Maddie Dunir has never missed a target in her life. Not on the tennis court. Not with a bow in her hand. And definitely not when an opportunity drops right at her feet. Jia Kim, the new in-person transfer student who speaks to no one. Jia sits at the back of the class, headphones on, eyes cold, attitude even colder. After a rude introduction, Maddie hates her on principle. Until one late evening, one open window and one careless mistake reveal the truth. The quiet girl with perfect posture and permanent silence isn't just hiding something. She's hiding everything. Because Jia Kim isn't Jia Kim at all. She's Astra, a world-famous idol, who is a member of LUNAR, and is currently pretending to be nobody. And Maddie is the only one who saw her pull off the wig. Now Maddie holds a secret powerful enough to destroy a career, and Jia has no idea. What starts as irritation turns into a dangerous game of provocation, blackmail, and grudging fascination. Because Madison Dunir doesn't miss. And Jia Kim just became her favorite target. - ONC 2026 - PROMP #23

Theodore Martinez believes in being right. Alexander Harper believes in being understood. Their professional rivalry has been quietly contained for years, stuck between lesson plans, faculty meetings, and a shared hallway. But when attention turns their way, and the tension between them refuses to stay academic, both men are forced to confront what really matters and the assumptions they've built their lives around. Correct Me If I'm Wrong is a dual-POV, slow-burn academic rivals romance with sharp humor, quiet angst, and very unprofessional feelings.

Evelyn Stone lives inside a life that looks complete from the outside-married, settled, raising a healthy son in a house filled with routine and expectations. But beneath the checked boxes and Sunday smiles, her marriage has become a place where love is measured in logistics rather than attention, and worth is defined by usefulness instead of connection. Lucas is not unkind; he is simply finished-content with a version of Evie that no longer includes her dreams, her hunger, or her becoming. As Evie navigates motherhood in a body marked by survival and a spirit quietly starving to be seen, she begins to question what it means to matter in a life that has already decided she should be satisfied.

One job. One heist. One shattering connection. Lyra is a changeling- a human adopted by the wildlands themselves, abandoned as a child to die in the forests outside the frigid Moon Court and raised by magic instead. Accepted neither as a fae citizen nor a human one, changelings are often driven to thievery to survive, and Lyra is no exception. With her small family in turmoil and her brother wasting away from a strange sickness causing his veins to turn dark, she's desperate for solutions... and money to pay for her brother's care. However, when she tries to rob the vaults at the Moon Court castle for a mysterious employer offering a paycheck big enough to change her whole world, Lyra finds herself in significantly more trouble than she asked for-- hearing whispers from an ancient Oracle, averting prophecies at every turn, and wrapped in a messy fate bond with a king as cold and merciless as the frozen landscape of the Moon Court itself. ONC 2026 PRIMARY: 93. Beneath the ruins lies an artifact that whispers memories of an ancient being. The first memory it reveals is a warning and it's meant for you. "Ruins" changed to "castle" as per ONC accepted guidelines on prompt details. SECONDARY: 101. You have a vision of your soul mate but it's of the moment where they end your life.

White. The colour that haunted her entire life. Born into a lineage of warriors and witches, she is the Matriarch's only daughter and her greatest disappointment. In a world forged by blood and conquest, her power does not burn or strike. Instead, she sees what others cannot: colours bleeding through the cracks of reality, a spectrum hidden beneath the violence they worship. They call her weak. They call her useless. But power does not always arrive as a weapon. Sometimes it arrives as perception. Sometimes it arrives as the space between. As ancient traditions close in and the weight of expectation sharpens into a blade, she must choose whether to disappear into the white that defines her-or claim the colours that terrify everyone else. A dark fantasy about inherited violence, quiet rebellion, and the power that exists where no one thinks to look. ---------- Open Novella Contest 2026 Based on prompts: 2. The first flower to bloom in spring isn't just a sign of the season changing. It's a portal. When you touch it, you're transported into a magical world you never knew existed. 11. The daughter of the most powerful witch is nothing like her mother. 16. "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul" by John Muir 28. Self-love often starts small, like planting a single seed. With time, patience, and a bit of light, it will blossom. 63. A forgotten temple appears overnight in the middle of town, but its doors will only open for those who tell lies.

You wake to the scent of iron and smoke, your memories splintered by the echoes of gunfire and shattered glass. The mafia raid that tore through the city left bodies in its wake, and you were supposed to be one of them. Instead, you survived with a vampire's bite burned into your skin, a mark that declares you claimed. The vampire world doesn't care about innocence. A bite is a bond. A promise. A threat. All signs point to Lucien Vale, the cold, ruthless heir to one of the oldest vampire bloodlines, whose presence was reported at the raid. The vampire council is ready to sentence him. The mafia is ready to kill you. And you're trapped between two brutal worlds that both believe your fate is already sealed. There's only one problem. Lucien swears he didn't bite you. Forced into an uneasy alliance, you and the accused heir must unravel what really happened that night, before the truth is buried under bloodshed and political vengeance. As the bond between you begins to awaken in dangerous, impossible ways, you're left with a terrifying question: If he didn't mark you... what did? ONC2026 prompt #119

Step 1: Find a legendary god-killing weapon. Step 2: Track down the acolyte hellbent on bringing about the apocalypse. Step 3: Use the legendary weapon to kick demi-god ass. Caiwynn Feathervale, a ranger happy to protect the realm if the price is right, has long been at odds with the captain of the Elite Royal Task Force, Kelren Carmaris, who seeks to serve the realm rather than profit off it. When an ancient temple of the god of chaos & destruction awakens, a powerful acolyte emerges, destroying entire villages, carving a path straight into the heart of Empyria, home of the king. When it seems no one can defeat this new threat, the king offers a reward to anyone brave enough to take on this impossible task. In need of funds, Caiwynn and her motley crew take the offer. But there's a catch: they must take Captain Carmaris with them. What's more, a prophecy tells of a relic from the age of immortals, long thought lost; a weapon powerful enough to destroy the evil plaguing the lands. Will they be worthy of wielding such a weapon? Caiwyn and Kelren's pasts have pitted them against each other. Fate has other plans.

In a ghost town where cornfields outnumber people, Lieutenant Gianna Park arrests the new guy, Nicolae Badea, for biting her on her first date. When bodies begin to surface-young men found mummified, bitten, and strangled-Gianna suspects the man she once handcuffed. Yet, the evidence refuses to align. The wounds are wrong. The hunger is deliberate. Eighteen years ago, a boy was killed and forgotten. Now the dead are coming back the same way. As Gianna uncovers a hidden world of vampires who police their own kind, she learns that monsters are not defined by blood but by what they choose to feed on. Nicolae Badea claims it was not desire on his part, but restraint. He survives by restraint, faith, and silence. The killer survives by power. Only one of them hunts humans. The Coffin of Nicolae is a gothic crime novel about addiction, romance, and the violence we excuse when it wears a human face-asking what justice means when the law has no language for the truth. And what waits inside Nicolae's coffin. *** Content Warning: This novel includes strong, explicit language and depictions of violence, sexual scenes that some readers may find offensive.

If you dial the number 4444, no one will pick up. But fall asleep afterwards, and a man will visit you in your dreams. He will introduce himself as an assassin of sorts, and you will tell him your darkest desire. After all, the Dreamwalker can become your enemy's worst nightmare...for a price. Nathan Lee is many things: a slacker, a skeptic, and above all, hopelessly infatuated with the illustrious Aurora Kim. But when he accidentally swaps phones with a stranger, he ends up face-to-face with Cyr, a contract killer who travels through dreams. And his next target is Aurora. Desperate to save Aurora, Nathan takes it upon himself to hunt down Cyr's client. But when the bodies begin piling up, Nathan is forced to question who Aurora Kim really is...and what it will cost to keep her alive. (Prompt #56: After grabbing the wrong phone at a busy deli, you discover the stranger's life is far more tangled with yours than you ever expected.)

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