🏆ONC 2025 SHORTLISTER 🏆 Veyr Thalric was born beneath a blood moon, his fate inked in the past and bound to a future he cannot escape. The son of the slain Wolf, he has spent his life hidden in the shadows, waiting for the moment he can claim vengeance against the one who stole everything from him-Rowan Ashwood, the legendary hunter who wears his father's pelt like a crown. But vengeance is never so simple. The deeper Veyr treads into the hunt, the more the forest whispers warnings of paths that cannot be undone. A deck of fate waits to be drawn, its cards promising revelations he may not be ready to face. And when love enters the fray in the form of Amerie Rosarot, a woman with fire in her heart and tragedy in her veins, Veyr is forced to confront the question that haunts all doomed hunters: When you challenge the magic of the world, can you truly finish what you started-no matter the cost? In this tale of blood, betrayal, and destiny, the line between monster and man blurs. And in the end, the real question is not who will survive...but what will be left of them when the hunt is over.

Back in her painfully small town for her 10-year high school reunion, Lenore Davis must reckon with being stuck around her first heartbreak, Morgan Whitaker. *** Ten years after her high school graduation, commitment-avoidant Lennie Davis has only come back to Perkins at her best friend's insistence. There's not much she misses about high school - aside from maybe her old metabolism. So, a high school reunion? Full of people she couldn't wait to get away from? People she intentionally avoided for a decade? Not her idea of a fun getaway. Also not her idea of a fun getaway? Continuously running into her first girlfriend, first love, and worst heartbreak, Morgan Whitaker. Things ended poorly between the pair of them (to put it lightly), and time certainly hasn't healed their wounds. Still, as their paths continue to cross, Lennie can't help but wonder: are these sparks she feels with Morgan? Or is she clinging onto faded memories of the only good relationship she's ever had? *** Contains 18+ content. Viewer discretion advised. Cover image sourced from FreePik.

[ʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴏɴᴇ ᴡɪɴɴᴇʀ ᴏғ ᴏɴᴄ] [ʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴏɴᴇ ǫᴜᴀʟɪғᴇʀ] [ʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴛᴡᴏ ǫᴜᴀʟɪғᴇʀ] 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔. 𝑨 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍. 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆. 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒊𝒓. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕... 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈. ✷✷✷ Alvine is a college girl with a crazy obsession with webtoon comics-so much so that she dreams of becoming a webtoon artist herself. Her life is as normal as it gets: attending college, reading webtoons, sketching, and hanging out with friends. But everything changes when a webtoon she's reading starts mirroring her real life. The story follows a girl who unknowingly falls in love with a boy-only to discover he's a demon. Sounds like a typical fantasy romance, right? Except this time, it's not just a story. Now, Alvine's life is unfolding just like the webto

🏆ONC 2025 || Round One Round Winner Cary Leong sees ghosts. Ever since his parents were brutally murdered by one, he's lived in the space between reality and the other world, mingling with humans and the supernatural alike in a desperate attempt to track down their killer. But there's only so much one boy can do---until Jackson Grey shows up on his doorstep. Jackson is desperate. His girlfriend, Sophia, is being haunted, and he needs Cary's assistance. Seizing the opportunity, Cary proposes a deal: he'll help Jackson...if Jackson helps him find his parents' murderer. Accompanied by Sophia and Sophia's overprotective, hot-tempered brother, Edmund, Cary and Jackson must tread the border between worlds in order to kill the ghosts of their pasts and presents---or die trying. Dead men tell no tales, but the other world has a lot to say.

🏆ONC 2025 HONORABLE MENTION 🏆 A lone lighthouse keeper watches over the coast, tending to her light as the sea rages beyond. The storms are nothing new-neither is the solitude. She is content with the quiet rhythm of her life, the crash of waves against the cliffs, the scent of salt and parchment filling her days. But when a shipwreck leaves a battered stranger at her doorstep, the tide of her world begins to shift. The man is rough-edged, a relic of salt and shadow, with secrets hidden beneath his scars. He speaks of a past that the waves should have swallowed, of maps inked in the margins of forbidden books, of love letters lost to time. Trapped together by a storm that refuses to pass, they share stories by lantern light-one seeking refuge, the other searching for something long forgotten. Yet not all ghosts are content to stay buried, and not all storms end when the sky clears. Whispers of war linger in the distance, and the truth he carries may threaten the safe harbor she has built for herself. As the past and present begin to intertwine, she must decide-will she cling to the safety of her lighthouse, or will she risk everything to follow the reflection of something new? -- Cover by @Heuristic_Hashmath

[ONC 2025 Shortlister] An apprentice silversmith, haunted by his reflection. A wealthy family, falling to ruin. A patron spirit, searching for a pact. Five games will decide their fate. After acquiring great wealth from a boom in silver trade, the Blackwood family moves into a mansion that was mysteriously abandoned by its previous owners. The property has everything a family of established silversmiths could need: prime trade location, a smithing workshop, and a large mirror that was left behind. To Kyren Blackwood, the promises of a new life and the riches that come with it are more than enough to overshadow the eerie tale. But the mirror watches. Reflections are not what they seem. Driven to the brink of insanity, Kyren must uncover the mirror's secrets before his family loses everything. In a desperate attempt to free himself, he agrees to play five games with the spectre in the mirror. If he can win three, the curse will end. Lose, and he surrenders his soul to the silver spirit. ~An ONC novella, inspired by prompts 13 and 55. ~Set in the same world as Buried in the Sea but can be read completely independently (with no spoilers to one or the other).

Katie is a washup. She was once a famous child detective, but as an adult, she's barely surviving. She's a prep cook in a dog-eat-dog world (har har). She only has one respite: her dog, a strange mutt she found in a cardboard box during a storm. This dog is also her biggest nuisance but, ultimately, her only friend. When she finds a cat scratching strange symbols into a brick wall, she enlists the help of a cute volunteer at an animal shelter. But the animals in Katie's life have their own secrets, and when Katie becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that crosses dimensions, Katie's whole world shakes. Can she save the other world? Can she get the girl? And more importantly, can she get a good therapist?