Referred to as B.E.K.s or BEK accounts (B.lack E.yed K.ids) in paranormal communities, stories of Black Eyed Kids are surfacing with great regularity these days.

These are kids with coal-black eyes, no irises apparent, no pupils - just entirely black eyes.

The BEKs want to get into your car with you but it seems they are not hoodlums...in fact, they are reported to be much more polite and well-spoken than most pre-teens or teenagers are - more self-aware, self-controlled and confident than most adolescents are. It seems that Black Eyed Kids are aware that they cannot enter your vehicle unless you invite them in. Some Black Eyed Kids want to enter your house. Nobody knowns what for...but they generally ASK VERY POLITELY to enter your house or car.

Few reports exist which tell of what happens IF one allows Black Eyed Kids into a car or house, but any who have reported interacting with Black Eyed Kids say that a feeling of impending doom or of intense fear and dread accompany the interaction!

Of course, it is believed that there's an unfortunate ending if you let a BEK in...it is something akin to inviting a vampire into your home - you perish!

Nobody, it seems, is quite certain of all the details yet...

Black Eyed Kids are virtual babies within the realms of urban legends. Circulation of the stories about BEKs seem to be traced back only as far as about 1998!

Most BEK accounts are stories found online in blogs, message boards, newsgroups and the like. In fact, the first known posting of a BEK incident was posted by Brian Bethel onto a newgroup he was a member of. It was on January 16, 1998 when Bethel posted to his newsgroup, and other people have been coming forward ever since that time, relating similar accounts, all telling of Kids with Black Eyes who ask to be let into cars, houses, etc.

In most accounts, there are two males, aged from pre-teen to mid-teen years, and the boys always ask to be 'let in' to either a car or home. Sometimes this is to get a ride home or to be taken home so they can get money for a movie (as in Bethel's account). Sometimes they want to be 'let in' to use the washroom in your home.

A similarity in most accounts of BEKs is the impending dread and fear felt by the people who have encountered these strange kids - often before the people even get a chance to have a good look at the BEKs' faces clearly and see the black orbs of their eyes.

On January 16, 1998, a man named Brian Bethel posted online to a newsgroup and told an account of his experience with a very strange and frightening male pre-teen duo. The kids had had approached his car and asked to be "let in" to his car. They spoke UNLIKE pre-teens usually do, using a more formal vocabulary than kids or teens usually use, and one of the most striking aspects of the event was the intense mood-altering 'air' that accompanied the kids' presence. Bethel asserts that an extreme fear overtook him while the pre-teens were standing by his car, which is something he found very strange and overwhelming.

Brian Bethel is a journalist - or at the time, he was a journalist. I have been unable to find much information on the man, himself, although his account of the strange interaction wtih Black Eyed Kids has been spread far and wide across the internet in newgroup threads, forums, blogs and articles.

I'll certianly update as I find more information on Brian Bethel, himself, but until then, his account is the data we have so far regarding a lengthy explanation of an experience with BEKs.

The Black Eyed Kids, According to Bethel...

Bethel was inside his car which was at a standstill in a parking lot in Abilene Texas. His trip out of the house was for the purpose of paying his bill for Internet services, so his attention was turned to writing out a cheque when two kids approached his car. The likely time of this event was around 9:45pm. Bethel remembered leaving his residence around 9:30pm to complete a 10 to 15 minute drive to where he could take care of his Internet bill.

On the evening in question, the film that was playing in a movie theatre nearby was "Mortal Kombat," and Bethel drove past the theatre in order to park in the lot, stop and write out a cheque. As he was writing, a knock sounded on his driver side window.

When he looked up, Bethel saw two children standing near his car and he deemed them to be around 10-14 years of age. Later, on his internet newsgroup post, he would write that the kids were in that "[...] semi-mystical stage of life children get into where you can't exactly tell their age."

Bethel refers to the children as boys, furthermore as "Boy 1" and "Boy 2" and has said that Boy 1 acted as a "spokesman" for the duo. In hindsight, Bethel would claim that Boy 2 never spoke, "at least not with words" during the incident.

The boys are described as:

"Boy No.1 was slightly taller than his companion, wearing a pull-over, hooded shirt with a sort of gray checked pattern and jeans. I couldn't see his shoes. His skin was olive-colored and [he] had curly, medium-length brown hair. He exuded an air of quiet confidence.

Boy No.2 had pale skin with a trace of freckles. HIs primary characteristic seemed to be looking around nervously. He was dressed in similar manner to his companion, but his pull-over was a light green color. His hair was a sort of pale orange."

Bethel believed the kids intended to ask him for some money, and just when he'd completed this thought, he noted, "then the air changed." He described an overwhelming sense of fear and unearthliness pressing down on him at this point of the experience.

The smile that Boy No.1, the spokesman, offered brought chills to Bethel's blood, and Bethel knew there was something not quite right about the boys and this situation. Even before he responded to the actual knock on the window, he felt his fight-or-flight responses rev up.

Bethel unrolled the window a little bit and asked, "Yes?"

When the spokesman smiled again, Bethel noticed that Boy No.1 had extremely white teeth.

The boy asked, "Hey, mister, what's up? We have a problem." Bethel said the boy's diction was quiet and calm but his voice sounded like that of a young man - not a child. While the boy spoke, Bethel remembers wanting so very much to just FLEE...but the spokesman continued to speak...

"You see, my friend and I want to see the films, but we forgot our money...We need to go to our house to get it. Want to help us out?"

In Bethel's account, he suggests more typical ways that children and young teens use language and the actual way that "spokesman" talked was not typical, in Bethel's opinion.

Instead, Boy No.1 spoke fluently, without any nervous pauses one might expect of a child who is asking a grown-up stranger for money. Bethel remembers only stuttering a reply like "Uh, well..." before noticing something like discomfort or nervousness from Boy No. 2's body language.

"C'mon mister..." Boy No. 1 urged, "Now, we just want to go to our house. And we're just two little boys."

Bethel remembers feeling that the spokesman's manner was all wrong - so was the 2nd boy's body language, but Bethel couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly was wrong about this whole scenario, so finally he asked the boys about what movie they were going to see.

"Mortal Kombat, of course," replied the spokesman, while the Boy No.2 that Bethel now calls 'the silent one,' simply nodded in agreement. Bethel responded to this answer with a simple, "Oh..." while he glanced at the movie theatre marquee and at the clock in his car. He quickly determined that Mortal Kombat was in its final showing for the evening and that it was about an hour into playing by this time.

While Bethel's reluctance to interact with the boys seemed to make the 'silent one' ever more nervous, the spokesman showed no nervousness at all. The spokesman continued to coax, "C'mon mister. Let us in. We can't get in your car until you do, you know." And with a more soothing voice, "Just let us in, and we'll be gone before you know it. We'll go to our mother's house."

At this point, Bethel locked eyes with the vacant-orb-eyed spokesman - while realizing in horror that his own hand had strayed to the door lock. Luckily the door was still locked, but Bethel's hand had started the process of unlocking the door before he caught hold of himself. He probably jerked back his hand upon this realization, alerting the strange pre-teen duo that he felt that all was not right in this situation. This action also forced Bethel to look away from the kids and stutter something non-binding and unclear.

He turned his attention back to look at the children and, for the first time, noticed their eyes...

...coal black...no irises, no pupils, and as Bethel wrote, "Just two staring orbs reflecting the red and white light of the marquee."

Bethel's facial expression must have conveyed something to the duo and the silent one suddenly dawned a look of horror, while the spokesman's expression turned to blatant anger, "C'mon mister," he insisted, "We won't hurt you. You have to LET US IN. We don't have a gun..."

These words were terrifying to Brian Bethel, and he tried to gain his bearings, reaching a hand toward the car gearshift in order to make a speedy exit...

The spokesman said, with great urgency, "WE CAN'T COME IN UNLESS YOU TELL US IT'S OKAY. LET...US --- IN!"

Finally, Bethel's hand responded on the gearshift, knocked the car into reverse and Bethel's car ripped out of the parking lot, "I noticed the boys in my peripheral vision, and I stole a quick glance back. They were gone. The sidewalk by the theatre was deserted."

Bethel drove straight home, parked and ran inside, all in a complete panic.

Bethel still wonders, "What did I see?" and "What would have happened if I opened my car door?"

I have my own suspicions about the Black Eyed Kids as being the product of more parental and societal fears.

After all...the accounts I've read so far - of which the "Brian Bethel Account" is the most prominent - contain tell-tale signs of 'urban legend-ness' and tidbits of hysteria...in fact, in the Brian Bethel account, he has plainly stated the level of fear he felt upon being approached by Black Eyed Kids in an Abilene parking lot.

C'mon Brian! Scared almost to the point of poopy-pants by a couple of kids - one very well-spoken young gent that most parents would be proud to say is their own. Most parents are ASKING THEIR KIDS to display the sort of politeness that frightened Brian Bethel to the point of panic...

No, I'm not making fun of Bethel above...well, not overly so. I'm just saying that it appears he was THAT SCARED!

Something is out of sorts here - but in my opinion, it is possible that it might not be the kids in question here...

There's a small chance that these Black Eyed Kids are manifest from the fears of society and from parental fears...it is possible that societal PERCEPTION is at work here and going awry.

Putting two and two together - that 1) accounts of BEKs reek of urban legend tale format and 2) almost all urban legends are based on societal fears, parental fears, and fear of the unknown...

(Are we afraid that more and more of our children are becoming child-criminals, distanced in familial relationships? This concern would be fitting in societies where parents are no longer raising most of the children...where daycares, schools and such are taking up the slack for parental absence.)

These BEK reports are just something I'll have to keep my eyes and ears open for, that's all.