Eyeless Jack: The Story Behind the Mask

Can you imagine waking up at night only to find you have a completely fresh wound on your body? What’s worse, soon you find that one of your organs is missing, and to make things worse, there’s a strange creature standing beside your bed who’s looking at you through two empty eye sockets.

That’s exactly what happened to Mitch, the main character in the original Eyeless Jack creepypasta. Jack is definitely one of the most recognizable characters from the good old creepypasta times. No matter how much the horror industry advances and how many new characters we get, it’s hard to forget this disturbing story and the villain that still haunts the memories of those who read it.

Let’s remember the story behind the mask of Eyeless Jack one more time. In this article, we’ll separate the details from the original creepypasta from those that fans added later.

Who Is Eyeless Jack?

Most creepypasta villains are mysterious creatures that appear without explaining who they are, where they came from, or why they attack people, and Eyeless Jack is no exception. He is a humanoid creature that enters people’s homes, removes their organs, and eats them — as terrible as it sounds. 

Jack usually wears a black hoodie and a dark blue mask that has two large openings. That’s where you could actually see his eyes, only if he had them. However, there are no eyes behind the mask, and the only thing that leaks from these empty spaces is a strange black substance.

Because of this appearance, it was hard to forget about this creature from the very beginning. Today, you can find countless forms of entertainment on the internet, whether it’s horror games, mysterious videos, or online games that require minimum deposit casinos. But back in the early 2010s, many users spent hours reading short horror stories. Eyeless Jack was one of the characters that was discussed over and over again in horror forums, together with other creepypasta villains, such as Slender Man or Jeff the Killer.

What Happens in the Original Eyeless Jack Story?

One thing that makes the original creepypasta so unique is that it’s told from the perspective of a man named Mitch who loses his home and decides to move in with his brother Edwin. Strangely, the brothers didn’t have any contact for 10 years. At first, everything seems normal. But soon Mitch starts to hear strange sounds outside the house.

The story reaches its first disturbing moment when Edwin notices a deep cut on Mitch’s cheek one morning and takes him to the hospital. There, doctors discover that someone has removed Mitch’s left kidney while he was sleeping. Mitch has no idea how anyone could have entered the house and done such a thing without waking him. But it becomes clear when he finally sees the attacker the following night — Eyeless Jack is standing beside his bed. 

Even though Mitch manages to take a photograph, Eyeless Jack attacks him and tries to tear open his chest. Mitch escapes into the forest, where he falls and loses consciousness.

Where Did the Eyeless Jack Image Come From?

That was the original plot of the creepypasta that introduced Eyeless Jack to thousands of horror fans. Believe it or not, the famous picture of the masked creature wasn’t actually created for this story. In fact, the image existed several years before anyone wrote about Mitch or his missing kidney.

The original picture that was accompanying the creepypasta was created in November 2009 by DeviantArt users Pirate-Cashoo and nickteezy408. It showed a dark humanoid figure looking down at the viewer through a pale blue mask with two large, empty eye openings. The image was uploaded under the title “you awake?”, which made it look like the creature was standing beside someone’s bed. This image then became a part of an online collection of disturbing images, which was called “Nightmare Fuel.” Eventually, the image inspired a young writer known as Azelf5000, who wrote the Eyeless Jack creepypasta in February 2012.

Why Was the Original Story Removed?

Although the story quickly became popular and was spreading across the internet in the early 2010s, for some reason, the original Eyeless Jack story didn’t remain on the Creepypasta Wiki forever. In 2014, its writer, Azelf5000, asked for the story to be removed because he was no longer satisfied with it. And that was the end. Only years later did he explain that he was just 12 years old when he created the story, and as an adult, he was regretting some of its disturbing content.

Nevertheless, Eyeless Jack was already too popular at the time it was removed to be forgotten. Various websites, forums, and YouTube channels were full of copies of the story, and fan drawings, costumes, and new backstories were spreading everywhere on the internet. 

As a result, Eyeless Jack became much bigger than the original short creepypasta that introduced him.

Final Thoughts

Many horror fans now recognize Eyeless Jack’s dark blue mask without ever having read the original story. And only that is proof that one disturbing image can become so powerful when internet users begin creating stories around it.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know who Jack really was, why he had no eyes, or why he wanted to eat human organs, as the original creepypasta never explained it. Perhaps this lack of information is exactly what made him so memorable.

Read the original Eyeless Jack story for yourself, then test what you remember with our Eyeless Jack quiz. For more creepypasta history, see the origins of Laughing Jack, Ticci-Toby’s backstory and the mystery behind the Smile Dog image.