[ Prompt #7 ] A glass enclosure, that is what the message came in. It pleaded for just a second of open space and so I let it free. What a mistake that was, who would have known unfolding this unsuspecting message would be like opening Pandora's box to the neurotic mind? But I couldn't judge what it told me. It and I had a lot in common, we both immersed ourselves in a world veiled through a glass window, we both departed to grander spaces and we both had a powerful meaning hidden through obscure articulation. N-No, I am not crazy or at least, I don't think I am. And if that's the case, perhaps insanity is the true meaning after all.

Gem Benitez works in the shadow of powerful men. As the trusted assistant to Aidan Han, she is valued for her precision, her discretion, and her ability to endure without complaint. Her body bears the marks of an old fire, but her mind remains sharp - often sharper than those who underestimate her. When Lucien enters her life, he offers something different: attention without pity, honesty without agenda, and a desire that feels dangerously like the validation she craves. Caught between a man who protects her until she can no longer breathe and one who desires her until she no longer recognizes herself, Gem must learn to distinguish devotion from possession before it's too late. As corporate rivalries and personal vendettas converge, Gem discovers that loving two people is not the danger. Belonging to neither may be. ─── ♕ ── ♙ ── ♚ ─── This story is written for the Open Novella Contest v.2026. ✦ ᑭᖇOᗰᑭT 115 ✦ A prophecy claim that you will love two people. One destined to save your life and the other destined to destroy it. The trouble is, you have no idea which is which. ─── ♕ ── ♙ ── ♚ ─── (more description coming soon)

At seventeen, Chloe is finally invited into the formal gatherings that mark a young shifter's place in society. As a lower-rank wolf, she's learned it's safer to be overlooked. So when a sharp-eyed stranger starts noticing her, she tells herself it means nothing. Only a glance. Only a dance. Until it isn't. Because in a world where rank is everything, the most dangerous question isn't about tradition - it's whether she deserves more than the place she was given.

"Nothing is what it seems in dreams." In the depths of a dark and twisted forest, Aris, crown prince of Lancaster, is tormented by recurring nightmares of the Tainted--monstrous creations of the black fae, a corrupting force that seeps into all who live within its woods. Relentlessly hunted in the dreams, he finds unexpected aid from a mysterious girl named Elara, and with her help he is able to elude the creatures each time, breaking free from the nightmare's clutches. But when Aris is wounded by one of the Tainted, the line between dream and reality begins to blur. When a weapon deadly to the black fae appears in his grasp from the dream, Aris and his sisters--Tamryn, Maeve, Maeril, and Aine--must race against time and Aris' failing health to uncover the ancient truth behind the forest's curse--or face the imminent threat of the black fae and its vengeful master, the guardian of the dark forest, Erebus Nocturne. ✧☽ ✧ ☼ ✧ ☽ ✧ Submitted for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Main Prompt: 75. A cursed forest hides an ancient creature longing for freedom. When it senses someone carrying the bloodline of the witch who once bound it, the creature summons monsters to a mansion where the forest and human worlds collide. The doors are open to anyone brave enough to enter. Side Prompts: 18. At eighteen, you begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like your other half. When they finally appear in real life, everything you thought you knew about love and reality begins to shift. 78. You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems.

Mallory has a mission, a purpose, an end in sight. She doesn't need fun or distractions. She's driven and focused to the point of inattention to any and all things going on around her. And that's how it happens. One moment she's checking her mail before heading to her last class of the day, and the next she's staring at the remains of her emotional support coffee all over her shirt, the floor, and the handsome neighbor she's never even noticed until today. His presence in her life is a nuisance and the absolute last thing she would have wanted, but maybe, just maybe, he might be something she needed. __________ Open Novella Contest (ONC2026), prompt 19: when you accidentally spill coffee on someone, the moment that should've ruined your day becomes the beginning of a surprising and life changing friendship. I told myself I wasn't going to do it, I wasn't going to attempt two novellas at once when I have so many other things started. But clearly the muse is strong and the will is weak.

When the big, bad dragon meets his match, he's forced to do something no dragon has ever done before--find help. And with enigmatic knight Sir Crispin de Harriff-Scarnley hot on his scaled heels, it's science--in the unlikely form of humble and slightly sozzled apothecary student Alyx--he turns to as his saviour. Naturally, Alyx is appalled--knights are good and dragons are bad, right? Everyone knows that. But as he fights to save first his skin and then the dragon's hide, he'll discover that when it comes to concepts such as good vs bad, magic vs science, and nature vs 'progress', the choices aren't always as obvious as he might think. And he'll do it while dodging spells, grappling with gryphons, negotiating hangovers and, perhaps scariest of all, confronting his classmate crush. Meanwhile, in the background, a sinister figure looms...

{2026 Open Novella Contest - Round 3 Qualifier} {Ranked 1 in #bandmembers (5/1-5/21)} {Ranked 1 in #songwriting (4/22-4/25)} {Ranked 2 in #opennovellacontest (5/5-5/15)} {Ranked 3 in #drummer (5/1-5/2)} {Ranked 4 in #guitar (5/12-5/16)} {Ranked 9 in #onc2026 (4/29-4/30)} "𝘔𝘴. 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴" 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 - 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰. Althea has always considered herself unlucky in love. What she never realized was that love had been circling her for years, just slightly out of step. On her thirtieth birthday, the four-man band who shaped her youth arrive late (as always). One confession breaks the careful silence they've kept for years, forcing the past into the present and cracking open a decade of almosts. They chose friendship because it was safer. They stayed professional because it was necessary. And sometimes... life, simply and tragically, got in the way.

ONC 2026

🎏 Author Comment: This tale has been designed and written for younger readers but it can be enjoyed by all. ─ᛰ─ In the elder days before mortal kings etched their borders into stone, before time was measured by crowns and conquests, when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory, there came upon our people an age of quiet sundering. It was a time when the Elven folk still walked the high places, after the Dragons that passed like storms along the horizons, and when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory. Yet even then, doubt found root. In those days there arose among mortals a whispering hunger, seeded by those who wore borrowed faces. The Changeling Wizards, who fed fear as if it were wisdom. Convincing mortal kings, the magic of the elves no longer served them. What had once been shared truth became superstition. What had once been kinship became a war of wills. From that hour, the old goodwill ended. Thus the space between our peoples widened, until the old paths closed and we were pressed back into the frost-bitten heights of our ancestral lands. And what would happen next would leave the old world in the silent throes of an uneasy realization that all was not as it seemed... A time when love and acceptance became fear and those fears bred greed. Greed bred forgetting. And forgetting became blame. But in that age arose two souls. One born of mortal blood, one of mortal grace. Who chose to stand where others turned away. Alvaro, and Daniela of the western shores, whose names the stone itself remembers. ─ᛰ─ Originally written for ONC26 Prompt 78: You begin to realize that things are not as they seem.

For Centuries Grim has been collecting souls. It's what he does, it's his purpose. One day, while collecting a soul in the park, he comes across a lost puppy. For reasons he can't explain, the urge to return the small dog to his owner is overwhelming. He soon finds the animal's owner, a woman in her mid-twenties named Maria. He is struck down by her beauty and realizes that he had once claimed the soul of someone she loved. He becomes even more conflicted when he realizes he has just one year to claim her soul.