Onc2026 Stories

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!

There are strange creatures in the water - and TEMPEST RAERIR is tasked with keeping them there. The gods have long since abandoned the Queendom of Khaedel, letting monsters of the deep plague the land with sickness and death. She defends the shores and kills anything that dares to step onto the sand. When one of the queens of Khaedel - Tempest's mentor - falls ill, her duty switches to saving who she cares about most. And she just might be the key to saving everyone. The deeper you go into the Arnstar Ocean, the more powerful the creatures become, and THE WARDEN'S duty is to keep them all in line. For centuries, the magic keeping the most depraved monsters at bay has been waning. Now that cracks have cut through the surface, the Warden faces no choice but to obtain the help of the beings that despise them the most. Tempest and the Warden must band together and venture as far down into the Arnstar Ocean as they can to seal the fissures. Only, getting there might not be as easy as they thought. Can they survive the battles with the leviathans that lurk in the darkness? Or will they prove the gods right that the land is hopeless? ONGOING 2026 © -DeeIsDead-

When a 23 years old astrophysics graduate student Elara Veras received a letter written in her own handwriting that was dated twenty years in the future, she assumed that it was just a cruel prank. Not until the letter revealed some secrets that no one else know-secrets about her research. About a catastrophic solar anomaly predicted to strike Earth in two decades. And about Aeron Myers-the brilliant quantum engineer that she's just fallen in love with. According to her future self, Aeron is the key to save the humanity... and the trigger that will destroy it. Now, Elara must decide: Trust the man she loves, or trust the woman she will become. Because twenty years later, only one version of her must survive.

11. The daughter of the most powerful witch is nothing like her mother. Young King Feren Faetcastel of Kypelaize is in quite the pickle. His ancestor's philandering and dynastic views left him without a prestigious enough yet unrelated potential bride to silence his critics-or the demons in his own mind. The option his inner council gave him was to marry the bug girl. How could he learn to love her more than those who haunt him? Meliza Atwater held a Baronet's title by her own might as a mage, but it was both a more difficult set of skills to wield than her deceased mother's and unproven. To make matters worse, she didn't hold much respect for those who inherited titles, starting with her own missing older half-brother. This contemporary of hers has the power to order their marriage without the room to object, yet still give her the freedom to rebel against anything but himself. Which becomes necessary with locusts, true rebellions, dark rivals, and continental fears of a witchblood on any throne. Would it be too much for her to ask herself if she could come to like him, in due time?

Aprendí a no destacar. A hablar poco, a observar mucho a existir sin hacer ruido. En la escuela, sobrevivir se parece demasiado a desaparecer. No siempre fui así. Hubo un tiempo en el que intenté ser visible, y salió mal. Desde entonces mi mundo se volvió más pequeño, más controlado, más seguro. Todo cambia , el día que alguien nuevo llega al colegio. No hace nada extraordinario. No me miras de una forma especial. Solo habita el mundo de una manera que reconozco. Poco a poco descubro que compartimos algo que nunca supe cómo nombrar. Gestos silenciosos, forma de sentir que no necesitan explicación. Tal vez no se trata de encajar. Tal vez se trata de encontrar a alguien que hablé, por fin, en el mismo idioma.

Cuando la misión de tres agentes de inteligencia se convierte en una trampa mortal, Seok debe tomar una decisión devastadora: encerrarla para salvarla. Pero el fuego arrasa con todo, llevándose a Meira. Él la creyó perdida, pero ella sobrevive, creyendo que él la abandonó. Ahora, el pasado los alcanzará.

Dwarka, 36 years after the Mahabharata War, Urmisha, a princess living in the city of Dwarka, a city protected by Lord Krishna himself, receives a strange prophecy about her home drowning within a week. At first, she dismisses the warning as a joke. Then her son witnesses a dangerous curse in action that makes her reconsider. The native citizens of Dwarka were the powerful Yadavs, people who commanded divine weapons. With the pilgrimage to Prabhasa approaching, the city was in a celebratory mood. Urmisha found it difficult to find a person who took the warning seriously enough to assess the truth of it. Then another tragedy struck that made Urmisha sure that catastrophe was knocking at the door. With no other solution in sight, she fares into the dangerous waters to seek the one person who could have the answers. The only person who she believed could save Dwarka from the sea. Lord Krishna himself. From the Prompt 94 of ONC 2026: At the seashore, you discover a message in a bottle foretelling a catastrophe that will strike in one week. The note gives specific instructions to prevent it and warns that you must tell no one.

When Emma (English) McMaster accepts a last-minute position as an 8th-grade English teacher, she doesn't expect her rival to be her mentor. She makes a bet with him that will establish once and for all who is the better teacher. But how can she win when Jonathan always seems one step ahead?

In life Nothing is quite what it seems. Through the years and the challenges of life this women realises that she choose to become a mother, a wife, a drug addicted, a survivor of domestic violance, a women. She realise she didnt know she choose... She didnt want to choose alle that... Then why she did...?

You will meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some will leave footprints on your heart. onc 2026. prompt 29 (main), 19, and 78

Irene is living her personal hell after an accident that happened three years ago before Christmas, she survived with minor injuries but her boyfriend Elijah died. Now she's stuck living in his house without him, working in his family office and she's being eaten alive by secrets she's hiding from his family, especially from Elijah brother Nathaniel for whom she has conflicting feelings. Did she take the right decision that day or would her life have changed for the better if she'd told the truth now? Could she live happily without running away?

Kidnapping a crime lord is easy. Don't believe me?? I actually did it and my actions are proof. How, you ask? Completely by accident. But this isn't my time to flex something as trivial as such. My friend is in trouble and I should save her. And if it means plunging myself into danger first hand? So be it. But the fact that I just got help from this so called kidnappee? That's when the playground changes. PROMPT: 51. While in search of a missing friend, you accidentally kidnap the most feared crime lord.

It arrives before the sirens. Before the emergency alerts. Before the sky splits open with fire. When civilization collapses in a single night, Alex retreats to the only thing he had dedicated his life to - only to discover he is not alone. The cat has followed him underground. As days stretch into something unrecognizable, the bunker becomes a chamber of memory and doubt. The cat listens to sounds Alex cannot hear. It stares at ceilings before aftershocks and strikes. In a world reduced to ash, and with systems and supplies dwindling, survival is no longer the only question. Some warnings come too late. Other warnings shouldn't be ignored. ---------------------------------------------------------- This is my official entry for the 2026 Open Novella Contest! It is based on prompt #98: You never imagined the end of the world would begin with a one-eared black cat showing up at your door. The first milestone is achieved near the end of chapter 2. In total, chapters 1 and 2 are 2,247 words combined.

Where magic intersects with life, Ren is an unwilling planter whose magnificent garden is full of his failures. When his attempt at confessing to his crush leads to the sight of an unexpected guest hidden in the flowers he was going to give, Ren is tugged along on a fantastical quest to an odd little village that only exists on rainy days to not just break the curse of the finger-sized prince who's deemed Ren his friend, but to also break free from Ren's own wretched connection to mistakes. Along the way, he may just come to realize the power of not just unbridled love, but also love for oneself and just how beautifully it can blossom into something worth saving. Amidst secrets, ticking time, tall tales with hints of truth, and a forest worth dying in, perhaps this time around, Ren won't add to his flowers of failures. Not if he can help it. Love can bloom, too, after all, right? ( Open Novella Contest 2026 )

It's more than a game. Cal never imagined the end of the world would begin with a one-eared black cat showing up at the door. But it did. *2026 Open Novella Contest. Based on Prompt #98.

Bee's life is sort of stable: she has a flat, a bipolar diagnosis she's getting a handle on. Well, as much as possible, when her reckless and unruly personality shines through. Theo - her childhood neighbour, moral compass, and lifelong critic - has moved back into the apartment across the courtyard. Now he's in her bar. In her kitchen. In her friend group. And, judging by the way he pointed at the window last night, extremely aware of which bedroom is hers. They've spent the last decade living separate lives on purpose. Different cities, different people, one annual birthday party where they confirm they're still wildly incompatible and leave again. But Theo isn't leaving this time. And apparently, neither is the possibility of whatever they've spent ten years avoiding. Prompt: You will meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some will leave footprints on your heart.

Amaury's debt is to be the Soul Reaper of one hundred souls to the keeper and master of his own. With Nilly, his assistant, he sets off to reap that final soul. But there's a catch. How can a lost puppy end up freeing the Soul Reaper and bringing the puppy's owner true happiness? Lorrie's lonely life is about to change with a chance encounter, brought about by her escape artist of a puppy, and someone who isn't entirely human. Entered into the ONC2026 contest based on the following two prompts. #65: On the way to collect a soul, the grim reaper is distracted by a stray puppy. Instead of completing the task, he decides to find the puppy's owner, much to the frustration of his assistant. #52: You're on a first date when you suddenly realize the person sitting across from you isn't entirely human.

Noah Hunter is a loner. He was never apart of any the pockets of shield-protected cities, preferring to survive on his own in the endless wasteland of No Man's Land. But after an injury leaves him in the care of New Baltimore, he doesn't have much of a choice. But when an attack destroys the shields protecting the city, Noah offers to go along with another man named Jack to find the right materials to restore it. Jack is mysterious, often in his own world, but Noah can't help but be drawn to him, anyway. But there's also a darker part of himself unable to truly run away from the thing hunting him. There's dangers, much more than Noah's used to, ahead. But, he has a city to save. [#ONC2026]

En una ciudad donde los hombres arriesgan todo por pactar con dragones, Junia siempre supo que su hermano seguiría el mismo camino que su padre: uno del que pocos regresan. Cuando su hermano desaparece tras partir al castillo del gran dragón Zeros, ella decide romper las reglas que han mantenido a las mujeres al margen del poder y va en su búsqueda. Al llegar, descubrirá que el líder del clan Zarco no es quién promete ser. Junia se verá enfrentada a secretos que podrían desestabilizar el equilibrio que ha mantenido en paz a la ciudad durante los últimos años, teniendo que elegir entre el equilibrio o seguir en la búsqueda de su hermano. En un mundo donde los pactos prometen poder a cambio de un precio incierto, Junia deberá decidir hasta dónde está dispuesta a llegar para salvar a sus seres queridos... y qué está dispuesta a sacrificar cuando el fuego de los dragones deja de ser protección y se convierte en amenaza.

82. You are in love with someone living and someone long dead, neither one is willing to let you go. Princess Akira becomes the Heir of Mielor after the untimely death of her twin brother Damien. Instead of his soul passing on to the afterlife, he stays in this one, determined to looking after her. Then one day, an old enemy knocks at her doorstep, someone who'd hurt her brother three years ago in a war. But he comes not as an adversary, but to seek help. Can Damien learn to trust his sister with her own life and let go? Can Christopher and Akira find common ground and work together to help Esther free itself from the evil? Read on to find out.