Staying on the safe path feels secure, but that doesn't mean it's the path you were meant to take. ​Sloane and Brady were the "it" couple of high school, but graduation is a hard stop. To satisfy her parents' rigid expectations and step into a prestigious future in Law, Sloane chooses the script over her heart. She breaks the only boy she's ever loved because he doesn't fit the "perfect" image her new life demands. ​But as the bridge to her past crumbles, Sloane realizes that walking away is the easy part. Choosing between the life she was born for and the boy she can't forget is where the real danger begins. ​One choice. Two worlds. A line that was never meant to be crossed. 《#ONC>Prompt24》

Love cannot live where there is no trust. | Taha Kingdom is abuzz with excitement. The most eligible maiden of the realm, Lady Nihina, is set to marry the chief of Dayu. However, on the day that she is to meet her betrothed, an ominous rumor about him reaches her doorstep. Then a curse befalls her, stealing her identity as a beloved socialite and turning her into a mere nomad struggling to traverse the Kalbar Woods. She has to return to Taha and find a way to undo the curse. She believes that her betrothed, a reputable man and renowned warrior, could help her achieve this. But Lahasi, the kind and astute nature spirit she encounters on her journey, thinks otherwise. He senses that not everything is as it seems. And he feels that recklessly breaking a curse meant to save the kingdom might lead to Nihina's very downfall. (Written for prompt 39 of the 2026 Open Novella Contest.)

Rich and spoiled Samantha Astor has dreamed of becoming a music artist since she was a little girl, and finally it is time for that dream to become real. Only problem is that the music critic she sent her music to doesn't like her singing. Luckily, she got a hold of the review before it was published. Unluckily, she can't get a hold of the critic to convince him to change it. With no other option available to her, she decides to kidnap the critic. But instead of the critic, she accidentally kidnaps a mafia boss. ----- Mature rating due to crude language. Other warnings include toxic/abuse relationship (not between FL and ML, though their relationship might not become the healthiest), and there will be a dose of Stockholm syndrome There won't be any sexually explicit scene, though sex might be a conversation topic in the story

Anna is the kind of girl people look straight through. At school, on the bus, at home - she exists quietly in the background, where asking for anything comes with a price she learned long ago to stop paying. Even with her best friend, Alice, she never fully steps into the world. She just survives it, carefully and without being noticed. Her life was supposed to stay bland, colourless, manageable. Nothing was supposed to change that. Then she runs into Sophie. And something shifts - not all at once, and not enough to understand, but just enough that it doesn't stop. Anna finds herself pulled toward something she can't name, something her body recognises before her mind can catch up. And the worst part is, she doesn't want it to stop.

Mr Shade just ruined the future. At Saul les Smith, the metrics are blank, the staff is unhinged, and a dream city under the sea is still due by morning. As authority turns feral and professionalism becomes a weapon, survival means breaking the future everyone else is working overtime to build. ONC 2026. Prompt 97: When the world slips into endless darkness, something begins to move in the shadows and you must find a way to survive in a night that never ends.

Harit is rizzless. He is also a vampire. As far as he knows (from the tons of vampire lore he has consumed), he is nothing like his peers, or so he believes, for he hasn't come across his kind ever; he hasn't lost hope, though. Rudra the shifter (who loves frolicking around as a parrot) and Harit's immortal companion, after taking care of a fumbling, bumbling mess of a vampire for a hundred years, has made up his mind to go his separate way. However, he is sure that his friend can't fend for himself in this big, unforgiving, cruel world. He, thus, decides to take matters into his own hands or wings, depending on his form at the moment. Rudra's plan is simple: enroll his auraless friend in a course that can make him what turning into a vampire should have made him: alluring, confident, and irresistible so that he can feed himself once he is gone. Ayank Tripursundara is the best personality, speech, and drama coach in the state. He takes coal and turns it into diamond, or so his mother has heard everyone say everywhere she goes. He is rich, cultured, and handsome but slightly depressed because of his recent falling out with a friend. But as fate would have it, Ayank might just be the one Harit needs to be the best version of himself. Manik is a thousand-year-old vampire. He is also Harit's sire. Now, after a hundred years of waiting, he has found a reason to find the one that got away: Harit. Tying their lives together is the stolen melody of a heart, a millennia-old curse, and a hundred-year-old spell. Will Harit get his rizz? Or will he fall prey to his sire before the forgotten melody finds him? [Written for Open Novella Contest Prompt No. 81: Unalluring and bumbling, your character is the world's worst vampire. Prompt No. 37: Your hateful stare fixes on the smug bird. It has beaten you once again.] Start Date: 27th, February, 2026 By: GandalfOfSpaceAnli

A covert government operative sent to surveil a famous footballer accidentally becomes the nanny to his six-year-old son, forcing her to choose between completing the mission that could destroy him or protecting the unexpected family she has begun to love. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Anna Sumer has always craved freedom. That hunger is what led her into the shadows, working as a covert field operative for a little-known government agency. Officially, she gathers intelligence. Unofficially, she removes problems. Pulled from a coveted assignment in the Congo, Grace is reassigned to Paris to surveil the family of Hermes Mansi, an international football (soccer) star whose career is tightly controlled by a powerful and corrupt league that profits from obedience. Grace is told to watch him. To observe. To wait. What she does not expect is a twist of fate that places her inside his home, hired accidentally as the nanny to his six-year-old son, Drax. Under the safest cover imaginable, Grace enters Hermes' life with one objective, gather evidence and prepare for a quiet takedown. But the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to remember where the mission ends and her feelings begin. As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Grace must choose between completing her assignment or protecting the fragile and unexpected family she has found. ◈ ◈ ◈ This novella was written for the Open Novella Contest 2026, based on Prompt #33: "It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened."

Lena Harris doesn't do messy. She deals in information and observations, small gaps and mistakes that can be leveraged to make problems go away. She gets her jobs done quickly, cleanly, and efficiently, and then she moves on, never dwelling on the past or worrying about anything beyond the next operation. And that's the way she likes it. Until her boss assigns her to the messiest operation she's ever faced. Now her carefully built up professional distance is collapsing around her, and she doesn't know how to hold it up- or if she even wants to anymore. __________ Open Novella Contest (ONC2026), prompt 33: It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened. ONC Round Two winner

ONC 2026 In a world woven with secrets, silence can be deafening. Eighteen-year-old Luca Kant has never known the sound of her own voice; born deaf and raised under the suffocating grip of her controlling father, she is haunted by the shadow of her mother's mysterious disappearance. Did she flee from the clutches of a man who could be a monster, or did something more sinister happen? Nineteen-year-old Boy Harrison lives at the wrecking yard. He can speak, but hasn't spoken since he was four. He is haunted by nightmares that echo a woman's voice warning him that to remain safe, he must remain silent. Fate draws Luca and Boy together. Long-buried memories and cryptic connections between their lives begin to unravel. As they delve deeper into their entwined pasts, eerie parallels unfold-did Luca's father play a role in the dark mystery surrounding her mother's fate? Does he hold the key to both their truths? How is Boy connected, and who is the woman he dreams of? In a gripping tale of identity, resilience, and the haunting weight of silence, Luca and Boy must confront their monsters and uncover the chilling revelations that bind them on a riveting journey where silence speaks volumes and whispers could change the course of their lives. PROMPT 80 - Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds. (Variation of Edgar Allen Poe's famous quote.) My interpretation - Monsters didn't live under your bed. They sat at your table.

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗢𝗥 𝗗𝗜𝗘!!!! It's just another day for Howard and Vince until their friend Naboo receives shocking news from a shadowy government authority on his home planet of Xooberon - he must get married or be executed. When Howard volunteers to marry Naboo and save his life, there's just one problem: Howard and Vince have been avoiding each other ever since that one night when they kissed. Now they're travelling to an alien world together, forced to pretend their complicated feelings don't exist. Naboo's mentor Dennis is suspicious, the wedding trials are perilous and keeping up the charade is getting harder by the minute. Can Howard and Vince survive preparations for the big fat intergalactic wedding without confronting what's really between them? A space fantasy queer romance absurdist comedy about fake relationships, second chances, and the things we do for the people we love. 🌈🪐💫💜 MAIN PROMPT 79. A letter arrives addressed to you, written by someone who shouldn't exist. ADDITIONAL PROMPTS 25. (modified) Four flatmates live together, and one of them is an alien passing as a human. 24. Staying as friends feels safe, but that doesn't mean it's the path you're meant to take. °︵‿︵࿔.♡.࿔︵‿︵° 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝑴𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒉 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆, 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒏-𝒕𝒚𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒓. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒙, 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌 '𝒏' 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒍.