It started as a single encounter in a Texas parking lot in 1996 — a journalist sitting in his car, a check in hand, when two teenagers approached and asked for a ride. Nothing unusual, until he looked at their eyes. Completely black. No whites, no pupils, no iris. Just void. He threw the car in reverse and didn't look back, and when he did, they were gone. That was Brian Bethel's account, and it became the origin story of one of the internet's most unsettling modern legends: the Black-Eyed Children, or BEKs.

The encounters we read through this episode span rural Appalachia, a cold November night in Scotland, a supermarket, and more. Some are easier to dismiss than others. Some really aren't. Keep your blinds closed and your lights on for this one, campers.

⚠️ Content warning: paranormal horror, descriptions of intense dread and fe ...