a cartographer, say, okay, well, the largest is well because if you look at the grid system, the grid system is based on a globe.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:59

And so if you want it to be accurate to the grid system, you have to warp it into that specific way.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:08

I I never knew that.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:09

Yeah, so like if you look at a map of Canada, just always or if you look at a world map and you look at Canada and Alaska, just know that's not the actual size compared to the United States because it's it is vastly overblown. Um, also Iceland and Greenland are made to be a lot bigger on the maps than they actually are. Yeah, so the more you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:34

So this one now we can call this podcast educational.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:40

There you go. Um, but this one takes place in the United States. Okay, specifically in the state that everything happens. Oh paranormal pattern, I start I you go ahead and start I started the story off because I I I uh I took a lot of the the notes and everything and I kind of rewrote it a little bit. If a paranormal pattern happens in multiple states in the U.S., it's safe to assume it will happen in Ohio. On the weekend of July 21st, 2010, Noetic, which is not his real name, similar to the other, to the Caleb guy, uh he That's right, you know, he decided uh this is a fake name because he wanted to remain anonymous. Uh, he was working the night shift at a data center in Ohio. Uh he worked as the weekend computer engineer from and you guys might some of you might know some of the details of the story because I I found this story in like a lot of different listical type things, but I wanted to go and I I found like the original uh or at least a blog with uh the majority of the the details, and so I I took those details and you know. Anyway, so he worked as the weekend computer engineer from 11 30 p.m. to noon. So he typically had the building to himself. However, he never felt threatened as he had a monitor in his office that was dedicated to the two security cameras in on his building. There was one in the front and one in the back. He never felt like he had anything to worry about until this night. His trouble started at 5 a.m. when he went out to the parking lot to take a quick smoke break.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

It was a quiet See, smoking is really bad for your health.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:14

That's fair.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:15

I mean paranormal entities can get you when you're taking smoke breaks.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:19

Though, you know, you got that wolf man who's also smoking that cigarette. I know, I know, yeah. The howl was a little nicotine howl. Yeah, a little mucusy. Uh it was a quiet summer morning with the dawn just beginning to break. He didn't expect to see anyone up quite yet. Which is why he was surprised when he saw two teens staring at him from the parking lot of the plaza next door. Fear gripped him at first, but he rationalized it, telling himself he probably scared them too. That must be why they kept staring at him. Still, he finished his smoke break, keeping an eye on them the whole time. He went in and got back to work, but ten minutes later, the intercom buzzed. He checked the security feed to see who it was, and to his horror, Noetic saw the two teens at the front door staring at the camera. Noetic pressed the talk button, demanding the boys to tell him what they wanted. They just looked at the camera, and one of the boys gestured to him to come here. Not talking, just like a, you know, kind of a beckoning motion. Not having any of it, Noetic pressed the talk button again and and telling them, I don't have time for any games. You both need to leave the property. But rather than leave, they just stood at the door. After a while of trying to ignore them, he finally got up that got fed up and stormed to the front door. There was a special window at the front door that allowed Noetic to see to see out without anyone else being able to see in.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:53

Oh nice, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:54

Uh but as he approached, uh so as he approached, he was able to get a good look at these two at these two teens. They appeared to be wearing typical clothes, shorts, dark hoodies, and tennis shoes. Uh I didn't write this down, but I believe he said one appeared to be about seventeen, like sixteen or seventeen, the other one appeared to be thirteen or fourteen. Okay. Um but as he was looking at them, he noticed the eyes. Both of these teens had pitch black eyes that seemed to be able to see Noetic through the glass.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:32

Uh-huh. Hoping to scare them off, Noedic pushed the door open with the intention of telling them that he was calling the police. But before he could speak, one of the teens said, That will not be necessary, sir. We simply need to use your phone. Can you let us in? Yeah. Oh. Okay. Noetic, taken aback, told them that he doesn't let anyone in. But the teens didn't seem to appreciate that answer. As the same team, the one teen, uh that's another thing common as well. One teen seems to do all the talking. Uh the same teen said, No, you're going to invite us in. These are not the drones you're looking for. Uh this teen oddly had a had a beard and pumped in a slight British accent. Um while the other teen and the other teen was there, smiling with a twisted grin. A twisted? That's cool. Yeah. It's yeah, it's uh it's just they described it as a as a like a a terrifying grin. Just like a too grinny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um fed up, he told the kids that he was going to call the police and then closed the door. He made his way back to the office and looked at the security monitor. The one teen who had been grinning had moved to the back of the building, while the teen who had been talking remained at the front of the building. They both stared at the camera. Staring. Staring at the camera. Uh after Noetta called the police, he once again hit the intercom and told the teen in front, the police are on their way.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:07

I don't know if I would have told him. I would have let the police.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:11

I think he was just I think he was scared and he didn't want the kids to be there anymore. And you know what? I don't blame him. Right. I mean, that's that's uh that's a little scary. Um the teen just smiles and says, uh smiled and says, and said one more time I need to use the phone. Let us in. Doesn't resp he didn't respond, and after a bit, they moved they moved together off camera into a blind spot. Now it describes this particular blind spot, it wasn't located anywhere that you could escape. If you wanna if you went into that blind spot, the uh the only way you could get out was by showing back up on camera. Okay. And there was a fence there. Even if you hopped that fence, you would be able to end up on camera again. But he never saw once they went to the blind spot, he never saw those teens again. Noedic didn't move until the police came and swept the area. He led the police to the blind spot the boys had moved to. And when did you know? There was no one there.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:14

Uh so freaking Ohio.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:20

I know, right? Right? Okay, well, I'm gonna move us to Vermont. Ooh. I know. All right, so this is hello everyone. Very friendly. I live in rural Vermont and I am an amateur author. It's my hobby, you could say. But I've been interested in black-eyed kids for quite some time now and wanted to write a book about it. However, I've been researching B A Ks for about a week now. And two nights ago, my wife and I were awoken by a knock at our front door at about 2 40 a.m. So, note to us stop researching, and if someone knocks on the door. Although I have to say, as we've been recording this, I keep hearing thumps from downstairs in the house.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:05

Well, that's good. Glad, glad I got about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:09

Because it's the cats.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:10

As I do research, I'm usually up here in the attic.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:14

Well, they're not gonna knock on the attic window. Let me tell you, I uh do don't let them in the attic window.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:20

It's gonna be horrifying. Yeah, yeah, you do I I turn around uh because I've got a window behind me, which uh that alone is a bad idea, you know. I got a window behind me and and just like looking over and seeing children there um on stilts somehow or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:36

That'd be Or floating in the air.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:38

Yeah. At that point, I'm just I'm gonna walk away.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:41

It's like no, you know, I know what you're gonna do. Mom, I'm gonna get a phone call.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:46

Mom.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:46

Hey mom, could you bring the gun?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:48

Mom?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:48

I gotta I gotta I gotta shoot a child with black eyes. He's love a team. Then you call your dad, obviously, because that's what dad's do. That's fair. Well, and and yeah, anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:59

Okay, going back to the story. Sorry, it was a pretty loud knock. Not smashing, but just loud thuds and threes.

unknown 1:20:07

Sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:09

Smashing. Right. That's uh Nigel Thornberry. Smashing. Smashing. Anyway, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

I told my wife I'd go downstairs and check it out. I'm sure his wife said, uh honey, you're going downstairs. You're you're the one with the muscles. You can go downstairs. You're the man. You're that's your job. It's taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, doing the barbecue, and answering the door at night. Those are man jobs.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:33

That's fair. That's fair. It's readable.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:36

However, when I got closer to the door, I had an odd sensation of fear come over me. It was a very strange feeling that I can't really explain. I hesitated for a moment, 10 seconds or so, but then I buckled up and opened the door. And to my surprise, it was just a kid. At first, I thought it was the neighbor's kid who lives down the street. He's around that age, 13 or 14. He had his head down and was wearing a dark gray hoodie. I asked him kind of angrily what he wanted. And he then continued to stand there and say nothing. I then raised my voice and said his name.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:15

Because he knows the kid's name, he's assuming that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

And that's when he looked up at me.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:20

So he was just like he was just staring blankly before he was looking down.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:24

Oh, he's looking down. He was looking down with his hoodie on.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:27

Because he didn't want his eyes to be seen. That makes sense. I don't believe I've ever felt fear like that before in my life. His eyes were completely black and his skin was pale white. I slammed the door in his face and locked the deadbolt. It was definitely not the neighbor's son. I then proceeded to run back upstairs right by my wife to get to the window to see if I could see him. But he was gone. Just like that, gone. I'd barely, I'd gotten barely any sleep. I can't stop thinking about this. I just can't make sense of it. I've since stopped all research for obvious reasons, but I thought I would share this experience with you and share this to get your advice and thoughts. Now, people on Reddit, you know, kind of did a huh, amateur author. Yeah, that's unfortunate.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:20

Unfortunate that that is my first thought.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:22

But this was interesting because one of the responses he received was your encounter is one of the creepiest accounts I've read so far. I'm writing to you because something similar happened to me after I researched the B E Ks as well. Although the fear and dread were so extreme and unexpected unexpected, my fiance and I literally couldn't bring ourselves to answer the door.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:47

You know what? Honestly, good on them. Good on them. That's listening to your instincts is never a bad thing. Right, right, right, right. Well, okay. I can't, yeah. I won't say sweeping statement never. Usually it's not a bad thing to listen to your instincts.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:01

We tease one another about it afterwards, but during the actual ordeal, we were completely terrified. This happened during New Year's Eve of 2018. I just posted this story in the main sub-area. I've never been afraid to answer the door ever. Granted, I'm a cautious person. Generally, people who come by the house unannounced will ring the doorbell, at which point they'll ask who's there. But this experience was super strange. I like that. Super strange super strange.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:31

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:32

My instincts told me to be quiet, not to make a sound, don't leave the bedroom, don't answer the door under any circumstances. My curiosity wasn't peaked. And they spelled peaked the right way. I'm very impressed. When your curiosity is P-E-A-K. No, it's right. And not French. I know.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:53

It's that's really sad that we both did that the same way at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:57

I was terrified. It was bizarre. Thinking back, I don't recall really ever being that scared of anything before. Scary movies are actually a bit humorous to me, partly because I know they're fake. This was a primal fear that I felt. My fiance is way braver than I am, and he wouldn't budge. He was equally bothered and agreed to be quiet and stay put. Your thoughts? High five to you for raising your voice at the BAK saying his name in an angry, annoyed tone. That part of your story is awesome. Okay, so then this is what she she kind of said to him, but then she put the link in for her story. So if it's okay, I want to read her whole story. Yeah, go for it. Go for it. During the most recent New Year's Eve, my son, my fiance, and I had a quiet night at home. We watched movies, made dinner. My son went to bed fairly early since he's only five years old. No wild party. We were a marathon watching Netflix while laughing, chatting in the master bedroom. Well after midpoint, uh well after midnight, at which point there was a confident, yet creepy, solid knock on our front door. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We live in the country and it's a bit remote. All of our neighbors were friendly enough, but they wouldn't have knocked that late, as it would have been perceived to be rude. Our jeep was parked in the garage, so it wouldn't be related to having a car, uh having lights left on. Sure. I'm listing that because it happened once. The keys to the Jeep and the house were securely hung in place. The fun we were having quickly shifted into an odd mix of confusion and unusual terror. It was really odd. We aren't fearful people. We simultaneously checked our smartphones for anyone stopping by and announced. Nothing except for a few well-wishing friends' texts since it was New Year's Eve and all. I got up to stretch and my fiance made sure I wasn't about to answer the door. Hell no, I said. See, Harold, that's the response. We laughed uncontrollably, uncomfortably. I joked with him saying, Cause you're going to. I teased. He scowled and then smiled, knowing full well he would have normally. Why were we so on edge? We both remarked how odd we felt about the knocking and the late hour. In fact, we didn't budge from the master bedroom. Neither of us felt good about checking the door and figured whoever it was had the wrong house. Two to three minutes passed, then another knock. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We were getting agitated.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:37

Five knocks.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:38

Five knocks.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:38

Not your standard three.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:40

Yeah, it's oh that's true. Yeah, there was like the way they have it is one, two, three, space four, space, five.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:49

Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. Boom. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:53

We were getting agitated, and that strange feeling of terror was back, strong as ever. I've never felt that way about someone knocking on the door before. Nor have I felt, nor have I felt safe answering. It was really odd. I'll paint a clearer picture. Good neighborhood. Our front porch light bulb needed replacing. So it was as dark as hell out there.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:15

Oh, so they wouldn't be able to see very well anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:18

I thought it was really weird that someone would be standing out there in complete pitch black darkness for three minutes knocking like that. I mentioned this to my fiance. The people would give us away if we stole a look since the lights were on throughout the house. We didn't dare check. Why? That senseless feeling of fear was disabling. It made it so that two grown, very capable of defending ourselves adults, were essentially cowering in fear after two knocks at the front door late at night. What gives about a half an I took about a half an hour, but I eventually felt a lot better. No longer felt afraid, and felt that whoever it was had. Just left. I checked the front of the house through the kitchen window, no cars, no neighbors, no parties, just the calm sound of crickets. I proceeded to open the front door after listening to make absolutely certain no one would surprise me like a drunk ex boyfriend passed out on the porch or something equally hilarious. Satisfied, I opened the front door. It was quiet. In fact too quiet. No crickets. No sound at all. That's odd, I thought.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:36

That's uh that's a predator thing, if they're a predator in the area.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:40

I instantly felt watched. From where? Who? What? I got the chills and shut the door, then armed the alarm system. I thought to myself, if they come back, we can call the police to report suspicious activity.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:53

Yeah, throw the police into the into the the you know wake of the small child. Sorry, yeah, yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:00

However, it then occurred to me that we wouldn't get through. It was New Year's Eve, after all.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:04

That's fair. That's fair. Awesome. A lot of uh a lot of drunk driving incidents and those kinds of things are gonna be happening.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:11

Even to me, it sounds like I'm overly paranoid and getting spooked for no reason. I would think the same thing had it not happened to me. When the second knock took place, for a split second, I thought, oh crap, what if, regarding the black-eyed kids stories I've read, mainly it was the remarkable senseless fear we felt that tipped me off. My son slept through it. No, I didn't share this epiphany with my fiance at the moment. We were too terrified to make any noise. I felt ridiculous, that's true. Nor no doorbell was used at all. What's strange is that the only light on the porch area would have been the doorbell's illuminated button. Hmm. Why wasn't the doorbell pushed? No porch light out there. It was super late at night, also. And I've lived here for eight years and that's never happened. My instincts were going nuts. We've since installed a security camel camera and restored the porch light.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:08

I feel like a security camera would probably be a lot more effective than a security camel.

unknown 1:30:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:14

So I'm glad that they didn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:15

That was me. That wasn't her.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:16

Yeah, I'm glad they did put a security camel there. Though it would be very good at spitting at them.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:21

You know, camels are pretty aggressive. Oh, they can't. Yeah, they could be. And some people, okay, we hear some people actually use camel as livestock guardians for their sheep. Oh, like shepherd, like instead of a dog or something. Llamas, they do that for as uh guardians because yeah, coyote comes up and a camel's there, boosh. Yeah, it's like it's not good for the who do you think you are?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:43

That's right. Wily coyote. They spit at you. They kick you and they spit at you. So anyway, I want to, I 100% want a security camel.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:51

I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:52

They're gonna upgrade them to a battle camel.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:57

Put a uh a gun turret on each hump.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:00

That would be what is the there's a dromedary. There's some camels that only have one hump, and some camels have two humps.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:08

Well, you need you need to get the camels with two humps, though. You could still install a a uh turret on the one humped camera.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:14

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:14

Uh camel.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:16

See, it's easy to do. You're right, you're right. I did it. I fell into my own trap. Since we've installed a security camera, we returned the security camel and restored the porch light. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_05 1:31:32

I mean, it does follow a lot of those uh well, I can't say it follows a similar pattern because they don't go up and and try to and they didn't see who it really was. Uh again, good for them. I think that's really smart. Yeah, if if you feel the bad vibes, don't don't go and you know, you don't need to go and face it. Yeah, like there are some fears you need to go face, but there are some fears, especially when your instinct is telling you this is dangerous. Don't go there. Don't go there. Don't your instincts are there for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:03

My kids used to give me a hard hard time because there would be times where they would ask to go out and I would just have a bad feeling. And I'd say, uh no, I I really want you to stay home. I'm just I really have a bad feeling about this. And they'd stay home and nothing would happen. And they'd say, Mom, you know, we stayed home and nothing happened. And I said, Well, because you stayed home. Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the whole point. But it's like we never will know whether my bad feeling was a correct feeling or not. Until, you know, maybe in heaven there's like videos that will show you, you know, if you had gone out that day and not listened to your mom, this would have happened to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:40

Here are the five million ways you could have died. But your mom saved your life. You're welcome. Or your instincts. That's that's true too.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:48

Um so tell us your Yeah, let me go back to let me go back to outside of the United States. So we're gonna probably end the episode here um talking about um a B E K encounter in Ireland.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:06

Oh, ooh, the little people. I'm not gonna try an Irish accent because judgy. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:14

You could have the wrong kind of accent. See that I thought that sounds I also I also thought this was Irish, but I I could have done the wrong accent last time. But it's also really uh uh it's not great, so I'm gonna stop. Anyway. Um yeah, so in 2009, eighteen-year-old Karis Holdsworth was walking home through Lisburn, Northern Ireland, after spending the evening at a friend's house. It was about a quarter to eleven, still warm outside, and Karis was heading back to her small flat in a rougher part of town. So when she turned the corner and saw two boys standing in the little patch of grass outside her apartment, she was already on edge.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:53

Yes, totally understand that.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:55

Yeah. The boys attract uh the boys had their backs to her. One looked about sixteen, the other maybe thirteen or fourteen. Maybe that's where I got that detail from the last one. I don't know. Uh Karis slowed down, trying to decide what to do. Then at the exact same moment, both boys turned around. At first glance, they looked ordinary enough. Hoodies, jeans, dirty trainers. Just two local teenagers standing where they shouldn't have been. She stopped a few yards away, one hand inside her bag, gripping a small can of pepper spray. Good for her. Gotta protect herself. And then you put your keys in between your fingers. Wolverine the keys a little bit. Yeah, wolverine the keys. Yep. Uh and then, seeming to know her intention, the older boy spoke. No need for that, he said calmly. We just want to borrow your phone, miss. That was when Karis noticed his eyes. Of course, they were completely black. Every instinct in her body told her to get away from them. So she kept moving. She she briskly moved towards her front door, trying not to look back, fumbling through her bag for her keys. Behind her, the younger boy called out, Please, miss, my mother won't be happy if she doesn't know where we are. I would say back, whose fault is that, boy? Not mine. Sounds like a you problem. No, I wouldn't say that because I'd be terrified. That's right. And in my mind. And in my mind, I bravely said, as I, you know, bravely ran away. Um, and for one strange moment, Karis felt herself wanting to help them.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:37

She felt a little bit of a uh like a pull?

SPEAKER_05 1:35:40

Yeah, just a slight pull. Uh they they were young. They were asking politely-ish, they needed a phone. But the feeling passed as quickly as it came, because thinking about those voids where their eyes should have been filled her with dread. She stammered something, not even a full sentence. It was like, I I I I I I something like that. Uh got the key into the lock, slipped inside, and shut the door behind her. For a few minutes, she tried to calm herself down. She made coffee. I think maybe a little bit, you know, if you're trying to calm down, you make coffee. That might be a little um counterintuitive. Right. You know, something warm. Yeah, she that was soothing to her. She turned on the television, sat on the sofa, and took deep breaths, trying to convince herself that whatever had just happened was over. Then came a knock at the door. She ignored it dutifully. That's not my problem.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:34

Did she go?

SPEAKER_05 1:36:36

Unfortunately, she didn't, because then another knock. Oh, okay. And that's when she decided to creep a little bit closer to the door, listening.

unknown 1:36:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:48

For a few seconds there was nothing. Then three loud knocks struck the door would hard enough to make her jump, like you just did. I just Karis looked through the peephole to find the boys' faces filling the view, staring back at her with their black, empty eyes. I hate that image, by the way. Yes. And there's so many peepholes stories. You look through the people and they're just staring. I hate that. One of them spoke through the door. Miss, we won't hurt you. We promise. For a moment, fear gave way to anger. Karas opened the door just to conf just enough to confront them. What do you want? The older boy smiled. We want to use your phone? No, she said. Just let us in, he replied. We won't hurt you. We don't have any weapons.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:39

Ooh, that's the weapon one.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:41

That's the weapon one.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:42

Then then did she say, but I do.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:45

And she sprayed the the the pepper spray at the child's black eyes. Okay. Uh no, that's not what happened. Karis slammed the door and locked it. Good for her. When she looked again through the people, the boys were still standing there. Only now they weren't smiling. Karis checked every window and every door in the apartment. Then she called a friend and told her to come over immediately.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:09

Her? Why didn't you call the police? You know.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:12

I don't know. I don't know. Okay. I don't know. Who was her friend? Maybe the friend would have been fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:17

Friends in Ireland tell us why didn't she call the police?

SPEAKER_05 1:38:21

I don't know what the Lisburn police, I don't know if that, you know. Yeah. Um ten minutes later, her friend had arrived. Uh Karis opened the door and embraced her, relief flooding her body. So her friend showed up. Okay. She opened the door. The kids weren't there anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:34

Maybe her friend was like a female MMA boxer or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:38

Could be. Okay. Well, here's the thing. The friend told her uh there had been two boys standing in the yard when she arrived, but as soon as they saw her, they walked away. And and even she said there was something about them that felt dangerous. Karis eventually moved out of that neighborhood, but according to her, the fear of that night stayed with her. Because whatever those boys were, she was certain of one thing. They had not come to borrow a phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:11

Well, we hope we creeped you out.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:13

Yeah, we didn't even get to tell uh tell any of the stories about what happens when you do let them in.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:17

Don't let them in. Don't let's just say that.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:18

Yeah, though we probably will do a follow-up because I have so many more stories that I found.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:22

So we do B-A-K-E-K too.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:26

I like that. Yeah, not this next episode. We've already got something there, but we'll definitely we're planning on doing a lot of follow-ups for other things as well. So this could be another one that we do a follow-up for.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:35

Yeah, yeah. Because this is we still don't know what what they are.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:40

No, well, I don't think we ever will.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:42

So you don't want to open the door and say, So what are you guys?

SPEAKER_05 1:39:46

I open it with a microphone or something. I'm like, so tell me your story. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:50

We just want to open your mouth. Let me get a swab of your DNA.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:54

We just want to use your phone. I give them a landline because that's the other thing, too. They apparently only want landlines and not like because somebody had tried to in one of the stores they have, they try to offer a cell phone. They're like, we don't, that's not a real phone. We don't want that phone. They don't say exactly like that. Okay, so they need a landline.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:09

Pretty much nowhere in the United States anymore are they gonna be able to use a phone. Nobody has landline. I mean, not nobody, but that's a very good point, though. That's right. And I wonder if you gave them a rotary phone. If they would be like way confused, because people are now, they don't even know how to do a rotary phone.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:26

No, and they don't know why. I I actually have done a little bit of research. I know why. I'm not gonna talk about it right now because it has nothing to do with anything. But rotary phones are very interesting, is what I'll say.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:35

So I grew up using rotary phones. So I'm old. I didn't. I know you didn't.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:40

I grew up with the digital.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:43

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Our generation, if we get mad at your generation, we're gonna replace all the phones with rotary phones and we're gonna write in in script. You're not gonna know what we're talking about, and you're not gonna be able to call anybody.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:57

It's true. You'll just have to send uh smoke signals.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:00

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:01

Cursive, the bane of young. Oh, I hate cursive.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:07

I'm gonna pop, I gotta pee. I don't know what happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:08

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:09

I know we're wrapping up. I was I we've got to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:11

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:15

Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:16

That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:17

Yeah, I thought we were wrapping up sooner. I was like, anytime. That's it's me. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:25

Uh what did we say?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:28

I mean, we were basically kind of, I feel like it was winding down at that point.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:31

So we could probably say something like, We're glad we creeped you out.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:36

Don't open doors. We're gonna do a a second one.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:39

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, we could easily do uh uh I there's the I'm sure there's enough material that I've already captured, but also I know there are other books and other people have written about and and captured other people's experiences about um black-eyed kids and or or children, B-E-K or B-E-C, whichever you prefer.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:59

Um, there are so I like K because C makes them seem childlike. And kids are also I know, but but almost sympathetic. And I don't want the sympathetic thing. I don't know. That's just me.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:13

Oh, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I mean either either works, either way. But uh there's so much, there's so many more stories and experiences that people have had. Also, other you know, adjacent stories as well. There's uh a story that I found I didn't I didn't put into this one, but maybe in the next one. Um another one from to further in the past where it was uh black-eyed man as opposed to a child. Oh before the the B E K stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:41

And Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue. That's a song. Ah that you probably didn't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:48

Oh, this is generation. Oh, we're talking that's we were talking about rotary phones and those kinds of things. That's right. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:54

Right, right, right, right. Thank you for joining us. We hope you have a wonderful 4th of July. Yes. And um, again, subscribe, like, comment. If you have a B E K story, we would love to hear it.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:08

Yeah, do you know what? If you want to have a B E K story, do a lot of research into B E Ks. Um, open up any like any time that somebody knocks on your door that you don't know them, make sure that you go and um invite them in before even looking, you know, at them. Um no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:27

Uh this podcast does not uh approve those comments.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:32

No. Uh if you see some children uh wearing some terrifyingly plain clothing, just like staring at you. Hoodies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:41

Or or the the ones in France that had the polka dots.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:44

Yeah, yeah. If you see, I mean, look, it's France though. So I mean it could have been mimes. You don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:50

The dad. Don't be the dad with the gun from the 50s. Don't be that.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:53

Yeah, don't randomly like close your door. Your shotgun. Uh don't yeah, don't go out of your way to bring a shotgun to a child fight. Yeah. Um, that's you know, that's not great. Though I don't think it's bad to be protective.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:07

If the child comes to you and says, I'm lost, call a police officer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:12

Let them deal with if they're let them invite them into their car. Right. Because that's not technically their car. I I wonder if that is a part of it as well. I wonder if if like if it's my car versus like if I was a police officer and I had a police car which was a state car that's not technically mine. So they're not linked to you. Right. But then does that mean then that that squad car is that now haunted and possessed by a black-eyed kid? Every single police officer from that point on now has all the same problems that people do when they invite them into their home.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:44

We have Ash in the back laughing right now. Do they have black-eyed kids in communist countries where nobody actually owns anything?

SPEAKER_00 1:44:52

Ooh, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:53

Let me use her phone. No comrade. It is our phone. Our phone comrade. I I in Soviet Russia. The black-eyed kid doesn't ask to use your phone. You ask to use their phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:07

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:07

Can I use your phone, comrade, please? People have phones in Russia. Nah, they do. I'm talking about Soviet Russia, which they also, long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:15

But I'm sure they have some. Way, way, way back machine. Way, way back machine.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:19

Thank you for coming here and listening to us.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:22

We hope you enjoyed it. Yep. If you did, go ahead and let everyone know, comment, like, um, or favorite or whatever. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:31

There's a special present for the 100th subscriber.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:36

Uh, and that present, that present is just uh feeling incredibly satisfied that you helped it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:43

We will not be giving out security camels.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:46

No. You don't want a security camel. Their poop smells real bad. I would imagine. I haven't personally like gone and smelled it. I haven't given it a good whiff. So I would imagine they smell bad though. Because poop smells bad in general. That's true. Thank you. I really appreciate after I say that. Just the moment of just dead air. Where you're just like processing, processing. I'm just gonna let that one lie. In the poop. Yummy.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:19

On the dirt. On the porch. Whatever you whatever you keep your boat.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:23

Whatever floats your boat. Whatever floats your goat.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:26

Whatever you keep your security camel. Hey, thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.