"Excuse me, mister, but why did everything suddenly turn black and white?" A miserable adult who prefers to ignore everything, including their dying father. A concerned neighbor/friend/something more with curious connections. A taxi driver who doesn't bother to ask where the passenger wants to go. And a cat with unclear intentions. Where will this journey lead to, if anywhere? --------------------------------------------------------- • Based on prompt #9 of ONC. • Started: February 2, 2023 • Ended: November 15, 2023

| 𝟏𝟐𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 | An ex-gamer enters a virtual reality ruled by a rebel AI in order to rescue her younger sister and shut down the death game. * * * Eight years ago, Mori Fukutomi held the rank of number two player in the tactical hero shooter game SniperX. But fate and her parents had other plans and Mori now works as an accountant with her dreams of being a pro gamer long since buried. Games like SniperX are old relics in the face of virtual reality tech and their latest gem, Facing Fear--a simulation designed to analyze the psyche of its players and adapt itself accordingly, creating a safe terrain for players to take risks and discover themselves. Until FEAR, the AI governing the virtual world of Valor, decides the thing humanity fears most is death. Despite the rising death toll and Facing Fear closing its doors, when Mori discovers her sister Shiori is trapped in the game, she does the unthinkable. She goes in after her. But she'll soon discover they're not the only ones desperate to make it out alive and there are worse things in Valor than the monsters. There's more to FEAR than fear itself. ✧ 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 ✧ 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 ✧ 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 ✧ ─────────────────────────────────── Completed: 4-23-2023 Word Count: 35,000 - 40,000

#ONC2023 Shortlister Round 2 Winner Round 2 Ambassadors' Pick Princess Leia had a plan to end the war between humans and faeries. Sneak into the Land of Faerie and kill the prince. It would have been a good plan, if it wasn't for the prince already expecting her. Stuck as the Prince of Faerie's captive, Princess Leia must learn to survive in a territory completely unfamiliar to her. The Land of the Faeries was exactly as she thought it would be, like a terrible dream filled with magic and trickery. The prince... Was not. Realizing they have more in common than she thought, Princess Leia must walk a dangerous line of political delegation and love, all while staying true to herself and her duty as the heir to her throne. The war between humans and faeries was long withstanding, but can she truly end it? Fantasy/Romance. An ONC2023 entry. Prompt used: 33 Achievements: Round 2 winner and Ambassador Pick for the ONC 2023 Shortlister Novella version: Started: 02 Feb, 2023 Completed: 12 April, 2023 Cover made by Carlisle-cullen-fics using Midjourney generated pictures. Exclusively on Wattpad.

[Complete] An old mansion. A stranger with a gift. And a mysterious disappearance of a family. ***An Open Novella Contest 2023 Shortlister*** ***2nd Place Best Cover at The Massive Awards*** ***Bronze Winner at the Throne of Awards*** ***Third Place at Glorious - Awards*** Ten years ago, all the four members of the Belmonte family, the most illustrious family in the town of Sta. Barbara, suddenly disappeared, leaving their mansion and all their belongings behind. Time passed and still the mystery of their disappearance could not be solved. In the same town, Claire Mendoza wanted nothing but to go to college and be able to help her family. That was why she immediately took the offer to be an assistant caretaker of the empty ancestral home of the Belmontes. By taking the job, she was given a salary enough to someday send her to college and to even give some to her family. Fueled by her mysterious dreams, Claire's stay in the mansion soon opened her curiosity to the questions hanging around the abode, demanding to be answered. What happened to the Belmonte family ten years ago? How and why did they suddenly disappear? And why did the caretaker's handsome and attractive son, Jonathan Del Monte, suddenly appear and claim to be a Dreamweaver, trying to begin a cult in their school? Claire must find the answers to them all. *** Follow me on my Twitter account @_KittyCruz_. Thank you! 💗

"The pain of freedom is better than the pain of slavery." - Saladin *** For almost a century, a part of humanity has lived underground, in a bunker designated to shelter the vulnerable from the unending war. The people in the bunker, known as the Division Two people, had no knowledge of the outside world except from the reports of the news reporters. Amna, a typical twenty-year-old girl from Division Two, never questioned the absurdity of the rules until a series of strange events began to occur in her life. One by one, her friends were taken out-a punishment for those who defy the law. And when her supposedly dead brother appeared after her wedding day, she realised that everything was a lie. Together with all the 'fallen' people, they strive to overcome the upper class' control over the vulnerable people. Would they be able to bring about a revolution and save the people from being trapped in the bunker forever? ** Based on Prompt 67 from Open Novella Contest 2023. The war had been going on for over 100 years now. Not that you'd ever seen it, living in a bunker your entire life. But one day, a news war reporter suddenly says, "I can't do this anymore. Everything is fine! They're lying! Th-" And the signal cuts out. * Thank you for giving my story a chance. I hope you like it and I would appreciate your feedback. :) The cover is made by @bookloving_pearl