[ONC 2021 WINNER: 3rd place] When a car accident reveals a shocking secret even he didn't know about himself, an android finds himself hunted by his own husband. BioSynth is one half of a duology of novellas. Both follow the same sequence of events from different PoVs. BioSynth is Quentin's tale; SynTracker is Ian's. Collectively, they're known as Syn. ≡≡≡ Photographer Quentin Morgan has almost everything he could ask for. With a dream job that takes him all over the world, married to the love of his life for the past eight years, it's only his husband's line of work that leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Ian is a SynTracker, someone who hunts down BioSynths - obsolete yet incredibly dangerous synthetic self-aware weapons that can pass as humans - and returns them to the government, to be reprogrammed and repurposed. Quentin finds the job distasteful, but Ian says they're weapons, and weapons don't weep. A car crash that could have killed Quentin reveals the shocking truth: he, himself, is a BioSynth. Hurt, scared, and now hunted by the man he loves, who thinks him an impostor, Quentin is thrown into a suddenly hostile world, where the stakes are his very existence. ≡≡≡ BioSynth was written for the Open Novella Contest 2021 and is based on prompt #4: You're a weapon, and weapons don't weep. It features a romance between two men. ≡≡≡ ONC Winner: 3rd Place ONC Round One Ambassador Pick Speculative Fiction Awards, Sci-Fi Category: Winner

[ONC 2021 Grand Winner] After the events of Ragnarök, the God Vidar has settled in the nice and quiet city of Antwerp where he keeps an eye on the local paranormal community. Nearly a millennium later, Vidar is a grumbling bookstore owner by day and a lazy paranormal detective by night (albeit a slightly furry one during a full moon). The morning after a particularly rough transition, the young teenage girl who normally wastes her days on the skatepark across the street enters his shop, fervently looking for a book on the legend of Brabo and Antigonus. As she struggles to pay, she reveals that the bronze giant has disappeared from the statue on the town square. At the foot of the fountain now lies a body that has been dead for three hundred years. Prompts chosen: (25) The war has ended, and thus the immortals return to their natural state: forgotten, hiding in the shadows until humankind is in need of them once more. They did not expect to be stumbled upon by a young farm apprentice. (*) (60) Rumours of a mysterious dark force under the earth have spread around the city. You are sent to investigate. (*) To fit the plot I have in mind, the young farm apprentice will become a bookstore "apprentice"

{ONC2021 2nd Place Overall, Round Two Ambassador Picks & Shortlist} When Max O'Brien receives an almond with a skull painted on it, he initially plays it off as a prank. But, after his wife leaves town, he begins discovering more of the nuts hidden around the house. More disturbing than that is that some unseen intruder is keeping an accurate running count. The more almonds Max finds, the stranger things get. Mysterious noises. Moving Objects. Damaged valuables. It's a haunting that grows in power with each success in the involuntary scavenger hunt. As the almonds pile up so do the threats until Max realizes he may just not survive. __________ ONC2021 Prompt 62 Cover by @mensemortuis 1st Place in Horror/Paranormal - The Opulence Writer's Awards Also posted on Royal Road

Cover by: @glueckschmerz PREQUEL TO STARFALL MATURE THEMES WITHIN. Keren, the youngest son of a crime family boss, wants nothing but to escape the life his family is a part of. When there is no other choice, all you have left to turn to is family. For there is no escape for the unfortunate many, and no escape without scars for the lucky ones.

Duchess Andreya Marivatan was murdered at the age of twenty-two. It was during the hours the pool of night was deepest, Andreya soundlessly asleep in silk sheets behind the curtains of her elegant canopy bed. By the time she awoke to a noise, the deed had already been done and her sheets dripped with a deep vermillion stain. That was the first time Andreya met death, and it would not be the last. The death that knew everyone did not know Andreya - not even so much as her name - and because of it Andreya could not die. So she survived and forgot, the stains on her bedsheets becoming naught but a dream. It took many years for Andreya to realize she had not grown a day older since she had died, however, and that in a society where status is dictated by age, it would not be long before she had visitors on her doorstep asking questions she did not know how to answer. The reason behind her youthful features. The explanation behind her lack of scars. Andreya Marivatan was an impossible woman who wanted nothing more than to have died the night she was killed, and Andreya Marivatan was determined to get her wish. ❉ ❉ ❉ - First draft: COMPLETE & EDITING (all suggestions welcome :>) - Shortlister in the Open Novella Contest 2021: prompts 22, 57, 62, 66, 71, and 87. Main prompt 66. - Featured Ambassador's pick: @WattpadDarkFantasy "Dark Desires" list - Highest ranking: 64 in #darkfantasy, 4/26/2021 - 1st place in Historical Fiction, Coral Awards 2021

Jacob's life was supposed to go down a straight path. He had a beautiful fiancee, a well-paying job, a cool house, nice cars. Everything was perfect. But then his ex returned. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, he could just tell her to back off. Simple, right? No. Not when his hand could go through her body. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ONCAfrica 2021 first runner up! Featured on the official AmbassadorsNG account here on Wattpad! #20 in paranormal romance-February 2021 ©AOFunke 2021

1969. It was the year of Manson's helter-skelter, the year we put a man on the moon, and the year two strangers watched the world end in a mushroom cloud of nuclear war. 1966. This was a much better year. Well, for everyone except twenty-two-year-old Annie Edwards. Because it was the year she first saw the blonde-haired boy in her dreams. And although she believed in science, her gut told her these visions might somehow be connected to bizarre experiments happening on campus. As Annie and the mystery man known as Dimitri watch the world erupt in their dreams, they realize that the only way to save their countries, and the world, from nuclear destruction is to work together. They'll uncover the powers of dreams and nightmares, delve into hallucinogenics and insanity, and blur the line between the waking world and their subconscious. A race to space, a delusion of mind control, and the end of the world. Welcome to an experiment in dreams, drugs and war. -.. .-. . .- -- ... / -.. .-. ..- --. ... / .-- .- .-. inspired by prompts: "𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚗𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎." - #𝟼𝟿 "𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖." - 𝙴𝚍𝚐𝚊𝚛 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚗 𝙿𝚘𝚎 - #𝟹𝟸 -.. .-. . .- -- ... / -.. .-. ..- --. ... / .-- .- .-. published: 24/02/2021 highest ranking: ---

Halloween party! Sounds fun, right? It is. Until the humans in ghostly costumes don't turn out to be ghosts in reality. ******* Emily, Hannah, and Grace are three ordinary girls studying in an art institute in Vancouver, Canada, struggling to pursue their dreams. But what if they are compelled to visit a party and play a stupid Murder game? Well, Halloween games are supposed to be fun. Why would this be any different? The game begins with a series of events leading its players to situations where they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. What will happen if this game proceeds further than it should be? What will Emily, Hannah, or Grace do? Will they enjoy being a part of what seems a game but is actually the beginning of a series of crimes? Are you ready to experience Halloween thrills with Emi, Hannah, and Grace?

Hayley Clarke was doing so well. Her secret was deeply buried. Nobody suspected a thing and that was how she would very much prefer to keep it. Unfortunately, things did not seem to go her way when a deadly virus began wreaking havoc upon the world. When the Mutant Hemorrhagic Fever (MHF) infected someone she held close to her heart, Hayley was forced to confront the very past she worked so hard to hide. 💫 My Open Novella Contest 2021 submission 💫 Prompt #3 "When the world's superheroes are struck down with a deadly and mysterious illness, it's time for the next generation of heroes to save the day."

He's never been one to break the rules, much less get in trouble with the law. But after receiving a mysterious message at the airport, Claude Wintsor finds himself in an unimaginable situation. He is forced to complete six, high-crime jobs in exchange for his freedom. The one catch: Claude has only twenty-four hours to complete the tasks. And failure to do so could cost him his life. #ONC2021 Prompts: Your job is to track down vigilantes and infiltrate their groups, with the aim of gathering information and turning them in to the authorities. You're successful at your job, until one day, a group of vigilantes changes everything. (Prompt 6) 'Your safety is of the utmost importance to us' is displayed on the handwritten parchment letter thrown into your hands previously. "Yeah, sure, except there is someone that just died a few minutes ago!" (Prompt 49) * ONC 2021 Round One Ambassador's Pick * ONC 2021 Longlister ONC Milestone Road Map: 11:00 p.m. - the day before: 2,278 (2k) 3:00 a.m. - 9,689 (8k) 1:00 p.m. - 21,026 (20k) 11:00 p.m. - 33,801