SHORT FICTION · DARK SCI-FI · AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
Aunt Winnie
By Erika S. Ellis
What happens when the woman paid to steal children from their families decides one of them is worth more than the paycheck? Aunt Winnie is a dark, cinematic short story about a twenty-year government black-ops veteran, a gene-splicing operation hiding in plain sight, and the ten-year-old black panther who finally made her give a damn. Here’s how it starts.
My story isn’t something you’ve ever heard before, or you might have — who knows? But my world is different from yours. I surely hope so. Because what I have seen and have done over the years could only be described as something you’d read in books or see on the big and little screen.
Let me begin by telling you my name. I’m Edwina Ursa Ellis, but I go by Aunt Winnie. I am a statuesque golden bronze goddess of a woman standing over six feet tall.
I don’t have any biological nieces or nephews. My boss named me Aunt Winnie. She figured it would sound normal and familiar to all the families I’d interact with and the kids I’d watch.
I’m a Watcher. I watch a certain kind of group of kids for a living. I report on their progress back to an organization that does unthinkable things to them — things that would make you cringe and want a reset on humanity. I’m about to retire in two years, which means I’ve been watching for twenty-plus years. That’s a long time to witness the weird and the unimaginable, but I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it all.
The organization I work for has succeeded in something the government tried and failed to do. We have the ultimate super soldiers. The GSLAD — Gene Spliced Humans with Animal DNA — formed underground in Los Angeles. Two brilliant, absolutely unhinged mad scientists. A secret state-of-the-art lab. And children. Hundreds of them. Placed into ordinary homes, raised by ordinary families, with a generous fee and a standing arrangement: Aunt Winnie will stop by to check on things.
So here’s where you start to hate me. Usually between eight and ten, the kids would show signs they were different. I would snatch them from their happy homes, bring them back to the lab, and put them into training. I usually had no problems doing it. I was quite detached.
But I was in love the moment I held Lavina.
She was a dark-as-midnight baby girl with piercing blue eyes and the cutest cry — like a kitten. Usually, I never touch these anomalies. But for reasons unknown, the universe broke the arm of her new mother and gave the father a stroke two days before Lavina was to come to her new home. I had no choice but to hold her in my arms. Lavina was sucking on my finger. She was hungry — but not for a bottle.
And that was the beginning of the end of everything I thought I was…
Read the full story on Amazon → (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2NCCGB2)
Tags to copy: #ShortFiction #DarkSciFi #OriginalFiction #ActionFiction #BlackAuthors #NewRelease #AuntWinnie #GeneticThrillers #SuperSoldiers #Dramedies
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