25-year old Lee still hasn't figured out why they could not form any long-lasting relationships, even friendships for that matter. Aside from family members, which they are obligated to talk to, there is no one else Lee had even come close to calling a friend. Well, maybe except for one. -------- Submitted for ONC 2026 @OpenNovellaContest Using the following prompts : 29. You will meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some will leave footprints in your heart. 104. While wandering in the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more than wind through the trees until you turn around and realize it isn't the wind at all. 106. After waking at 3AM to a freezing room and a door you're certain you closed, you find wet footprints and melting snow leading from your bedroom into the hall. Realizing someone or something is inside your home, you follow the trail to uncover the truth. ------------- © 2026 J. Lee Kennedy. All rights reserved. Cover design © 2026 J. Lee Kennedy. Images used in this work belong to their respective copyright holders and are used under license or in accordance with applicable Creative Commons terms. Edited or altered images are copyrighted by the author in their final form.

New chapters coming soon! • A Greykin Chronicles Origin Story • What the hell did a mutt like Emrys think he was doing entering the Redblood Trials? Winning, that was what. He'd prove he was more than an outcast runt, and he'd become the first of his kind to claim a place in the Monarchy. *** Since the beginning of the human-Caeleste war, Emrys' pack has moved from territory to territory. When they finally reach the Pactlands, a city far from the chaos and neutral ground between the surrounding packs, it is immediately made clear that mutts aren't welcome, and runts never last long. Unfortunately, Emrys is both. If it weren't for Finn, he wouldn't have survived long enough to witness the twentieth Grey Moon. With it comes the Redblood Trials, a brutal tournament which promises the victor a royal title. That was his chance to prove that a mutt was more than a revolting cross of far too many bloodlines. But his fight for survival starts before he can even sign up. Driven from the city by the Silveinbloods, he trespasses into forbidden woodland, a place no wolf dared to go. Abandoning sense and instinct alike, he ventures into the ruin of an old castle, where he uncovers an ancient Aegis artifact. However, the discovery doesn't promise fame and fortune; it warns that entering the trials will bring only danger and despair. With the moon just around the corner, he has to decide what he fears more: a life forever of humiliation and seclusion, or the apparent fate waiting for him in the arena. ❅ Dark Fantasy ❅ Mystery-Thriller ❅ MxM Romance ❅ Werewolves vs Wolf Walkers ❅ Word Count: 18,085 ─────────────────────────────────── ✵ Numenverse year: 1150 2026 © Tate Csernis

When 15-year-old Izel Aziz gets a note during his last period at school, warning him not to touch any electronics in his home, he thinks nothing of it (or at least thinks he doesn't.) That is, of course, when he goes to log into his and his sister's co-op save of Moonwillow Hollow, only for him to be sucked into the game upon pressing the save file. When he enters the game due to being sick of having to be stuck in the closet, though, everything seems a lot more real than he thought this pixel filled world would be... ONC Prompts: 8. You wake up inside Stardew Valley with no idea how you got there and no guarantee you'll ever get back home. 79. A letter arrives addressed to you, written by someone who shouldn't exist.

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.

#ONC OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 📚 #ROUND ONE ONC QUALIFIER ✨ What do you do when your best friend's brother-who just moved into your shared house-turns out not to be entirely human? You scream into your pillow so no one hears. You question your grip on reality. You start double-locking your bedroom door every night. And then-you begin watching him. *** ONC PROMPT 25: You live with four other housemates, but one of them is secretly an alien trying to learn how to act human. PROMPT 105: Your chatting with someone when you suddenly notice the mirror behind them shows everything except their reflection.

Kieran is already dealing with a flirtatious boss, disdainful coworkers and a heavy workload and writhing self-insecurity that gives him a perpetual migraine. Now the cute boy he met as a child had turned out to be a handsome, adorable... werewolf?! Salva opened their wings to their city neighbors in Bellport's greatest time of need, but will the divide between the two cities be greater than the chasm that seperates the them both or can they work together to find the solution to the virus that plagues them both? #ONC2026 Genre: Fantasy-Supernatural, Werewolf Mature (16+): Mention of abuse, Bullying, Profanity, Gore/Violence Copyright© 2025 short_flame

So... Riven kidnapped the magnanimous King of the Aer Folk because a magical book containing the soul of his cheating ex-boyfriend told him to, but that does not make him crazy, not at all. After all he only wants to revive Jesse, so he can kill him again. Where does Vlad land in all of this, you ask? Well he is that poor, kidnapped King who is now curse-bound to a freaking lunatic. But our wonderful King Valadrius is not sad, not at all. And he is definitely not falling in love with his kidnapper, or kissing him, no matter what the curse tells him to do. #ONC2026 Genre: Fantasy-Romance Copyright© 2026 short_flame

If you got anyone to describe Jessie Reynolds-Somber in one word, it would be 'lucky.' She survived childhood leukemia (twice), has the best friend-slash-roommate in the world, and she's studying something she loves at the university she's forever adored. But not even November can describe why she feels so incomplete, as though she's forgotten to do something she'll never get a chance to do. Why she feels like she's failed---no, worse, like she's a failure. [FORMERLY AN ENTRY FOR THE 2026 ONC]

Tris McCoy is having an uneventful summer. It's the summer before eleventh grade, and it's the last summer she has before she has to start worrying about driving, and college, and a career. With her mom being in the hospital and her dad enjoying the title of father out in Australia, she's left to spend the next six weeks alone. Until she (literally) stumbles across a stack of old letters from her pen pal, July Souders. July lives in British Columbia---four provinces away---but Tris knows of a camp she used to attend. Unwilling to spend the summer alone and desperate for any change, no matter the size, Tris sets off for summer camp. [FORMERLY AN ENTRY FOR THE 2024 ONC]