#ONC2026 PROMPT 120. You survive a werewolf bite because your blood carries a rare, deadly condition that poisons them, and now you hunt werewolves by letting them bite you. Edwina Dawley, a rational wildlife biologist, enters the forest to study wolves and emerges with her reality shattered after surviving an attack by a massive wolf that transforms into a man. This encounter fractures her belief in the ordinary world, leading her to the ancient Order Sapientae Antiquae, which tracks her blood anomaly-an obscure condition lethal to werewolves. She becomes a hunter, using her body as a weapon, but as her reputation grows, so does her isolation. Her closest friend, Graham, begins to see the Order's hidden violence, while Darnell Key, the Order's mentor, recognizes Edwina's potential as a stabilizing force. Everything changes when Randolf, an ancient werewolf, chooses her and bites her, binding their fates together. Their intense connection ignites a love that challenges everything Edwina thought she understood. Caught between the safety of her old life, the allure of order, and a forbidden love, Edwina must choose her identity: scientist or myth, weapon or woman. As the Order tightens its grip and the world approaches exposure, she navigates a new role-neither prey nor predator-rewriting the rules with blood, choice, and consequence.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾𖤓 ⋆⁺₊⋆ I walk down the corridor, the smell of cleanliness and order like a foreign smell to me. It jars my mind. It's not the only thing that's jarring. There's my side, of course, my throbbing head ache, and we can't forget my ruined leg. But I'm whining too much. I wonder where he is. That little shit. Left me bleeding out in the hold. Brain feels woozy again. I jab myself with my final pack of stims. It takes a moment for it to work, but soon my hands feel fidgety and my mind painfully sharper again. Ugh. Wait-- where's my weapons? Did I drop them? I look back and see nothing, then look at my trembling hands. They're sheet white. Fuck. I slump down onto my knees, and gravity does the rest of the job of bringing me flat onto the smooth, white floors. ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾𖤓 ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾𖤓 ⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾𖤓 ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⚠ Trigger Warnings: ⚠ PLEASE READ!! ⚠ - Sexism - Violence - Self harm - Gore/graphic descriptions - Cussing/offensive content - Mentions of drugs/drug use ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾𖤓 ⋆⁺₊⋆ Entry for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Prompts 80 & 97 used: "Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds." & "When the world slips into endless darkness, something begins to move in the shadows and you must find a way to survive in a night that never ends."

ONC 2026, Prompt 78: You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems ONGOING! Couture Magazine: the most prestigious fashion publication in the world, where hemlines are sacred, deadlines are deadly, and the coffee runs are... surprisingly literal. Every intern who walks through those gleaming Manhattan doors dreams of landing a full-time position-complete with vision, dental (including twice-yearly cleanings), and an endless supply of designer clothes fresh off the runway. Sure, the demands from editors, photographers, and even the notoriously temperamental writers can be exhausting. But an intern's day at Couture is pretty ordinary, right? WRONG. Alcide Lancaster is about to discover that his summer internship working for the iconic-yet-terrifying Ellen Montclaire comes with a few... unexpected job requirements. Like why he and a select few employees-including the formidable Editor-in-Chief herself-are the only ones taking mandatory two-hour lunch breaks. Why his thirty-to-fifty-something coworkers look suspiciously athletic, eerily youthful, and are borderline obsessed with eyewear that definitely isn't just a fashion statement. And why A-list celebrities who stop by the Couture offices seem less interested in the magazine's latest cover shoot and oddly fascinated with Alcide himself. But most importantly... What does any of this have to do with Alcide's late family, their disturbingly narrow worldview, and the real reason they wanted him out of their lives forever? All excellent questions for a young man trying to survive a summer packed with Fashion Week chaos, superpowered coworkers who treat the office like their personal runway, and a boss who's less Anna Wintour and more fierce-but-loving grandmother. Between navigating new friendships, an unexpected romance, and enough secrets to fill an entire September issue, Alcide is about to learn that in the world of high fashion... Not everything is just an illusion.

What starts as a routine deal quickly becomes a grotesque comedy of errors, where competence is rare, coincidence reigns, and nobody fully understands what's happening-least of all the people with guns.

What if you woke up with no memory but just a name? What if that name belonged to a dead man who left you a voicemail from beyond the grave? What if a scar on your palm opened doors to a magic library where memories are currency and you have to trade pieces of yourself just to learn who you used to be? What if everyone wants something from you, some to save you, some to erase you, some because they loved you in a life you can't remember? And what if the only person with all the answers is dead? Waiting for you to find him. This is Kang Yeorim's story. And it starts with a dead man's voice in her ear, "I loved you more than the sky loved the dawn." --- [A huge thank you to the artist for this stunning Taehyung painting used as my cover art. No copyright infringement intended, this is a non-profit fan work made with love. All credits to the actual artist.]

An orphan on the run from her past. A mysterious orb. A guild of thieves. A princess. A prophecy. Love and betrayal. A kingdom in need of a hero. Or a heroine.

Edmund comes to the remote village of Black Thickett to escape the life grief has carved out of him. He wants silence. Distance. A place where memories can't follow. But Black Thickett is wrong in quiet, unsettling ways. The broken road becomes perfectly smooth the moment he crosses the boundary. The cottages are too neat, too deliberate. And on a noticeboard full of dry flyers, only one poster is wet. A missing boy, smiling as if he doesn't know he's lost. The villagers won't talk about the disappearances. The forest at the edge of the village seems to breathe, and the deeper Edmund goes, the calmer he feels... dangerously calm. The forest can quiet his pain. It can ease his grief. It can make him forget. But not everything that heals you wants you to survive. Welcome to Black Thickett, where you'll find my entry into the ONC 2026.

Love cannot live where there is no trust. | Taha Kingdom is abuzz with excitement. The most eligible maiden of the realm, Lady Nihina, is set to marry the chief of Dayu. However, on the day that she is to meet her betrothed, an ominous rumor about him reaches her doorstep. Then a curse befalls her, stealing her identity as a beloved socialite and turning her into a mere nomad struggling to traverse the Kalbar Woods. She has to return to Taha and find a way to undo the curse. She believes that her betrothed, a reputable man and renowned warrior, could help her achieve this. But Lahasi, the kind and astute nature spirit she encounters on her journey, thinks otherwise. He senses that not everything is as it seems. And he feels that recklessly breaking a curse meant to save the kingdom might lead to Nihina's very downfall. (Written for prompt 39 of the 2026 Open Novella Contest.)

Riah has spent her life in and out of the system. Gray wouldn't know hardship if it smacked him in the face. Unlikely friends. Even more unlikely lovers. Fate crossed. Life-deverting choices. Time changes who you are, but can it change the truth of your heart? *** My entry for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Prompt: "Staying as friends feels safe, but it doesn't mean it's the path you're meant to take."

She's trapped in the past, and he's always looking ahead. ~*~ After her fiancé Travis dies in a storm, Candace Peyton receives a voicemail from him sent after his confirmed time of death. Clinging to his impossible message and lost in memories of their lifelong love story, she isolates herself in grief. Only by connecting with Travis's brother and uncovering painful family secrets does Candace begin to understand the man she lost and find the strength to build the future he wanted for her. *** (Prompt 90: You receive a voicemail from someone you love, recorded one hour after their confirmed death). Wired for the Open Novella Contest 2026