The alleged sight of mysterious 'Black-Eyed Children' who bang on the doors of homes and car demanding help has terrified people for three decades.

The paranormal phenomenon traces its origins to a 1996 account from Texas journalist Brian Bethel, who claimed he encountered a group of children with completely black eyes while sitting in his car outside a strip mall in Abilene that left him petrified.

Since then, hundreds of similar stories have surfaced online, with witnesses describing pale youngsters with pitch-black eyes who appear unexpectedly and ask to be let inside homes or vehicles and then quickly vanish.

Despite the growing folklore surrounding the phenomenon, there remains no verified evidence that the Black-Eyed Children exist.

Yet the stories continue to spread. Researchers who study folklore say the enduring fascination may have less to do with the supernatural and more to do with a deep-rooted human fear of something that looks familiar, but isn't.

Bethel, who now works in communications for the City of Abilene, revisited the experience during an interview shared on the city's official YouTube channel.

According to Bethel, he was sitting in his car outside the former Westwood Theater in Abilene at twilight, using the glow of the theater marquee to write a check when two boys approached his vehicle.

The children appeared to be between nine and 12 years old and were wearing hoodies, he recalled.

What struck him first was not their appearance, but an overwhelming sense of dread.

'Immediately I am afraid. There is no reason to be afraid. There is no external thing going on that should be prickling my senses this way, but immediately I'm afraid,' Bethel said.

One of the boys asked for a ride, claiming they needed to go get money from their mother to see a movie.

Bethel said the child was 'real smooth - too smooth for a kid' and recalled becoming increasingly frightened the longer he listened.

'The more this kid talks to me, the more afraid I become. It doesn't make any sense,' he said.

The boy allegedly tried to reassure him by saying, 'We don't have a gun or anything.'

'That actually is when I really start to click into pure panic mode,' Bethel said.

 'Something in my gut tells me that these kids don't need a gun.'

The children said they wanted to see Mortal Kombat, but Bethel noticed the movie had already started and realized they would miss most of it if he drove them to the mother's house and back.

When he looked back at the boys, he claimed their eyes were completely black.

'These kids have all black eyes. And I'm not talking just dilated pupils or anything like that. Just totally black,' Bethel said. 'Just soulless black void reflecting the light of the theater marquee.'

As he attempted to roll up his window and leave, Bethel said the spokesman became angry and began pounding on the glass.

According to Bethel, the boy shouted: 'Mister, we can't come inside your car unless you tell us it's okay. Let us in.'

Bethel said he immediately threw the car into reverse and sped away. Moments later, he checked his rearview mirror.

'There are no kids standing on the sidewalk and they don't have time to have gone anywhere,' he said.

After arriving home, Bethel said he 'literally' ran from his car to his apartment door and spent time trying to process what had happened.

A few weeks later, while attending a journalism conference in Austin, he wrote about the encounter and shared it online. 

The story spread rapidly and then more witnesses came forward and contacted Bethel sharing their eerily similar experiences. 

Nearly 30 years after the first reported sighting, folklore experts and paranormal researchers remain divided over whether the Black-Eyed Children are an internet legend or something more sinister.

Jason Offutt, a journalism professor at Northwest Missouri State University who has spent more than a decade researching the phenomenon, said one of the most striking aspects of the reports is how similar they remain regardless of where they originate.

'I've talked to people from all across North America, talked to somebody from Portugal, England, Saudi Arabia, Australia - they've all had almost the exact same experience,' Offutt told the Daily Mail.

According to Offutt, witnesses often describe two children appearing together, with one seeming slightly older and more confident than the other.

Many accounts describe pale youngsters with black eyes, outdated clothing, greasy hair, bad breath and unusually mature speech patterns.

'They speak with confidence. They speak like they're much older than they appear,' Offutt said.

Many witnesses also report feeling an urge to help the children before fear begins to set in.

'The person who they're speaking to immediately feels an urge to help them,' Offutt said. 'Whether that reaction stems from ordinary sympathy for a child in distress or something stranger remains unclear,' he added.

Offutt said another recurring feature of the encounters is an apparent effort to isolate the witness. 

Whether asking for a ride, requesting entry into a home or persuading someone to accompany them elsewhere, the children often attempt to move people somewhere secluded and away from others.

'Generally at night, this sort of thing happens,' Offutt said. 'They try to get the person to take them someplace secluded.'

He added that witnesses often do not initially notice anything unusual about the children's eyes. 

'Their eyes aren't necessarily black until they're apparently ready,' he said. 'The person notices the black eyes, and immediately they're terrified.'

Offutt said one alleged encounter involving a Missouri mother remains among the most disturbing reports he has collected and still unsettles him years later.

According to Offutt, Beth Stringfield was home alone with her children during the summer while her husband was at work. Her infant was asleep upstairs and her toddler was playing on the floor when she heard a knock at the door.

Outside stood a girl who appeared to be about seven years old. Offutt said the child was wearing a yellow flowered dress that looked as though it belonged in an episode of Little House on the Prairie.

The girl claimed a man was chasing her and begged to be let inside.

'Who wouldn't want to help a kid who was in trouble?' Offutt said.

Stringfield said she initially felt sympathy for the child before noticing something unusual about her eyes.

'Like someone had poured ink in her eyes,' she recalled to Offutt, as recounted in the Patriot Ledger. 'They were coal black and black from rim-to-rim.'

According to Offutt, Stringfield slammed the door shut after noticing the eyes and rushed back into the house. Moments later, she allegedly heard tapping on a nearby window.

Fearing the child had somehow moved around the home, she ran to secure another entrance before checking on her infant upstairs.

Stringfield said she shut and locked the door and later became convinced she had narrowly avoided danger.

Folklore experts said the stories share themes that have appeared in myths and legends for centuries.

Brigid Burke, an adjunct professor of religion at Montclair State University who has written about the phenomenon, noted that many supernatural traditions feature creatures that must be invited inside before they can gain influence over a victim.

That same element appears repeatedly in Black-Eyed Children reports, with witnesses frequently describing the children asking for permission to enter homes and vehicles.

Offutt said the detail has long reminded him of vampire folklore. 'They've got to get permission to come in,' he said. 'They can't do a home invasion. You have to let them.'

He noted that similar traditions appear in vampire legends from multiple cultures around the world.

Another alleged encounter came from Craig Besand, a Missouri student who said he encountered two Black-Eyed Children while studying abroad in Norwich, England, published in CantopRep.com through Offutt.

Besand said he was walking home shortly after 1am when two boys approached him near a cemetery and asked for directions.

The children appeared to be about 13 and nine years old and were dressed in hoodies and sneakers.

At first, Besand agreed to help them. But he soon noticed something unusual.

'They both had eyes that were as dark as coal, no sign of white,' Besand recalled. 'The eyes were the most distinct features, it was like they had no souls or nothing inside of them.'

After escorting the boys to the cemetery gates, Besand said the older child repeatedly asked him to enter the graveyard with them.

When he refused, the boy allegedly became more aggressive. 'The frustration on this kid's face was trying to be hidden behind one of the most evil grins that I ever saw,' Besand said.

Besand claimed the younger child then spoke up, saying: 'We shouldn't be doing this.'

'Immediately after he spoke I snapped out of my trance,' Besand said. 'My flight-or-fight instinct kicked in and I ran as fast as I could.'

When he looked back, he said the children had disappeared. 

Believers claim encounters with Black-Eyed Children have sometimes been followed by tragedies including illnesses, fatal accidents and other misfortunes.

However, no evidence has ever substantiated those claims and there are no verified photographs, videos or physical evidence proving the existence of Black-Eyed Children.

Offutt acknowledged that eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable and cautioned that some reports may be influenced by memory, suggestion or misidentification.

'Eyewitness testimony is some of the worst testimony,' he said. 'Our brain just fills in all sorts of bits and pieces that our senses didn't really pick up.'

Others have suggested some encounters could be elaborate pranks involving theatrical black contact lenses. While such lenses exist, Offutt noted they are expensive, uncomfortable and unlikely to explain every reported sighting.

Skeptics argue the phenomenon is simply a modern urban legend amplified by internet forums, social media and the power of suggestion.

Still, Offutt said the consistency of the reports continues to intrigue him.

Despite years of collecting accounts, he said he has never found a clear pattern connecting the people who claim to encounter Black-Eyed Children.

Witnesses have included single adults, parents, people from different religious backgrounds and individuals from countries around the world.

'There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why they pick who they pick,' he said.

Offutt also compared the phenomenon to Slender Man, the fictional internet creation that later inspired thousands of claimed sightings despite originating as a made-up online character.

He wondered whether people sometimes interpret unusual experiences through the lens of whatever paranormal figure has captured public attention.

'Whenever something gets into the zeitgeist, it appears as a black-eyed kid or Slender Man or whatever,' he said.