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Ashley Genuis

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2024

Stories (10)

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10 Stories

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The Hollow Crown

The storm that had been threatening all day finally broke just after midnight. Rain hammered the windows of the abandoned courthouse, thunder rolling in long, angry waves that shook the rafters. Lightning sliced the sky, throwing stark shadows across the broken pews and shattered glass. It was a place the city had forgotten, but Raven and Knox knew better—sometimes the places everyone forgot were the most dangerous of all. Raven moved first, boots silent on the warped wood floor. Her hood was pulled low, hair sticking damply to her cheek fro...

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Ashes in the Spotlight

The stage lights were so bright, they erased everything else. No audience, no judges, no other competitors—just her. Riley drew a breath so deep it trembled in her chest, then let her voice pour out, every note catching on the edges of her nerves, every word raw with the ache of wanting this moment to mean something. For years, she’d chased it: the stage, the glory, the crown that said she mattered. All the late nights practicing alone in her room, all the auditions that went nowhere, all the rejection letters folded into the back of her jou...

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The Runner Up

Rina’s heart hammered in her chest as she watched Sammy place the final dish, every move a delicate battle between hope and fear. The lights were bright, the cameras relentless, the judges waiting. Everyone else saw a competition, a contest, a fleeting moment of fame. But Rina saw Sammy — every tremor in her hands, every tight breath, every flicker of doubt. Sammy had never cared about winning. She thrived on the thrill of the challenge, the creative rush, the pure joy of cooking. But this time, the stakes had been higher than ever. The nati...

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“You Can See Me?”

“You can see me?” The words slipped out before I even realized I was speaking. Silence pressed in from every corner of the room, thick and suffocating, curling around my shoulders like smoke. The house groaned under its own age, floorboards creaking as if warning me. Shadows twisted and stretched along the walls, shifting in a rhythm I couldn’t follow. Each movement made my stomach tighten; each sound made my pulse skip, a constant reminder that I was not alone. I froze at the top of the staircase. The air was colder here, carrying the faint...

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Out Of The Woods

The Forest Was Too Quiet Not peaceful. Not untouched. This was the kind of quiet that pressed against your ears, made your heartbeat hammer like a drum in the deep of the forest. A quiet so heavy it felt alive, judging every misstep, every breath, every flutter of curiosity that drew me forward. I had wandered off the trail that morning, chasing sunlight that danced through the canopy like a promise. Wind teased the leaves into a frenzied shuffle, as if laughing at my curiosity. I paused to touch a tree, rough bark under my fingers, feeling ...

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The Shadow That Speaks

Submitted to Contest #319

I was not meant to exist. I am the seam, the stitch, the scar between lives. I am the shadow of every limb sewn into this body, the echo of every man whose flesh was stolen to make another. I do not breathe; I am breathed through. I do not live; I am carried by life that is not mine. And yet, I think. I feel. I remember. They call me monster, but I know the truth: I am not the body. I am not the face. I am the thing that holds them all together. I am the hunger in the marrow, the whisper in the veins. I am the monster within. And though the ...

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What I Have Become

Submitted to Contest #319

All my life, I fled from the word monster. From the burning torches and the jeering mouths that hurled it at me. I told myself I was not what they said I was. That I was different, better. I clung to the fragile dream that my stitched hands could one day create gentleness instead of terror. But I was wrong. When I found her body in the river, pale and limp, I told myself it was mercy to raise her. That I was giving her a second chance at life, one I had never been offered. But the truth was simpler and far darker: I could not stand to be alo...

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Ashes Of My Making

Submitted to Contest #319

Every monster has a moment when it realizes it has gone too far. For me, that moment came not when I was first called a beast, nor when the first stone struck my flesh. It came when I looked into the eyes of the woman I had brought back from death and saw only hatred staring back. I had meant to save her. To give her the chance I was never given. Instead, I had damned her. The villagers would say I cursed her. That I dragged her from the grave and made her a nightmare like me. But that is not the truth. The truth is worse. The truth is that ...

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The Hunger I Carry

Submitted to Contest #319

From the beginning, I was taught to run from torches. To hide from the sharp end of pitchforks. To keep my head low and my steps quiet. The world told me I was dangerous, and perhaps they were right. But what I feared most was not the villagers—it was myself. Inside me, there is a hunger. It whispers when I am alone. It grows stronger each time someone screams at my face, each time they spit at me, each time a stone finds my skin. Hurt them back, the hunger says. Make them pay. And perhaps, if I gave in, I could. I am strong enough to tear d...

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Ashar, The Unwanted

Submitted to Contest #319

They called me monster before they even knew my name. The first eyes that ever saw me filled with terror, not wonder. My stitched hands reached for kindness and met only fire. Children screamed at the sight of me, and even the dogs howled. But my heart—stitched though it was—beat with longing, not cruelty. I am not what they see. I was never what they feared. I gave myself a name once, though no one else has spoken it: Ashar. In a book I found rotting in the woods, the word meant hope. I clung to it because I needed to believe there was some...

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