A woman seeking vengeance A detective chasing truth Death and secrets of the past following their every step † † † 1920s, Prague Milana has lost her home twice. The first time, when she was forced by her husband to leave St. Petersburg. The second, when the last shards of fragile affection between them died in their exile. Slowly suffocated by his obsession to become a grand author, his extremist associates, and his abuse, no day passes without thoughts of escape. Finally, the chance is presented to her. But in a horrible way: When Milana's best friend and lover, Jasna, is found murdered, she learns the one investigating is none other than Matěj Graf-nothing more than a faint memory of secret notes exchanged through a copy of "Anna Karenina" until one day ago. But now, he is back in her life, and Milana might hold the key to the only case he cannot solve. And other than their favorite novel's heroine, Milana is determined to break free alive. A once novella about crime and forbidden love, in which 'Anna Karenina' meets 'Babylon Berlin', following prompts 87, 118 and 57

A soldier being eaten alive by the curse that ravages at the front. A writer who serves as the perfect mouthpiece for the cause of war. A hundred truths silenced. ✉ ✉ ✉ Cyrice Marzanne, a bright young journalist and war correspondent, prizes the word as her strongest weapon against enemies, and to wield it, she risked her life amidst battle more than once. That is, until Kristan Vrost, a battered veteran, arrives at her doorstep at midnight and presents her with a story about a weapon turning the bodies and minds of soldiers to rot that cannot possibly be true. Of all people, he wants her to spread the news of this disease. Only that Cyrice's typewriter won't allow them to be written, and starts to raise questions about what else is being silenced. Could all the lies in the books banned and burned for decades have been no lies at all? Starting a dangerous pursuit to find the truth, Cyrice has to ask herself how much power her words hold if they are not fully her own. For fans of Violet Evergarden, Divine Rivals, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Studio Ghibli's Holw's Moving Castle an onc entry following prompts 31, 95, and 65 Cover by Chaoskuss

After six years in a progressive French boarding school, eighteen-year-old Lady Alice returns to her family's estate in Surrey, dreading the fate that awaits her-- debutante balls, an arranged marriage, and a life she does not want. She would have preferred to stay in France, teaching and writing love tales rather than living one dictated by others. Once cast aside by her own father and a stepmother, Alice finds their sudden desire for reconciliation hollow. Only her childhood best friend, Michael, Marquess Lovelace, seems like a true comfort. But as she settles back into her former home, something strange begins to happen. A black rabbit, eerily familiar, appears in the shadows-- just like the one that belonged to Edmond, her long-forgotten imaginary friend. And then she meets Count D'Arcy, the enigmatic and elusive neighbour whose presence unsettles her. His eyes, his voice, his very being remind her of Edmond. Could it be him? Or is her mind playing tricks on her? As the social season unfolds, Alice finds herself tangled in a web of mystery, romance, and the supernatural. The past and present blur, forcing her to question what is real, what is illusion, and whether love can exist beyond the bounds of reason. In the haunting halls of her childhood home and under the watchful gaze of Count D'Arcy, Alice must uncover the truth before she loses herself to the unknown. ~~~ My entry for the ONC 2025 based on the prompt 105: Your childhood imaginary friend, who disappeared years ago, suddenly returns - only this time, they're real.

A professor and a detective must pair up to discover the secrets of the bog behind the former's new home. *** The Autopsy of Jane Doe meets Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith in this tale of folk terror. Following an incident at her workplace, professor of psychology Raisa Thorne decides to take a sabbatical at her late great-grandmother's house in North Wales which she has only just inherited. She has a history with this place; back when she was six certain things had happened during a fateful summer that claimed the life of her only aunt. Raisa doesn't remember anything about it, save for a lingering sense of unease. But when she discovers a body in the bog behind the house soon after her return, things start to unravel as Raisa experiences a wealth of uncanny phenomenon. Indira Mukherjee is the first coloured police chief in this small Welsh town. No-nonsense and practical, she believes it to be just another murder case when the body in the bog is retrieved. But when strange events happen, some of which get downright bloody, Indira is forced to think beyond the bounds of logic. The two women must team up to find the truth; what is it that lies beneath the bog? *** Cover is made by the awesome @AngeBlancRose.

It's the year 2105, and the MMC Titanic is the hottest new spaceship to embark to a new settlement on the moon Ganymede. That is, until engine trouble leads to the craft exploding mid-voyage. Many die. Some survive. Saved by a galactic merman, Raelle wakes with one objective in mind - return to civilization. It's not only because she is in the middle of a black hole. In the frenzy to escape the failing ship, a necklace is fastened around her neck, and words are whispered in her ears. "Find the starkeepers." Raelle feels obligated to fulfill the dying wish, if only to convince herself that her luxurious life on Earth hasn't turned her into a docile, pampered aristocrat. But to find the covert organization on Ganymede, she must choose who to trust in helping her. One wrong step could bring upheaval to Earth. Cover by @AngeBlancRose 81. A group of rogue agents - former librarians turned rebels - sneak into a heavily guarded archive to retrieve the one book that exposes the government's deepest secrets. With the authorities closing in, they must decode hidden messages within the book to escape with the truth. 42. A group of people wake up with no memory and find themselves adrift on an old steam passenger liner. The name? Titanic. 130. "Protect this with your life." Word count: 20,416

ONC2025 Round 2 Ambassador Pick 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞-𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝. Unicorns are sacred in the kingdom of Unara, their magic a gift only bestowed upon the worthy-or stolen through death. Someone is hunting them, and if the killings continue, their magic will fall into the wrong hands. Determined to uncover the truth, Oskar sets out to find the culprit. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he unearths--secrets that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom. A standalone fantasy adventure, The Unicorn's Blessing follows Prince Oskar before the events of The Girl with Scars, revealing the choices that shaped the man he would become. Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2025 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: https://www.wattpad.com/story/387452246 **Main Prompt** 12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn. **Secondary Prompt** 130. Protect this with your life. ©2025 E. S. Elias All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2025 Book Marked as Completed: 04.08.2025 Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH I used Canva.com | Cover is temporary and subject to several changes. Word Count: 26,234 / 20,000 Goals: Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 1 Winner ✔ Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words ✔ LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick ✔ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter ✔ Rankings: #ONC2025: #21 on 02.02.2025 | #15 on 02.03.2025 | #12 on 03.24.2025 #opennovellacontest2025: #15 on

When a monster is summoned into the palace, an anxious court musician must eliminate its presence before evil corrupts the entire realm. 39. An ancient tribe, living for centuries, accidentally summons a monster. Now, they must figure out how to undo the chaos they've unleashed. 94. All the songs in your playlist begin playing in reverse. But hidden within the sounds, there's a message - a warning - that you must decode before it's too late.

|ONC 2025 ROUND 1 & 2 WINNER| |NOVEL VERSION COMING SOON | "Say goodbye, for may we meet again in another hell." Fractured by the chains that bound him to past transgressions. Lysandre Highwind stands falsely accused of slaughtering the realm's protector. In a world plagued by a deadly sickness, teetering on the brink of collapse, Lysandre finds himself ensnared in a deadly web of betrayal as he is burned at the stake for his crimes. Awakened by the trance of an unholy demise, Lysandre rises from the dead with shards of his memory leading up to his death, a fraction of his emotions, and a missing ring finger.- As a grave sickness rids the realm of Rivenhelm into calamity, in a desperate bid to reclaim his honour, he must forge an unlikely alliance with a fierce dwarf and a cunning privateer. With time slipping through their fingers, they must uncover a haunting path to cleanse the blood that stains his name and banish the realm's suffocating darkness before its too late. Time is slipping away, and the spectre of doom looms ever closer as a chilling reminder that salvation may be their only hope or their final curse, for not all that appears is as it seems. Prompt #91. No one believes you. But you are the only one who can solve this mystery -- for all of them. Sub Prompt #52: Let's play a game of colours: you paint me red because you love me, and I'll paint you black because I want you gone. Started on: February 1st, 2025 First Published on: February 21st, 2025 Ended on: April 28, 2025 Total word count: 39885 (Narrative, not including author's notes, or media such as banners.)

Haunted by the past, Rhiannon Carmichael returns to her hometown for her father's funeral, only to uncover a web of secrets and a possible murder, forcing her to confront the family she left behind. *** Victor Carmichael, the titan of local construction industry, is dead. Officially, it was his failing liver that finally did him in. Off the record? He's been murdered, and the only one who suspects it is his prodigal daughter. Gaffney, South Carolina, holds the ghosts of Rhiannon's past - the past she desperately tried to escape. Forced to sift through fractured memories and lies, she must expose a killer possibly lurking in the heart of her family. Every smile hides a secret, and every hug is a potential weapon. Whodunnit? Her mother, Lorraine, who seems to hold back more than tears? Her resentful brother, Tom? Then there are Beverly, the enigmatic interior designer with a past as murky as the swamps surrounding Gaffney, and Aubrey, the glamorous influencer whose connection to Victor runs deeper than anyone knows... Each clue, each whispered secret, pulls Rhiannon deeper into a dangerous game. As the idyllic charm of her quiet hometown crumbles, the lines between friend and foe start to blur. The more time passes, the more she realises: her returnal to Gaffney is not a blissful family reunion. It's a deadly reckoning. © 2025 EvelynHail Exclusively on Wattpad Based on prompt 61: "The silence in room is deafening, as though it has a life of its own. It's time to rewrite the fairytale, but this time, the ending will be yours, and it won't be happy."