Hoseok flicked through channel after channel on the living room TV, bored out of his mind and unable to find anything interesting to watch. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was nearly midnight. An infomercial was playing on the screen in front of him, lighting up the otherwise dark room with promises of clearer skin and a slimmer waist for only three easy payments - plus shipping and handling.

The young man turned off the television and focused his attention on his laptop, which was lying across his chest as he reclined on the couch, the brightness of its screen blinding him from being able to see any features of the room around him. Hoseok sighed heavily as he surfed the web, quickly losing interest and deciding that perhaps it would be best to give up and finally go to bed.

The house was empty except for Hoseok and the annoying moth that had been flying around his head for the past hour. He brushed the pesky insect away as he stood up, tossing his computer carelessly on the couch before he left the room. Hoseok was about to go upstairs to his bedroom when his stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that he was absolutely starving. Figuring that a late night snack couldn’t hurt, Hoseok bounded back down the stairs and headed toward the kitchen.

The house was dark, but not impossible to navigate, as Hoseok crossed the foyer next to the entryway, which was bathed in a dusky shadow. As he passed the door, a knock from outside grabbed his attention, and he looked briefly at the clock in the hallway, once again confirming that it was almost 12AM. Wondering who could be trying to visit at this hour of the night, Hoseok stepped back to examine the locked door.

❧

Although the glass storm door was bolted shut, the main, solidly wooden door was hanging wide open. Hoseok thought this was odd, as he could have sworn he remembered closing it before sprawling out on the couch earlier that evening. He didn’t have much time to question this, though, because his eyes were immediately met by two shadowy figures standing outside the glass.

“C-can I help you?” asked Hoseok, taken aback by the strangers.

“Hello,” said the one on the left.

Although he couldn’t make out much by the dim light of the moon alone, Hoseok thought that the two visitors looked young, and he could tell by the first person’s voice that that one was male.

“Can we use your phone?”

The one on the right spoke next, their voice huskier and also decidedly masculine. The two young men stood motionless on the porch, their postures formal and attentive as they awaited Hoseok’s answer. Hoseok himself felt uneasy - though he couldn’t understand exactly why. It was certainly odd for two boys to show up at his door in the middle of the night, but from what Hoseok could tell, they were hardly more than teenagers. He didn’t think he should be intimidated, and yet he felt himself hesitate to agree to lend them his phone.

“My name is Taehyung,” continued the second boy on the right. “And this is Jungkook.” He motioned to the one on the left, who raised his hand sheepishly. “We’d really like to use your phone, if we could. May we please come inside?”

Hoseok opened his mouth, but it wouldn’t form more than a syllable of a word. He was unable to see the two boys’ faces clearly, and he thought he might like to get a better look at them before allowing them inside. He flipped the switch for the porch light, but nothing happened. He turned it off and back on again, but the entrance stayed dark. Hoseok made a mental note to ask Yoongi to fix it the next time the older man was in town, and he stared back out at the two boys on his doorstep, who both had their heads slightly bowed, casting even more of a shadow over their faces as they looked at him.

The young man the inside hallway light instead, but this made the glass nearly impossible to see out of from the inside. He turned the invasive light off again, and stared at the two men, who were still concealed by darkness.

“Can we use your phone, please?” repeated the one named Taehyung.

“Wh-why do you want to?” stammered Hoseok.

As soon as the question left his lips, Hoseok realized how utterly stupid he sounded. He shouldn’t be so afraid; there was absolutely no reason to feel uncomfortable. Obviously these were nothing more than a couple of stupid kids who had stayed out too late and probably needed to call their worried parents. Hoseok should just let them in, wait for them to get picked up, and then move on with his life. He was certain that situations like this must happen all the time.

Then why won’t they let me see their faces?

The thought sounded ridiculous even to him, and Hoseok shook the intrusive idea out of his head. He was letting his imagination get the best of him, and he tried to keep this fact in mind as his hand hovered closer to the lock on the door.

“We just need to come inside,” answered Taehyung calmly. “To use your phone.”

❧

The vagueness of the young man’s statement made Hoseok pause. He found that he didn’t like how Taehyung had phrased the brief explanation, not giving up any additional information, and he felt that asive sense of unease creep back in as his eyes drifted over to Jungkook, who had stayed almost completely silent the entire time.

What Hoseok saw made him rethink his decision to let the boys in. Jungkook’s hand was poised delicately on the door handle - making no attempt to turn it - yet not letting go either, even though Hoseok was sure they had both noticed him looking at the handle by now.

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching instead for the red wooden door. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to-”

“Let us in,” interrupted Jungkook.

The boy’s voice was gentle, but Hoseok thought that he saw Jungkook’s grip tighten slightly. He didn’t let go of the doorknob even as Hoseok reopened the half-closed door, now more curious than afraid.

“Who do you need to call?”

He was surprised at the confidence in his own voice, and didn’t find it strange that it was Taehyung who took over answering again. He seemed to be a bit more subtle than his slightly demanding friend.

“We just need you to let us in for a bit,” he said gingerly. “We need to use your phone to make a call.”

“Yes, but to call who?” pressed Hoseok, his voice rising slightly.

“I’ll explain when we’re inside,” countered Taehyung. “Just unlock the door.”

“Don’t you guys have cellphones?” Hoseok was stalling now, frantic to find any excuse to not let them inside. “You must be able to call someone, right?”

“No,” murmured Jungkook. “Please open the door.”

❧

Hoseok could feel his heart beat wildly in his chest. Surely he was overreacting. The boys may be strange, but just because they were avoiding eye contact didn’t mean they were threatening him. They were probably just embarrassed about having to ask a perfect stranger to borrow his phone in the middle of the night.

Hell, maybe they’re even afraid of me. I’m an older man they don’t know at all…

Hoseok reached for the lock again, still wondering whether to open it, when he looked up at Jungkook again. The boy was staring at him now, and what Hoseok saw made his skin crawl.

Where the boy’s eyes should have been was nothing but blackness. His sclera, iris, and pupil were all the same inky shade, and the color was solid and glossy. He glared at Hoseok, penetrating the older man’s wide eyes with his own, unnaturally jet black orbs.

“You idiot!” Taehyung hissed with a low growl.

The orange-haired boy shifted his own gaze to Jungkook, and Hoseok could see that he, too, had the same pure black eyes.

“Let us in!” demanded Jungkook, rattling the door.

Hoseok glanced at the lock on the glass door, and saw with relief that it was still firmly in place. The two black eyed visitors were both staring openly at him now, and the rest of their bodies remained eerily erect as they stood on the doorstep.

“Please let us in,” begged Taehyung.

“No!” refused Hoseok. “No; go away!”

He stumbled backwards, tripping over his own ankles and sending him spilling onto the carpeted floor with a hard landing. Hoseok looked up to see Jungkook glowering above his crumpled form, still staring down at him blankly while Taehyung’s face twisted deeply into a scowl of disgust.

“Go away!” shouted Hoseok, lunging to close the heavy wood door.

❧

Still on the floor, Hoseok pressed his back firmly against the door as he felt terror rising in him. The two boys outside started scratching, and although he could hear Jungkook saying something through the glass and wood that separated them, Hoseok couldn’t focus clearly enough to make out what it actually was. Instead, he picked himself up and ran through the house, closing the curtains and double checking that all the windows were locked.

He couldn’t begin to fathom what those two were, but their eyes had been entirely otherworldly. Hoseok realized with horror that he had been just about to let the boys in several times throughout the encounter, and forced his mind to not focus on the thoughts of what might had happened if he did.

Still able to hear faint scratches against the glass of the locked storm door, Hoseok bolted upstairs without looking back, and sat huddled in his closet the entire night, clutching a flashlight for security until he passed out sometime in the early morning.

When he awoke, there were birds singing outside, and the shaken young man could see his elderly neighbors out gardening in their side yard. Hoseok crept downstairs, and looked through the peephole to discover with relief that his front porch was empty. He unbolted and opened the red wooden door, wondering if the entire thing had been nothing but a nightmare. A hallucination brought on by his tired brain. An illusion caused by staring at his bright computer screen in the dark for too long.

There was no sign left of either of the strange, black eyed boys, and Hoseok was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a glint on the glass caught his eye. Shallow, and so faint that they were barely there, were a series of criss-crosses scattered across the thin pane. The storm door was absolutely covered with scratches.

The Black Eyed Kids are another one of my favorite internet horror stories/topics. The first story I read that featured them scared the absolute daylights out of me, because I wasn’t expecting it to happen at all. I seriously almost pissed my pants, immediately closed the tab, and then didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

BEK supposedly need your permission to enter your house, which is good, but that doesn’t make the shock factor any less freaky or potent! They say that the eyes are a window to the soul, so I can only imagine what solid, pure black ones are indicative of. I think it’s a good thing that Hobi didn’t let those two in, though, because there is a very startling lack of accounts from people who did…