Lili is one of several supernatural "daughters" created by a powerful entity known only as Mother. Their role is to whisper instructions into the minds of humans, nudging them toward actions that supposedly maintain balance in the world. But Lili begins to suspect that these whispers aren't guidance - they're manipulation, sometimes pushing humans toward death. After questioning the system, Mother punishes her by forcing her into a fragile human body, stripping away her powers and leaving her vulnerable. Now hunted by her former sisters and watched by Mother, Lili must uncover what the whispers are actually doing to humanity. The problem: The more she learns, the more it looks like Mother is not protecting the world... she's controlling it.

Edmund comes to the remote village of Black Thickett to escape the life grief has carved out of him. He wants silence. Distance. A place where memories can't follow. But Black Thickett is wrong in quiet, unsettling ways. The broken road becomes perfectly smooth the moment he crosses the boundary. The cottages are too neat, too deliberate. And on a noticeboard full of dry flyers, only one poster is wet. A missing boy, smiling as if he doesn't know he's lost. The villagers won't talk about the disappearances. The forest at the edge of the village seems to breathe, and the deeper Edmund goes, the calmer he feels... dangerously calm. The forest can quiet his pain. It can ease his grief. It can make him forget. But not everything that heals you wants you to survive. Welcome to Black Thickett, where you'll find my entry into the ONC 2026.