At some point, we all step into a forest without realizing it. For some, it is a season of doubt. For others, it is loneliness, responsibility, faith, identity, or the quiet weight of becoming who we are meant to be. This is not a story about perfection. It is a story about confusion. About growth. About losing certainty and discovering something deeper in its place. Inspired by the idea that sometimes we must lose our way to find ourselves, Brief Flames follows a journey through expectation, leadership, faith, rejection, and the quiet battles no one sees. Into the forest I went - not knowing I would leave different. Submitted for the Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompt 16 - "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul." #ONC2026 #ONC16

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.

My feet go down to death. © taryn OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 prompts 45 & 78.

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf swordsman with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

She is sent to kill the dragon. Instead, she might become his only salvation. *** In a world swallowed by the Ever-Dark, Iva Vernigora is nothing more than a lowly servant in the house of the cruel Voivode Yakub Ivanov, Duke of Highroot. But when Voivode blackmails her with the lives of her parents, Iva is forced to pretend she's his daughter, as she infiltrates the royal academy of magic - Kolegium. Voivode Yakub's order is absolute: poison the Prince Konstantin Veliki. Prince Konstantin is the heir to the throne, the last of the line of Dragons - a Zmey warrior of light, who was blessed with a dragon-shifting gift. At a first glance, he is nothing but a smug, pompous royal, and everything Iva is supposed to hate. Yet every touch, and every shared lesson at Kolegium blurs the line between the enemy she must kill and the man she is beginning to crave. While Iva stalks her prey as a knife in the dark, waiting for the chance to extinguish Konstantin's light, she discovers that the dragon everyone fears is the only thing standing between humanity and the void. As the Ever-Dark Shades rise, Iva must make an impossible choice. Will she carry out her sinister orders and secure her parents' freedom, or will she stand by the Dragon in the battle for the world's last light? *** The Shades are coming. The Dragons are falling. And the Eternal Spark is waiting for its host. © 2026 EvelynHail Exclusively on Wattpad Based on prompts: 97. "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." 4. "You discover that the dragon everyone fears is in danger, and you are the only one who can save it from the knight sworn to slay it ."

A year ago, Carter DuBois plunged the world into an endless night, the remnants of his army made of sinister shapeshifters still lingering in the shadows as mankind fights for survival. In a last-ditch effort to reverse the damage he caused, Harper Jones visits Carter in prison just hours before his execution to offer him life in return for lifting the darkness, but he maintains his innocence. When Harper touches him, she's transported to a parallel dimension in the past. Now, she has to race against time to uncover the truth to save not only her own world but this dimension as well. Is Carter a scapegoat or is he the criminal mastermind everyone has made him out to be? If she gets it wrong, all will be lost, and that the Carter of this dimension is her husband doesn't make her quest any easier. ~~~~ This is my ONC 2026 entry based on the following prompts: #64: You touch someone who is accused of a crime and are suddenly transported to a different time and dimension. To return home, you must uncover the truth behind the accusation. But if your final judgment is wrong, you will carry the consequences yourself. #97: 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. ~~~~ © Sal Mason/Fire Rose 2026

I infiltrated the Thunder Devils motorcycle gang to find my best friend Rene. Agreeing to the bank heist was my expedited chance to gain the leader's trust. A hostage was never part of the plan, especially not one who turns into Alexei Sabanov, the most feared crime lord in the city. Warnings: 🌶️ High Heat Level (all scenes market and skipable) 🤬 Swearing ☠️ Touch Her & Die 💓 Dangerous Love 💋 A domineering, broody love interest who is hot and larger than life (but might deserve love) 😈 Dark Humor Read with caution! ~~~~ This is my ONC 2026 entry based on the following prompt: #51: While in search for a missing friend, you accidentally kidnap the most feared crime lord. ~~~~ © Sal Mason/Fire Rose 2026

For Three hundred years, the Veil has divided the five realms, each bound to its own sovereign key and forbidden from crossing into another. In the High Kingdom of Peleria, Princess Olympia Lowther has been raised to believe her twin sister died the night the barriers rose. But far beyond the palace walls, Piper Lowther has grown up in another realm unaware of her royal blood-until the Veil bends at her touch. When the sisters are drawn together, they discover a truth powerful enough to fracture kingdoms: they are the one key said to open them all. As the imprisoned witch Sabith Crowler stirs beneath Solmire Palace, Piper and Olympia must decide whether to preserve the world as it is-or risk everything to break it.

A covert government operative sent to surveil a famous footballer accidentally becomes the nanny to his six-year-old son, forcing her to choose between completing the mission that could destroy him or protecting the unexpected family she has begun to love. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Anna Sumer has always craved freedom. That hunger is what led her into the shadows, working as a covert field operative for a little-known government agency. Officially, she gathers intelligence. Unofficially, she removes problems. Pulled from a coveted assignment in the Congo, Grace is reassigned to Paris to surveil the family of Hermes Mansi, an international football (soccer) star whose career is tightly controlled by a powerful and corrupt league that profits from obedience. Grace is told to watch him. To observe. To wait. What she does not expect is a twist of fate that places her inside his home, hired accidentally as the nanny to his six-year-old son, Drax. Under the safest cover imaginable, Grace enters Hermes' life with one objective, gather evidence and prepare for a quiet takedown. But the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to remember where the mission ends and her feelings begin. As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Grace must choose between completing her assignment or protecting the fragile and unexpected family she has found. ◈ ◈ ◈ This novella was written for the Open Novella Contest 2026, based on Prompt #33: "It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened."

The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!