Ashley Guthrie

Ashley Guthrie was the son of Evan and Suzanne Guthrie and brother to Lucas Guthrie. The Guthries lived in Mount Healthy, Ohio and were seen by the community as validation that the 'American Dream' was attainable. Mr. Guthrie was a lawyer and Mrs. Guthrie was an accountant. Everything seemed perfect and pleasant for the Guthrie family.

As for Ashley, he was a peculiar child. Some say that he was born bad. He was extremely possessive of his belongings, so much to the point where other children would not be allowed to play with Ashley because they would always return home crying. One incident alleges Ashley killed his cat's litter of kittens because they were keeping him from playing with his pet.

With such a problem child, the Guthrie's marriage began to fall apart and culminated with the death of the two Guthrie children. The police received a phone call from Mr. Guthrie who says he bludgeoned Lucas to death and suffocated Ashley as he slept. With the police investigation and the media coverage, Evan couldn't handle it and hung himself in his cell. With the loss of her family, Suzanne suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

Later on, after nine kids had died in their sleep, Cassie Hack and Vlad were called to Mount Healthy to investigate. The meet with a young man named Jason who tells them the Guthrie history and he believes Ashley has become a sleep-slasher since he died in his sleep. Cassie and Vlad agree to look into the mysterious deaths. Later that night, Jason is visited by Ashley in his dreams and is killed by him.

Cassie visits Suzanne at the psychiatric facility and learns the truth behind the Guthrie murders. When Ashley wouldn't share his toy truck with his brother, Lucas took it away himself. Ashley was so angry that he grabbed the truck back and smashed it across Lucas' head and, without any reaction, went upstairs to take a nap. Distraught over what her devil child had done, Suzanne followed behind and smothered Ashley with his teddy bear. But Ashley hadn't died, his spirit lived on and haunted his parents' dreams until Mr. Guthrie was driven to commit suicide and Suzanne had to be institutionalized.

Cassie decides the best way to confront Ashley is on his turf, the Dreamscape, and has her friend Lisa Elsten use anesthesia to put Cassie to sleep. Ashley fights Cassie in her dreams and comes close to killing her more than once, but Cassie reveals she was just keeping the dead boy busy until the end of her nightmare came. Ashley finds out that every night Cassie's dreams end the same way - with Cassie being confronted by her dead slasher mother, the Lunch Lady. The dream Lunch Lady grabs Ashley and starts hacking away at him with a meat cleaver which ends Ashley's killing spree in Mount Healthy.

Ashley would appear again possessing a stuffed teddy bear. He followed Cassie and Vlad when they had been kidnapped by Emily Cristy, who had been hired by Ceutotech to grab her as well as some many slashers. The plan was to have Cassie and Vlad catch them so they could study slasher genes, hoping it would give them an edge in cosmetic applications. No one counted on Ashley coming and setting all the slashers free. He along with Acid Angel, X-O, Waking Man, Mortimer Strick, and the Hibachi Devil worked, temporarily together to get weapons.

Eventually, besides killing many of the coworkers, some of the slashers killed each other. After getting injured by one of the slashers, Emily took a serum to be one. She killed Ashley when he attempted to kill Cassie and bought them some time, while she was still human. Ashley's body was destroyed in the fire. But his soul was still very active.

Using his dream powers, he connected to a psychic named Muffy Joworski and manipulated her visions to make Cassie look like the murders in every place Cassie had taken down a slasher. With his influence, Muffy got Cassie arrested, but it came at a price. Ashley's hold over Muffy became more powerful and he possesses her body in order to go after Cassie. He soon enlists the aid of banished rocker Six Sixx in order to do it. However, he accidentally unleashes more creatures from a hell dimension who capture and torture the group.

When Sixx is separated from the group, he makes a deal with the Neflords. After having his powers recharged in Nef, returns to free his fellow hostages. He then returns to Nef with Muffy/Ashley as a payment to his masters for his newly restored abilities. Although Cassie objects, not wanting Muffy to suffer. Sixx says the old lady was practically dead as Ashley had full control now.

Ashley may have died, along with Muffy, in Hack/Slash Annual 2010: Murder Messiah issue as the Neflords used their powers and Muffy's womb to create Stillborn. Ironically, Stillborn fails in his mission to kill Cassie and is literally torn apart by fans when he murdered a teen idol.