Gemotions

Maya had finally landed her dream job: assistant to the legendary writer, Jasper Thorne. Her first task was to organize his extensive archives. She handled his original manuscripts with a reverence bordering on religious. She felt privileged to be so close to the creative process of her hero. She saw a future where she could learn and grow and absorb his brilliance.

One afternoon, sorting through a pile of unpublished notes, she noticed something odd. A specific passage, word for word, appeared in an obscure short story competition from twenty years prior. Maya’s mind raced. Then, she saw it repeated in another, and another. A dark reality began to dawn.

She continued her search. The archive revealed a pattern of plagiarism that extended far beyond one or two incidents. The idol she had enshrined had feet of clay. Her carefully crafted expectations for the future now seemed flimsy and unreliable.