This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Topneighborhood_859 on 2024-10-04 16:27:26+00:00.

I was walking to my car as quickly as I could. I checked my watch. It was 7:15 pm. I shook my head. My phone rang. The screen showed that it was my wife calling… right on time.

“You better be close to the restaurant.” She said, The tone in her voice left me wondering if she knew that I was just leaving the office. I stayed silent.

“Damn it, Jack.” She cursed quietly. “I’m already here.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how much work I would have to get done today. And we’re still not on pace to make our deadline. The whole team is working late. Not just me. And I can’t be the only person leaving on time when my subordinates are staying late.” I pleaded.

“How long until you get here?” She asked angrily.

“If I run every red light, I can be there in thirty minutes,” I told her. She didn’t answer for a long while. I got into my car and just as I started to wonder if she had hung up on me, my car picked up the Bluetooth. “Okay, just hurry. It’s bad enough the waiter has asked me twice if I was waiting for someone.” She instructed.

“I’m sorry, babe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I said.

I shifted my car into reverse and started to back up. A loud bang on my window made me slam on the brakes. I threw it into the park and turned around to see if I hit something or worse, someone. I didn’t see anything. I turned back around in my seat to find two children standing next to my door. I jumped at the shock.

They both just stood there. Judging by their size, I would guess they were about nine or ten. I had this terrible feeling in my stomach that there was something wrong. But they were children, probably lost. I told myself.

I cracked the window just enough to ask if I could help them.

“Can I use your phone?” One of the kids asked. The child’s tone had a tinge of darkness to it. I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. But, I reached for my phone and unlocked it. When I looked back up at the child, I noticed they had both moved closer. They both stared down at their feet. Their hoods up over their head cast shadows over their faces. It almost appeared they didn’t have any faces at all. At that point, I had this unyielding sense of fear building that I couldn’t justify.

“Is there someone you’d like me to call for you?” I asked. Then one of the kids raised his head slightly. The shadows that covered his face parted as the new angle of his hood allowed me to see his face. But his eyes. His eyes were still hidden in the shadows. They appeared to be pitch black. Not that they were missing, but he had no iris, no whites in his eyes at all. I felt my breath catch in my throat, and the boy seemed to notice my fear. He lowered his head again. “We need to use your phone.” He pleaded.

I recovered and scolded myself quietly for allowing a trick of the light to scare me so badly. “Who can I call for you? Just give me their number.” I said, my hand ready to dial. Maybe it was the fact that the kids wouldn’t look at me. Perhaps it was the fact that the kids were out of place in the business district after sundown. But something inside me was screaming not to give them my phone.

“If you can’t give me the number, I’m sure you can go inside the lobby and ask the security guard to let you call your parents,” I said and pointed toward the lobby door. Neither one of them turned to look.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, I put my car in reverse. I was eager to get the hell out of there. I was eager to get away from these children. I looked in the rearview mirror to make sure I was clear.

A loud bang stopped me in my tracks. For a split second, I thought I hit someone, and then I heard it again. Both of the boys were slapping their hands, palm down, on my driver’s side window. A third time, a fourth time… In unison, they slapped my window. “Can we just get in your car? We need a ride.” They asked in a monotone and utterly unsettling tone.

I slammed the gas down and backed up without even looking, and then I slammed into drive and peeled out. I was a good ten minutes down the road before my heart stopped trying to beat out of my chest. I was so worked up that I almost missed my exit. I wanted to get home so bad, I had forgotten about date night.

I met my wife at her favorite restaurant, and we ate. She was initially angry about me being late. We hadn’t had much time alone since we had our son. He was four now, and this was probably our fifth date night in that four years.

Her mood switched from being angry to laughing at me as I explained why I was so late. I told her everything about the kids.

“So you were scared of a couple of kids? They could still be out there, looking for their parents.” She heckled me. She knew how scared I was. There was something wrong with them. But she didn’t believe it. At least not at that point.

Our son was staying at the babysitter’s house all night, so we had the house to ourselves. It was three in the morning when we heard the knock at the door. I woke up first and just sat in bed and listened. There was a faint, steady knock at the door. In threes. Knock, knock, knock. And then a pause followed by another set of three. Knock, knock, knock.

Then my wife woke up. “Do you hear that?” She asked.

“Yeah. There is someone at the front door.” I replied. My heart sped up. I knew before I did that it was them.

My wife sat up and grabbed her phone. “It’s after three in the morning. Who could it be?” She asked. “And they didn’t hit the doorbell.” She added. She opened the doorbell app on her phone to reveal an empty porch. There was nobody there.

She showed me. The knocking continued. And then I saw them. There was a faint silhouette in the darkness. “Zoom in there,” I said and pointed to the corner of the steps. She did and we could see them. The two boys were standing in the shadows. One of them kicked the steps. Knock, knock knock.

My wife looked at me. There is no way those kids followed you home… “This has to be a joke.” She said,

She stood up and put on her robe. I did too. We both made our way downstairs. We argued as we walked. She wanted to open the door. I didn’t.

Knock, knock knock…

“We can’t open the door,” I told her.

“They’re just kids playing a prank.” She replied.

Knock, knock, knock…

Finally, we reached the door and my wife undid the locks and swung it open. We both took a step back as soon as we did. The kids were no longer standing in the shadow but had moved up to the first step. The only light was from behind us, flowing out of the house. It was enough for us to see the two small figures staring at us, but not enough to see any detail.

“What do you want?” My wife asked. I was flipping the light switch on and off for the porch light. It wouldn’t come on. But I knew it had been on when we got home.

“Can we come inside?” The kids asked in unison.

I could see that my wife had gone pale. She finally believed me. Something wasn’t right.

The kids both took a step to the next step.

“Can we call the police for you? Are you lost?” She asked them.

They stepped up to the porch, and then they were close enough. Just three feet away, their faces were fully illuminated. The light revealed the same thing I thought I had seen earlier. Wide eyes, black as coal. Hey began to smile at us. “We need to come inside. We need help.” They said in unison as if they shared the same thoughts.

I moved my wife out of the way and slammed the door. My hands fumbled for the locks as I looked through the peephole. “I’m calling the cops!” I yelled through the door.

My wife still had her phone in her hand. She started to dial 911. “Wait,” I said. “They’re leaving,” I told her. The kids walked back into the street and disappeared into the night.

The next day we slept in and then picked up our son. It was a pretty uneventful day. At least until three a.m. I woke to the sound of knocking. I sat up. Half asleep, I heard my wife tell me it was just our son. “I’ll get it.” She told me. I went back to sleep.

That was about ten minutes ago. I noticed she didn’t come back to bed, and I decided to check the security cameras on my phone. My wife is lying on the floor dead. There is blood everywhere. Standing at her feet are the two boys. And next to them is my son. His eyes were black as coal.

As I’m writing this, I can hear them walking down the hall toward me. For the love of God, if you see black-eyed children do not talk to them, do not give them anything and please, do not let them into your house.