|ONC 2026| SHORT LIST, HONOURABLE MENTIONS, & AMBASSADOR'S PICK - ROUND 2 ------------------------------------------------------ When Terra is doomed, humanity's final hope is sent into the unknown aboard a vessel meant to carry life beyond extinction. But humanity's future falls to those who were never meant to hold it. Unintentionally trapped aboard the ship, Derrin Muely becomes a silent witness to the unraveling of humanity's last survivors, forced to watch as fear, ambition, and control drive them to destroy one another. Left alone in the vast quiet of space, Derrin turns inward. Through fragments of memory and reflection, he confronts a life spent searching for purpose, measuring his worth, and fearing failure, only to find that meaning may never have been something to discover at all. At the edge of existence, with no one left to see him, Derrin must face a final question: If life has no audience, no legacy, and no greater purpose, what does it mean to keep living?

DISCLAIMER! This story is a romantic tragedy. Tears WILL be shed. Read at your own risk. :3 *** What happens when two people are destined to be together but doomed to fall? After all, how are you supposed to love someone so right for you when you're so wrong for them? *** People always describe love like it's this massive, life-changing force. I mean, come on-you don't hear anyone calling their lovers "just fine" or "mid." They're always: * Your Person * Your Other Half * Your Guardian Angel At least, they're supposed to be. For Angel, love has always seemed like an abstract feeling-something that will leave him more exposed than protected. So, he sticks to the safe stuff: the occasional Call of Duty marathon, letting his friends do his hair when they beg enough, and some casual Roblox dabbling. But when the threat of expulsion forces him into a horrendous group project with his best friend of almost two years, he's pushed into proximity with the one person he's, shockingly, never hated the idea of "something more" with. Now, he's faced with the reality that Prince-who likes sports, secretly obsessing over romance novels, pretending she doesn't like scrunchies, and definitely NOT Angel (at least, that's what he tells himself)-might be the only person he's ever wanted to deserve. The Solution? Ignore, ignore, ignore. The Problem? He's failing. Fast. *** Written for the #ONC2026 using Prompt #46!

Welcome to Panacea: Your Forever Home

Barnabas Whitmore thought his discovery of summoning coordinates to a new world would bring him academic clout and fame. Instead, a drunken portal battle brings him an extra-dimensional human, an unstable portal that refuses to close, and a government agency asking too many questions. Prompt 62: They say every door has its own key. Except for one, a key said to open them all. Warnings: Profanity, alcohol use, dark humor

When a strange message popped up on Iris's phone, she didn't expect a link to a game that would change her life forever. Trapped in a neon-lit world with no exit button, she finds herself surrounded by other players, people she has never met before, all of whom seem just as lonely and lost as she is. But this game isn't like any other she's played before. There is no score, and there are no winners. Instead, the system gives them quiet, deeply personal quests that force them to talk, trust, and confront the things they've been running from. The more they open up, the closer they get to logging out, because the game's true purpose was never for entertainment, but to save them. The only problem was that Iris had already made up her mind about being alive. Prompt: 60. You download a new app that promises to cure your boredom, and it delivers far more than you ever expected.

Prompt #22 - Spring (new beginning, growth) Your book never found much success, but on a train ride you spot a stranger reading it with the biggest smile you've ever seen. Livia Moreau's forgotten novel *The Shadows of the Linden Tree* finds unexpected life when she notices a stranger on the train reading it with genuine joy. What begins as a chance encounter slowly rekindles her belief in her words-and in new possibilities. This is my first time participating in the Open Novella Contest and I'm so excited to share this story with you all! 🌱✨ #OpenNovellaContest2026 #ONC2026 #Contemporary #Romance #LiteraryFiction

In the bustling port city of Busan, seven-year-old Park Jeong-min is drowning in the silence of his father's death. Half a world away, in the emerald forests of the DRC, Kimya watches the horizon for the smoke of a civil war she is too young to understand. Linked by a simple pen-pal exchangeㅡ a pair of white sneakers for a wax cloth braceletㅡthe two children share a desperate, whispered wish: to be anyone else. ​Then, they wake up in each other's skin. ​The magical escape becomes a lifelong haunting. At seven, ten, and fourteen, the swap yanks them across continents into each other's trauma. Jeong-min learns survival in a war zone; Kimya navigates South Korea's academic pressures. ​When a violent spiritual intervention at age fifteen severs their connection. The swaps end. Jeong-min is left in Seoul, haunted by Kimya trapped in a conflict he can no longer see. ​Driven by a debt he cannot name, Jeong-min builds a life of cold, medical precision, hoping to find her through the very systems that keep them apart. From the high-stakes world of a Korean medical residency to the front lines of a global refugee crisis, he is looking for his phantom limb. ​Jeong Min doesn't know Kimya is searching for him, too. #onc 2026 main prompt: 29 prompt mix: 73 #blackhistory #history #koreanhistory #worldheritage

War serves none but those who wish for death... A young king is left to rule a kingdom before his time to rule arrived. Inexperienced, he has no idea what to do when war breaks out in his nation. The war proves to be too much for him, and he can see no way to escape certain doom. However, he soon is visited by a strange man, promising things beyond his comprehension. Could the man's deal be his savior? Or a fate worse than destruction...

Dorian Dallowmarsh is a man on the run. The necromancer thought he'd be safe masquerading as a vacationing professor at a seaside resort, but his attempts to lay low at The Beacon have failed spectacularly. Spirits appear with cryptic messages at the worst possible moments, and Bitzy, an exuberant young widow, has taken a shine to him. She even secures him an invite to an exclusive soiree: a séance featuring the famous medium, Madame Draga. Dorian assumes Draga's a fake. Most self-proclaimed mediums are. But when a ghost delivers a disturbing message, he faces a terrible choice: risk exposure by a medium who may be a bounty hunter in disguise or disappoint his new friend. Either way, Dorian's quiet escape plan is about to get very complicated! Prompt 72: A real necromancer sits in on a fake séance.