Onc2024 Stories

Magic runs thick in the veins of every creature in the woods of Iryndor, in one twisted way or another. It could be beautiful, it could be benign. It could be breathtakingly evil. Rhae has lived in these enchanted woods all her life, a loyal member of the Sisters of Breath. She is familiar with the cold winters, and the looming threat of what lurks in the dark. But one day, she finds something else: a stranger, lacking the ever-present hum of power that hums through her own veins. Though at first wary, Rhae is soon enthralled by his tales of the mundane and ordinary. But in a world of magic, there is no place for the earthly. While an enchanting tale of love and its strength, "A Melody of Ice" also provides a chilling reminder of betrayal's sting, and what it can awaken within us all. ONC 2024 entry under prompt #95. Cover images retrieved from Pixabay.

[EDITING] ONC2024 Longlister❤️ Using Prompt number 14 "My love, believe me, waiting for you has always been a form of freedom." Alexandra Vasiliu" A guy and a girl have been best friends since childhood, but their destiny parted them. The little girl had to move away with her parents. Years later, they meet again, but the bond of friendship still remains the same. But the young lad has realised that his affection has developed into love, but, he's scared to express his feelings. However, he also feels that the girl has changed a lot. She cares more about money and herself than before. His love remains unwavering and he proposes to her, but she rejects him. He decides to wait for her, letting her take her sweet time. In the meantime, he's always there, supporting her, and scolding her for her bad deeds. He's continually showing her the path of truth, but she's not looking back. He also learns about her past, which has changed her personality. He wants to change things for her, only if she is ready. Slowly, with time, things happen and she realises that she's been trapped in her own net. She realises her mistakes and her best friend forgives her, as they walk through the aisle, starting a new life.

'There was a stain on the floor that used to be a vampire, and Aaron Evans was starting to feel like he really wasn't being paid enough.' ***** Aaron is only in Supernatural Investigations for the pay. It's stressful and dangerous, and he's certain it's aging him beyond his years. When the remains of a high-ranking vamp from London's most powerful underground gang show up on his turf, even the excellent pay seems like poor recompense for trying to prevent all-out war in his city. All he has to work with are his wits, some stolen evidence, and an enigmatic vampire investigator who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Nikolai Meier is surly, uncooperative, but frustratingly competent, so Aaron has no choice but to make it work. But Nikolai has secrets, and those secrets may prove just as deadly as failure. *** #ONC2024 Entry for Prompt 56: 'In a world where humans and magical creatures coexist, a detective must solve a murder case that threatens to plunge the two communities into war.' Cover Artwork is my own.

| ONC 2024 SHORTLIST | Nikolas Hoffman just wants to lay low. After coming out as transgender in high school, he made a vow to draw as little attention to himself as possible, diving headfirst into his work as a copy editor as soon as he graduated college. Now, Nikolas has finally decided to give himself a much-needed vacation to a small beach-side town in upstate California. However, everything takes a turn when an all-too-familiar face shows up at his hotel. Axel Reed is the well-known guitar player and lead singer of The Kissing Teeth - and just so happens to be Nikolas' ex-friend. Much to the latter's dismay, Axel has a nasty habit of drawing crowds of paparazzi everywhere he goes and is always down for a little mischief. It's safe to say that Nikolas' vacation just got interesting. ◦✭◦ Written for ONC 2024. Keep in mind that since this is a contest entry, this is an unedited draft and, as such, there may be some grammatical errors I've missed. This story was inspired by the following prompts: (Main Prompt) 9. After some long months of working harder than ever, you finally get to your well deserved vacation getaway but when you arrive at the hotel there is this one star that brings all the paparazzi and trouble with them and makes your vacation a one to remember. 8. You start singing along to a movie soundtrack late at night forgetting that your window is open. Someone from the outside starts singing with you. 33. A broken heart beats with all its pieces. And it still wants the same person. Word count: 29,030 words Current status: Shortlister

~The Wattys 2025 Shortlist~ ~ONC 2024 Honourable Mention~ ~~~ Alaric, the King of Silmarea, recently married to his beloved husband, needs an heir of his own blood to secure the throne. With the help of Emrys, his court magician and best friend, he recalls his youthful escapades and discovers a daughter he once had with a woman he had loved in The World Beyond The Stones (our world). He sends an unlikely but trusted trio on a quest to find her and bring her home-- a brooding dragon shifter and Highlander who owes him a favor, a dashing elf whom he loves like the son he never had, and a loyal, kindhearted dwarf, the elf's best friend. Alaric, the last scion of the old gods, weary of ruling the country and ready to retire and enjoy his love life, doesn't know that this quest will bring much more than he ever bargained for, setting in motion events plotted by the destiny that will challenge his kingdom and legacy. ~~~ Cover: My own picture.

Hope is as rare as water in a kingdom of sun-scorched sands and ancient walls. Princess Ilaria of Sigyn is poised to secure peace for her desert kingdom through an arranged marriage to Prince Godred, the ruler of a rival land. But when a shadowy assassin nearly takes her life, her plans-and her trust in those around her-crumble like desert dust. Forced into hiding on the distant island of Zospery, she finds herself under the protection of Lord Alaric Voss, a man as cold and unyielding as the sea cliffs that guard his home. Alaric is known as the Devil of the Spire, a relentless warrior with a reputation for cruelty and a heart as closed off as the fortress he commands. Yet, beneath his rigid exterior lies a past scarred by loyalty and loss, and he'll do whatever it takes to keep the princess alive-even if it means standing against the forces that seek to silence her forever. As enemies close in and the line between duty and desire blurs, Ilaria must confront a harsh truth: her greatest danger may not be the assassins lurking in the shadows, but the man who stands beside her, guarding secrets that could shatter everything she's fought to protect. But the more she learns about the unyielding knight, the more she sees glimpses of a depth that calls to her, even as her own resolve hardens into something far less forgiving. In the shifting sands of war and whispered betrayals, two souls clash-one desperate to keep hope alive, the other burdened by a past he cannot escape. And as threats loom from all sides, Ilaria and Alaric will have to decide whether they can truly trust one another... or if the secrets they keep will be the very things that tear them apart. -- COVER BY @-deeisdead- ONC 2024 SHORTLISTER

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ She wasn't meant to be in Mosukoshi. Hisashi works six days a week, making sure his tavern is always ready to serve the souls that visit for one final drink. Paid in silver, he eases their transition, providing comfort before they pass onto the afterlife. But when Momoko, a young girl with no recollection of her memory, appears one day at his tavern, questions arise about how a living human had managed to enter the land of limbo. Forced to be a guide, Hisashi takes Momoko under his wing, and the two set out on an adventure in search of answers about Momoko's arrival; all while Hisashi is forced to confront his own past. Journeying through the wondrous yet dangerous lands and waters of Mosukoshi, its up to Hisashi to help bring Momoko home, and find solace in his own history. ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ Hey, it's my first novel! Thank you so much for reading this. Cover credit to me! #ONC2024

[ONC2024 ENTRY] [COVER IN PROGRESS] Sixteen-year-old Fern was happy to be sent off to an innocuous boarding school, until she finds herself at the epicenter of strange events and the string of fate bonding her to the school. *** Monkeys, matrons, mattresses. Commonly unrelated to the average person, but students at Wailmouth would say differently. The impressive boarding school sits among swathes of green foliage whose simian residents are playful as they are unruly. As if their tailed neighbors aren't enough of a problem, the school's matrons seem dedicated to make their lives a living hell. The infamous Madam Matron rules with an iron fist, her unrelenting force intensified against the old mattresses they're forced to sleep on. Fern learns all this in barely a month of her enrolment into Wailmouth College. Her arrival, however, had sparked a chain of bizarre events within the gates of the school. Together with her friends, Fern investigates the connection between the peculiar incidents, and between Wailmouth and herself. *** Trigger warnings: Alluded teen pregnancy, animal abuse, violence, death

There is still a boy named Raziel; Son of Hades, slayer of Death. With two descendants of legends, he faces the great Hypnos' wrath. To journey to the underworld they must find Da Vinci's hidden work. And the sleeping army isn't the only threat in their path. -------------- Raziel West is entangled in the affairs of secret societies built on the foundations of Greek mythology. He must use his wits and demigod powers to come out victorious and find a doorway to the Underworld. Accompanied by his more-than-ordinary friends, Bryce and Queen, he journeys to the Underworld to face Hypnos and find out why Hades seems to be slacking on his duties. -----‐--------- *BOOK 2 in the SoH series. Based on ONC 2024 Prompt 61 Minor/secondary Prompt; Prompt 42

"Like a gem, her yield was strong. Like a bird, I fell into her trap. She's "Jezebel". Might as well add an 'hell (L)" to her name for the warning bells were loud..." - Nike Ekin, Just One Jezebel(L). ~ Boggled by the sibling therapy session he has with his sister, Nike decides to escape through work. As an investigative journalist who wants to make a name for himself, he sought to cover the secrets underlying the grassroots elections. A new project requiring commitment? He was up to the task. Unfortunately, he wasn't informed about the violence that comes with it. Nor the heartache. ~_~ Genre: Romantic thriller

When an orphaned, DACA, pre-med student with a secret gift and a fiery CEO with a legacy to protect are forced into a marriage of inconvenience, the Mayan Moon isn't the only thing causing turmoil. Roger Catzín, a pre-med student with a knack for healing wounds with a whisper and a touch, never imagined his nightly stroll under a blood-red moon would derail his life. But then again, Central Park has a reputation for surprises, and not all of them pleasant. Enter a dramatic old man with a cryptic message, and Roger's life flips from mundane to mystically entangled faster than you can say, Mayan Moon. On the other side of town, or more accurately, on the upscale side of life, Claire Williams navigates the corporate jungle with the grace of a seasoned CEO-a title she earned but now fears losing to the whims of fate, or worse, a grandfather who apparently moonlights as a matchmaker from beyond the grave. When Roger and Claire's worlds collide, courtesy of a will that reads more like a romantic comedy plot than a legal document, they find themselves legally bound in holy matrimony. Who said romance is dead? Mayan Moon is a novella that asks the important questions: Can a man who talks to the moon and a woman who commands the boardroom find common ground? Will they uncover the mystery behind the old man's attack and the secrets Chester Williams hid in his will? And most importantly, can two strangers fake a marriage without killing each other or, dare we say, falling in love? Dive into a story where magic is real, the moon is a guide, and love is... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Roger and Claire have enough on their plates trying to figure out why fate (or a very eccentric old man) decided they're a match made in legal documentation. Mayan Moon delivers laughs, gasps, and maybe, just maybe, a belief in the magic of the unexpected. Participant in the Open Novella Contest 2024 | Prompt: A midnight stroll and a meeting with a frantic stranger.

Entry for the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2024 For as long as they could remember, Ivan and Vixen have lived their whole lives in Oaksville, your typical town inhabited by folks repeating a menial cycle for decades with seemingly no hope for anything short of a white-collar job. People work, come home, rest, and the routine seemingly repeats for generations without any signs of stopping. The very definition of "Unexceptional" However, those bygone days would be cut short, and a dangerous game was about to be played. On a fateful night, that cycle is forever broken, and their lives can never be the same again as the town is seemingly terrorised by a serial killer involving sever particular victims with some sort of relation to both Ivan and Vixen. Ivan and Vixen must learn to keep their friends close, and enemies closer, as the killer plays a long-term scenario of cat and mouse with all proceeding clues leading to one dead end after another, and any eyewitness with clues to the killer's identity is hastily silenced. No one can help them but themselves, and the only lead they have is a proclamation from the killer written in bold "YOU ARE THE CENTRE STAGE" -- Cover made by @ClaraElisibeth

Aarna Rupa was dead, but not really. -- Waking up in the past after dying of cancer, Aarna found herself living in the year 3247 BCE--more than five thousand years ago, in the civilised land of India. After taking an oath to not disrupt their peace with her information about the 21st century CE, she had decided to live a quiet life, but that was until she stumbled upon a wide-eyed boy with dark skin--Madhava. But Madhava was not just any nineteen-year-old. He was a nineteen-year-old god.

[FIRST DRAFT] Wren Deisy, a young girl plagued with hallucinations and strange dreams, has just discovered that maybe they weren't all in her head. Wren has the ability to portal to another world. And she couldn't have been less prepared for her adventure in the Land of Dreams. __________________ "𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦," 𝘐 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘥. "𝘕𝘰, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨." "𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘰𝘥." 𝘈𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥. "𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳." __________________ This is my story for ONC 2024! Please enjoy! (NOT EVEN CLOSE TO DONE, STILL WRITING/EDITING!!!)

Four girls, one destiny: Hacker, Arsonist, Recluse, Thief. Cara, Siouxsie, Red and Jenna may appear to be ordinary teenage girls, but they're anything but. As delinquents, their paths collide when they're given up to an experimental juvenile rehabilitation program known as The Pandora Project. However, upon arrival, they quickly realize that things are not as they seem. Strange occurrences begin to unfold: bizarre tests, mandatory 'Vitamin' shots, timeslips, combat and weapons training. The girls soon discover that The Pandora Project has ulterior motives, far from the rehabilitation they were promised. Uncovering the truth only leads to more questions, putting their lives at risk. Could it be possible that the organization is turning troubled teens, unknowingly, into genetically modified super-powered assassins? And what fate awaits assets who dare to defy control? In a race against time, they must navigate the shadows of deceit, relying on the extensive training provided by the program to take it down. The stakes are high, and the girls are about to discover that their unique skills may be the key to exposing the dark secrets of Project Pandora. But will it be enough to survive?

**AVAILABLE ON AMAZON (Paperback AND e-book)** What will Elijah do when A-list movie star, Aria Sterling, crashes his well-earned vacation? As a lawyer fighting for the rights of LGBTQ youth, he doesn't have much sympathy for some spoiled actress who is trailed by paparazzi wherever she goes. But, surrounded by aggressive photogs, they'll realize they have more in common than first meets the eye.

A family curse. A forced marriage. A runaway bride. And a wayward son. After years of misfortune, luck has finally shown favor upon the Truvow family in the form of Count Reginald Drewmond, but his kindness comes at a cost. Estella Truvow discovers she must marry the count tomorrow morning, a man she has never met, if she wants to save her family from ruin. Estella has other plans and she isn't the only one. This novella is being written for ONC 2024 using prompt 88: "Your father is forcing you to marry someone you have never met. The night before your wedding you tie your sheets together and make your escape through the window. Half way down you make eye contact with someone doing the exact same thing a few windows over."

This is an entry for the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2024 Meet Blair, your average seamstress who works a thankless job sewing dresses for bachelorettes, weddings, and a plethora of other events in dire need of women in dresses. Her hopes and dreams are the same as all of us, owning a mortgage in hopes of affording a better place than her run-down, one-bedroom apartment. When a chance to afford a decent property with a down payment arises, how could she say no? Though unlike all of us, Blair is capable of seeing beyond the veils of our existential plane. She has seen the limbo of the dead, and what she saw has forever altered her life. She will soon discover that this house of hers is a cursed tomb of memories of it's past inhabitants' grudges and unfinished businesses. And she's not the only one... Cover by @MilaForLife

Lindsay Gowan had been planning a vacation for months and now that summer has arrived, meaning her daughter, Millie, would be spending it with her, her hard work has finally paid off. Determined to make this the best summer ever for Millie, and maybe to make up for the shared custody arrangement that has been taking a toll on her daughter, Lindsay ensures that nothing will come in the way of the perfect trip. Except the trip may not go as Lindsay planned when an unexpected guest at the same resort stirs up old feelings better left buried. Josie Hill has gotten to live the dream that her and Lindsay both dreamed of in their teen years, but she has been carrying around guilt, heartache, and trauma for the last fifteen years. Without the person who held a special place in her heart, her life has been less than desirable. However, a chance encounter brings them back together, but is a week enough time to set the record straight, heal old wounds, and maybe rekindle a flame that's died long ago? - - - ONC 2024 Entry. Based on prompt 9. Trigger warning: mention of abusive behavior.

The Horcades and the Horcanes are family names in a fairytale. Nobody thinks the present Horcades have any connection with it. People don't even believe the tale. The idea that the tale is based off a true story is only a speculation by few. However, the truth is scarier than people think. And when this tale turns out to have some truth in it, the Horcades realise that some stories are best when fictional.