She didn't come to New York looking for love. At twenty, Hazel Rose Lynn leaves behind the sun-soaked familiarity of Australia and everything that ever defined her-fractured childhood memories, a home shaped more by silence than warmth, and a past she never fully understood. What she carries instead is something quieter, but stronger: a restless hope for more. New York is supposed to be her reset. A new city, a new life, a new version of herself. Living with her childhood best friend, Kate Bailey, Hazel steps into a world that feels electric with possibility-late nights, unexpected laughter, and the kind of anonymity that lets her become anyone she wants to be. She's bright, spontaneous, endlessly caring... the kind of person who makes others feel alive, even when she's still searching for that feeling within herself. She has a plan: build something of her own, find her purpose, and never look back. But New York has plans of its own. Because somewhere between crowded streets and quiet moments, Hazel meets him-a man just as lost, just as searching, carrying pieces of a story he doesn't know how to finish. Their connection is immediate, undeniable... and dangerous in the way only real things are. What begins as coincidence slowly becomes something neither of them can ignore. And for the first time, Hazel is forced to ask herself: What if the life she's chasing isn't the one she truly needs? What if love isn't a distraction... but the very thing that changes everything? In a city where millions come to find themselves, two souls collide-testing the fragile balance between ambition and vulnerability, independence and intimacy, running away and finally staying. Because sometimes, the bravest thing you can do... is let someone see you.

The creator of a 26th century matchmaker is anti-romantic, but when an analyst challenges her views, she relives painful memories, exposing her technology's flaws and threatening her identity. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Kayla Lacson believes that love is a biological equation that can be solved. She is the brilliant mind behind Dorothea, the most advanced AI dating application of the 26th-century, designed to calculate compatibility with extraordinary precision. Kayla's world is crafted in data, logic, and predictable outcomes. That is, until Mathew Matel, a Behavioral Analyst whose brilliance matches hers, joins her team and challenges her views. When Dorothea's latest revision loses public trust and corporate pressure mounts, he becomes the catalyst that forces Kayla to confront buried trauma, uncovering the flaws of her creation and fracturing her carefully structured reality. Despite Dorothea's calculation of their incompatibility, Kayla finds herself drawn to Mathew. Flashes of his face begin to haunt her as she tries to unravel his unexplainable familiarity. And when her very identity is threatened by tangled feelings, she must decide whether love is something to manipulate or something to surrender to. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Written for ONC 2026 ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Genres: Romance SciFi Speculative Fiction Unconventional SciFi Hard SciFi Slow Burn Romance

All Hima can do is practice her apologies to Afroz in her head. God knows there's so much she needs to apologize for but it feels like a death sentence every time she even think of hitting her up again. Part cowardice and part self-inflicted penance, she stays away without being able to fully forget Afroz. Until a butt-dial on a random Tuesday forces her to deal with everything she's been trying to avoid.

As ritual killings tear through the city, Blythe becomes the center of a dangerous obsession. Two men want her for very different reasons, and both are hiding exactly how far they'll go to keep her. *** Blythe thought college would be about classes, parties, and finally feeling normal. Instead, ritualistic killings begin tearing through the city, and every step she takes seems to pull her closer to the danger. Her childhood best friend starts acting secretive and overprotective, like he is hiding something big. Then a new man appears. Dark. Magnetic. And maybe exactly what she should be running from. As fear spreads and strange things begin happening around her, Blythe starts to wonder if the danger is following her for a reason. Someone is watching her. Someone is hunting. And the truth about who she can trust, and who she might be, could change everything. *** Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompts: 82, 99, 104, 105

Orion Scatterstar X is a highly intelligent boy of seventeen with peculiar natural green hair and oddly bright purple eyes... and he's on the run with his mother. The only problem...? He has no idea as to why it is this way. His only clue is that it's all somehow related to his absentee father who is as big of a enigma to him as are the peculiar, mostly illegal and sometimes downright appalling and borderline psychotic 'lessons' his mother keeps subjecting him to. He hides in plain sight by pretending to be normal or average with a different name and appearance in every new place they move to within just a few months as per his mother's rules but as he's gotten older, he's come to think about it all to be nothing more than his mother's paranoia as it's significantly becomes harder and harder to play this game. So, at the verge of turning eighteen and graduating, he finally decides to put his foot down and run far away from all this craziness so that he can finally be free and be who he truly is and have a normal life... like he's always wished. But as the saying goes, 'be careful what you wish for.' He soon finds that his mother's paranoia was not unreasonable. When an unexpected stranger shows up as a substitute teacher at his new school, his entire existence flips upside-down. Truths about who and what he really is, are finally out but now he has to navigate a treacherous and dangerous path where friendship and loyalty are illusions, good is bad and up is down to save himself and everyone else as a prince's life is never simple, especially during war. Not to mention a war against his very own psychotic paternal family. Amidst deception, being constantly hunted and discovering immeasurable power within himself, holding on to his humanity seems harder and harder for his already shaky sense of morals, making him lose bits of himself in the process. Can he survive his new reality unscathed or will it be his undoing?

Mouze has a secret he's lost his mind to keep. Which isn't that strange, considering he lives in Wonderland - nonsense rhymes and insanity and all. But when a supposed stranger drags him back into the political intrigues he doesn't remember escaping, will Mouze relearn enough of his past to help his friends survive? ~ Open Novella Contest entry! Primarily prompt 110: You wake with no memory except a single name, only to be told you died years ago and as danger closes in, you must uncover why you've returned and who wants you dead again. With touches of 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. If you've seen this posted on my other writing accounts, shhh no you haven't.

ONC2026 Entry. Sidharth is Parvathy's safe place. He's her best friend, her winter comfort, and the one person who makes Canada feel like home. But he's also off-limits, dating someone else and firmly placed in the "friend zone" to protect her heart. When her mother introduces her to Jithin, a stable, kind potential groom, Parvathy agrees to give him a chance. It's what her family wants. And maybe, just maybe, it will finally help her move on. But dating Jithin doesn't erase her feelings for Sidharth. And when Sidharth's relationship starts to fall apart, the careful boundaries of their friendship begin to blur. Caught between keeping everyone happy and following her heart, Parvathy has to decide: Will she stay safe in the life others chose for her? Or risk everything for the love she's been hiding all along? Tropes: Friends to Lovers | Slow Burn | Unrequited Love

What if you could see what your life looks like in other dimensions? And what if you could be part of it, even if only for an hour? What if you got the chance to visit a new dimension every year. Would you be grateful for the opportunity and take it with both hands or would you dismiss the offer entirely and be happy with what you have in this life? For Valerie, the choice was always obvious. Why would anyone want to fix what wasn't broken? What was the point of seeing if the grass was greener on the other side when you had the most beautiful garden of them all right at home?

25-year old Lee still hasn't figured out why they could not form any long-lasting relationships, even friendships for that matter. Aside from family members, which they are obligated to talk to, there is no one else Lee had even come close to calling a friend. Well, maybe except for one. -------- Submitted for ONC 2026 @OpenNovellaContest Using the following prompts : 29. You will meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some will leave footprints in your heart. 104. While wandering in the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more than wind through the trees until you turn around and realize it isn't the wind at all. 106. After waking at 3AM to a freezing room and a door you're certain you closed, you find wet footprints and melting snow leading from your bedroom into the hall. Realizing someone or something is inside your home, you follow the trail to uncover the truth. All rights reserved by @J. Lee Kennedy, except for images contained in this book. Crayon drawing "Wander XIX" by @Clara Lieu. Copyright of images, including cover art, belong to their rightful owners, and are attributed accordingly, or used in accordance with the rules of Creative Commons licensing as "fair use." Altered, filtered, or edited images are copyrighted by the author in its final form.

Valeska is exhausted by life. Drowning in bills, dead-end jobs, and the weight of loneliness, she's desperate for change. When she lands a live-in housekeeper position at one of the city's most luxurious estates, it feels like the chance she's been waiting for-a clean slate and a quiet place to breathe again. Luca is refined, sinfully intelligent, and dangerously charming. Every word that leaves his lips is measured, every glance deliberate. Temptation in a tailored suit with a handsome smile. Enzo is dark, unpredictable, and impossible to ignore. His presence hums with danger, his stare burns like a threat and he's already decided Valeska belongs to him... and he's daring anyone to say otherwise. Valeska tries to keep her distance, but their world pulls her in filled with tension and temptation she's never known before. Their attention is overwhelming, their power intoxicating. The brothers take what they want. The brothers own what they desire. And what they desire is her. *** ⚠️ Trigger Warning: This story contains strong language, mature themes, and explicit scenes intended for readers 18+. Reader discretion is advised.