Public Domain Horrors: The Blackbird Sisters

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The Blackbird Sisters

All children are perfect in the eyes of the Lord, but humans don’t look at things in the same way as the almighty. It is as though they are trained to find imperfections and to point them out as loudly as possible. This meant that the Blackbird sisters had a life of mockery to look forward to.

Eloise was born with her lower jaw missing, while Emily had one eye that was significantly larger than the other. The saucer sized eye refused to move, simply sitting on one side of her face like a stationary planet.

The girls lived in the family home out in the country, rarely stepping outside, as any trip into town led to stares, pointing, and shouted insults that cut to the quick. They carved masks for themselves, fashioned from the bones of dead animals and painted black. Eloise and Emily looked like birds with human bodies, and they took to pecking at those who dared insult their newfound sense of style.

Life became somewhat normal for the Blackbird sisters, and even after their parents died, they maintained the home and grew a vegetable garden all on their own. Visitors were few, so when a strange man wearing facepaint and dressed in a red top hat and tails arrived on their doorstep, the girls were intrigued.

The man’s name was Jericho Spires, the owner and ringmaster of a traveling circus. He invited the girls into the fold, promising riches and travel to great cities the world over. Spires had the gift of the gab, and Eloise and Emily found themselves swept up in the excitement of it all. And so, they willingly agreed to join the circus.

If life was bad in their small town, it became that much worse on the road. Labeled as freaks, people came to stare at them, unable to hide their revulsion and hatred of the girls. The crowds were horribly cruel, but Spires and his crew were worse. Beatings were administered if the crowds were small or unappreciative of the show.

On a trip close to home, and under cover of night, the Blackbird sisters fled, returning to the safest place they knew. In their absence, though, the townsfolk had vandalized their property, leaving little more than a collapsed shell not fit for human habitation. Still, Eloise and Emily made it work, roosting in the attic of the ramshackle building, where they lived out the rest of their lives.

People will tell you that the story of Eloise and Emily is little more than urban legend, yet visitors still flock to the field where their home allegedly once stood. There is nothing there now but trees and grassland, but if you look close enough, you might just see the Blackbird sisters hiding in the shadows.