[ONC 2026] SHORTLIST LONGLIST ROUND 1 AMBASSADORS PICK When her best friend vanishes without a trace and the police refuse to look closer, she decides to handle it herself. What she doesn't expect is to cross paths with the city's most dangerous man. Now standing at the edge of something far bigger than she anticipated, will she walk away while she still can, or step deeper into the shadows? **** Kenna Sato is a florist with a quiet life, a love for true crime documentaries, and a loyalty streak that often overrides caution. Tenacious and determined, she refuses to sit still when someone she loves disappears. But chasing answers in a city built on secrets comes at a cost. Nikolai "Niko" Volkov rules the underground with cold precision and an iron grip. Feared, calculating, and always several moves ahead, he does not tolerate interference. Yet when fate throws him into Kenna's path, their worlds collide in ways neither of them expected. As danger tightens its hold and betrayal lingers in the air, an unlikely connection begins to form. In a game where trust is fragile and power is everything, can two people from opposite sides survive the storm they are about to face? Or will the darkness consume them both? [Story only slightly edited / proofread] Copyright © 2026 All rights reserved.

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf bard with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. ONC 2026 Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour. If this is posted on any other site, please let me know. I have not given anyone the right to use it.

Joe Means was the prototypical "average-Joe," until the day he met a Time Keeper named Pixie. Ever since, he's gone from flipping burgers to twirling scythes and ensuring the balance of time. This is "Dating Father Time's Daughter" Cover made by: royalhues https://www.wattpad.com/story/190167718-the-north-star KB2 Productions SpiderWriters Studios 8/9/19

My first ever novel completed. Each chapter reads like a stand-alone episode, so you can jump in anytime. A slightly older coming-of-age story set in 1980's Brooklyn. Gerry is a 24-year-old AT&T employee stuck in an entry-level job, trying to make sense of his work, his neighborhood, and his dreams; while juggling friendship, loyalty, and love. There's Mary, the girl who might just be his future. And Audrey, the girl who could crush his world with a kiss and a promise. Loud, funny, and unpredictable, this is a story about friendship, chasing the future, and the kind of love that doesn't always play fair. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2026 by Darkrai_X In the quiet riverside town of Willowbrook, North Carolina, life moves at its own gentle rhythm until two broken hearts collide. Asterine Rufino, a spirited young artist with a secret mission to leave a mark on the world, and Soren Lockhart, a boy haunted by guilt and despair, meet by chance under a fading sunset. As they navigate the small town streets, hidden trails, and lantern lit riversides, their worlds slowly intertwine. Together, they uncover moments of laughter, vulnerability, and fragile hope, discovering that even in the face of heartbreak and endings, life can shine in unexpected ways. Paper Lanterns is a tender, emotionally layered story of friendship, self discovery, and the courage it takes to truly live, reminding us that the smallest moments can leave the brightest marks on the heart.

In the coastal town of Grayhaven, disappearances aren't crimes, they're cycles. Every twenty seven years, devoted parents vanish without a trace. Every twenty seven years, a quiet girl named Shanice appears soon after, as if the sea itself has returned something in exchange. Nineteen year old, Lucious Waters has lived with the aftermath of the last cycle. His mother was among those who vanished. Since then, he has carried a secret: when the fog rolls in and emotions run high, he sees something beneath certain people's skin, faint, drifting tendrils like jellyfish suspended in flesh. When the cycle begins again, Lucious realizes the truth is larger than grief, older than the town, and far more deliberate than anyone admits. Grayhaven Town is not cursed. It is protected. And protection always demands payment. PROMPT 38. Everyone sees an ordinary person but you are the only one who can see their true nature, a jellyfish in disguise. Tendrils of Grayhaven is a haunting supernatural mystery about grief, loyalty, and the terrifying cost of safety, where the greatest threat may not be what lurks in the deep, but what happens when it decides to change.

A covert government operative sent to surveil a famous footballer accidentally becomes the nanny to his six-year-old son, forcing her to choose between completing the mission that could destroy him or protecting the unexpected family she has begun to love. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Anna Sumer has always craved freedom. That hunger is what led her into the shadows, working as a covert field operative for a little-known government agency. Officially, she gathers intelligence. Unofficially, she removes problems. Pulled from a coveted assignment in the Congo, Grace is reassigned to Paris to surveil the family of Hermes Mansi, an international football (soccer) star whose career is tightly controlled by a powerful and corrupt league that profits from obedience. Grace is told to watch him. To observe. To wait. What she does not expect is a twist of fate that places her inside his home, hired accidentally as the nanny to his six-year-old son, Drax. Under the safest cover imaginable, Grace enters Hermes' life with one objective, gather evidence and prepare for a quiet takedown. But the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to remember where the mission ends and her feelings begin. As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Grace must choose between completing her assignment or protecting the fragile and unexpected family she has found. ◈ ◈ ◈ This novella was written for the Open Novella Contest 2026, based on 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."

All that once glittered was gold until it turned to bitter ash and ruin. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Life has never been kind to the likes of Juliette Laurant. Tortured by flowers with each failure that arises, and a voice or two spewing poison into her ears, she's more well known for her oddities than she is as an artist, but if she had her way, she would seclude herself to the forest and create paintings till the end of her days. But when an eccentric earl comes calling for a well seasoned artist, it's hard for Juliette not to leap into the unknown without questioning his motives first. With years of trauma and a dash of magic lurking beneath the surface, Juliette has plenty of secrets of her own that she'd rather have stay buried, but will the ever persuasive Cole Roswell convince her to leave the past behind? Or will she bury herself along with the life she thought she'd live? Only Fate will tell.

It's the day I've feared for most of my young life. It's my fourteenth birthday. Why have I feared today? You ask. Today, I am being drafted into the International Army Coalition. My name is Sage Turner, and today, I am going to war. In 2080, the Earth is at war with an alien race known as the Galanala. Most able adults had either died in the war or were too disabled to fight. Millions of teenagers are now fighting in this war. It is now on us to win this war for the sake of humanity.

This is not a love story. It was written as a farce that evolves into a redemption arc-like Bachelor Party meets Moonstruck. If it offends anyone, I am truly sorry, as that certainly wasn't my intention. Bob Luce turns fifty on April Fool's Day and realizes the joke may be on him. A successful dentist with a loyal wife and daughters, he should be content. Instead, a motorcycle, a young hygienist, and restless thoughts push him toward trouble in this funny, sharp look at midlife temptation.