Alec Monroe has a gift, and Paul Barrington wants to profit by it. Neither understands the true cost of their arrangement. The Great War casts a long shadow in 1926 Philadelphia. Prohibition is in effect, but largely ignored in the city dubbed "wet as the Atlantic." Séances remain popular, despite the efforts of men like Houdini to reveal mediums as frauds. Class, social, and racial boundaries are razor sharp. Against this backdrop, Paul enlists Alec to help him defraud Henri Deschamps, a wealthy scholar of antiquities from France. Little does Paul know that Henri holds more power than money can buy, and Alec is the key to unlocking it. ONC Prompt 72: A real necromancer sits in on a fake séance. [Author's note/trigger warnings: This story uses period-appropriate language, including terms related to race and sexuality, and discussions of mental health, including suicide.] [All rights reserved. This story is 100% human-generated. No part of this story may be used for the purpose of training A.I.]

When a killer feral hog invades Verity State Park, Officer Rylee Harding quarantines the entire area until the threat can be eliminated. She soon discovers doing the right thing isn't easy, because summer has just begun, and the livelihood of Verity's residents depends on the seasonal flood of tourist dollars. Facing opposition from town officials, her neighbors, and even members of her own family, Rylee stands firm in her decision and risks her life and the life of her unborn child to face down the remorseless monster. This story is written for ONC2026 using prompt number 78: You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems. Jowls, Copyright ©2026 by Dennis Royer, @dennisroyer All Rights Reserved. Cover art by Deviant Art / ArtVixen0520. Used by permission.

The stars whispered to amateur astronomer Levi, and to his alarm, one by one they disappeared within the abyss. But when he witnessed one such disappearance, the star fell to him and took a human form. Explaining Celesta's sudden appearance to suspicious townspeople became an insignificant problem when a Darkness threatened to consume the universe, one star at a time, including the one that warmed his world. A fantasy story written for the 2026 Open Novella Contest, utilizing prompt #69: The stars are disappearing one by one, and only you can hear their whispers.

She is sent to kill the dragon. Instead, she might become his only salvation. *** In a world swallowed by the Ever-Dark, Iva Vernigora is nothing more than a lowly servant in the house of the cruel Voivode Yakub Ivanov, Duke of Highroot. But when Voivode blackmails her with the lives of her parents, Iva is forced to pretend she's his daughter, as she infiltrates the royal academy of magic - Kolegium. Voivode Yakub's order is absolute: poison the Prince Konstantin Veliki. Prince Konstantin is the heir to the throne, the last of the line of Dragons - a Zmey warrior of light, who was blessed with a dragon-shifting gift. At a first glance, he is nothing but a smug, pompous royal, and everything Iva is supposed to hate. Yet every touch, and every shared lesson at Kolegium blurs the line between the enemy she must kill and the man she is beginning to crave. While Iva stalks her prey as a knife in the dark, waiting for the chance to extinguish Konstantin's light, she discovers that the dragon everyone fears is the only thing standing between humanity and the void. As the Ever-Dark Shades rise, Iva must make an impossible choice. Will she carry out her sinister orders and secure her parents' freedom, or will she stand by the Dragon in the battle for the world's last light? *** The Shades are coming. The Dragons are falling. And the Eternal Spark is waiting for its host. © 2026 EvelynHail Exclusively on Wattpad Based on prompts: 97. "When the world slips into endless darkness, something begins to move in the shadows and you must find a way to survive in a night that never ends." 4. "You discover that the dragon everyone fears is in danger, and you are the only one who can save it from the knight sworn to slay it ."

He was sent to rescue her. Not to care. Not to stay. Definitely not to fall. Leonardo Nico Russo doesn't do mercy. As the youngest heir of one of Europe's most feared crime families, he solves problems with precision-and leaves no loose ends behind. Until April Holloway. April Holloway. Missing. Caught in the shadows of human trafficking. What begins as a mission turns into something neither of them expected. Pulled from violence and fear, April finds herself in the arms of a man built from danger and silence. And Leonardo-who has spent his life commanding chaos-discovers that some souls don't arrive loudly. They arrive quietly. They leave footprints on your heart. Set against a world of power, bloodlines, and hidden wars, 'In His Arms' is a mafia romance about rescue, resilience, and the fragile connection between two souls-where protection becomes devotion, and survival slowly turns into love. Because sometimes, the person who saves you... is the one who changes you forever. Author's Note Hello, lovely readers! This is my first time participating in the Open Novella Contest, and I couldn't be more excited (and terrified 😅). ONC Prompt #29 (Excerpt) - Some people leave footprints on your heart. 'In His Arms' is unfolding in between lesson plans, late nights, and stolen moments of quiet-because by day, I'm a teacher, and by heart, I'm a storyteller. This story grew during coffee breaks, after-school exhaustion, and those magical midnight hours when the world sleeps and characters start talking. The story begins inside Leonardo's world-his missions, his shadows, his dangerous precision. The first few chapters unfold entirely from his perspective, focusing on the rescue and the life he inhabits. April's voice enters later-three years after their paths first cross-when she is older, stronger, and finally ready to tell her side of the story. Thank you for giving this story a chance. And welcome to my ONC journey. 🤍 With love, Thiya J

Lena Harris doesn't do messy. She deals in information and observations, small gaps and mistakes that can be leveraged to make problems go away. She gets her jobs done quickly, cleanly, and efficiently, and then she moves on, never dwelling on the past or worrying about anything beyond the next operation. And that's the way she likes it. Until her boss assigns her to the messiest operation she's ever faced. Now her carefully built up professional distance is collapsing around her, and she doesn't know how to hold it up- or if she even wants to anymore. __________ Open Novella Contest (ONC2026), prompt 33: It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened. ONC Round Two winner

Seventeen-year-old Aemilia, an orphan raised at a secretive Scottish academy, becomes obsessed with an ancient arch hidden in the nearby woods. When she deciphers its forgotten inscription, it opens a portal to a magical medieval kingdom. There she meets Brian, a young prince she cannot forget. Back home, the young man she had been enamoured of for years, Francis, finally returns her affection-but Aemilia's heart is divided between two worlds. As she continues crossing the portal, Brian's hidden destiny awakens: he is a dragon shifter whose power threatens both realms. When he is declared an enemy, Aemilia must choose-destroy the dragon to save her world, or protect the boy she loves. My entry for the ONC 2026.

ONC 2026 In a world woven with secrets, silence can be deafening. Eighteen-year-old Luca Kant has never known the sound of her own voice; born deaf and raised under the suffocating grip of her controlling father, she is haunted by the shadow of her mother's mysterious disappearance. Did she flee from the clutches of a man who could be a monster, or did something more sinister happen? Nineteen-year-old Boy Harrison lives at the wrecking yard. He can speak, but hasn't spoken since he was four. He is haunted by nightmares that echo a woman's voice warning him that to remain safe, he must remain silent. Fate draws Luca and Boy together. Long-buried memories and cryptic connections between their lives begin to unravel. As they delve deeper into their entwined pasts, eerie parallels unfold-did Luca's father play a role in the dark mystery surrounding her mother's fate? Does he hold the key to both their truths? How is Boy connected, and who is the woman he dreams of? In a gripping tale of identity, resilience, and the haunting weight of silence, Luca and Boy must confront their monsters and uncover the chilling revelations that bind them on a riveting journey where silence speaks volumes and whispers could change the course of their lives. PROMPT 80 - Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds. (Variation of Edgar Allen Poe's famous quote.) My interpretation - Monsters didn't live under your bed. They sat at your table.

🏆 ONC 2026 ENTRY Main Prompt: 52 🥇 Winner (Paranormal Romance): The Love Letter Legacy 🏅 Best Blurb & Best Character Names: The Fantasy Vortex 🥉 Inked and Unwritten ⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆ After Dark is supposed to be just another dating app. For Amelia, a museum curator exhausted by one bad date after another, it feels like a final attempt before she gives up on romance entirely. For Alexei, it's never been about dating at all; he's been sent to get close to her because of an artefact tied to something old and dangerous. But as their meetings turn strange and violent, Amelia realises the city she thought she knew is hiding secrets far darker than a failed love life. And somewhere in between, Alexei finds himself losing control of the one thing he was meant to keep in check: His distance from her. ⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆⋆♱✮♱⋆ Tropes: Paranormal Adventure, Slow-Burn Romance, Forced Proximity, Are they or Are They Not Together?, Morally Grey MMC 💋, 1/3 Body Horror, 1/3 Gore and 1/3 Sexually Explicit Inspirations: DMC, JJK, BB, Dante's Inferno Fun things (16/3, 5/5: Ranked #1 on demonology) COVER DONE BY CANVA PRO, ARTWORK BY PINTEREST © 2026 by eleeyjs (EJ Chow). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods-without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical reviews or scholarly work.

She's trapped in the past, and he's always looking ahead. ~*~ After her fiancé Travis dies in a storm, Candace Peyton receives a voicemail from him sent after his confirmed time of death. Clinging to his impossible message and lost in memories of their lifelong love story, she isolates herself in grief. Only by connecting with Travis's brother and uncovering painful family secrets does Candace begin to understand the man she lost and find the strength to build the future he wanted for her. *** (Prompt 90: You receive a voicemail from someone you love, recorded one hour after their confirmed death). Wired for the Open Novella Contest 2026