The Tale of Sawney Bean (Complete Novella) by Kevin J. Kennedy Page A

updated you on what’s been happening. We
haven’t been found by the town folk yet but I have no doubt they
are still looking for us. Karry, Annie and Susie have had babies,
our first born in this part of the cave but that’s not why I’m
returning to my tale now. There have been some changes since we
moved down here. I knew things would be different but I had no idea
what would really happen and I still question myself as to what’s
real and what isn’t. Changes started happening to some of the girls
in the family. The first signs of the change were expected. The
meat in our diet had lessened and we had all lost a little weight,
we were all extremely white and for some reason we all started to
lose our hair. I wasn’t sure what was causing this but thought it
was probably either linked to our diet or lack of sunlight. As the
weeks passed some of the girls skin started to turn scaly, their
skin covered in little hexagon greyish tiles while others became
almost slimy, their skin having a wetness to it and becoming more
pin, almost like a worm.
     
    I knew we
couldn’t go back up to the surface and there was less chance than
ever to move my family somewhere else now. I made my mind up that I
would take one last trip to town to see what I could learn and have
a last attempt at formulating a plan that will keep my family safe.
I would just leave it a few more weeks in case anyone has been
watching the cave mouth.
     
    The weeks
passed by slowly as I watched most of my family change. It was as
if they were adapting to suit there surroundings. Here we were
buried in the earth and my girls were taking on qualities that
looked similar to worms and lizards. The most heartbreaking of all
was Isla. The others acted as if they didn’t notice what was
happening. Either that or they just didn’t care but Isla was
different. She was always the most human of the lot and was taking
it hard. She cried a lot and very rarely left my side but there was
nothing I could do to stop what was happening to her. I’m not sure
if it was because she was one of our first children or because she
was the oldest but she was changing quicker than the others. As she
became less like herself my heart broke completely and I distanced
myself from the others spending every waking minute with her.
     
    I awoke one
morning to find her missing along with some of the others. I roamed
the caves for hours and never found her. I knew what had happened.
She had changed too much and either didn’t want to be seen by
anyone or she was now more animal than person and I had left her
thoughts forever. I just didn’t know. I still didn’t even know why
this was happening. I had never heard of anything like this in my
life but I had been young when I moved here so I missed out on a
lot of learning. I wondered if this was what happened to people if
they had no sun light at all. Similar to the way our eye sight
adapted. I wondered if this was our bodies adapting but then why
wasn’t it happening to us all. Myself, Wolf, Hawk, Sarah and the
younger children seemed to have no signs of any change. As I
wandered the caves I heard what sounded like bare feet moving
across rock quickly and rocks skittering across the floor but I
still never managed to find any of the missing girls.

Chapter
25
     
    As time passed
by more of my family changed and so did the younger girls. It
turned out that when they turned around seven they would start
showing signs of the change but it would happen over a much longer
period than it did to the older girls. It was heartbreaking to
watch my family disappear before my eyes and I wondered if we were
any better off down here now that our numbers were dwindling
anyway. Would we have been better standing our ground and fighting?
I still didn’t think so.
     
    I had taken to
spending most of my time roaming the caves now in the hope of one
day seeing Isla again. I missed her most of all and not having her
to lie with in difficult times made