 I'm Darren Marlar, this is Friday Frights and we are streaming live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, so please, if you've not already done so, or even if you have already done so, jump online and invite your friends and family again to listen in, watch during the show for the next couple hours or more, usually as more. I'll be here telling you stories, replying to comments that you leave during the live stream. You should see a link in the video description for how to get permission to leave comments through StreamYard so that I'll see your comments here on my screen. Air-like regular episodes of Weird Darkness, I'm going to be sharing stuff that you would typically expect to hear on Weird Darkness, paranormal, supernatural, legends, you get it, you've heard that a billion times. If you are new to Weird Darkness, welcome to the show, this is a little bit different than what I normally present every day in the podcast, you're actually watching Friday Frights, which is my once a month live video stream, but if you want to, you can check out the website WeirdDarkness.com, you can find merchandise there, excuse me, you can find my newsletter, you can enter contests, connect with me on social media, plus you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts, you can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Tonight, our subject is Black-Eyed Kids, and I let my Patreon members, the Darkness Syndicate, vote on what I would read from tonight, and that's what they chose. I made this an option because I'm working on a public speaking presentation to take to future paranormal conventions about Black-Eyed Kids and one of the sources that I'll be using in my studying and crafting my speech is the book, The Chilling True Terror of the Black-Eyed Kids by G. Michael Vasey, which is what I'm going to be reading from tonight. I actually narrated the audiobook for this a couple of years back, you can find a link to this in the video description and the show notes if you want to give it a listen. Can you even see that? That's weird. It doesn't want to show up. There we go. There we go. The virtual green screen, it does not like this cover, but anyway, I have narrated this as an audiobook. I'll leave a link to it in the show notes so you can find it there. Also if you're not aware, my area, I'm northwest of Chicago in the Rockford, Illinois area. I'm almost in Wisconsin and well, we are under a severe thunderstorm watch and tornado watch right now, supposedly going until about 10 p.m. tonight, it's 6 p.m. right now. So you might hear thunder, you might see lightning flashes, probably not though I've got the lights on in here and the curtains closed, but you might hear hail hitting the roof or the window during the show. And if my bride comes in here to drag me to the basement or if my phone goes off saying that I need to take shelter, well, I'm going to book it out of here. And you might be left seeing this red screen by itself until the coast is clear. So I'm just giving you a heads up on that. However, if that does happen, if I can think about it and if I have time, I'll display this. So that way, if maybe it happens during a commercial break or something along those lines, when we come back, you'll actually see that I'm not here for a reason. And I'll just let this I'll just let the stream go until I can come back. So I hope that's okay with you. Okay, so looks like we got all of that out of the way. So let's go ahead and get started. Again, I'm reading from the chilling true terror of the black eyed kids. There you go. I can actually kind of make you see it there. All right. And I'm just going to start reading from the beginning. I tried to find a good place in this to start reading from and honestly, just the introduction to the book is phenomenal. So I'm just going to start there and we'll just keep on going. And then once I'm ready to take a break, I'll jump in and read some of your comments. All right. So here we go. My interest in the black eyed kids began innocently enough, a reader submitted a story to my true ghost stories website at my haunted life to that's my haunted life TOO.com in case you're curious, they were they were recounting a truly chilling tale about an encounter with the black eyed children. I read the story with a growing sense of unease and horror. There isn't much that scares me these days, but this story had me thinking about being alone at night and hearing that knock at my door was tingling with a nauseating mixture of fear and fascination, reading the submission. I'd heard a little bit about the black eyed kids or B.E.K., for short, of course. He was an urban myth, I thought, and one that seemed to be distinctly American in origin. Like most people, I thought the myth originated with the early days of the Internet and a posting to a bulletin board by one Brian Bethel about an encounter he supposedly had. Well, I posted the story and trapped it to the website grew tenfold over night. It seems I wasn't the only one creeped out by the story as it went viral on social media, shared and shared again. Then, much to my amazement, story after story started to flood in about B.E.K. and the black eyed people. Many of these encounters, many of these encounter experiences followed a well-worn format very similar to the first submission. Here is that first submission. A few months ago, I visited my mother in Amarillo. She lives in an ice area that has a good reputation, was expecting to have a nice vacation and spend some quality time with her as she is getting older. We spent the afternoon together and that evening she went to bed. I wasn't tired, so I decided to watch some TV and catch up with my friend on Facebook. About an hour later, there was a knock on the door. I was a little taken aback as this area was normally dead after ten. I went into the kitchen to try and look out to see who was at the door. The knocking was persistent. It wasn't like the average elder visit where a knock would be followed by silence. This was a constant tap, tap, tap. I was starting to get tired of this idiot knocking on the door, so I went to the porch and opened the door. Two teenagers stood there. One looked around 14, the other around 16. I instantly wondered if they were at the wrong house, as I was the only person under 30 in my family. There was no possible reason for these kids to be here. They said nothing, so I asked them what they wanted. The older one told me that he was sorry for waking me up, but wanted to come in and use the phone. He explained that they had been left in the area by their parents and needed to call someone. As he finished speaking, he just stared at me. When I saw his eyes, I couldn't tear myself away. They were completely black, just black. I couldn't break away from his gaze. I had a huge urge to just stand back and let them in. As we stood there staring at each other, he started talking again. This time, he wasn't asking. He was demanding that I let him in. The facade was gone. Whatever he wanted would only take a few moments, and then they would leave. He wanted me to let him in and help him. I broke my eyes away and realized that I was stepping backwards. I hurriedly told them to get off the porch and find help somewhere else. I closed the door with them still standing there and headed towards the phone. I called the police and told them that there were a couple of kids in the area who seemed to be up to no good. They told me later they did a thorough check, but they didn't find anything. No one else in the area had seen them either. My mother hadn't even heard them knocking. When I told her about it, she just dismissed it as the youth of today with poor manners. She didn't see their eyes. I felt terrified, and I felt at odds with their will. I think they meant to do me harm. Has anyone else had experience with Black-Eyed Kids? Submitted by Deanna M. That was the first story that awakened me to this strange phenomenon known as the Black-Eyed Kids, or B.E.K., and with my curiosity more than peaked, I had to find out more. What were these young kids with black eyes doing knocking on people's doors and terrorizing communities with their strange activities? As I investigated, the first thing I noted is that all the encounters largely follow the same predictable, chilling pattern or format as follows. Late at night, there's a knock at the door. When the door is answered, there are one or more, usually two young kids in their early teens at the door. For some reason, the person opening the door is immediately gripped with an insane fear that originates at the very core of their being or soul. Their heart pounds and they want to run and escape, but seemingly are unable and they are instead rooted to the spot. The kids aren't usually threatening or violent at first, but are rather devoid of any emotion and quietly but insistently demand to be let in. The reason they give for wanting to enter varies from using the phone to wanting something to eat or drink. Usually, at some time around this point in the story, the person notices the kid's eyes and is even more horrified by what they see. The eyes are totally black. There is no white, no iris, just total pools of blackness. This is often the catalyst for them to slam the door shut and wait inside until certain kids have left. Sometimes, despite the horror and intense urge to run, the idea of young teens out alone at night brings out the better side in the door-answerer who, at least for a while, contemplates helping them. In almost all cases, the intense fear eventually makes them close the door and cower behind it, sometimes even calling the police. The story is repeated over and over by many people who have shared their creepy encounters with me and others with only minor changes in the detail. Sometimes, no one else sees or hears the kids, as in the encounter above. Sometimes, they leave no visible footsteps in the snow or wet. Although they appear to be physical kids, they seem capable of vanishing and of being noticed only by their intended victim. Sometimes, adult black-eyed people are also involved in the periphery of the story, as if waiting for the kids to gain entry or they pick up the kids later. Here is another example of a story we published on the website. I recently read with interest your story about two black-eyed kids who tried to gain entry to a lady's house. I, too, had an experience with a black-eyed person. I took my family on vacation last year. We stayed at a motel near Lake County, California. It is a nice area with plenty of things for the kids to do. Everything had been going well and we had been having a lot of fun. On our fourth night, we were in our room watching TV when someone knocked on the door. We weren't expecting any visitors, so I elected to simply ignore it. The knocking continued and whatever was on the other side of the door started growling. I shouted out and told them that they had the wrong room and that we weren't expecting anyone. The knocking ceased. A few moments later, it started again and a voice started shouting, Let me in. It was a female voice but devoid of any emotion. Then we started to hear the same thing happening up and down, all along the corridor. Multiple voices all screaming, Let me in. We were terrified at this point, wondering just what was going on. I got up and looked out of the window. Two people were walking into the building. Both looked normal until one of them noticed that I was standing at the window. I saw her eyes. They were completely black. In every other sense, she looked normal, but I'm sure both the girl who saw me and the man she was with were black-eyed people. When the commotion finally died down, I ventured out of our room and went over to the reception block. The receptionist told me that she received no complaints and that she'd been on duty the whole time. She had no explanation for what I was telling her. I think she thought I was insane. I just wonder what would have happened if I had opened the door. Would I be here to tell this story? We won't be going to Lake County again. I can tell you that. Submitted by Rick R. Here's yet another encounter. The incident happened to me around five years ago. It was in December or January and we were having particularly strong snowstorms at the time. I'd been in bed for a few hours when I started to hear tapping noises coming from several windows in my house. It must have been around 3 a.m. I just thought it was some kids in the neighborhood making asses of themselves. So I got up, went downstairs and opened the door. Two boys were standing there. Remember, this is the middle of winter and these two boys are standing there in thin jackets and pants. The cold didn't seem to bother them one bit. I also started to feel very anxious, scared even. I couldn't explain it at the time. The smaller the boys suddenly started talking. He had a monotone voice with absolutely no emotion of any kind. He asked if he could use the telegraph. Now, I was expecting him to want to use the phone or perhaps the bathroom, but the telegraph? At the same time, I noticed that the whole neighborhood had become deathly quiet. No dogs barking. No humming of wires. No cars. Nothing. I told the two boys that I didn't have a telegraph in my house and asked them to go home and reconsider their lives. I also explained that playing fool and asking for a telegraph was a dumb thing to be doing at such an early hour with a grumpy old man like myself. They didn't even flinch. I closed the door and the tapping on the windows started again. I felt drained. That's when they started screaming and shouting for me to let them in. I grabbed the phone in my hall and dialed for the police. The screams and shouts should have been audible over the phone, but the lady who took my call didn't seem to hear them. She said that they had sent a patrol car. Later, I was told that she had not taken my call seriously and no patrol car had been dispatched. I went back upstairs as the tapping and banging continued. I eventually fell asleep and haven't seen these kids since. But I do want to know what the hell is going on. I haven't been able to get the whole thing out of my mind. What did they want with the telegraph? Submitted by Roy D. Apparently, the B.E.K. can not only disappear at will, but they can also appear in highly unusual places, even finding high-level security no barrier at all. I plan on using this one in my speech when I finally do create it. I'm in the USAF and I live on base. I'd never encountered anything strange on base until this incident happened. I was on base one weekend, almost everyone else was home drinking, sleeping or on duty. I'd only stayed that weekend because I'd spent all my money. I was on the bunk watching a movie when I heard a knock at my door. I thought it was my roommate. I went and opened it. Instead of a roommate, I found two kids standing on the walkway. Only these kids freaked the hell out of me. I don't know what it was about them, but we're always told to listen to what's inside because it just might save your life. Right then, that voice was screaming at me to shut the door and lock those kids out. There was also the little telltale sign that these kids had pitch black eyes. I mean, there was absolutely no white or any other color to them, just pure black. I asked them what they were doing here at this time of night. One of them told me that it was cold out and that they wanted to come in and read. I'd never met a kid that wanted to come in and read, and I knew for a fact that they didn't belong on this base. They didn't mention any parents, any broken down cars, or even how they had managed to get this far out to the base. There was nothing sincere about these kids. They were playing a game. It was at this point when I noticed that I could not drag my eyes away from theirs. I felt like I was being sucked in. It felt horrendous, as though my life were being dragged from my body screaming. They just stood there with their mouths closed, eyes staring into mine, and no emotion at all. I prayed for someone else to come by, but nobody did. I glanced around. The kids stepped forward, and I stepped back and slammed the door shut. I felt as though I were in grave danger. Every warning bell was going off in my head. I stepped back and fell on my bunk, drained of energy. I heard a soft knocking against the door for a few minutes, shuffling feet, and then nothing. The next morning I went down and asked one of the officers on duty if he'd seen the kids. He hadn't. Reading the accounts on your website, I believe I came face to face with these kids on a military base. How did they get in? I have no idea. Where did they go? I have no idea. But if they can get onto a military campus, they can get anywhere. Summitted by D. Robbins Sifting through these alarming accounts, I noticed a couple of other characteristics. It seems that often only the person answering the door sees the kids. No one else seems to see them, not even hear them, even when they are making quite a racket knocking on doors or asking to be let in. Also, notice the feeling of being drained of energy. These kids are like energy vampires, draining the human and their vicinity as well. In fact, as stated earlier, these encounters mostly all have several common sinister features, a formula if you will. This bonus upper-hand eye soon became apparent in my investigations, which we will explore in more detail below. But first, let's take a look at some of the comments you guys have been sending in. Greetings from Minnesota. I hope you're doing okay. Thank you, William. I don't know if you're saying that to me, but I'm okay. Hopefully everybody else is as well. Let's see here. Cheryl wants some good horror movie recommendations, some newer horror movie recommendations. Well, that'll be up to you. Not really horror, but I absolutely loved Violent Night. That was just so much fun. And I'm really looking forward to Nefarious, obviously. Let's see here. This video, oh, you're talking about something. You guys are talking between yourselves. I see what you're doing. All right, let's see. Betty says love listening to this. Thank you, Betty. I appreciate that. Edward says love the podcast. Appreciate that. Thanks, Edward. Let's see here. Speaking of the EK's, did anyone else see the video of the guy that said he found a frequency that called them in and played it on the speaker and filmed the interaction and got the blip of the girl? I do not know about that, but hey, Chris, if you could send that to me, I would really appreciate that. I might be able to use that in my talk. That would be really, really good. Let's see here. I still want a Darkness Syndicate shirt. Well, Chris, I don't have Darkness Syndicate shirts. If you're a part of the Darkness Syndicate, you do get Weird Darkness merchandise, but I haven't actually created a Darkness Syndicate shirt yet. I've been debating on that for some reason. I'm just not really happy with the logo yet. Maybe one of these days I'll come up with a logo that I really like, and then I'll put it in there. Let's see here. Chris also wanted to know, will I be able to make it to Connecticut for Pericon this summer? I don't think I'm scheduled to go to Pericon. Let me double check here real quick. I'll go to the, see, I've got so much stuff going on that I can't really tell you right off hand where I'm going to be. I have to actually go to my own website to the road trip page to find out. I don't think I'm going to Connecticut though. I would think that that would actually sound familiar. No, I am going to be in Rochester, New York in October. Let's see here, somewhere out in that same area. I thought I was going to be in Oregon somewhere. Where was that? Oh, Salem, Massachusetts. I'm sorry, I've already been in Oregon. Salem, Massachusetts also be at it in November, but not Connecticut yet. No. The problem is I just have, there's only just so many weekends available in the year, and sometimes I try to leave myself a weekend in between some of these because they're just so draining. Kind of like black-eyed kids, but if you have something that you think I ought to go to then please send it my way. I would love to know about it. And if any of you have had black-eyed kid experiences, I would love for you to send them my way. Just go to WeirdDarkness.com, click on tell your story, and send me your black-eyed kid experiences only if they're true. Okay, don't make anything up. I just want to know if it really truly has happened to you. I'll incorporate that into my speech, and that would be something that would just be very, very unique. Hey, Doc Dredd. Hey, one of our horror hosts. Doc Dredd, how are you doing? Doc, greetings from the swap. Love your show. I'm alone tonight. Hope those black-eyed kids don't... I hope they don't come calling either. I will tell you though that it is said, I've not experienced it myself, it is said that once you know about the black-eyed kids, that's when they arrive. Until you've heard about them, there's a possibility that you'll see them, but I guess there's a greater possibility that they will show up once you know about them. So I'm kind of putting you all in danger today. I don't mean to do that. It's just the way it happened to work out. Okay, we'll be back here in just a little bit. I'll hear on Friday Frights. A screwball millionaire? Except that you can't call a man with eight million dollars a screwball. One insurance salesman. After I have been safely interred, you may open my will, which is now sealed in the safe in the specimen room. Then you will learn how I've seen fit to reward you, one and all. One dead client. Furthermore, should any of you leave the grounds before I am safely interred in my book, you will forfeit all rights to your legacy. One house full of inheritors. Both doors are locked from the inside. It's someone right here in this house. He stole Uncle Cyrus' body and I'm going to find out who before it's too late. Help! One murderer. Yeah, it's one of those rich dead guys with a bunch of greedy relatives in a mansion movie. Starring Jack Haley. I'm through being pushed around. I've been bop clopped and clopped. I'll show that they can't drown now, but tuttle and get away with it. And Bella Legosi. One by too many. Join us online and watch for free as horror hostess Mistress Militius brings us this comedy horror flick from 1947. Visit the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com and join us on Saturday, April 8th at 9 p.m. Central. That's 7 p.m. Pacific, 10 p.m. Eastern to watch the creepy funnies. That's the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. Saturday, April 8th for one body too many. Welcome back, Weirdos. I want to get into the dark line here in just a second, but first a couple of messages that came through. Chris said, weird flex, but Darren took my suggestion for Spreaker. I named his truck. You named the truck. I don't know if you named it. Did you name it the Weirdo Wagon? Some people, a lot of people named it Weirdo Wagon. I've stopped using that. It just seems, it just sounds so silly. I'm sorry. The Weirdo Wagon just, I started calling it the Weird Darkness Beast just just because it sounds better. I had this one come in just a couple seconds ago from Jean-Claude, great show on CreepyBek. Can't wait for October Terror Train, your friend Jill. Okay. A lot of you have no idea what Jill is referring to here. That's because this has been up to now only something that the Darkness Syndicate members have known about. And this is not, not for sure just yet. It's still being worked on, but AAA contacted me. And they're not just a car company that it helps you with roadside assistance and stuff. They also create travel plans. They'll create vacation packages for you. One of them, Sal. Hey, Sal, if you're watching, nice to see you, Sal. Sal reached out to me. He works for AAA and he wants to create a Weird Darkness Vacation Package. This is not going to be in October though, by the way. Originally we were talking October because it would make sense being Weird Darkness, but I am so busy in October with, well, with the fundraiser that we do each year for Depression. I have the Weird Darkness live screen that has a lot of preparation, more preparation than I am doing here for Friday Frights. And there are so many other cons and expos and everything that take place during that time. It would just be so hard to fit it in. So I've asked them, well, can we put it off then maybe until November or December? I mean, if you wanted to do it in December, we could just do like a creepy Christmas type of thing, but excuse me. So sometime in November or December they're thinking about maybe we'll do this, plus it'll give us a bit more time to create it. But the idea is we'll take a steam train to several different towns, probably in Arizona, at least for this first one we'll do Arizona. And at each stop, I'll give you guys a quick presentation about the area, what's spooky about it. It might be a haunted location or there might be something that happened that something creepy that happened there. It may not be haunted, but still something dark and disturbing may have taken place there. Each night we'll stop at a location that is either creepy or maybe it's a haunted hotel where we'll stay the night. You guys will be able to do ghost hunts at night before coming back to the hotel for bed. We'll all get up the next day, do breakfast together, and start the trip all over again. And we'll do that for like a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then Sunday night. I will do a live presentation. And somebody, one of the patrons recommended this, Renee. Renee, I'm pretty sure it was Renee that recommended this. It is such a cool idea. Renee said, well, instead of doing a stage presentation, why don't you do a live fireside price? Plus, it's a lot easier to pull off a campfire and a whole bunch of people around a campfire. It's a lot cheaper too. You don't have to rent a stage. But yeah, that would be so much fun. I mean, it also fits the genre of a steam train going from like Old West Town to Old West Town doing a campfire at night. Plus, if it is November or December, it's going to be a bit chilly. That fire would probably feel pretty good. So yes, that's the idea. Once we have details about it, assuming that it happens, I think it will happen because it just seems to be falling into place. Every idea we come up with, Sal is like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea. We could incorporate that. So we'll look into it and get back to everybody. But if there's something that you're interested in, just keep an ear out. That is something that is definitely on the way. I think it would be a lot of fun. Let's see here. Chris says hello from Alabama. Hey, Chris, nice to see you there. Dara, and you're welcome to Casper, Wyoming. Casper, actually, I used to have relatives to live in Casper. Back when I was about 13, I went animal hunting in Casper, Wyoming. I wouldn't mind actually, it's a little cold there, but I wouldn't mind living in Wyoming. I think that would be a nice place. So you guys, you guys really like this. You love this idea. Pam says that sounds really cool, like a creepy kidnapper band. I have no idea what that's talking about. Cheryl says yes. Pam says that's really cool. Another, yes. Chris says that's awesome about the terror train was the one you can investigate and ride at the same time. Well, maybe, maybe. One thing that we did talk about maybe is doing a murder mystery on the train. Maybe one of the nights, like maybe Friday night, the first night, we probably started on a Friday morning. So we can get a full three days. Maybe the first night we do a murder mystery that night, then Saturday night, we'd end up doing the ghost hunts, and then Sunday night would be the, would be the fireside frights. So I don't know. But anyway, I smile a lot. I will try not to smile anymore somewhere. I'm sorry, Summer. Fireside frights is great. Cheryl says cool. Jill says thank you for the heads up. Doesn't matter where or when, I'll be there. Okay. Weirdo wagon is a creepy name. Okay. I don't like weirdo wagon though. Summer says you're great. Thank you. But apparently I smile a lot. You're the one that said that, Summer. So there. I'm sorry, I can't help it. I'm in a good mood. I love what I do. Of course, I'm going to smile. Sounds like so sounds like fun. Okay, great. All right. So so there you go. Okay, before we get back to the stories, I want to jump into one of the dark line callers. But I need to preface it because they reference a news story. And just to let you know, this is not the actor Kevin Bacon. It's somebody else. So don't worry, Kevin Bacon, the actor is still alive. Kick and he's doing perfectly fine. But anyway, I got to read this new story first. Mark Witensky, Michigan killer and cannibal gets life without parole for murder of Kevin Bacon. Shawnee County, Michigan, Fox two, Mark Witensky, the man who brutally murdered Kevin Bacon on Christmas Eve in 2019 will spend the rest of his life in prison. Witensky, who was charged with open murder and dead body disinterment and mutilation was sentenced to life without parole after killing and eating parts of the 25 year old victim. He was ordered to trial, but he ended up pleading guilty to the crime in September. Family members reported bacon missing Christmas 2019 did not show up for breakfast. His roommate said that he went to visit a man he met on grinder the night before. This information led investigators to Witensky's Shia, Shia Wasi County home before Witensky sentencing victim impact statements from Bacon's mother father and sisters were read in your sick twisted mind. You probably don't think you did anything wrong. His mother Hannah wrote this Christmas. I hope you suffer like we have. Now the following details are really graphic. It might be a distressing to you. So just a heads up court documents revealed disturbing details about how Bacon died. Police said he was found naked hanging upside down from the ceiling of the home. Witensky later admitted to police he stabbed Kevin, slit his throat and then hung him with a rope from the rafters. He also said he cut off a portion of his and ate it. Police previously said it appeared Bacon knew that Witensky was involved in a violent sexual fetish and other people may have been harmed by him. After Bacon's murder one of Witensky's neighbors, Michael Parks, said he encountered a man in November on his front porch covered in blood knocking on his door. Mark Witensky is accused of murdering Kevin Bacon. I'm sorry that's that was the caption of one of the photos. He's got purple hair. He's wearing a leather skirt and he's got a couple of belts across his chest. Mark said this gentleman's grasping my arm with deathly fear screaming help me keep me keep him away just screaming at the top of his lungs. He wants to hurt me. He wants to hurt me. Another vehicle pulls in my driveway and outcomes who I now found out is Mark wearing a leather skirt belt across his chest. No shoes, no shirt, his beard is braided. A very odd looking gentleman. Michigan State police arrived within minutes and took the bleeding man with them. No charges were ever filed against Witensky for that incident. Man charged in murder cannibalism in court for pretrial hearing. Mark Witensky the man accused of killing and cannibalizing part of a man he met on grind during December was in court Friday for a pretrial hearing where gruesome details of the murder were released. Okay, I read that so you can hear this. Hi, my name is Chris from Michigan. I was calling from Charleston, West Virginia. I don't seem paranormal. It's just really weird. When I was, I'd say between a year and two years old, I was gibber jabber like a lot of kids did and, you know, they learning their way to talk and what to say and how to say things. But my grandfather, who is of German descent, always told my mom that baby is talking German. And my mom would ask him, you know, how do you know that she's not talking German? That's just what babies do. And he would tell her, no, I know what babies do. And that child is talking German. Well, that went on for a while. And my sister, who is older than I am, had a friend that she went to school with. And she was wanting to go have a play date with her. So my mom took my sister to her friend's house. And the friend's mother asked my mom in. Well, the friend's mother is native German. And we were sitting there, you know, apparently I was in the floor playing and you know, talking and just having a good old time by myself. And the woman looked down at me. And she started talking to me in German. And she would say something and I would answer her. And my mom says, do you know what she's saying? And the woman looked at her and told my mom, yes, of course I do. She's speaking perfect German. Of course, as I grew up and got older than the ability left, you know, I've taken a German course in college, but I can barely count to 10. So I just thought that was kind of weird. And thought you might enjoy that story. You have a great day. Stay weird. Not very often that you are born learning, knowing a language and yet somehow forget it and can't even learn learn how to say it again, even after taking classes, even after going to German language classes, you still couldn't figure it out again. That's that's freaking, that's freaking. The only thing I know how to say in German is Tufkescheiske, which is just tough. And that's not really German. It's just something my dad used to say. Anyway, let's get back to the true. I don't know why this I think this is just too shiny of a cover. The the chilling true terror of the black eyed kids by G Michael Vasey. That's what I'm reading from this month. And I do have a link to that in the show notes, the video description, and it's also available in audio book, which yours truly narrated. All right, so back to it. The B.E.K. don't seem to threaten their potential victims often. They don't shout angrily or resort to physical violence. They don't seem to need to. They just stand there, emotionless beings talking in a quiet, almost hypnotic voice, first asking and then later demanding entry into your home. It is this combination of the monotonous calm voice repeating their request and the dark pools of black that are their eyes that combine to hypnotize and lull the person answering the door, despite the fear that they feel at the very core of their being. They know or believe themselves to be in mortal danger, and yet they afford the B.E.K. every opportunity to compel them to let them in. Even when armed, the door opener still makes the mistake of opening the door. And despite every fiber in their body telling them to point the gun, they lower the weapon. Before I get into this next story, do me a favor and jump online to your social media, maybe text a few friends and ask them to join us. We've got about 47 people watching right now. I'd love to increase that number and just let them know about Friday Fights and Weird Darkness. I'd appreciate it. Okay, so you got a weapon to get a knock on the door. What do you do? I have my own experience of these black-eyed kids. It happened a few years ago. I've never been able to really think of a rational reason for what happened. It just happened. I headed out to mow my lawn. In the front of the ditch of my road, I had bushes and flowers neatly set up. To my bitter surprise, someone had gone by and stepped all over my roses. I was upset. The next day, I saw two kids walking down my road. Keep in mind, my road has several houses, so we all know each other very well. These kids look to be around 14 or 15 years old. I've never seen these kids before in my neighborhood. I wanted to go outside and ask them if they messed with my roses, but I figured they're just kids. I'd let it slide this time. The kids stopped walking and just stood on the road right across from my house. That's a good hundred or so feet away. They just stood there. I was looking out the window and they were just standing right there. I went to my room to go get my shoes and when I came out, they were gone. It was around 8 p.m. and it was starting to get dark out. My power went off and on a few times. That's never happened before. We usually have very stable electricity. Around 8.20, I heard a deep knocking at my front door. I went over to the door, turned on my porch light and looked through the little hole on my door, but it was just pitch black, even though the light was on. I didn't know why, but I was extremely terrified. I started to put my hand on the handle and then I asked, Who's there? Some kid answered, Sorry to bother you, but we are lost and need to borrow your phone. I have a spare cell phone you can borrow for a few minutes. I told them, Let me go get it. No, come outside with you. The kid just said, No, you let me in right now. They started banging on my door. I'm not talking about just hitting it, but it was like something very big and wide was smashing against my door. I said, You quit that right now. I got a gun and if you try anything, I will shoot you. The kid kept screaming, Let me in now. You're making a mistake. I grabbed my gun and held it off to the side of my leg. I put my hand on the lock and unlocked the door. This is where I made my mistake. I opened the door expecting either those kids or just one kid with a weapon or something, but these weren't little kids. Standing at my door were two people and both looked young, but their eyes gave them away. They were pitch black. I felt terrified again. I felt like putting my shotgun down and letting them in. I'm not sure why I felt that way. As I had the door open for these three or four seconds, the taller kid started to walk forward to come in. I kicked my door shut as hard as I could and I locked it. At this point, I heard them both crying and screaming in a strange distorted high pitched way, followed by some banging on my door again. I went to check my back door just to make sure it was still locked. Thankfully, my back door was locked and by the time I headed to my front door, they just stopped. I loaded my shotgun and opened the door expecting these things, but they were gone. I heard some footsteps and my neighbor was coming by. He heard some weird screams and came by to check on me. I stood there probably looking like death with a shotgun in my hand. I let him in and told him the entire event. He told me to call the cops, but I was positive they wouldn't believe me. I never called the cops. Submitted by Keith W. In that story, there were a couple of additional and noteworthy embellishments to the common storyline. Firstly, the kids appeared in daylight hours and stood over the road, ominously looking into the house for some time prior to their visit. This, too, is a common theme in many B.E.K. experiences, as we will see. It adds to the fear level and the overall strangeness of the experience. The second is the strange, high-pitched screaming noises that they made, but this, too, is echoed by other experiences of this strange phenomenon. Finally, his electric power went off and on unusually. This type of electrical disturbance is also often a feature of the storyline. I've seen these children usually in groups of two late at night, roaming around the historic Route 66 or 6th Street. It seemed to pick certain houses. I was told by an older lady who lives alone. They had knocked on her door and said they'd been left behind and needed to use the phone. She wouldn't let them in. They seemed mad, but she shut the door and didn't answer again. Submitted by Tammy P. Here's another one from a lady in Odessa. One evening I was sitting in my bedroom reading a book. It must have been around 1 a.m. and was a Friday night. My husband worked nights, so I usually tried to stay up for him. I heard a knocking. It wasn't a normal knock. It was a slow, constant one. I got up out of bed to see what it was. I looked out the window and, to my surprise, saw two young children. I opened the window and asked them what they wanted at this time of night. They replied by simply saying, Let us in. Now, I don't recognize these children at all. They weren't the kids from next door. They were dressed in black clothes and looked dirty. I did wonder if they were runaways, and it did cross my mind to call the sheriff. I said no, and asked what for, and all I got back from them was, We want to use your bathroom. I was quite shocked that children of about, I'd say, 10 years old wanted to use a stranger's bathroom at this time of night. So I told them no. I closed the window, but looked at them through the glass. And, to my surprise, I glanced at their eyes, and I have never, ever seen eyes like them. They were black, completely black. I got the feeling of evil and unhappiness. It surrounded me. It was horrible. The knocking continued for two hours. A slow but rhythmic knocking that reached all around the house. I picked up the phone several times, but the phone line was dead. I didn't dare look outside again. When my husband arrived home, he said that he didn't see anything outside. I told him about the phone, and he checked it. It was live. I haven't seen the kids since. Once again in this encounter, only the ladies seemed to see the B.E.K. And electrical items were disturbed. In this case, it was the phone. Now, not all the stories are about kids. As stated earlier, black-eyed adults are sometimes seen as well. And in some instances, these black-eyed adults also try to get a ride, gain entry to your home, or get you to give them permission to do something. Here are a couple more scary examples. I'm a grocery store employee in Idaho. I work in the electronics department, and I have a deep interest in the paranormal. A few weeks ago now, I was on the floor just making sure everything was correctly shelved. I was walking around, and I had noticed this man come around completely by himself. He was wearing regular clothes. Nothing unusual about him really, so I continued with what I was doing. He just kept walking around my department and kept looking around the store like he was lost or something. One thing I noticed that was weird about him was the way he walked. He didn't walk with a normal stride, but in a way, it was almost like a slow-motion type of walk, yet not as dramatic and obvious as you'd picture such a walk. It's hard to explain, but it was just a weird, slow walk. After noticing that, I continued to work. I had bent down to pick up some trash on the floor, and when I stood back up, he was a good ten feet away, and he was staring straight at me, completely motionless. We stood looking at each other. Suddenly, his eyes turned completely black. No white parts or iris or anything, just completely black. But it also happened for a couple of seconds, just long enough for me to realize that he was different. I made a puzzled face and broke eye contact with him and continued working, and he just went away. I don't know if he was a demon or what, but I do know it puzzled me and still does. After reading your Black Eyed Kid accounts, I was wondering if he was one of them. Submitted by Roger M. A few weeks ago, this happened to me. I saw a story from your site on Facebook, and felt that I should share my experience. It wasn't as dramatic as some of the ones I've read, but it was strange. I was shopping in a mall with my dad, North of San Diego. Across from the car park, it was a person talking to himself. He didn't have a phone, and there was nobody else he could have possibly been talking to. Dad went ahead into the mall, and I headed over to a convenience store to get some cigarettes. I had to go past the strange man. I walked past him, and he said that he could not drive on any highway with the number 10 on it, and he had to go in the direction of Los Angeles. I said that I couldn't take him. He said that I had to take him to Los Angeles. This was all strange, as he would have to go on I-5 to get to LA. This was in the middle of the afternoon on a bright and sunny day. His eyes were cold black, with no whites in them. He didn't show any emotion, and spoke with a monotone voice that really did stand out in this area. His face looked almost dead in appearance. At the time, I thought he must have been some kind of drug addict, but I wasn't scared. There are a lot of drug addicts in Los Angeles. He told me that he wanted me to drive him to Los Angeles and would pay me good money. I told him no. He kept staring at me. I ignored him, and walked into the store. As I paid for my cigarettes, the man walked around the corner, and I didn't see him again. He didn't show any emotion. He wasn't angry, upset or even threatening. He was just calm and patient. I told my dad about this person in the parking lot when I got back into the store, and he said that he was crazy. Now I'm wondering if he was one of the Black Eyed People. I think he was. Submitted by Ed R. The incident took place about seven or eight years ago. I've been reading many of the accounts on your website and wanted to share my story. It was a little different to the average account I've read, and may be useful for someone. I've just moved to Las Vegas with my wife of 20 years. We were small townfolk from the Midwest. We moved cross country. Being naive and new to a city living, I habitually answered the door without a second thought. I never even heard of a Black Eyed Kid until this incident. The first thing that should have tipped me off to the strangeness of this situation was the fact that someone was knocking at 4.30 am. The second thing that should have dawned on me is this kid had to reach over a rather tall patio gate to unlatch and open it, which I tried to do later and couldn't manage. I'm not sure how he managed to get into my yard. The knock at the door was startling. My wife and I were getting ready for work, a normal routine. The moment I opened the door, I was overtaken with an inexplicable sense of fear. Literally, I went from being relaxed to shaking like a leaf. To this day, I can picture him, a teenager around five feet, average build, knee-length black leather coat, short black hair and sunglasses, eating an apple standing on the other side of my door. He was very polite and asked if he could come in and warm up. I said no, closed the door and slid the security chain into place. A moment later, another knock. I opened the now-changed door and before I could speak, he asked again if he could come in and warm up. I said no again and attempted to close the door. Before the door could shut, he put his hand out, stopping the door on its hinges. He looked directly into my eyes, still wearing his sunglasses and said, Can I at least get some ketchup for my apple? Not a chance, I replied. My wife is currently calling the police. He smiled and just said, No, you won't be calling anybody. At that moment, I pushed the door closed, locked it and called out to my wife. She thought I had been talking to myself. She didn't even hear him talk. I pulled the curtains back to look out the window next to the door. He wasn't there. There was no trace of him. I go out on the patio and check the gate, but it still latched from the inside. My wife didn't believe me until that evening when she returned home and saw a half-eaten apple on the top step outside our house. That's the freakiest bit. The damn half-eaten apple hadn't been there when I had checked the yard. Yet a few hours later, he was sitting on my step, waiting for us to return home. Submitted by anonymous. Catch up on an apple? Really? That's scarier than black guys, just to say it. I've been interested in the paranormal for a few years and I read the stories on your site almost every day. I've been thinking about something that happened to me a couple of years ago. I was in college and had just left a movie theater with my boyfriend. As we were leaving, I saw a car and I investigated the window and no one was in it, or maybe the windows were tinted so I couldn't see anything, but I stared at it for a while, not knowing why. Then my boyfriend realized he needed gas and he pulled over into a gas station. As he filled up and went into the station to pay for the gas, I noticed that the car I had seen before had now pulled into the gas station and was pulled up against our car. The window was rolling down and soon I could see a man who looked to be a teenager with long hair. I instantly thought he was just another kid getting gas, a coincidence. But when he turned to look at me, I could see that his eyes were completely black. My first reaction was utter fear. I didn't feel like I was being looked at by just a kid. I just had a sensation. I turned away too scared to look at him. Then I managed one more glance and he hadn't moved. He was still so close to his car window and had those eyes on me. I'll always remember those eyes. When my boyfriend arrived, I told him about the guy. We both turned to look at the guy and he hadn't moved. He was in that same position. I noticed I wasn't the only one who couldn't keep looking at him. My boyfriend got freaked out too. We both had the same sensation. He's not human. I have since moved to another state for work purposes, but I remember that incident very well. Another gas station encounter with the BEK, but please note that this one took place in the 1970s, long before such stories became popular, long before Brian Bethel's story caused such a furor. I was heading home from a concert in the mid-1970s. I was about 120 miles away from home and I had to stop for gas. I pulled over and in front of the gas station filled up and went inside to pay. I then decided that I'd better go to the bathroom since I still had a bit of a drive ahead of me. When I came back out, I went to grab a warm drink for the road, but when I turned around to pay, there was a man standing just a few feet behind me. He was wearing a business suit with a long black coat over that. When I went to pass him, he looked up at me. Where the eyes are supposed to be, there were only two big black holes. Everything else looked completely normal about this guy, except he had no eyes, just blackness. I froze, dead in my tracks. He continued to stare at me with a really intimidating stare. I finally caught my senses and just said, excuse me. Walked on by up to the counter, handed him money, told him to keep the change and bolted out of there. The attendant didn't seem to be bothered by the man. I remember he was more interested in the radio than he was in what I or what the man was doing. The feeling that came over me seeing his face was nothing of this world. I had never felt it before, but I know it was pure terror. An immediate sense of danger and dread like nothing I had ever experienced before. All I had in my mind was to get away as fast as possible. Again, I never even mentioned anything about black-eyed people before I told my husband about this 20 years later. He has been reading the accounts on your website and one night told me about them. I freaked out and told him about what happened to me. And here is yet another encounter that took place on the I-90. That is what I took all the way back from seaside Oregon to home. This incident happened a little over two years ago and I have never forgotten it. My husband and I were on our way up north on I-90 during the afternoon. Luckily, it was not at our normal time in the evening. We have a little place that we often go to for the weekends. As was our custom, we pulled in on our usual rest stop and I went into the women's restroom. We visited this place hundreds of times, so I had no concerns about using the restrooms. As I was preparing to leave the room, I suddenly noticed a thin, dark-haired woman standing alone and staring directly at me. I instantly felt a terrible sense of dread as though there was something deeply unnatural about her. I then noticed the eyes which had been staring coldly at me and they were completely black. I saw no color whatsoever and felt an extremely strong need to get away from her as quickly as possible as there was something quietly threatening about her. Her stare was devoid of any emotion other than something very cold and disconnected. My instant and unwavering feeling during this whole experience was that she was not in any way human. I don't know what made me feel this so strongly, but it was my most singular strongest sense while looking at her. There also was something almost predatory about her as though she was homing in on prey while she stood there so still. I also had a strange sense of her feeling superior or stronger in some way, again the sense of a predator watching its prey. I left as quickly as possible, showing as little reaction to her as possible. It seemed important for some unknown reason for me to act unaffected by her while in her presence. I felt a huge sense of relief as I got back into the car and left. I have to say that this was one of the most memorable brief experiences I have ever had around a person, especially a stranger. I have never been able to shake the unexplainable feeling that she wasn't human. After many similar such experiences had been submitted, I felt compelled to do some further research on the B.E.K. I soon discovered that these kids and adults have been sighted persistently across the USA for several years now. What I could not find in any number however were similar stories from other countries, for example the UK. Yes, I could find stories of black-eyed humanoids but the whole story context is different as we will see later. This typical type of encounter or modus operandi seems to be a U.S. phenomenon with just a small number of encounters in other global locations. It is difficult to know when the B.E.K. experiences first started being reported but it seems commonly accepted on the Internet that the phenomenon originated in one early account that appeared on a ghost-related mailing list back in 1998. This account was written by Texas reporter Brian Bethel relating supposed encounters with black-eyed kids in Abilene, Texas and Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon. Yeah, weird city. Doesn't make sense. Bethel's stories gained massive popularity and in 2012, Bethel told his story on the reality television series Monsters and Mysteries in America. And, well, the rest is history, as they say. This account is paraphrased by me below. His account follows much the same successful, terrifying format as all the others, in fact. As he is sitting in his car, two children in their early teens approach him. He rolls down his car window and they ask him if they can get in, they need a ride. He is immediately scared to death by these kids for no rational reason, but the calmness of the children and the incessant requests to be let in keep him from driving away or even winding up his window. He describes very well the feelings of foreboding and fear that he was experiencing and how compelled he felt to enter this conversation. Every fiber in his body is telling him that he is in danger, and yet he cannot act on this. It is only when he sees that the kids have totally black eyes that he finds whatever strength it takes to break away and he races away in his car. The story has all the same compelling aspects of the ones submitted to us, and he ends his account by asking a figurative question as to what may have happened to him had he let the kids into his car. The discussion of the encounter on the board contains some validation of his story and that one of the people involved in the discussions that then relates a similar sinister story about a similar creepy encounter with these B.E.K. In fact, similar accounts to this supposed original one from Brian Bethel have also been submitted to my site. For example, how about this chilling experience? I was on a date with my fiancé, who is now my husband, one night in 1985. This took place in New York City, both my husband and I are lifelong New Yorkers. My husband is an accountant and I am a retired teacher. We were going out to dinner and had just pulled over a near-door restaurant we used to frequent quite a lot. As my husband parked the car outside the restaurant, we both heard somebody knock their knuckles against the car window, which is unusual as there is normally a doorman at this restaurant to dissuade that sort of thing. We both looked over and saw two teenage boys in hoods standing outside our car. I immediately felt fear like I had never felt it before. My hands were shaking without any reason to shake. I was instantly petrified. The two boys were pale from what I could see and looked completely stoned. My immediate reaction was to leave, but my husband didn't want to leave without dinner. My husband opened the car door and the two boys stood back to let him out. He was just going to ignore them and go into the restaurant. I opened the door on my side of the car and got out too. When I turned around, I looked at the two boys and in the dim street light, they looked as though they just had black pools where their eyes should be, just two large patches of black, no other color at all. We need a ride in your car, one of them said to my husband. Mike, my husband, had turned his back to them to lock the car door. He hadn't seen their eyes. Well, he replied, you're SOL. It won't take long, the boy said, as though we didn't hear my husband's response. We're just young people who need a ride. That was so weird, since when did teenagers call themselves young people? It was like two old men had jumped into these teenage bodies. Well, crap, my husband said at the time. He is a real New Yorker. You'd better take the subway. As my husband, Mike, turned, the boys started screaming, Invite us into your car. We can't enter unless you invite us. My husband was about to yell back when he saw their eyes. His face completely fell. I had never seen him so shocked by something. He sidestepped away from them and moved on to the sidewalk. I moved to the back of our car. We both watched as these two boys suddenly started screaming and shouting. The two boys backed up, still screaming and shouting, You need to let us in. One of them screamed, pointing at us. We have to see our friend. We turned around and headed into the restaurant. The doorman was standing inside the lobby. He had not seen or heard the boys. We had dinner and thought that would be the end of it. I remember feeling terrified for days after. I didn't sleep very well and had a lot of nightmares. I had a lot of headaches, too. A week later, I was starting to dread going to bed as I would see these boys every single time I opened my eyes. I was worried that they'd visit us again or appear in our bedroom. I was scared to leave the house and I felt violated as though they'd attacked me. Yet all they had done was nothing compared to what others have gone through. They really didn't do much except scream, shout, and act weird. It was what happened to me afterwards that really bothered me. I really think that once you get caught up with these kids, they have a long-lasting effect on you. Nightmares, panic attacks, sleepwalking, headaches, fear of seeing them again. A few months later, they were starting to calm down. I asked my husband if he remembered the incident he said he did and he had met up with them again. Apparently, they were outside his office one afternoon waiting by his car. They did the same thing they did outside the restaurant. When my husband told them that he was calling the police from his office, the kids didn't seem to care one way or another. The creepiest thing was that they told him they wanted to go to an address to visit their friend who could help them. The address at the time didn't mean anything. It was just a suburb of New Jersey. Years later, we were moving into a new house and when my husband saw the address of the house, I wanted him to see that I wanted him to ... excuse me. Years later, we were moving to a new house and when my husband saw the address of the house I wanted him to see, he went white. It was the same address those boys had told him about outside of his office. What are these kids? What do they want? Some say they are demons. Others say they are lost spirits. They have no idea what they are, but they terrified the hell out of me. I'll continue with these in just a moment after we take a quick break. Welcome back, weirdos. It's Friday Frights, and let's check out some of the comments you guys have been leaving. Alison says, Love your podcast and your voice. Great storytelling. Well, thank you very much, Alison. I appreciate that. Let's see here. Chris says, Did anybody catch the story Darren shared about the lady's husband that let B.E.K. in? I remember that story. In fact, I am planning on using that in the featured speech, the speaking presentation, whatever you call these things, that I'm planning on creating for these expos, the Black Eyed Kids presentation that I'm creating. That is the only story that I know of that somebody actually did let in the B.E.K. And I won't tell you the entire story, but letting that B.E.K. kid in was a really bad idea. The woman blames that on her husband getting sick with cancer. I think she got cancer, too. I'd have to go back and check on that. But apparently there was no history of cancer in their family. There was no sign of it before this happened, but once it happened, after she let them in, that's when they were diagnosed with cancer. So she thinks that that was that's what it was. Let's see here. Moving down to P in the Woods Losers. Summer says theory. I have heard a lot of these Black Eyed People's accounts. I think they're collecting energy for something else, whatever it is, using the innocence of children from the past. That's a very good possibility. I know that people as one of the stories that we told earlier, people feel completely drained after this happens. So in a way, they could be like a psychic vampire type of situation. And being in the form of kids, they're probably going to get a little bit closer to you than if they were adults. Before you see the Black Eyes, kind of let your guard down a little bit when kids are involved as opposed to adults. I think maybe that's what it is. Pam says, curious as to people who've encountered BEK have any commonalities, like a recent trauma, near-death experience or something along those lines. That is a really good question. I don't know about that. And in my studies, I might come across that. If so, I'd love to be able to answer that question. It's funny, BEKs and BAMPs need your permission to cross your threshold. Yeah, Chris. Yeah, that seems to be the typical situation too. Whether they want to get in your car or if they want to get in your house or whatever, they're always asking permission. They never force their way in. You have to give them permission to come in. So let's see. Tim says, I may be brave. There may not be a lot of scares me, but I hope to the gods that I never see the BEKs because I don't know what I would do. Same here. Same here. I don't know what I would do if this happened to me. It would be terrifying. Let's see here. Moving down. Apples and ketchup yucked. See? Thank you. I agree. And then people who like ketchup on apples or the same ones who put the milk in before the cereal. I know we're rebels, right? They're rebels. Yes. Although I'll admit, I will sometimes put the milk in before the cereal because I want the cereal to stay crisp and so and it stays crisp longer if that's just floating on the top rather than soaked in milk. Okay. Let's see here. Yeah. Okay. All right, folks. I told you that it might happen. So looks like we have a looks like we have a tornado warden coming in. So I'm going to step away and I will be back as soon as I can. Hey, gang. I'm back. All right. Well, we had a lot of comments come in while I was gone. Let's just jump down the jump down the bottom and say, Darren, any updates? Hail, wind stomping upstairs? I think the stompings finally finally stopped. I don't know if all of you guys can see that here. If you're following the comments, but even if you weren't following the comments, we had to run downstairs, obviously, because of the tornado warning. And there were some giant booms. I don't know if you can hear them up here. I don't know if the microphone was picking that up or not. But it happened a lot. And we couldn't figure out. It's not it almost felt almost sounded like a door slam, but we don't have any doors opening and closing up here. So I don't know what that was. So I joked around that it was the BK is trying to get in to get out of the storm. Okay, let's see. Okay, you know what? Just to make sure that everything's okay. I'm going to take a real quick break and then I'll come back and we'll do our thing. What time is it, boys and girls? A 29-year-old South Korean woman who forged her birth certificate in order to pose as a 16-year-old teenager and enroll at a New Jersey high school claims she did it only out of nostalgia. In January of this year, Ha Jung Shin, a 29-year-old South Korean woman and legal resident of the U.S., made international news headlines after being caught pretending to be a 16-year-old girl at the New Brunswick High School in New Jersey. Just a few days into her high school adventure, New Brunswick staff discovered that she had faked her birth certificate in order to gain admission. The discovery was made during the vetting process, but recently revealed information suggests that Shin was also reported by a number of the students whom she had been acting a little bit weird with. The young Korean woman claims she never intended to hurt anyone and that she just merely wanted to relive the experience that made her feel the safest when growing up. At no time was anyone or any student in danger and this entire case is more about my client wanting to return to a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that she looks back on fondly and nothing more, said Darren Gelber, Shin's attorney. Ms. Shin recently pleaded guilty to a number of charges that could carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but her attorney is desperately trying to convince the court that his client was just lonely and confused. She was coming off a contentious divorce and her entire family was in South Korea, so she had no one around to support her. Shin ultimately fell back on her time in high school and the atmosphere she missed so much, so she decided to fake her way back into school. Attorney Gelber admitted that the whole situation is very bizarre and might be difficult for people to understand, but added that while there are personal issues Haizhong Shin needs to deal with, she never intended to hurt anyone. Apparently Shin's youthful appearance fooled both the high school staff and other teenage students, as no one suspected that she was over a decade older than her peers, but it was the documented vetting process and her weird attitude to other students she invited to hang out with her that gave her away. Hey, welcome back to Friday Frights Weirdos. We were gone for quite a while because of that tornado warning, but everything seems to be fine. The windows are all in place, no cracks or anything. We did have a lot of rain and it sounded like hail coming down. It was pretty loud there for a while, but we're doing great. We do have a little time to make up for now, though, because I was gone for good as gracious, almost a full hour down there, so I will definitely be editing this video later to re-upload it to YouTube so I don't have people watching an entire hour of nothing. Weirdos, it's time for your Weird Dark News. California authorities say they become very familiar with one man after they've arrested him 10 times in the last 31 days. 38-year-old Keith Chastain, a Fresno, was last taken into custody after Cloven police received a call about a stolen truck Chastain was suspected of driving. Of the 10 arrests, Clovis police say they've arrested him six times, and other agencies arrested him for the remaining four. Right now, Chastain is facing 18 felonies and 15 misdemeanors from those arrests and charges including stealing six vehicles, DUI, vandalism, fraud, possession of a controlled substance, and more. It's good to have a hobby, but it's probably best to put a little thought into what you plan on hobbying with. What would you do if you found out who the man was that had your loving husband assassinated? Report him to the cops? Seek revenge? No, silly, you have sex with him. Gloria Barrios, a.k.a. Juancho, is a criminal mastermind who orchestrated the shipment of narcotics to Central America and the United States, ordered assassination attempts against rivals and trafficked in illegal guns. Because he kept a very low profile, there were few people who knew about his illegal dealings. Among these few, though, was a woman whose husband, the ruthless crime lord, had ordered a hit against. After mourning her husband, the woman started infiltrating Juancho's social circles, slowly getting close to him and eventually getting him to fall in love with her. He shared his criminal dealings during pillow talk, and the woman turned over the information to the authorities, finally giving them what they needed to build a rock-solid case against the crime lord. Somebody at Hollywood needs to call this woman, one, to get this story made into a film, and two, because this woman has got to be the most incredible actress to ever be born on this planet. A horrifying snake discovery has sparked warnings for people to thoroughly check under the covers before bed to avoid getting an alarming surprise. The warning came after an enormous brown snake had to be removed from somebody's bed in Calbar, west of the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. It's hard to think of a worse baby name. A young couple in France is currently engaged in a legal battle for the right to name their baby Hades. That's the name of the god of the underworld from Greek mythology. The couple had the baby in September of 2022, but the baby still doesn't have a legal name because the public prosecutor of St. Marlowe, where the couple resides, refuses to accept the baby's name of Hades. Baby Hades is apparently a little angel, but to anybody familiar with Greek mythology, the name is synonymous with the god of the underworld, the realm of the dead. If the parents do win the right to name their kid Hades, I'm sure his little sister Luciferianet will be appreciative. A Georgia woman was found guilty of killing her fiancé, but even more disturbing, she lived with his corpse for two months until officials discovered he had died. Tabitha Zalita Wood murdered and then concealed the death of her fiancé last year. Officials say they learned of the death of Leroy Franklin Cramer Jr. after his stepdaughter reported in June that she had not heard from him for several months. Cops then arrived at Cramer's home and discovered his body. They were told by Tabitha Wood that he died in early April and that she had been living with his corpse ever since. She was found guilty of killing and concealing the death of Cramer, but not by a jury of her peers, because it is hard to find 12 people that evil willing to sit in a room together, unless they are members of Congress. Residents of the Los Angeles neighborhood say they have been flooded with mystery Uber Eats deliveries that they did not request. They have been receiving up to 13 deliveries a day from McDonald's, Taco Bell, Starbucks and other eateries through Uber Eats for weeks. The residents say the deliveries show up at all hours of the day and night. When it became too much food at once, we try to find places to donate it to or give it away, local man William Neal told reporters. Some of the recipients say they tried calling the phone numbers listed on the orders, but they were all out of service. They noted the prepaid orders always included a tip for the driver. A representative for Uber, the deliveries service parent company, say officials are investigating the origins of the mystery orders. Neighbors say they don't know why somebody would send so much food to their homes. I don't think anybody has seen it as anything sinister, it's just varying degrees of annoyance, Neal says. Two questions from me, are there any homes for sale in this neighborhood and how soon can I move in? Most people would go out of their way to avoid ending up behind bars, but not this guy. Donald Santa Croci walked into a Wells Fargo bank in Salt Lake City and handed a note to one of the tellers, reading, Please pardon me for doing this, but this is a robbery. Please give me one dollar. Thank you. The teller thought it was a joke, but they complied with Santa Croci's demand and then asked him to leave with his one dollar. Only he told them that no, he had just robbed the bank and that they should probably call the police. He then sat down and waited to be arrested. After a while, police did arrive and arrested the 65-year-old, not knowing that had been his plan all along. Apparently, he really wants to go to prison. He told police that if he were released, he'd just rob another bank until he does end up in prison. This isn't the first time we've heard of people demanding to be put behind bars. It was also that time that a guy robbed the bank just so he could be arrested and spend some time away from his wife. That's your Weird Dark News. Now back to Fright A Frights. Thank you so much, Barnabas. I really appreciate that, especially since I wasn't asking for anything. I'm not doing any fundraising or anything. You just out of the kindness of your heart decided to do that. Apparently, Cheryl saw Barnabas do that and decided to do EpiAni. She came in with a $10 Super Chat. Cheryl, thank you so much. I really appreciate that, guys. I really do. That is very, very kind of you. Thank you so, so much. Okay, so let's get back to what you're here for, the whole Black Eyed Kids thing. And we were talking earlier about how there is one story where somebody let the kids into the house. I found it. It's in this book, so I'll go ahead and read that to you. In one widely reported incident, oh, by the way, I'm reading from The Chilling True Terror of the Black Eyed Kids by G. Michael Vasey. I've actually narrated the entire audiobook of this, which you can find. There's a link in the video description. You can also find it on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. And that link will not only take you to the audiobook, but it can also take you to the paperback that I'm using here or the Kindle version if you'd rather do that. But just wanted to let you know that you can find this book in a variety of formats, including the audiobook that I've narrated. But this is just one of the resources I'm using to create a public presentation on Black Eyed Kids. But we were talking about that, how letting kids in the house, what happens? Well, in one widely reported instance, the BEK were allowed into the home and with disastrous consequences. The story of the encounter follows the now all too familiar horrifying sequence of an unexpected knock at the door at 2am. The story of the encounter follows the now all too familiar horrifying sequence of an unexpected knock at the door at 2am. The two small children stood there and the man answering the door inexplicably was totally unnerved by them. Thinking the kids had got lost or perhaps there had been an accident, he let the kids inside and his wife made cocoa for them. He kept asking them what had happened and they kept on repeating, not to worry, our parents will be here soon. Well, the scared and concerned couple started to notice that their pets were behaving strangely. The husband began also to feel a little dizzy and strange as he sat with the kids. When the woman in the house returned with the cocoa, she almost dropped it when they looked at her and she saw that their eyes were completely black. At that point, the kids asked to use the bathroom and the husband and wife started to discuss the scene. His nose started bleeding profusely and then just as inexplicably, the power went out and they found themselves in darkness. They stood in the darkness in total fear until suddenly the kids left abruptly, saying that their parents had arrived, leaving the front door wide open. Outside, the woman could see a car eiling on the street and two tall, dark-suited adults. After a while, the power came back on. After that, nothing was the same. The cats disappeared. The pet bird died of a hemorrhage and a pool of blood in its cage. The husband's nosebleeds became progressively worse and he was then diagnosed with skin cancer. Meanwhile, the wife also began to suffer dizzy spells and nosebleeds. Had the encounter with the BEK caused this? The strange and sinister testimony resulted in suggestions in some quarters that the BEK were some form of soul eaters or demons. Their hypnotic effect transfixes a terrified victim who somehow senses the danger. The BEK want to get close to their intended victims and, more importantly, they want you to grant permission to let them in. Let them in to what? Your soul? The BEK suck your life energy, feed off of it. Given permission to come in, they devour your soul. Let's face facts. In this modern era, many people don't know or don't believe that they have a soul and they do little to protect or preserve it. They never believe that other creatures may want it from you and by the time they realize this, it is too late. Apart from one other story that you can find on the Internet, this is only one of two experiences that I can find after many hours of searching in which the BEK successfully gain entry into a home. In the other story, the person relating the experience has the familiar frightening BEK experience one evening and tells them to go away. His neighbors are not seen for days and eventually are found to have vanished without a trace. The person telling the story raises the possibility that the same BEK had gone to his neighbors and they had let them in. Now all of this is conjecture of course, no evidence whatsoever is presented to suggest that the story can be taken as truth. However, one only has to consider how few stories there are in which these BEK were allowed entry to start to think that perhaps those who did let them in potentially suffered some horrifying fate. Some 90,000 people have simply disappeared at any given time in the USA, never to be heard from again. What wonders if at least some of these people fell victim to the sinister visits of the BEK? In some instances, it would seem as if the energy-sucking nature of the BEKs begins just by having contact with them, even though they are denied entry. Here is an example from among those submitted to the site. Before I get into this story, please do me a favor again and invite your friends to come and watch since we were gone for about an hour or so. One morning during breakfast, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find two boys around 10-12 standing on my porch. The taller boy had knocked. The smaller had been straddling a bike. I found this odd that he was on my porch on his bike. He would have had to carry it up my front steps and instead of standing beside it was sitting on it. Still, kids are kids, right? At first they kept their heads down and I asked if I could help them. They said they just needed to come in for a minute and it wouldn't take long. I asked if they were from the neighborhood and they didn't answer. It was about this time that I realized something wasn't right. I told them that I wasn't comfortable letting them into our house. There had been several home invasions and both my wife and I were very wary of strangers. They didn't say anything else. However, the strange stuff started happening after they left. I kept having recurring nightmares about their visit which would wake me in the middle of the night. I completely lost my appetite and I didn't want to leave my house. They then visited again. It was morning during breakfast and my wife heard someone knock on the door. She went to answer it and saw the boys I had mentioned standing there waiting for her. They stood and stared at her and she stared back. He will die, one of them said. Soon. My wife told them to get the hell off our property. They just smiled at her. Let us in to use the phone, he said. My wife said she had never been so scared in her life. She just stepped back, closed the door and turned around. She came back into the kitchen and asked if I had heard them. I told her I know I hadn't. I thought she was in the bedroom. I kept feeling awful and about a week after that incident I went to see my doctor. He then sent me to a doctor for tests. They found that I had a tumor. They operated and I survived. But I believe it was caused by those damn kids. I think that they are demonic. They are also telepathic as during my encounter I had thought, what is happening here? The taller boy looked at me with those black eyes and said directly into my head, you know he isn't real, don't you? Stay away from these kids, seriously. Probably some pretty good advice. What I told you at the beginning of this book that the first story submitted to the My Haunted Life 2 website, again if you want to check out that website, it is My Haunted Life 2.com. The first story submitted to that website was the one that captured everybody's morbid fascination. He says I wasn't lying. I wasn't telling the full truth. However, the fact is that we had a black-eyed kid encounter story submitted several months prior. It went like this. My brother was in his room talking to someone which I thought was strange as we were alone in our house. I went to see whom he was talking to. It was no one there when I looked so I asked him who he was talking to and he said the little girl with the black eyes. That freaked me out a little. Nothing happened for a while after that. About a week went by and then we started hearing voices and footsteps. I'd be sleeping with my blankets all wrapped up around me and I'd wake up with them folded neatly at the bottom of my bed. My sister got scared one night and crawled into bed with me. As she was getting into my bed I woke up and I couldn't fall back asleep so I turned on my TV. I also turned on my light to find the remote control. I left the light on along with the TV. Right when we were both drifting off to sleep my door slammed shut which is almost impossible as I always have a basket full of books in front of the door so that it doesn't close. My light shut off and my TV went all fuzzy and made that static noise. I ran and tried to open my door which can only lock from the inside. It's a push lock so all you must do is turn the handle and it unlocks. Anyway, I tried to open my door but it was like someone was holding the door handle from the outside. My sister and I screamed as loud as we could. Then my mom came and opened the door. Just then the light flipped back on. The TV was on. The basket was set back up. We've tried blessing the house and praying as we are very Christian. The house we live in was built in 2003 and no one has died there. We don't know what to do. Submitted by Eden. At the time this seemed like a more normal haunting experience in which the ghost simply was embellishing by having black eyes. You'll note that none of the typical B.E.K. encounter story aspects or modus operandi are included. It's just a straightforward albeit scary haunting. Except that once I started to research the B.E.K. I discovered that B.E.K. stories from other countries are more usually of this nature. They do not follow the tried and tested familiar pulse racing formula of those reported across the USA. In fact, there has been a similar furor about B.E.K.'s in the U.K., fueled by several lurid stories in the media. However, these B.E.K. are ghosts, fantasms, apparitions, and quite clearly not innocent-looking physical kids standing on your doorstep. One widely reported example from the U.K. involves the black-eyed child of Canuck Chase in the midlands of England. As reported in the Birmingham Mail, alerted by what sounds like screams, a shocked woman came across the wandering, sightless specter while walking Birches Valley. We instantly started running toward the noise, as she said. We couldn't find the child anywhere and so stopped to catch our breath. That's when I turned around and saw a girl stood behind me no more than 10 years old with her hands over her eyes. It was as if she was waiting for a birthday cake. I asked if she was okay, and if she had been the one screaming. She put her arms down by her side and opened her eyes. That's when I saw they were completely black, no iris, no white, nothing. I jumped back and grabbed my daughter. When I looked again, the child was gone. It was so strange. The article goes on to describe a similar encounter that had taken place back in 1982, in the same location with a black-eyed girl in which there was even a manhunt for the child organized by the local police. The story was picked up by several other national U.K. media outlets and soon people were reporting similar B.E.K. ghost experiences all around the U.K. There was, as the media kept on reporting, a plague of B.E.K. ghosts in the U.K. Author and researcher David Weatherly is also reported on a very early encounter in his book on black-eyed kids in France. In the story from 1974, two men driving their car came across five small figures by a house in the country, standing huddled together in a group. The men stopped the car and wound down the window to get a closer look at these strange creatures. Their blood ran cold at what they saw. The creatures were humanoid, small with long, dark, dark hair. Their eyes, set in a yellowish skin, were as black as coal. One of the creatures indicated to them to come closer, but the two men were beset with an overwhelming fear and sped off in total fright. A long search of the internet did results in a few stories of a similar nature. Anyway, it is the USA that the vast majority of traditional B.E.K. stories are to be found. Outside the U.S., the stories are often more about ghosts and ghouls that have either no eyes or black eyes, just like those that created such a furor in the U.K. One B.E.K. story we received though was from the U.K., however, a visiting American actually submitted it, and it does follow the usual format. I have been following the stories you have been posting about these black-eyed kids. Just a few months ago, I was traveling in Europe, I am from Michigan, but had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to Europe with a friend. I was enjoying my vacation until this happened. One weekend, I heard crying from the hallway at my hotel room. I lay on my back in bed a little while thinking about what it could be. My friend was sleeping like the dead, so I got out of bed to go check out the crying. I was about to be scared half to death. I got out of our room and went toward the main door and opened it up. I stuck my head out and looked both left and right. I wish I hadn't. Down the hallway stood a little girl wearing a white nightdress with her hair in front of her face. I got out of the hallway and got closer to the girl. Slowly she turned and raised her face. She wiped her hair from out of her eyes. Two pitch-black spots where her eyes should have been stared at me. She started smiling. I could see that her teeth were almost like a vampire. After a little while, she stopped giggling, and there was quiet in the hall for a minute. I turned back to my room and closed the door behind me. I couldn't hear anything outside until the knocking started. It started gently with just a few taps and got progressively louder. Let me in, I've always called out. I said nothing. Let me in. My friend was still fast asleep. The little girl was screaming and shouting, knocking on the door. Let me in, she kept screaming. I need to come inside. It was like there was a storm in the hallway. I closed my eyes and started crying. The knocking and screaming lasted for an hour or so and then died away. The next morning I asked my friend why she hadn't woken up. She had no idea what I was talking about. I know from the stories I've been reading on here that I encountered a black-eyed kid. I also know that these incidents are real and terrifying, submitted by JR. Although there are similarities in the encounter format, the girl seems to have black holes for eyes as opposed to black eyes. Was this a physical child or a black-eyed ghost? Are they different phenomena? I found other stories that involved people developing black eyes when angry or as part of a fit of rage. The idea is, I suppose, that black eyes are demonic and that this anger is evil, such that the person takes on some demonic qualities like those menacing and soulless black eyes. Here, for example, is an account given in an article called The Eyes of a Sociopath by Donna Anderson. What occurrence to this day puts chills up my spine and tears in my eyes? The night my husband held me at gunpoint with a loaded hunting rifle, something terrifying happened. My husband's eyes are bright, light blue. He has beautiful eyes, so bright you notice them from across a room. But that night, when he attacked me, his eyes were black. Not just black, but so black, it goes beyond words. If you've ever watched the movie, Amityville Horror, there's a scene when the father has become deeply possessed and he turns on his family. My spouse looked 100% identical to that man. After the incident, I began to question my sanity. Blue eyes don't turn black. Eyes change color, but no human eye has eyes like that. I researched it and, lo and behold, there have been numerous cases dealing with narcissists and or sociopaths where blue eyes were noted to have turned black when they were enraged. How horrifying is that? It's as though there is another being inside those people. I still have nightmares. Never nor since has he ever demonstrated that behavior. He says he doesn't remember any of it. Now, I don't think drugs and I know no alcohol was involved. In fact, there are many accounts on the internet of people's eyes turning black when angry. However, what is happening most usually is the person's pupils dilating to such a degree as to look as if they have developed an all-black eye. In most instances, that's all that's occurring. But there is also an insinuation that in that moment of anger and hysterics that they are taken over by a demonic entity. A common Hollywood movie technique to indicate possession or alien affinity is to have the character have black eyes, either permanently or periodically. After the possession is over or the spell is broken, the eyes return to normal. Somehow, black eyes are a sign of evil or malevolence and this theme is echoed in the B.E.K. phenomenon. The eyes are often said to be the gateway to the soul. And when those eyes are black or just like reflective sunglasses, dark and opaque, it elicits a certain response of fear, distaste and foreboding. Just like this experience submitted to the website, I was riding the bus back home after work. It was about 6 a.m. I'm a security guard and often work odd hours, so I'm sitting there and this guy gets on and sits across from me. He was wearing a suit and had a briefcase, but was a regular looking guy in his 30s. What struck me about him at first was he was chewing a cigar, not smoking it. He can't smoke on the bus, so I was just looking at him while he stared out the window and chewed his cigar. And suddenly he turned and looked at me. His eyes were absolutely pitch black, just as others have described. My heart started beating and I felt the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. I was starting to panic and I had no idea why I was terrified of this guy. Then he grinned at me and his teeth were all covered in tobacco bits and brown juice. The cigar clamped between them. I almost screamed, but instead I had the presence of mind to just get up and take the seat right behind the driver. I calmed down a bit after that, but I kept an eye on the guy. He ended up chatting with some girl that got on and they were still talking when I got off. This black eyed person experience lacks many of the characteristics of the typical encounter, but the very idea that somebody's eyes would be totally black still elicits the same fear response. Here's another example encounter of a black eyed person. The bar was packed six people deep, loud music and what looked like no end to the drink callouts. My husband Jim looked up and saw a tall man slowly approaching the bar. It was approximately six foot five inches tall with long, straight black hair. He wore black trousers, t-shirt and a long black coat. Jim said it was as if the crowd parted for this man as he slowly walked straight up to the bar, smack bang in front of Jim's frozen gaze. He quietly ordered bourbon. When Jim looked up at this huge man, he noticed his eyes were completely black. Jim turned to make the drink and glanced in the mirror looking at the black eyed man just staring back. Jim mustered enough courage to turn and give him the drink. Jim said he felt great fear at first while in his presence. He knew this man was staring at him, but he didn't want to make eye contact, but felt compelled not to feel fear. The large black eyed man knocked back the bourbon and disappeared into the crowd. Jim, for unknown reasons, had a feeling to run after him for what he believes was to ask the large man what he wanted, what he was doing there or who he was after. Jim moved as quickly as he could through the crowd of people on two levels of the club to get to the front door. The strange man was nowhere in sight. Jim asked the security staff, but no one saw him leave. No bar staff saw the huge black eyed man, no one. Jim was baffled how the bar man next to him did not see him, nor did any of the regulars at the bar. Security tapes also showed nothing. In this experience, the black eyes are combined with a mysterious disappearing act, and the effect is both deeply sinister and disconcerting. Other variations on the story have been submitted also, and I will share one from Australia coming up in just a second. Let me take a look at some of the comments you guys have been leaving. Trace says, Hello, dare a long time listener. Thank you for listening. I have delays on news compared to you guys. You comments before the stories here. Yeah, there is probably a delay depending on where you are watching or what you are watching through. I stopped using UE after I got my order with a bite ticket. You got an order of Uber Eats and somebody took a bite out of it? Ew, that's disgusting. I'll be back here in just a bit with more black eyed kids. Hey there, and welcome to Friday Frights. Welcome back, weirdos. All right, I'll be back with more dark, not black eyed kids. I'll be more with black eyed kids after we check out the dark line. Again, there you go. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with that today. Hi there, and I'm Bride and weirdos. My name is Abby Elle from Massachusetts, and today's story I'd like to share is about the Hatman. So I'm talking to my husband in the kitchen one day and I decided to walk in the living room when I'm stuck dead in my tracks because I see this giant silhouette or form, a black being of some sort, and he was just so tall. Tall as a ceiling and as wide as like two football players. I don't even know, maybe five, but he was just so wide and so tall. And I immediately recommended it in the name of Jesus Christ, and that definitely worked and got, and he just disappeared. But whenever I see, you know, I'm a really sensitive person, and like I've seen a lot of shadow beings and weird stuff that I've, I have other stories I'd love to share, but there's just so many. And I also live in the Bridgewater Triangle. It's kind of like the Burmese bull butt in Massachusetts, and I've seen a lot of orbs. I actually recorded one, but my camera, my phone had broke, so I couldn't even restore it. There's always some weird stuff that goes on around here, some interesting things that happen in the woods, and just this apartment. I mean, I've had friends stay here and here and see weird things. As long as I feel you're not a negative person and have like rage and anger, then those things stick to you. But if you have God, and you reprimand those things immediately, if they come to you, you have more power over these things than we realize, though at the time it might seem like, holy crap, what the heck is, what do I do? We might want to jump out the window, but if you want all that, you know, just call our Lord and he will definitely help you. But yeah, that's pretty much my story. Giant shadow man. There you go. If you got a story, you can call the Dark Lion and you can tell your story and I might share it in a future Friday Frights. Back to our Black Eyed Kid stories from The Chilling True Terror of the Black Eyed Kids by G. Michael Vasey. As I've mentioned before, this actually is available. There's a link in the video description or show notes. And you can find this on paperback, Kindle and in audiobook form. And in the audiobook, I'm the one that actually narrated it. So if you want to hear the whole thing in my voice, you can. But I'm only reading portions of it today for you guys. So I told you that I would share a story from Australia. So here it is. I've been reading a lot of stories about the Black Eyed people lately. I want to share my experience with one of them. This took place in March 2007. I live in Australia and March is the beginning of fall, but the nights can still be quite warm. I was working at a coffee shop in the city at the time and decided to walk home that night. It'd take me around 45 minutes to walk home, but I figured, what the heck. I was about halfway home. It was already dark. It would have been around 7pm. I was just walking past my local library when I noticed a homeless guy whom I'd seen around our neighborhood the last few months. He was heading toward me up the sidewalk. I knew I didn't like this guy because he was always grinning and staring at me and as I came closer, I made a point of avoiding eye contact. For some reason, as I was passing him, I looked up and into his eyes. They were completely black. Just as the other encounters have mentioned, there was not a single speck of white to be found in his eyes. He was also grinning at me, all teeth bared, and I instantly felt like turning to run. I mean, these people absolutely make you feel terrified. It's like nothing I can explain. Even your bones feel shaky. I remember being shocked and scared, and I raised home as fast as I could. I turned back once and he was just standing there staring at me. When I got home, I told my boyfriend, but he brushed me off. I don't know who or what this guy was, but I've never forgotten it, and neither will you if you run into them, submitted by Kay Walters. Again, the black eyes cause fear and confusion in The Beholder. Black eyes are not normal, and in popular mythology and legend, they indicate malevolence and demonic possession. Just to reinforce that point, here's an experience submitted to the site that's not about black-eyed kids at all, but nonetheless, it does feature blacked-out eyes. In the 90s in London, England, my daughter rented a house from a landlord. It was a two-bedroom, as she has three children. Everything seemed fine at first, but her two youngest boys kept telling her that there was something nasty in the house. She didn't believe them and thought they were making it up. The house happened to be near a cemetery. One evening, after she had taken the children to bed, she told me that she came out of the bedroom and a great big black figure was standing just outside the door. It had no visible face. She said it must have been an entity. She was terrified and it just gradually disappeared. Another time, she took a photo on her camera phone when she visited me and she said, look at that mom. In the picture, the youngest child was on the sofa, but down near his feet was a small hooded figure, and my grandson's eyes had been blacked out with black tape. My husband and I suggested that my daughter leave. She eventually agreed. And here's an account of an encounter that has some of the usual storyline included, but not all. I'm a 50-year-old man who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. I work as a real estate broker and spend a lot of time around people. I've never seen anything like the kids I met to show around an apartment six months ago. An apartment came free to rent in a good part of town. I'd shown it to several people, but had one more appointment to show it that day. I was waiting just inside the doors of the complex when I saw two kids walk up to the apartment building. Even though it was a sunny day, I knew as soon as I saw them that I was not going to let them in. One of them was a young boy of about 17 or 18 approximately. He knocked on the glass and stared at me. I stood still and said nothing. He asked me about an open apartment for rent. I remember feeling very scared and shaken by his appearance. He did not look weird by his dress or such. It was his eyes. I remember feeling the hair on my neck stand up and I was shaking just from looking in his eyes. I have never felt like this before in all the years I've done this job. I could not look at him straight in the eyes. I felt like I was about to die. My instincts told me this. I noticed a third kid was walking up behind them with a bicycle. The two boys standing on the other side of the door did not move toward me or anything, but he was just waiting for me to invite him in or take him to the empty unit. Now, some people may think that I was just overreacting or something, but the eyes were completely black. There was no real pupil. He spoke normally to me, but I had to just step into the apartment building office to my right. I had to get out of his face and get as far from him as I could. I felt like I was in extreme danger, only because of the eyes. I think if I had looked any longer into them, I would have not been able to break his gaze. I shook for several hours after that. I called my daughter at work and told her about it. She told me about the black-eyed kids. I am still afraid of that image of his eyes. Here we have the black eyes, the debilitating fear and the let them enter aspects of the usual encounter. Do the B.E.K. live among us in apartments and homes that they have rented, or was this just a different modus operandi to gain entry and access to a victim? Black eyes are not just used to denote evil or possession in movies and urban legends, but also feature widely in occult mythology. For example, the Iroquois Indians believed in a dark demonic power called the Otcon that could take over children, an evil one who would mate with human females to produce black-eyed, chalk-skinned children. These children were said to be killed by the tribe soon after birth and burned to stop them from resurrecting. Children wandering alone in the woods could also be taken over by Otcon and would re-emerge with black eyes and pale skin, acting nervously while repeating themselves over and over. Their goal was to destroy the tribe and infect all the people with Otcon. Could this be the true origin of the B.E.K. urban legend in America? Could it be that someone reading or hearing of this Otcon and its effect has updated the story a bit as a nice, scary urban myth? It is feasible. So too is the idea that this is the same phenomenon of evil manifesting itself in a different way with a different culture. A common feature of the B.E.K. encounters is that they ask permission to enter. It has been long held as a truism that certain demons and vampires do indeed need permission to cross your threshold. This concept has been a part of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example, and it is part of our urban mythology. The constant demands to be allowed into a person's home can or whatever on the part of the B.E.K., excuse me, the constant demand to be allowed into a person's home, car, or whatever on the part of the B.E.K. is a deliberate request for permission to enter. And as we have seen, once allowed in, horrible things seem to happen to the person that gave them permission. Does this mean that without your permission, the B.E.K. cannot harm you? Perhaps. However, there are numerous stories in which an encounter with the B.E.K. has left the person tired, drained, and feeling as if they have been sucked of energy. Here is the perfect example of the need for permission to enter recently submitted. This story is about a black-eyed salesman that my family and I encountered a few years ago. It was an ordinary day. My mom, father, one of my brothers and I were in the living room watching TV. Suddenly we heard a knock on the door, which is strange because we had a fully functioning doorbell. I walked to the door and looked in the peephole and saw a black man, probably in his 40s, with a black suit on and a long black trench coat over that. He creeped me out because I kept asking who it was, but he never responded. I could just see him trying to investigate the peephole from outside, so I told my father to come to the door. My father opened the door and I immediately felt fear for some reason. The man was not saying or doing anything to make me feel this way, but it is just the feeling I got. My father asked what he wanted, and he said he had some kitchenware for sale and would like to know if we wanted to purchase some. I sought my father, signaled for the guy to come in, but he just kept peeking around the corner as if he was checking it out before he entered. My father looked at him and said, aren't you going to show us what you got? The guy kept saying, still looking around, only if you invite me in. I opened the door, my father said. I know, but you have to invite me in, the man replied. Looking baffled, my father said, come in. As the guy entered, he kept staring at me, and I noticed that he had no whites in his eyes. They were totally black. No life in them at all. My father never bought anything from him, and he never took anything out of his bag. He just kept telling my father that if he bought from him, he would be eternally grateful for his purchase. My father asked him to leave because he never showed him what he would be purchasing. The creepy part is that when I opened my eyes as he was leaving, he was still staring at me, and my mom said he stared at me the entire time he talked. No one knew I was praying, but I felt that this guy could sense it. He was as if he was bothered by it. After he left, we started smelling the scent of fresh roses and flowers. The guy had never even taken anything out of his bag, so that was strange. He immediately looked out the window to see if he was there. He should have just been leaving our porch at this time, but no one was there. I went outside to see if maybe he went to a neighbor's house, but he was nowhere to be found. He came back about a month or two later when I was home alone. He had on the same outfit all black eyes and same bag. This time I never opened the door or let him in. I peeked through the peephole only to find him peeking back, smiling sinisterly. And once again he just disappeared. I am happy to say I have never seen him again. Then there was this rather strange encounter. I had just been shaken to the core by a UFO encounter. I was left shocked, nervous and a bit afraid, but also in awe by this encounter. I decided to report this to MUFON. A MUFON investigator came to my home and I told him about my sighting, which he seemed to find very interesting and amazing. Two days later there was a knock at my door. Bear stood a very young man holding some magazines. The magazines looked a little tattered and somewhat used. He was looking down as he talked to me, saying that he was a magazine salesman. His tone of voice was droned like. I was very nervous the minute I opened the door and somewhat afraid. Why? I don't really know. As the young man looked up at me, I noticed he had large square black glasses on and his eyes were large and pitch black. His face was pale white and backsy looking, so eerie and not at all human looking. He stared at me with intensity. That scared me even more. Not to mention the magazines he was selling were old and torn. The black suit he had on was very much out of style and looked to be from the 1950s. The young man proceeded to say he needed to come in so he could show me the magazines. I told him he could show me from the front porch. He persisted that he needed to come inside. He repeated that several times and began to become irritated with me. I told him I wasn't interested, but he continued to want to come in. He wouldn't give up. I was scared and wanted him to leave, but he wouldn't. He said I needed to invite him in or else he wasn't allowed to enter, which I thought was a strange thing to say. Not allowed. He began to step inside. He said again I needed to invite him in with such urgency in his voice that it frightened me. I had to push him away and slam the door and lock it. The man kept knocking on the door, saying that he had to come in. I yelled to him to go away or that I'd call the police. Suddenly it was very quiet. The knocking had stopped. I walked to the window and looked out. There was nobody there. It seemed impossible that he could disappear that quickly. I was left feeling very scared and shocked at what had just happened. It was the strangest thing. The next day I asked my neighbors if they had a magazine salesman come to their door. The answer I got from all of them was no. Then they said I hadn't even seen that they hadn't even seen anybody in the neighborhood that fit that description. I don't think he was a real salesman at all. He looked, sounded and acted very, very strange. Those huge black eyes were one of the scariest things I've ever seen. He just seemed so odd and robot-like. I hope I never see anyone like that again, unreal. As for being paranormal, I couldn't say. Maybe it had something to do with the UFO I had seen two days earlier. All I know is that it was extremely strange and very scary. Submitted by Paula. This story has a UFO connection and, plainly, the person relating the experience is questioning an alien affinity for the BEK. However, myth and legend are also replete with soul-eaters or beings that live off the souls of men. These dark shadowy beings are sometimes described as having black eyes or no eyes at all, just dark holes where their eyes should be. Consider this also. In Indian mythology, an acary or art or acary is the ghost or spirit of a little girl who comes down from the mountains and hilltops at night to bring sickness to humans, particularly children. They are often depicted with dark or unnatural eyes and can also be referred to as hill fairies. The acary is said to bring death to the elderly or other people with low immune system defenses. It does seem that the boogeyman in many cultures will often be given black eyes. But at this point, I was still left pondering whether the BEK were a form of soul-leading demon, or were they simply a modern manifestation of a whole host of semi-mythical occult creatures that seek permission to enter you and have certain strange physical characteristics that mark them out as not entirely human like black eyes. Researching the BEK, one finds many theories as to what they could be. Some think of it all as an urban legend like the Slenderman, created back in 1998 by Brian Bethel, although I have said that Brian Bethel's account is not the first BEK case. Others suspect it may just be a prank by kids wearing black eye lenses, possibly to sustain the myth. But there are also some wild theories that are the product of inner breeding between aliens and humans where they have inherited the eyes of the alien race that abducted humans for experimentation and DNA manipulation. However, the better theories in my view are that they are manifestations of demonic activity as discussed earlier. Despite the assertions by many on the internet that all stories of the BEK come after the original Brian Bethel encounter, there is enough evidence to show that that is incorrect. 1998 just happens to coincide with growing access to the internet that helped to propagate stories, accounting for the sudden surge in numbers of people reporting these terrifying encounters as opposed to the first time the BEK were mentioned. Prior to 1998, such experiences would have been difficult to discuss or document in public forum in a way that spread so quickly. Prior to widespread access to the internet, stories relied on media pickup to propagate. There are stories of black-eyed people and ghosts encountered prior to 1998, and we produced a couple of examples here. In fact, in my opinion, the BEK seem to be just the latest manifestations of demonic beings that seek to take away your soul. Similar beings have been documented throughout history, albeit with slightly different characteristics depending upon the culture and time that they were experienced. There was always a boogeyman somewhere in the darkness or in the woods waiting to steal the soul, and perhaps steal life, of the unsuspecting innocent. The BEK seems to me to be just the modern mass media via the internet version of that mythological nightmare creature. On the other hand, the BEK stories share many similarities and attributes, and there's no doubt that it could all be just an urban myth originating in the Hollywood horror-fed USA. The black eyes, the hypnotic effect, the heart-pounding feeling of terror, and the permission to enter all combined to make for a good, chilling story that can keep you awake at night, fearing the worst. Just one problem with this idea in my view, there are simply so many people who genuinely claim to have encountered these beings. Even if 90% were made up or fanciful, then what are the remainder? Another theory is that they are interdimensional beings, but no evidence is provided to substantiate this in any of the encounter stories I've read. This is more a leap of conjecture based on alien abduction and experimentation stories. These encounters must have produced an offspring, so what if those were the BEK? In my web-based research, I came across one report that reported to come from an actual BEK. The person or entity making this claim suggested that the BEK were direct descendants of Lilith, the original demon. They'd existed throughout time, living alongside their human prey, which had been created as automaton humans, and they continued to exist long after humanity had gone. The authenticity of this account however is questionable at best. Despite that, for me, this is a temptingly good explanation. It was seemed like a final twist to this eerie story we recently received another puzzling encounter which ends with a spine-chilling but intriguing twist. This account of the black-eyed kids is a little unusual. My experience took place several months ago in Kansas. I've been reading the other accounts on your site and wanted to share my story here. Looking back, the most bizarre thing about my experience was how quickly they showed up. I walked in the porch, turned around a locket, then turned back and there was a knock. More than anything else about this story, that freaks me out. It's not something I've seen in other accounts that I've read. I turned around and saw them. Two kids. One was in his early teens. The other looked about 11. The older one was knocking. He looked panicked and was really pounding on the door. The younger one looked emotionless and didn't say anything. We have to use your phone. I felt my hand moving forward towards the door knob, but then I yanked it back. I don't know if I need to explain that I wanted to help them, but also felt afraid of them, but I did. It's in all the encounters, so I'm just confirming that yes, it happened to me too. These kids absolutely strike fear into your heart. It always seemed strange to me that no one who's ever encountered the black-eyed kids has ever heard of them before. I had at least read a few paranormal websites and I knew of a few of the stories people had told. I think that's why it was like reflex when I heard a request to use the phone. My eyes went to theirs and I saw that they were solid black and I knew what these kids were. The older kid seemed to immediately realize what I had seen. I've heard they usually get mad if you see their eyes. That didn't happen this time. His eyes got a look of desperation. I swear to God, I won't hurt you, he screamed. You can trust us. That's something I've never seen reported before. I ran to get my shotgun. I wasn't going to just stand there and listen to them begging to get in for the next hour. When I came back with the gun though, they were already gone and their place was a young girl. Her hair was very light. I remember it as white. She wasn't trying to get in. In fact, she was looking away. I pointed the gun at her anyway. You get the hell out of here. You don't need to do that, she said. I don't even want to get in. I lowered my gun involuntarily. This girl freaked me out far more than the boys did, but I was powerless to disobey her. She had power. There were some boys who came by and asked to come into your house. Is that correct? Yes, I said. I hoped that being honest with her would get her to go away as soon as possible. How long ago did they leave? Just now. I was going to get my gun for them and when I came back, you were here. Excellent. Then they should still be close. Don't worry, you won't be seeing them again. She turned to me briefly and I caught a glimpse of her face. I looked at the eyes, expecting them to be black again. Instead, I saw they were pure white. No irises, no pupils, just pure white poodles in her face, which seemed to glow slightly in the darkness. She turned and walked away and I realized something. I believed her. I fully expected that I wouldn't ever see those boys again. Submitted by B.I. That's a good place to end for the moment. A white-eyed kid. I'll be back in just a second. We'll take a look more at your comments. And welcome back to Friday Frights, weirdos. Let's take a look at some of the comments that you guys have been leaving. First, a huge thanks to Brad who decided to do a super chat for $5. Thank you very much, Brad. I really, really appreciate that. Okay, going back to some of the comments about you guys have a lot of comments about black-eyed kids, which is great. Cheryl says, I was just thinking, I shouldn't really invite that into your life. I sleepwalk almost every night. Sometimes I do see demons in my dreams. Wow, Cheryl. I don't have any advice for you on that. But holy cow, that would be horrible. Nightmares are bad enough. But if you're having demon nightmares on a regular basis, I'd be talking to somebody about that. Maybe something in your life has happened that you need to do something about. Let's see here. Tim says that white-eyed kid may have been an angel or at least something that was not evil as the BEK. That's what I was thinking too, Tim. I'm thinking demons have angels that they're against. Maybe black-eyed kids have white-eyed kids that they're against. I really don't know. But that is interesting. AnimeMage2 says, maybe the white eyes guard the black eyes. They try to find them when they escape. They might be white black eyes or sometimes anxious to hide. Maybe so. I really don't know. That's another good question. There was another one in here that I wanted to check on. I wanted to click on real quick. Oh, this is nice. This is not what I was looking for. But Nicole says, hello, Darren. You've been my absolute favorite for going on two years. I'm super excited to be finally able to be a part of this. Well, thank you. We love your message. Keep up your amazing work. Well, thank you, Nicole. I appreciate that. I'm glad to have you here as part of our Weirdo family. Maybe we was just on Facebook. Yeah, Mark left a Facebook note saying, I do agree that being a believer can help. I'd be interested in seeing them. But inviting them in is a big no, like welcoming the devil right into one's home, but fun to think about. Oh, and then Cheryl said, yeah, I was just thinking, shouldn't really invite that into your life. That's not the one I was looking for. I can't find it. All right. Well, anyway, it made me think about inviting things in just in general. And it's interesting that they're asking for permission to get in. Vampires do as well in, you know, in folklore and everything. But demons do too. We just talked about that in the book. Demons ask for permission, but they don't necessarily ask in a way that the black eye kids do. But you do have to open the door for them. And now most of the time people are thinking that you're opening the door if you're playing with a Ouija board or using tarot cards or crystals or using something along those lines. And yes, that can be one way that you're opening a door. And I mean, you might do that a hundred thousand times and nothing ever happens to you. But that one time suddenly there's a demon there. So yeah, I'm going to take advantage of the situation. But I've been I've been telling you guys in the road trip rumination episodes on my podcast that I've been listening to the exorcist files. And one of the ways that demons can find that out that one of the ways that you are inviting a demon in is simply by committing a mortal sin. And one of the the latest episode had a had a woman who had committed adultery. And even though she had told her her husband about it, even though he had forgiven her and they had moved on, she had still committed that sin. And that is when the demon made their way into their into their relationship. They said it started happening about six months prior. And it was about that time that she had had the affair. At the same time, her husband had had a he he used to have a problem with drugs. And he had a relapse and started doing drugs again at that time. Again, he had told his wife, they got past it, he was clean. But that's when it had happened. And so they had actually they had actually allowed the demon in. And the reason that the drug use was committed a was considered a mortal sin is because that is tantamount to murder. Because in a way, using those kinds of drugs, the illicit drugs that are damaging to you is murder, you're killing yourself, I guess. So according to the Catholic Church, that was tantamount to murder. So that's why that was considered a mortal sin. So I think there were there are ways, I guess, just behave. It's really what I'm saying. Just be good. And you should be okay. I don't know. It was just interesting that that popped into my head. Okay, I've got some great, great stuff from you guys in the comments. Oh, I just got another comment here. Oh my gosh, Nicole, thank you so much. Nicole just sent in a $5. Thank you so much, Nicole. That is so sweet of you. You guys are so good. I really appreciate that. I'm not asking for the for the donations. I just I really appreciate that. But you guys have been so good. And that reminds me, I've got an email to share with you. I get emails all the time and normally I would create a separate episode called Chamber of Comments. But once in a while, I'll grab one here for Friday Frights. But you've been seeing my you've been you've been seeing right right there. You've been seeing the the email address this whole show. So if you want to drop me an email anytime about anything, you can do that. All right, I appreciate it. And for those of you who are listening, instead of watching the email address is Darren d a r r e n at WeirdDarkness.com. This one comes from Will. He says, I guess I'm a weirdo now. Hello, Darren. I only entered the Weird Darkness a few weeks ago, and I got to tell you, I'm really enjoying it. I was browsing for a podcast which told true ghost stories and the darkness delivers. You also cover true crime, cryptids, aliens, mysteries in all manner of paranormal and become subjects nearly everything I want to hear about. I usually listen at work getting through two or three episodes daily trying to catch up with 2022 shows. Fortunately, they don't need to be listened to in order. I appreciate that every third word isn't an F-bomb, an all-too-common feature of many podcasts. I usually stick around for the Bible verse and final thought at the end. I'm not a religious person, but I like how you acknowledge your faith without overdoing it. No doubt I'll visit the Church of the Undead sometime. Even the background music is great and always fits the mood of the subject you're discussing. I believe I recognize a couple tracks by Midnight Syndicate but have no idea where you find the rest. I have indeed spread the word to my friends, even sharing the Hope in the Darkness page with one who was having a hard time. It's a great collection of resources and I applaud you for all your efforts for those who are struggling. The variety is astounding. I don't know how you're able to produce so much content, but please keep doing what you're doing. I'm glad I stumbled into the weird darkness. Thanks for making a great podcast. Sincerely, Will. Will, thank you very much, man. This is worth framing. I really appreciate that. You're asking about the music. When I first started doing the podcast, I started with Shadow's Symphony and later on I started using Midnight Syndicate. If I'm uploading dark archive episodes like I'm bringing something back from the past, you'll still hear those. Nowadays, you ask where I'm getting the rest of the music. The rest of the music comes from a variety of different websites. I use epidemicsound.com. I use AlibiMusicLibrary, which I think is alibimusic.com, but it's called AlibiMusicLibrary. I also use Storyblocks, which is mostly for video and stuff, but they have an audio section which they used to call Audioblocks, but they've since meshed everything into the same website. But Audioblocks had some really cool stuff as well. That's when I started using First, when I started paying for licensing. That's one of the things that I don't do now. I don't use Midnight Syndicate or Shadow's Symphony because YouTube now flags those and it'll either be demonetized or I'll be sharing with those artists. I don't mind sharing. Actually, that's perfectly fine. But too often than not, they're just cutting out monetization entirely because I'm using their music. I would much rather they say, we recognize that you're using somebody else's music, so they're getting the money or they're getting a portion of the money. If they get all the money, I don't like that. Unless, of course, the entire episode is like Midnight Syndicate. But usually what's happening is just only like one or two pieces of an entire hour is their music. And so YouTube will say, nope, sorry, we found those. So they're getting all the money from your video. That hasn't moved over to the podcasting side yet. Yet. It's coming. I'm just waiting for it to happen. But since it happens on YouTube now, I try to avoid doing that. And so I'm actually paying for licensing for those other websites that I just told you about. I'm also very fortunate to have a relationship with YouTube artist, Miu, who allows me to use his music for free. He's really good. Nicholas Gasperini is his real name. But if you look up Miu, M-Y-U-U on YouTube, he's got some great stuff. And he's so good. I went to him to ask him to write a specific piece of music for the Weirdling Woods episodes. So he actually created the theme for Weirdling Woods. And not only did he give me the full version, but he also gave me a version with just the percussion, a version with just the strings, then just the piano, and then several different versions with different mixes. And it's so great. I've got so much to use. It's just like a three minute piece of music, but what he gave me is probably close to an hour's worth of stuff that I can utilize inside the Weirdling Woods episodes so that I can create the feel for those episodes. And so the Weirdling Woods episodes is nothing but Miu music. It's either the Weird Darkness theme or his other music that he generously allows me to use without it being flagged by YouTube. So he's really good. Again, I would again, I'd recommend checking him out on YouTube, M-Y-U-U. Okay, back to the stories. Can you believe we've actually almost gone all the way halfway through this entire book? I didn't realize we'd be going that fast. Wow, I'm not going to make it through the entire book. If you do want to see the entire book or listen to the entire book, I haven't narrated the whole thing. There's a link in the video description where you look for it on Amazon. It's called The Chilling True Terror of the Black Eyed Kids by G. Michael Vasey. Kind of hard to see with that particular font, but that's G. Michael Vasey, The Chilling True Terror of the Black Eyed Kids. I should re-voice it in this voice movie trailer guy. Okay, moving on. So, okay, and then there was this encounter recently submitted to the website. And again, the website for this, G. Michael Vasey has his own website where you can submit your stories for his website as well. Of course, please send them to me by clicking on Tell Your Story. But you can also check out some of the stories on his site and submit your stories to him as well. Just go to myhauntedlife2.com. And two is, as in also, myhauntedlife2too.com. Okay, I live in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. And this is where this event took place in February of 1988. My girlfriend, myself, and a couple of friends were out bar hopping on a Friday night just having a good time. I ran out of cash and had to run to the ATM at the bank down the block. I made it to the ATM and withdrew some cash and this was when things got weird. I turned around and saw that across the street was a man leaning against the telephone pole on the corner. He was dressed well in a black suit with an open collar maroon shirt. He was tall, white with short jet black hair. I couldn't be sure at that distance, but I firmly believe his eyes were completely jet black. The scariest part was that he was staring across this crowded intersection at me with this incredibly smug look on his face. I didn't want to hang around any longer than I had to, so I took off at a quick pace towards the club where my friends were. After several yards I allowed myself a glance backward and saw that he was following me across the street. I reminded myself that nothing could happen with people all around, but I didn't really believe it. If I reached the club, there was a line in front of the bouncer who was checking IDs. I stood there shaking with fear as I saw the man pause on the other side of the street. Look both ways, then calmly began crossing toward me. Every move he made was precise and deliberate. I knew that when he got to me something horrible was going to happen, and it was only with great effort that I managed to maintain my composure. Just then another man walked up to me from the other direction. He was in his late 20s or early 30s, wearing jeans, sneakers, a baseball cap, and a hooded sweatshirt from a local university. He touched me on the shoulder and I immediately felt calmer. He said, Don't worry, you're all right. We have everything under control. I glanced back at the man in the suit and he paused in the middle of the street. It's amazing that he wasn't run over. The sweatshirt man turned away from me to face the man in the suit. It was clear to me that this was a showdown. After a moment the man in the suit sneered at us in frustration, it seemed, and then turned around and walked away. The sweatshirt man turned back to me with a reassuring smile, had in my shoulder, and walked on. Were the Black-eyed kids hunted by another group of sinister beings with white eyes? That's what we were talking about there just a couple of minutes ago in all the comments. So who are the W.E.K., the White-eyed kids? What are they? How do they relate to the B.E.K.? There are now several stories on the internet about White-eyed kids and people. Is this simply a twist in an old and tested formula, in addition to the urban myth, or are these W.E.P. somehow related to the B.E.K.? One answer postulated by some observers is that the eye color may be an indication of demonic rank. Black eyes are said to indicate the worker or common demons, while white eyes signify a sort of superior demon or boss demon, if you will. What do you mention in the comments? Certainly, the W.E.K. seem much more powerful than the B.E.K., though sharing all the same features except the white eyes. Some of the reports of White-eyed kids that I have read in my research seem to suggest that the W.E.K. are more adept at mind control and exhibit other phenomena like levitation, for example. In some of my experiences with W.E.K., the kids had superhuman strength despite being small and innocent looking. These children mostly have white or blonde hair and are usually around 9 to 16 years of age. Most of the reports apparently originate in rural areas and noticeably from around Native American sites. No one knows much about the W.E.K., though, and we'll need to watch and see how the story unfolds. The Black-eyed people encounter stories have been called a modern urban legend, yet I continue to find evidence to suggest that Black-eyed people have been with us for millennia in various guises of humanity's boogeymen. These people largely exist in the shadows of our subconscious, and yet from time to time they emerge in daylight. Is it our fear of the unknown, the darkness that exists on the edge of sleep or death populated by monsters and demons that haunt us so? Here's another submitted experience sent in to us that suggests that this might well be so. This took place several years ago when I was staying with a friend of mine and her family in Maine. Her parents had a summer place out there and would go with them quite often. We were in my friend's bedroom when I saw something walk past the window. This was a second floor bedroom, so I was quite shocked to see something go past a window so high up. I didn't get much of a look at it, but I know it was completely white, pale even. After that I tried to tell myself I hadn't seen anything. My friend didn't seem to be bothered by it, so we both spent the afternoon reading and talking together. The next day we were outside and I'd forgotten about the bedroom incident. We were in the garden when I felt quite strange, sick to my stomach. I wanted to go inside straight away. My friend wanted to stay outside, but she gave in and we went back to her bedroom. I was looking out the window when I saw him. There was a man standing in the garden wearing all black and a black hat looking up at me in the bedroom. He waved at me and I saw his eyes. They were completely black. After the wave he lifted the hat off his head and beckoned me to come to him. I stood completely still and did nothing. He stood there for a few seconds and then just faded away, still smiling. I didn't see him again, but I knew he was bad news. The way he waved at me was creepy. A few years later I asked my friend about that incident and she didn't seem to remember anything about it. She said that she had never seen any such man in that area. Their neighbors were all families. There were a few older people in the area. I had no idea who he was or what he wanted. Submitted by Louise Stillman, Florida. This is truly the stuff of nightmares. Unknown people dressed all in black with black eyes beckoning to us from a distance. So what did Louise see? What did the man want? And why did he have black eyes? Commonly nightmares are more terrifying because they happen in broad daylight with people all around. And yet no one else seems to notice. The object of the nightmare is seen only by us and everyone else carries on oblivious to our increasing sense of horror, like in this account. A few weeks ago I was walking down the street to get my car out of the garage when I noticed a homeless man sitting on a bench-like thing outside the garage. I'd never seen him before as he wasn't a regular on that block. There are a few homeless people in my area, so he was very noticeable. As I passed by he looked up at me and caught my eye. Please spare some change. Anything you can spare will help me, he said. I was thinking about offering him some change, but then realized that all I had was some change buried in my handbag somewhere. I kept walking, pretending not to hear the man. I felt a pang of remorse as I passed him, but continued. He continued to beg, and then I sauntered away from him, and he said, Please spare some change. Please, Makayla. I turned around as most people would, hearing their name called, and I was met with this homeless man's strange, sinister stare. I was shocked that the man knew my name, being that I was not wearing anything that would identify me and that I'd never met him before. There was no logical explanation for him knowing it. When I looked back at him, I saw that his eyes were black, bottomless, almost hypnotic. There was absolutely no white in his eyes. His stare was truly frightening. It was evil, but it was powerful, and I felt as though I had hands running up and down my back. I truly felt that he was not a person. He was a creature and didn't do everything about me. He continued to stare at me, and he stopped begging as other people passed by. I was so unbelievably frightened and speechless. I have no idea what it was or who it was and why it called my name. I've never seen that man again on the street that I don't ever want to. It's broad daylight and seemingly just an innocent encounter with a homeless person. However, the experience takes on this different order of menace altogether. What her name is used by this total stranger who has pitch black eyes is a nightmarish experience. Also, notice the fear and sense of evil when the black eyes are revealed. This powerful and irrational fear is a key component of all black-eyed people encounters. Here's another encounter that took place in broad daylight by a park full of people eating their lunches and enjoying moments there. This happened on October 19, 2006, at around one PM or so. I usually parked my car at a park for my lunch as a lot of people did that day. I parked on a side of the park where there were no cars near me, only a truck facing my car from the opposite side. I had an uneasy feeling about the truck and had to move the car to another spot. As I sat in my car eating lunch, a man walks past my car toward the pond path and then he appears to be in the front of my car hood. I said to myself, what an ugly slash odd looking person. It seemed as if he could read my mind as he turned to glare at me with a sinister look. His eyes were all black. I thought I was seeing things. I had to go to work then. On the way back, a utility truck backed into my car and I was wrecked. I never went back to that area again, submitted by Patty. Notice how the encounter is linked with bad luck just moments after she has an accident and her car is wrecked. The nine-marriage quality that goes with encounters with these black-eyed kids magnifies when it involves the black-eyed kids instead of the black-eyed people. These pale-faced black-eyed kids are often described as robotic, motionless, and insistent. They always want to be let in. This next encounter is a good example and has a lot of aspects typical of a B.E.K. encounter more than just a modern legend. There is just a problem. The story takes place long before the modern urban legend took off. I was around 12 when this incident took place. I didn't know anything about black-eyed kids until a few years ago when I started reading reports on the internet about these strange people. My story is a little different to those other encounters. I was sitting in my mom's car waiting for her to return. She was inside Walmart and I had elected to wait in the car with my book. A young boy had walked past the car a few times and I hadn't really taken that much notice of him. The fourth or fifth time that the boy went past, I think he noticed me as he came over to the car and stared at me. I tried to ignore him and read my book, but he started whispering, Let me in. I knew the front doors were locked and I quickly checked the doors at the back. My side was unlocked, but the side the boy was on was locked. I locked my side. The boy kept pleading to be left in. He then went quiet and stared at me for a few minutes before walking away. I want to talk about the eyes. This boy had completely black eyes. There was no other color to be seen, just pure blackness. He didn't blink. He didn't win or show any emotion. His face was stony white. When he spoke, I seemed to hear the words in my head more than through my ears. When he tapped on the window, it was slow and methodical. He did not seem to be in any danger or need my help. He was not panicking. He was almost like he was a robot under the control of someone or something else. The weirdest thing about this encounter was that my mother returned to the car a few minutes later and complained that some woman had approached her and had asked her for the keys to her car. She said my mother had blocked her in and this woman wanted to move her car. My mom knew she hadn't. The strange woman then became quite insistent and my mother was forced to ask a security guard to help her. To my knowledge, our incidents had taken place at the same time. She also told me that the woman's eyes were strange, not completely black but almost submitted by Yanni Imbrugian. So were these two incidents related? I think so. But how did the two seemingly unconnected people manage to communicate so effectively over such a distance? Keep in mind this happened in the 1970s before the micro technology of today, were they under the control of another person or were they able to communicate telepathically? What's going on in an encounter like this one? The scene seems even more terrifying. It takes place in a parking lot of Walmart surrounded by people and traffic. Strangely enough, a lot of B.E.K. stories seem to take place at Walmart. It's as if they walk among us, beside us, waiting for their moment to approach us and for our own personal nightmare to begin. That moment can occur at any time, any context. Imagine setting off for a routine showing of real estate only to find that today was your turn to meet them. Of course, most B.E.K. stories take place at night or more accurately in the early hours when small children should be at home and in bed sleeping. Things take on an even more sinister and frightening aspect after dark when no one's around and we're alone in near silence. The typical B.E.K. story is the one in which a quiet knock disturbs the peace of the night. A young child or children are on the doorsteps and their very presence causes an unexplained fear. They ask to come in, to enter. They look vulnerable and alone and it's difficult to handle the conflict between the need to care for a young child and the rising fear that you're feeling. Until that is, you see the black, soulless eyes staring at you. Then that fear finds its fury as you slam the door and retreat into the safety of your own home. Like in this encounter. I usually go to sleep at night, spending time reading books, watching TV, or listening to music. A few nights ago, after listening to music for a long time, I became sleepy and removed my headphones. I clearly remember checking the time and it was around 3 am. I was simply lying down, trying to sleep and that's when I heard a sound. Concentrating further, I realized that it was a knocking sound and probably made by a little child. As gentle as it was, it seemed to reverberate through the house as though it were coming through a giant speaker. I checked the other rooms in our house and my family was all sound asleep. I also checked the neighborhood for lights and I couldn't find any. I was really confused and went to the dining room from where the sound was loudest. I noticed that the sound was coming from outside. I went to the door and I could see the shape of a small child standing outside on our porch. I felt sick. I opened the door and a small child stood there. I turned on the porch lights and I could see that he was dressed in black. I asked him what he wanted and he just stared at me. He had completely black eyes. I closed the door and the knocking started again. I became really confused this time and went to my room. As soon as I entered my room, the knocking sound stopped abruptly. I decided to let it go and get some sleep. I closed my door and climbed into my bed when I heard a heart knock on my bedroom door. At the same time, there was a loud thud on my window. This thud made the glass rattle and shake. I thought the window was going to break. Somehow, I don't know how. I fell asleep. I have no idea how that happened. I just remember the window shaking and then waking up the following morning. When I woke up in the morning, I tried to dismiss the experiences as my imagination. When I told my dad about this, he asked me to lock my door at night and get to sleep earlier. I thought it was all over, but from that day, I feel a presence with me in my room every night. I never tried to communicate with me or scare me, but I could always feel it with me at night when I am alone in my room. This experience left Sheila with a lasting presence and fear that would not go away. You have to wonder if in fact she did let them in and simply doesn't remember doing so. There is no doubt several forces are at work when the BEK call and despite the fear and the feeling of great danger, the hypnotic effect of the quiet, compelling voice can cause people to do things that perhaps they otherwise would not do. Those who had an encounter with the BEK, they often remark on their strange behavior and language. They do not act as small children might. They use old-fashioned words and language and are often dressed strangely. They may have stepped out of another era or dimension or, as I have said earlier, from the edge of our reality. Their very presence strikes an irrational fear reaction, a terrifying fear of losing one's humanity or indeed one's soul. There is also a hint of the ill effects of the encounter in terms of headaches and so on. However, it is what appears to be an ability to see the future on the part of the BEK that is creepy. I am sure that story is coming up in just a minute. I have debated doing this one, but I think I will. I will go ahead and share this. I shared this for Halloween and people seem to like it. Before we come back and share some of your comments and share that story, I will share this with you. Fox to me, even though she has lycathropy. My werewolf girlfriend and me. Every month she has her womanly change. But instead of getting grumpy, she suffers from the mange. Need to buy her furs. The best in the world is already hers. Her manicures are out of my price range. She's my werewolf girlfriend. He was love at first bite. My werewolf girlfriend. She's only dangerous at night. She's still a fox to me. Even though she has lycathropy girlfriend. Very dangerous when we fight. It's really strange when we kiss good night. To be the leader, I need more hands allergic to silver. So I buy her gold. I know she's healthy when her nose is cold. While love will never fail when she starts to wag her tail. She's my werewolf girlfriend. He was love at first bites. And she's only dangerous at nights. She's still a fox to me. Even though she has lycathropy girlfriend. Welcome back weirdos. Hope you liked that. Okay, let's take a look at some of your comments that have been coming in. Magnus says, wow, an original song about werewolves by Darren Marlar. Thank you. Yeah, actually, I assured that during the Halloween live scream. And people seem to really like it. I did upload that by itself as a separate YouTube video. If you want to find it, just look for werewolf girlfriend by Darren Marlar on YouTube. You can find it if you want to listen to it again or share it with your friends or or whatever. Let's see here. Mark says, huh, so yes, some guy named call would love. I have no idea who call is, but okay. Nicole says, this just became a must in my library. I can't get enough Darren. So I don't know about that. But thank you, Nicole. I appreciate it. I got to figure out how to put that on Spotify. If you got if anybody knows how to do stuff on Spotify, maybe you can tell me how to do that. Let's see here. Say what their other stuff is there. Oh, there's one that werewolf song is the best and funniest song I've heard, even though it's the second time I've heard it. So you were listening then during the Halloween live scream. All right. Summer says, I love your werewolf song, but reminds me of an ex boyfriend who was convinced he was a werewolf. Needless to say, he had stopped taking his meds. You actually dated a guy that thought he was a real werewolf. Wow. I'm glad. I'm glad it says ex boyfriend there. Yeah. Okay, let's see here. I think that's enough for those. You guys are doing a lot of talking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Nicole says that she wants more stories from David Pointer. I fall asleep listening to the 12 rules. Oh, creepypastas. All right. Let me look. I'll see if I can find some David Pointer stuff. All right. I remember, Mark says, I remember my dad telling my sis and I about the white-eyed ghost turns out if the white-eyed ghost didn't let the man in this in the Tory sleep, you would be the ghost with two white eyes. Okay. Whatever. Okay. So I think that's it there. Yes. You can never have enough too much cowbell. All right. Cute. Okay. You guys just keep going back and forth between yourselves. You do that. Okay. All right. Well, I'm just about to wrap things up here, but I do want to share that one last story. And this is not, of course, the last story. There's still a lot more left to go in this book if you only want to hear the entire book in my voice. I did narrate the audio version. There's a link in the video description also in the show notes or just look on Amazon or Audible and you can find it. It's The Chilling True Terror of the Black-Eyed Kids by G. Michael Vasey. Give it a look. It's a great book all the way through. I really enjoyed narrating it the first time through and I'm really enjoying sharing it with you now. Okay. So we're about to go into one last story about the B.E.K. and this is this one has a little bit of a twist. Well, you'll see why. This took place in Arizona in the mid-1980s. One late evening, I woke up to loud knocks on the front door of my house. My husband was fast asleep and I didn't want to go down and open the door. It wasn't normal for us to have late night visitors. So I did wonder if it was an accident of some type. I looked out that window and I couldn't see anything. It was pitch black outside. I woke my husband and asked him to go down and find out what was happening. He was not very happy, but he got up, put his robe on, and went downstairs. I watched from the landing as he opened the door. Two children were standing there. Both looked young and both looked like they were frozen. I know there was a boy and a girl. My husband asked them if they had been in an accident. They nodded. He asked them if their parents were with them. They shook their heads. Our parents are coming for us, one of them said. My husband was still half asleep and started closing the door. Let us in, one of them said. Let us in. I watched as my husband opened the door and they walked in. It was obviously not in control of his own body. He doesn't take orders, but he did that night. I could see that both children looked like they were eight years old. I went downstairs and asked them if they would like to sit down. We went through to the kitchen and they sat. Our dog went crazy. I had to shut him in another room. He would not stop barking. Looking back now, he knew what those kids were. I tried to make small talk with the kids, but they didn't say anything. My husband said nothing. It was then that he started to complain about stomach pains. He said he felt as though he had been stuck with a sword. I tried to help him. The kids didn't move. I left the room and when I came back, my husband had passed out. The kids couldn't be found. I called 911 and asked for an ambulance. I didn't even think about the kids until the next day. My husband was taken to a hospital and needed to have immediate surgery to remove his appendix. The doctor said he had a rumbling appendix and would have died. I am sure they meant ruptured appendix. A rumbling appendix and would have died if he had ignored it. The thing is, he had never had any issue with his appendix before that night. Who were those kids? Why did they want to hurt us? I know they caused my husband's issues, and I want to know why. Cindy Mankiewicz, Arizona You can find the Weird Darkness podcast. I upload it seven days a week. You can find that at WeirdDarkness.com. If you go there, you will find all the different apps you can listen on. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks that I have narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases, and more merchandise. You can sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or somebody you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story, which I will then use in a future episode. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Fireside Frights and Weird Darkness are productions and trademarks of Marlar House Productions. Copyright 2023. Now that we are coming out of the dark, I will leave you with a little light. Isaiah 5 verse 20. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And a final thought from C.S. Lewis. Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward. I am Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me for Friday Frights in the Weird Darkness.