In Room 309, people learn how to survive each other's pain. Elise Valencia is dying, and everyone around her seems to speak softer because of it. Everyone except Matteo Reyes, the chaotic night shift cleaner who steals hospital sunflowers, breaks rules constantly, and refuses to treat her like she's already gone. What begins as irritation slowly becomes something deeper inside the oncology ward, where laughter feels rebellious, love becomes complicated, and strangers leave permanent marks on one another's .

In 1897, Charlotte Moreau has been in an abusive marriage for years and the only solace she has is in the quiet moments when her husband and children are asleep. She often spends time by the lake and usually finds it a place of solace until one day when she receives a message in a bottle from her former best friend Marie who passed away. She encounters a friend of her acquaintance, Julien Deroche, a man she despises. She begins to argue with him, telling him to leave her alone. She begins to argue with him, telling him vicious things and to turn the other way when they cross paths. When she goes to the woods to find a new place to escape from her daily hell, she encounters Julien and must come to terms with what happened to Marie because Julien knows the truth. And because of their connection to Marie, she begins to soften toward him until she begins seeing him every day in this isolated place. But then Charlotte realizes that she has fallen desperately in love with him. And her husband begins to suspect something when she has dirt on her dress nearly every day. She must choose between her heart and her duty to her husband and children.

Four girls from different eras and distant worlds find themselves - without knowing why - inside the Naali refuge in Rovaniemi. A northern fox, bound to the ancient magic of the aurora, has led them there. Meanwhile, the North Wind has returned after centuries of imprisonment, threatening Lapland and the fragile balance of the natural world. Guided by a forgotten prophecy, the four must join their strengths to face a force no people could ever withstand alone.

Entry-level magic professors aren't supposed to be responsible for fixing the generations-long problems that come from a library haunted by fae. But when the administration sweeps the dangerous situation under the rug, Constance Wylf sets out to expose the truth. Armed with logic, a cart of books, and her personal-companion fairy, Constance is ready to storm the long-abandoned shelves. What she isn't prepared for is a tavern-keeper who's madly insistent on tagging along, especially since he seems convinced she's unravelling along the edges. Which is impossible. Unravelling, as everyone knows, is for people with emotions. And Constance Wylf is absolutely determined to keep any emotions she might have tied up tight. ~ * ~ Longlister in ONC 2025 Prompts 65 and 102 Main: What is science, if not magic governed by laws instead of emotions? Secondary: In a world where books are feared for their power to possess readers, one Scribe enters a haunted library full of cursed stories. The question is: will they leave the same person? ____________________ Cover © 2025 Avadel Ink

"Nothing is what it seems in dreams." In the depths of a dark and twisted forest, Aris, crown prince of Lancaster, is tormented by recurring nightmares of the Tainted--monstrous creations of the black fae, a corrupting force that seeps into all who live within its woods. Relentlessly hunted in the dreams, he finds unexpected aid from a mysterious girl named Elara, and with her help he is able to elude the creatures each time, breaking free from the nightmare's clutches. But when Aris is wounded by one of the Tainted, the line between dream and reality begins to blur. When a weapon deadly to the black fae appears in his grasp from the dream, Aris and his sisters--Tamryn, Maeve, Maeril, and Aine--must race against time and Aris' failing health to uncover the ancient truth behind the forest's curse--or face the imminent threat of the black fae and its vengeful master, the guardian of the dark forest, Erebus Nocturne. ✧☽ ✧ ☼ ✧ ☽ ✧ Submitted for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Main Prompt: 75. A cursed forest hides an ancient creature longing for freedom. When it senses someone carrying the bloodline of the witch who once bound it, the creature summons monsters to a mansion where the forest and human worlds collide. The doors are open to anyone brave enough to enter. Side Prompts: 18. At eighteen, you begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like your other half. When they finally appear in real life, everything you thought you knew about love and reality begins to shift. 78. You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems.

Rivals. Royalty. Brothers. An ailing King gives the two wayward princes a choice. Learn to work together, or watch as their Kingdom falls to ashes and flames under the fury of the Great Dragon. Wattpad Open Novella Contest 2026 Participating Story #4 in Opennovellacontest2026 15/03/2026 #1 in contestentry 16/03/2026 #1 in wattpadcompetition 15/03/2026 #3 in onc26 19/03/2026

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf bard with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. ONC 2026 Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

For Centuries Grim has been collecting souls. It's what he does, it's his purpose. One day, while collecting a soul in the park, he comes across a lost puppy. For reasons he can't explain, the urge to return the small dog to his owner is overwhelming. He soon finds the animal's owner, a woman in her mid-twenties named Maria. He is struck down by her beauty and realizes that he had once claimed the soul of someone she loved. He becomes even more conflicted when he realizes he has just one year to claim her soul.

~ a Vikings meets Pride & Prejudice fanfiction ~ He is crippled. He is unlovable. He is ruthless. Together with his brothers and the Great Heathen Army, Viking warrior Ivar the Boneless has been wreaking havoc on England for the past two years. Some of his brothers think it has been enough, but Ivar is just getting started. While quarreling about their next move, Ivar makes one mistake too many and accidentally kills his brother Sigurd. Heartbroken, he retreats to the forest to indulge in one vulnerable moment, convinced nobody can see him. Elizabeth Bennett is intelligent, free-spirited, and sharp-tongued. Together with her mother and sisters, she manages the Bennett estate while her father takes up his seat in King Aethelwulf's council. She did not plan on stumbling over a weeping Viking in the woods and much less on getting scolded for it, but here she is, wrestled to the ground by a son of Ragnar, the most broken, yet most beautiful man she has ever met. He'd better polish up his manners if he knows what's good for him. The problem is that perhaps he doesn't. 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 An ONC2026 entry Prompt 46: We love broken people, beautiful people. And it doesn't get more obviously broken and more classically beautiful than you. 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 🪓❤️‍🔥⚔️💋❤️‍🩹 Content Warnings Violence, swearing, perhaps some smut, perhaps not, I'll update smut warnings as I go along and tag upcoming smut in the beginning of a chapter if it should come to this 😬 I can also say that if there will be smut, it will be consensual.

Five years in the dark, Elodie Jackson finally gets her sight back when Bruce Williams pays for her surgery. But it isn't a gift. It comes with a price-her freedom. And the world she sees now isn't the same. Her new sight brings something she can't explain. Moments before they happen. Glimpses she can't ignore. A future that feels too real to escape. With only a week left before she's forced into a marriage she never chose, Elodie sees something she shouldn't. The man she is meant to love. The man who will end her. [This novella is being written for the Open Novella Contest 2026! Prompt: #101 You have a vision of your soulmate but it's of the moment where they end your life.] Copyright © 2026 V.K. Thorn ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. This includes, but is not limited to, the uploading of this work to "mirror" sites or its use in the training of generative artificial intelligence models without the author's explicit permission. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.