Destiny just simply couldn't love, her love was lost with the wind since her sixth birthday when her father slammed the divorce papers on her mother's face when she was in the hospital. Her boyfriend married another woman after seven years of knowing each other from childhood ,her broken....... and wounded heart couldn't love anymore .

In a world where death has found a voice, the living cling to survival behind the walls of Stillwoods. Outside, the Eaters roam-zombies driven not by instinct, but by the cunning of ancient, mind-controlling beetles. Aria never imagined, in her first ever battle, her only weapon would be a rusty trumpet... or that one note could turn the tide against a Prime, a lethal zombie unlike any other. In this fight for survival, sound becomes power, and every choice could echo through life-or death. #ONC2026| Prompt #36 #35 ‼️ Content/Trigger Warning: Contains gore, violence, some strong language. All rights belong to the author and no reproductions are allowed without the permission of @Renaissance111. Please respect the author's copyright. 😊❤️ 2026 C.S. Marie

When everything is stopped with a big old full stop. What would life be? Where there is no birth nor death, simple because everything seemed to be frozen in time. You wake up one day, and this is the reality you face; everything around you is frozen in time. The clouds hang motionless in the sky. Cars are suspended mid-crawl. Birds remain trapped in the air. The world has stopped but you haven't. Or have you? Are you truly the only one still moving... or is your mind playing tricks on you? This is what happens to Penny Chan, an ordinary office worker living an unremarkable life until one she woke up one seemingly normal morning, only to find that time itself has abandoned everyone but her. She was scared, lonely. And most of the time, confused. But as Penny struggles to make sense of her strange new reality, a deeper truth begins to surface: the world hasn't simply stopped, it's waiting. Waiting for her. Because if Penny can't figure out who she truly is, or what it really means to live, the world will never move forward again. With everything hanging in quiet limbo, Penny must confront herself in a way she never has before. Because this motionless world depended on her, Penny must face the one thing that she had been avoiding her whole life: Herself. (First Draft) . Open Novella Contest (ONC 2026) Prompt: 42. One morning, time simple refuses to move forward and you're the only one who can still move while the ret of the world stands frozen. . If you see this elsewhere, please let me know.

A desperate author. A midnight train. A story that was never just fiction. This story was entered as part of the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2026 Prompt used: 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.

This Short story is based on something real that I'm going through right now though most of the facts have been changed

Elias Thorne did not fall in love with me. He corrected me. The way I locked my door. The way I apologized before finishing sentences. The way I arrived two minutes late and pretended I wasn't. I mistook it for attention. Everyone else warned me there was something wrong with him. But Elias never shouted. Never chased. Never begged. He simply watched. And somewhere between being noticed and being measured, I began adjusting myself without being asked. I thought that was love. I didn't realize I was being calibrated. By the time I understood the difference, there was nothing left of me that hadn't been adjusted. I still believed I was the one changing him. Elias never corrected that assumption. ◈ Round 1 Ambassador's Pick ◈ Round 3 Ambassador's Pick ✦ Officially Longlisted • ONC 2026

At some point, we all step into a forest without realizing it. For some, it is a season of doubt. For others, it is loneliness, responsibility, faith, identity, or the quiet weight of becoming who we are meant to be. This is not a story about perfection. It is a story about confusion. About growth. About losing certainty and discovering something deeper in its place. Inspired by the idea that sometimes we must lose our way to find ourselves, Brief Flames follows a journey through expectation, leadership, faith, rejection, and the quiet battles no one sees. Into the forest I went - not knowing I would leave different. Submitted for the Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompt 16 - "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul." #ONC2026 #ONC16

Ian has always had very vivid dreams that feel like memories. Seeing people she's never met before and even places she has never been to before. Her therapist told her that there are just dreams and not memories. She performances hypnosis to help her shut out her memories. But not all dreams have disappeared. The moment she arrives in a town called "Zoey." Upon her arrival, she continues to be mistaken for Anna. But the question is: Who is Anna?