I’ve lived in Texas for about a year now, and all the locals I work with have told me a lot about the mysterious events that are connected with the state.  The creepiest one I’ve heard is The Children with the Black Eyes.

In the nineties, a man was returning to his car after work when two kids knocked on his door asking for a ride.  He could tell the kids were odd in some way, and he became very anxious and scared.  He looked away from the kids for a second, and when he looked back, their eyes turned pitch black and they started screaming at him to let him in.

Obviously he drove away, and later he spread the word about the event.  Weirdly enough, other people who heard about his experience came forth and said that they and others have had similar encounters.

Context:

The informant is my sister.  After college, she moved to Texas for her work at FedEx.  Her colleagues told her about many folkloristic and supernatural legends about the state, but this one was the one she feared most.  She is not a fan of real supernatural encounters—she would rather watch fabricated stories on television—and was scared during the entire work day.  The knowledge is fairly fresh in her mind, having heard it less than a year ago, and when I confronted her in order to obtain interesting examples of folklore from her new home, this was the first one that came to mind.

Thoughts:

In contrast to my sister, hearing about the supernatural, hauntings, and real-life ghost stories is both scary and intriguing.  Safe in my California residency, I have no need to fear these children, but I can empathize with the origin story and the man involved.  I think this legend is different from most others because it was not just the one man who encountered the children, but many people; this statement gives the legend more validity—I actually believe that instances like this did occur—and makes for a more enticing and interesting legend.