Black-eyed children

The story of black-eyed children is an urban legend about, well, black eyed children. Said children knock on people’s doors and ask to be let in for some reason, such as to use the phone, to use the restroom or some other reason entirely. The person first believes they are really children in need of help, but then they realize that something is suspicious about the children. They notice that the children’s eyes are completely black. Feeling that these children are up to no good, they then refuse to let the children in.

The children apparently then leave to find someone more gullible to let them into their house.

Like many good horror stories, this tale gets a lot of its suspense from what we don’t know about the monsters: What are the black-eyed children? Are they demons? Aliens, whether from another dimension or another planet? Prankster spirits with wacky contact lenses? Some other type of cryptid entirely? Their apparent need to get invited into a house instead of just breaking in brings to mind the “must be invited” aspect of some vampire stories, but it’s not clear if there is any other connection to vampires.

Also, what do the children want to do once they’ve been let in? We’re supposed to assume that they’re up to no good, but hey, for all we know, maybe they really do need to use the phone to call their Ma and don’t mean us any harm. Maybe we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about children based on the color of their eyes.

Alleged sightings
There are alleged earlier sightings of the black-eyed kids, such as one in Aisne, France in the 1970s, but the legend only really began in earnest in 1998, when a man named Brian Bethel posted the now-familiar story on a message board. Bethel would repeat his story years later to the Abilene Reporter News.

An unnamed US Marine allegedly saw some in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in November, 2009.

Some black-eyed teens for a change were allegedly seen in Ohio in 2010.

The kids were allegedly seen in September 2014 in Cannock Chase, Stradfordshire, UK.

A few accounts were broadcast on Darkness Radio in September 2015.

In January 2016, someone sent a creepypasta e-mail to Week in Weird, claiming that they let black-eyed children into their house.