Monday, April 13, 2009

Black-Eyed Kid at the Door

Author’s note: In the following encounter with a Black-Eyed Kid, the name Beth Stringfield and Ellen are pseudonyms. The woman requested anonymity because she’s worried for the safety of her children.

The knock on the door was strange.

On a day in early April, Beth Stringfield, a stay-at-home mom in Lawson, Mo., was in the kitchen making lunch when she heard a knock on the front door. No one comes to the Stringfield’s front door.

“We usually use the back door and everyone we know knows that and we hardly ever get visitors at the front,” she said. “I opened the door and there was a little girl standing there. I did not recognize her.”

Lawson is a small town of about 2,354 people where everyone knows everyone.

“She was about seven years old and she was starring down at her shoes,” Stringfield said. “She had blond hair and was dressed in an antique-type dingy white dress with blue embroidery birds at the edges.”

Stringfield opened the screen door and knelt to talk to the girl. She was worried the girl was hurt or in danger.

“She looked at my hands and said, ‘I need help. Can I come inside, please?’” Stringfield said. She was so polite and spoke so well. She did not sound as if she was from around town. I suddenly felt very afraid.”

Stringfield looked up and down the street, but no one was around.

“I looked past her thinking the fear I felt must be someone after her or that her parents or someone must be upset with me talking to her,” she said. “Thoughts raced through my mind quickly and I somehow could not think very clearly all of the sudden.”

Stringfield looked back at the girl preparing to ask where her parents were and where she lived when she noticed the little girl’s eyes.

“She looked at me and I immediately noticed that her eyes seemed wrong or something,” she said. “Like they were ink. Like someone had poured ink in her eyes. They were not normal kids eyes. They were coal black and black from rim-to-rim just staring.”

The girl again demanded to come inside.

“I could hear a kind of fake sweetness in her voice. She had a little girl voice but had an adult vocabulary and force about her,” Stringfield said. “I immediately stood up and knew I needed to protect myself and my girls inside and started to close the door.”

The girl asked Stringfield what she’d done wrong; why Stringfield wouldn’t invite her in.

“That is when my five-year-old daughter came into the living room and I knew that she should not look at her,” Stringfield said. “I closed the door on this little girl and I locked it. I scooped up Ellen and ran to the back door in the kitchen. I locked it and sat down at the table. My 16-month-old was sleeping upstairs and I needed to check her.”

Stringfield ran upstairs on shaking legs, holding Ellen tightly in her arms. The baby was still asleep.

“I got my cell phone out and called my husband and told him about it,” she said. “He thinks my story is crazy.”

But Stringfield knows the little Black-Eyed girl was on her porch and she knows the terror she felt.

“This little girl was real. I had started to feel sorry for her because she had bad breath and really dirty hair,” Stringfield said. “But I somehow know that she meant harm to us. I am not sure if I want to talk too much about it anymore. I would rather forget that it happened at all, but I worry that she will return.”

Hours after the encounter with the Black-Eyed Kid, the fear remains.

“I won't let the girls play outside now,” she said. “I have not gone out by myself to the store or anything. I still feel that dread, that sense of fear I felt emanating from the girl on my porch. I somehow knew that if I had let her in, that I would have regretted it and my girls and I would have been in some sort of real danger.”

Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.

16 comments:

Julie Ferguson said...

I wonder if she was some sort of demon child? I would have done the same thing as Beth. Her instincts were probably correct because she felt the fear long after the child was gone. I enjoyed this creepy but good story.

Anonymous said...

wonder if she called the police?, cpuld have just told them there was a small child unaccompanied wandering around. didn't have to mention the weird factor. at least they would have checked the yard, etc. sometimes the gypsies/wandering vagrants go thru town here and are not above using children as part of their cons and in their break ins. once in sharpsburg, pa a window was broken in a friend's neighborhood shop and a small child let in to unlock the doors for the adults. the real threat, the adults, might have been hiding nearby, waiting to get in as well. scary tale. glad she listened to her instincts.

Anonymous said...

Curious I came across this through anomalist.com, as the author of this story, you put a copyright at the end. You're basically telling me that its fiction. I can't see it any other way. The last two comments are readers asking questions logically but since this story has become so urban legend type< i just have a hard time believing it

Anonymous said...

This happens when you watch to many episodes of "Supernatural"...

Unknown said...

Love this story Jason! Very interesting. Several accounts across the globe of people seeing BEK's. Pretty much all the stories are very simular. I read your article in yesterdays newspaper. Great job! Your article got me researching more info on this subject. Thanks for the spark, :-)

Jason Offutt said...

To the anonymous poster who questioned the copyright notice. I assure you these stories are true and the people who tell them are truly frightened. Although, as soon as a work is written, it is automatically copyrighted, I place a copyright notice on every story to discourage people from copying and pasting these stories onto their own Web sites. Hmmm, I wonder if it really works?

Unknown said...

I think this incident roughly fits a pattern in some hauntings whereas the entity must obtain some sort of "permission" before it can enter a dwelling. This mother was wise to "follow her gut" past the disguise of this spirit. It is likely that having refused the request for entry, she is now safe from further incidents.

Anonymous in Texas said...

I have a huge collection of these stories from all around the globe.

This did not just begin with Bryan Bethel's story that went viral. BTW, I have written him before. He is a real reporter and has his own column now, works for a Texas news site.

Stories of encounters with these things go back hundreds of years. I found quite a few references.

I have a relative that has worried me since her birth. Little pale blond girl who eyes turn coal black.

She is already hurting animals, and once I caught her when she was barely 4 trying to knock over a piece of equipment onto a newborn. I went to grab her, the eyes turned jet black.

Her mom was into some weird stuff when pregnant. I wonder what happened to cause this.

But that child knows that I know. She cries and acts innocent. Once her grandmother picker her up and said it had to be an accident. As she held her, the kid glared at me over grandmother's back, eyes turned black, and she smashed her fist into her hand.

She has sent one kid to the hospital but no one wants to believe it is intentionally. Broken bones in that case.

Though the stories suggest that one must give them permission to enter, an opening or doorway..... I also believe the UNNATURAL(as some people are just born with really dark eyes or have a condition) black eyes can be a condition of the soul, lack of one, or a spirit takeover.

Anonymous in Texas said...

I meant to add for Richard...

They never forget. Sometimes they do come back. I do not blame the mother.

Jason Offutt said...

Anonymous in Texas: I'd like to hear more about your research. You can contact me at jasonoffutt(at)hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

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KeraiRose said...

I cant hepl but think changeling when she said she knew her daughter shouldnt look at the little.I think thought we no not of them yet fear them so much, I can understand why but really should we fear them when we dont even know what they are or what they want? Have there been any other incidents outside of America? I'd like to see one for myself lol I should becare what I wish for I just might get it(Though I highly doubt that it'll happen) This does rather intrigue me though...

Datsyzerberg said...

I just watched a show that mentioned that Bethel guy telling his black eyed kid story. Struck me as odd as I don't really get into vampire, demon child stuff.. more into legit recordable data type events. However, after watching it I had the itch to do some research.

After doing minimal research I saw repeated stories, all slightly different but generally the same. Still can't tell how many people are BSing, but something to consider and something I thought of after reading a couple stories.

Last winter, I was working a double shift (2nd and 3rd). I did this frequently. We didn't have our dog yet, used a shotgun for home protection. I get a call at about 0200 from my GF. She's hysterical. Starts telling me someone started pounding on the door, loud and violently, like a cop but louder. Scared her immediately. She went to the eye-hole to look at and saw some smaller skinny kid (couldn't tell if it was a teen or small statured adult) with a hoodie on on our stoop. Now we live in a row of town-houses in a relatively nice quiet area of Columbus.. Upper Arlington..

She's crying, telling me how the guy told her to let him in. She said that guy said "He said it was OK, just let me in" She said she started hollering at him to leave and he got more insistent about her just letting him inside.

So now she's telling me this on the phone and I leave work immediately to head home. Told her to get the shotgun and asked if he was still outside. She said she thought he'd left after she went to call me so I told her to stay at the top of the stairs and watch the door and listen for the sound of anything breaking in.

I get home and check on her. She's scared out of her mind and balling. I take the shotgun and do a sweep of the outside to make sure he's not lurking. My immediate thought was someone knew she was home alone. But I couldn't figure out why they would knock.. and so loudly..

Anyways, it was on our minds for a few weeks and freaked her out enough that we got a dog. I never thought it was anything other than a person she'd seen. But something stuck out, she couldn't see their eyes. She said he'd had a black hoodie on and kept looking at the ground, she couldn't only catch glimpses of his chin to know he was white.

Now I watched this show and it didn't click, but then I start reading all these supposedly fake stories on the subject, but a lot are matching our experience that night and we always thought it was a person. This actually has me freaked out enough that I haven't even brought this up to my GF, I'd rather her think it was some punk kid than something like this.

It sounds like their MO right?