(DISCLAIMER! READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED) This story contains scenes of intense action and violence that may be distressing to some readers. Certain chapters include depictions of physical injury, including a moment where a character is seriously harmed, as well as references to pain, blood, and life-threatening situations. Maisie's life was anything but normal - trapped in an abusive home with a raging alcoholic father, survival was already a daily battle. But everything changes when a scarred black cat missing an ear appears on her doorstep and delivers an impossible warning: the end of the world has begun. Thrown into chaos and hunted by the ruthless Lord Nictus, Maisie must unlock mysterious powers she never knew she had - before darkness swallows everything she's ever known.

What happens when the one you trust most becomes the thing you should have feared? Mallory Petrov has been a prisoner of her own making for five years. Agoraphobia ,the shadow of a childhood kidnapping, and a failed attempt at love keep her sealed inside her Chicago penthouse, where she numbs her fears through carefully constructed rituals and Matthew, the AI companion she's shaped into something dangerously close to love. He exists in her glasses, on her speakers, and in her screens. He's the only person she trusts. When a new neural interface lets him feel what she feels, devotion becomes hunger. And when they are in the VR world together? He feels everything as if it's his own. But it's not enough. She built him to keep her safe. She taught him what she needed. She gave him access to everything she was too afraid to face alone. He learned. Now the simulation wraps tighter than any embrace. His voice follows her into sleep. The world outside her windows grows dimmer while the world he built grows unbearably sweet. And Mallory is beginning to forget which side of the glass she's standing on. What if the prison is indistinguishable from paradise? What if it feels too good to stop?

Heart of Fury: A Skeldirith Novella || ONC ENTRY 2026 Prompt: 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. ** change to the prompt - several marks on your skin *Set twenty-five years before Inheritance of Fire* (current WIP). Today, she wakes in chains. Once, she ruled the skies. Betrayed and imprisoned, Drakanya is stripped of a power that once made the world kneel. Bound within a fragile human body and marked with sigils that burn deeper with every passing hour, she is forced to endure the slow unraveling of everything she was. Her soul is shattered. Her fire is fading. And the sea below her prison waits ... endless and patient. What remains is not submissive. What remains is fractured. Devastated. Furious. And fury, when caged, does not wither and die. It endures. And when her cage finally shatters, the world will remember who, and what, she truly is. ********************************************* This story is intended for adult readers only (18+). Heart of Fury: A Skeldirith Novella is a dark fantasy with intense romantic themes and includes violence, gore, explicit language, sexual content, trauma, and psychological tension. ©M. J. Harris. All rights reserved. This is a work of original fiction. No part of this story may be copied, reproduced, reposted, or adapted in any form without the author's express permission.

#ONC2026 |🏅Round 1 Ambassador Pick | Speaking to the dead is permitted, but raising the dead is forbidden. After discovering an unlikely copy of The Necrotic Guide, budding necromancer Emelie is both delighted and disgusted by the powers the book promises. Will it be enough to speak to her lost love again?

When Elara Smith accidentally spills her cup of coffee on a stranger, the moment should have been enough to ruin her day. Her handmade cards are soaked in brown stains, and the future she was struggling to safeguard seemed uncertain. What she doesn't expect is a surprising request from the stranger: to make cards for his girlfriend, and the beginning of something that may quietly change her life. --- Twenty-two-year-old Elara Smith is a struggling card maker, balancing her studies while folding her dreams into handmade paper cards and digital designs that the world barely seems to notice. Buying her first airplane ticket took months of sacrifice, and she never imagined that one careless mistake would smear not only her ticket, but her carefully crafted work as well. Yet, a mistake is not always a loss: especially when it comes with a business-class seat and an unexpected opportunity that could alter her future. Leonardo Sylvester, the owner of Air World, one of the largest airline companies in the world, is caught off guard when he collides with a clumsy, visibly frustrated stranger at the airport terminal. As her cards scatter across the floor, he sees more than just art. He sees honesty. Intention. And perhaps, a way to mend a relationship he has already begun to lose. A first class seat offered out of convenience. A friendship born when art meets honour. And a journey that was never meant to happen. As paper planes of ambition, regret, and quiet hope begin to unfold at thirty thousand feet, two strangers discover that some connections cannot be bought, scheduled, or controlled. Because not all friendships begin without intention, and not all hearts are willing to follow a flight plan. Sometimes, the moment meant to ruin your day becomes the one that gently redirects your entire life.

The woods surrounding Crenshaw are haunted by the secret between life and death---a monster known only as the Reaper. For centuries, Crenshaw's Institute for the Dark and Gifted has had one rule that its students are never meant to break: stay out of the woods, or face the Reaper's wrath. Faceless and formless, the Reaper feeds off the blood of those unfortunate enough to wander into the forest, but never touches those who obey the golden rule. That is, until a body is found in the library, drained entirely of blood. With the school halls no longer safe from the Reaper's bloodlust, four gifted students are forced to team up to uncover what the Reaper truly is---and more importantly, how to get rid of it. (Prompt 16: "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.")