The Black Eyed Children
By Matt Lennox
In this horror short story from Matt Lennox, an ordinary Thanksgiving dinner turns into a terrifying encounter with the mysterious Black Eyed Children.
Just outside Baltimore Maryland was a town called Glen Burnie. Right along Marley Creek was an older couple named Ray and Mary. They had been married well over fifty years and had the perfect family. They had two children and several grandchildren. It was Thanksgiving and everyone was piled into their home for turkey dinner. The large family sat around talking, and laughing like a normal family does on Thanksgiving. After the meal the men all went and watched the Dallas Cowboys game, while all the women cleaned up and sat around the kitchen table drinking coffee. The youngest grandson Seth had come up to the table and asked his grandmother if she had ever heard of the Black Eyed Children. Mary looked puzzled because she was a big fan of the paranormal but had never heard of them. Seth went on to tell her that kids at his school were telling him about them and how they looked like normal kids but their eyes were completely black. Nobody knew who they were or where they came from but they say if they come to your house to not let them inside. Mary laughed it off and told Seth that his classmates were messing around with him and to go hang out in the living room. Mary’s oldest granddaughter Chelsea spoke up once he left the room and told her that she had heard of it but it was an old wise tale. The night went on normal as everyone left the house leaving Mary and Ray alone to enjoy the rest of the evening peacefully.
Mary had a spot outside on her porch where she played games on her iPad and smoked an occasional cigarette. Ray was fast asleep from all the turkey he had consumed. So Mary went outside to her cozy little spot and turned on the heater due to the cold fall. She made sure the porch door was locked, then lit a cigarette and started up her candy crush game on her iPad. An hour or so had passed and she saw someone walking up the driveway towards her porch. She was a little confused but she knew she had family living in the area so she figured it was a cousin or someone. She stood up and said “hello”. The figure stopped and looked up. She could tell it was a child and she said “hon are you lost? Are your parents with you?” The child said nothing but then continued to walk towards the porch but stopped at the steps. “Hon are you okay?” Mary asked. The little boy said softly “can I come in please?”. Mary looked very confused and had her hand on the lock of the porch contemplating whether to let him in or not. “Where’s your parents?” Mary asked once again. The little boy said nothing but got on the first step. Mary then said “hon I’m not letting you in here until you tell me where your parents are”. The little boy said “I don’t know where they are”. Mary began to get concerned because the boy looked to be about 10 years old. She couldn’t get a good look at his face but she could tell he was very pale. “Come more in the light, “Hon so I can see you,” Mary said. The little boy came up another step and asked again “can I come in?” Mary then caught a decent look at his face and she thought his eyes looked a little off. “Are you friends with my grandson Seth?” Asked Mary. The little boy said nothing as the two just looked at each other. Mary then said “hon I’m gonna have to call the police because I don’t know who you are. And you should not be out this late.” The little boy just stared back at her and then turned away and walked back up the driveway. Mary ran back into the house and startled her husband awake. “Ray there’s some little boy walking around out there. He didn’t have a parent with him and he kept asking to come in the house.” Mary hollered to her husband. Ray replied “you’re seeing stuff Mar! You’re always seeing stuff”.
Mary finally convinced Ray to go outside and check around. He got on his boots, and grabbed a flashlight and went outside as Mary waited on the porch. A few minutes had past and Ray came back to the porch and said “Mar I didn’t see anything. I even walked up to the road and I didn’t see a soul walking in the road”. Mary then began crying because Ray did not believe her. Ray decided to go back inside and upstairs to bed. Mary told him that she would be with him in a few minutes. She went inside and locked the porch door and the main door to the house. Mary began turning off the lights and then got startled at a figure standing at her back door. She turned the light back on and nobody was there. She then turned the lights back off and started making her way to the steps until she heard a knock at the main door of the house. Her heart immediately sank knowing that someone had gotten through the locked porch door. She refused to look through the windows on the door as the knocking got louder. She went to grab her cell phone but had forgotten she left it sitting on the porch with her iPad. “Ray!” Mary screamed up the steps. She then decided to look through the peephole on the door and she saw a child standing on her porch. He had an old style hat on, and was wearing a winter jacket. She couldn’t make out his face until she turned the porch light on. When she did she gasped as she saw a pale child with eyes as black as the night standing there looking at the peep hole as if he knew she was standing there looking at her. “Can I come in please?” The child said softly. Mary yelled “get the hell out of here! I’m getting my husband!” Mary ran as fast as she could up the steps and woke Ray up and told him what was happening. Ray was now becoming annoyed and agreed that he would take a look but only this last time.
The two walked back down the steps and Mary told Ray to look outside on the porch. He did and he saw nothing as he opened the door. “Mary this is getting ridiculous. I gotta be up a decent time tomorrow and you keep seeing shit.” Ray said annoyingly to his wife. “Ray I swear to god someone was out there. And his eyes were completely black! This wasn’t the same kid from last time. This one had a hat on! Ray we need to call the police.” Mary said frantically. Ray could see the fear in his wife’s eyes as he went into his closet and pulled out a hand gun. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go out there one more time. Just keep the doors locked.” Ray calmly said. The two hugged as Ray went outside with a flashlight and his gun. Mary began to cry as she sat on her couch in the living room. A few minutes had past and Ray had not come back from outside. Mary was becoming worried as she got up and opened the door to the porch and called out for Ray a couple times but he wasn’t responding. She decided against her husband’s words to open the porch door and walk down the steps. “Ray! Where are you?” Mary hollered. She then decides to go back on the porch and call 911. She gets on the porch and now notices her phone is missing. She begins turning over furniture searching for it until she hears a faint giggle coming from outside. She looks around and sees that the porch door is unlocked and runs towards the door and locks it back up only to be face to face with an older child who looks to be about fourteen. He had semi long hair with a beanie hat on with completely blacked out eyes. The two stare at each other for a moment until he says “can we please come in?” Mary tells him to get the fuck off her property and that her husband is looking for them and he has a gun. The young man stands there for a moment and then blankly says “You mean this gun?” He holds up Ray’s handgun and drops it on the ground. “You guys don’t have to be so mean to us? We’re just kids. We’re cold. Please let us in. Please.” The boy says. Suddenly 3 other children emerge from the darkness standing at her porch door begging to be let in the house. Mary is now screaming as she runs in the house and slams the door behind her. She sobbing uncontrollably until she sees someone sitting at her kitchen table facing away from her. She realizes it’s her grandson Seth as she runs over to him and says “Seth how did you get here? We need to find help. Seth? Seth? I’m talking to you.” Seth turns to her and Mary lets out a shriek as her grandson Seth also has blacked out eyes. Seth tells his grandmother “All you had to do was let them in, Grandma. That’s all you had to do. Pop wouldn’t have died if you had just let them in. They wanted you, not him.” Mary is now panicking and goes to run away to the door but now the other black eyed children are standing on her porch. She is caught between them and her grandson. The older black eyed child looks at Mary and says “He’s right you know? Now it’s time to say goodbye”. Ever since that day Mary, Ray and their grandson Seth have never been seen again. Some say they’ve seen Seth hanging around the old Marley Station Mall but as for Mary and Ray; they completely vanished.