Sunday, December 4, 2016

Phantoms, Monsters & BEKs

Lon Strickler over at the Phantoms and Monsters site has been collecting accounts of the strange for a long time. It's a blog I read on a regular basis as I often find fascinating accounts to add to my own research.

Recently, Lon and another friend of mine, Ash Staunton, have been gathering a lot of past accounts and collecting them into a series of volumes.
The latest, titled "Phantoms & Monsters Unexplained Encounters" has just arrived and it's another goldmine of information.

There's a good variety of stories in each volume, and two things that stood out for me in this release is that it's rich in accounts of black eyed entities as well as accounts of dogmen/werewolves.

Here's one I got permission to share with all of you:

BEK: 'Can we use your phone?'

"It was about 3 years ago. November 2012; when I was working at a small gas station in North East Louisiana.

We were the only small shop and 24 hour service station in miles, just off the highway. I worked the night-shift. I loved it; the sharing of stories with the traveling customers. That is when the rare customer showed up.

It must have been around 3 am. I was cleaning the floors and locking the beer coolers when suddenly the lights went out. I pulled out my cell and used it as a guiding light until I made it back to our counter where I kicked on the gas generator. It lit the parking lot, the bath and the hall leading to the register. When I looked outside, I could just make out the movement of the trees across the street, but, otherwise, it was pitch black.

I turned on the radio and started listening to a local station with its night owl DJ, commenting on the heavy winds and cracking jokes between songs.

Suddenly I saw some figures in the dark. I could just make them out. They seemed to be a group of kids on bikes. There were three of them. Two of them dropped their bikes and made their way to the door where they just stood there staring at me. I just stared back for a moment, waiting for them to come in. They never did. I moved around the counter and opened the door.

"What's up guys? Out kinda late aren't you?" I asked them, expecting them to come in.

"Can we use your phone?" one asked, their heads tilted kinda low. I felt a little worried as I pulled my cell from my pocket and offered it to her. "Sure."

She looked at me and then I saw her eyes; they were solid black, almost like ink filled orbs. "No, I need the real one!" she said, her face twisted into an angry snarl.

I pulled the door closed and flipped the locks. "No! No, you go home and get your mom's phone." They stared at me through the door for a minute longer before turning away and biking off.

The next day I had my boss check the cameras to get the pictures of the creepy kids but the cameras had been off the whole time. Now the cameras run off the generator instead of the hall lights.

I never saw the kids again."

There are a few fascinating things about this account. First, the kid insists on using the "real phone," obviously meaning the landline inside the store. This could have been a ploy to be invited inside. On the other hand, there are other accounts of BEKs who don't seem to understand that a cell phone is actually a phone. Another indication that they are out of place or out of touch with our modern world.

The situation with the cameras is equally interesting. I'm constantly asked about "genuine" photos of black eyed entities. This is difficult territory because photos can be so easily faked now. What I find more intriguing is that in many of these encounters security cameras and the like are not functioning properly. In the above report, the cameras are down due to the power outage, but what a strange coincidence that the BEKs chose that time to show up.

Check out Lon's new book for more of these creepy accounts. Available in both paper and kindle editions at Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Phantoms-Monsters-Unexplained-Lon-Strickler/dp/1539465551/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1480794532&sr=8-6&keywords=phantoms+monsters+unexplained

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