Nonlinear Stories

[[ONC 2026 Honorable Mention]] 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. ------------- © 2026 J. Lee Kennedy. All rights reserved. Cover design © 2026 J. Lee Kennedy. Images used in this work belong to their respective copyright holders and are used under license or in accordance with applicable Creative Commons terms. Edited or altered images are copyrighted by the author in their final form.

"You're very confident this afternoon. What makes you so sure I'm interested?" George shrugged. "I'm not." "Very persuasive." "I'm sure about me." | | | | | Twenty years of friendship. The evidence suggested otherwise. In 2012, Chelsea Penrose works for Percy Weasley, spends far too much time at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and has appeared in Weasley family photographs for years. George knows how she takes her tea and when she's about to insist on handling something herself. Chelsea knows when he's bluffing and when there's something under the joke he'd rather not say. Fred knows both of them well enough that very little gets past him. They grew up. They dated other people. Fred and George built a joke shop. There was a war. Fred nearly died and, very stubbornly, didn't. Somewhere along the way, George and Chelsea became so tangled in one another's lives that nobody thought much about it. Fred noticed everything. Eventually, "friendship" stopped explaining whatever they had become. Told nonlinearly between their adult lives and the years that made them, Here and Waiting is about growing up together, wanting more, and finding the nerve to ask for it. COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT • New chapters every Tuesday & Friday George Weasley/OC • friends to lovers • found family • slow burn • post-war • nonlinear

A dying town launches a rebranding campaign that no one seems to be running. The billboards appear overnight. The slogans don't explain themselves. A diner waitress says nobody puts them up, and nobody takes them down. A couple arrives expecting ironic tourism and finds something closer to a live experiment. Beauchêne doesn't ask visitors to believe anything. It only asks them to stay. To notice. To participate. What begins as small-town decay becomes a slow, sideways unraveling... murals that feel instructional, civic programs that behave like dares, and a town that seems increasingly aware of the people passing through it. A surreal, slow-burn satire about American decline, anti-branding, and the strange comfort of entropy. Meaning doesn't collapse here. It rebrands. Entropy is a vibe. Decline tastes like caramel. Welcome to Beauchêne. You're here now.

After witnessing their classmates get mauled during a school service trip across the country, eight teenagers barricade themselves in a clothing store and survive as the world around them falls apart. But when their refuge is destroyed, they're left with nothing but each other and a desperate plan: walk all the way back to Halmont and hope there's still a home waiting for them.

Snippets of an invisible life, as told by Tethys. Kind of. Decided to rewrite the Chrysalis arc a little. Same story, just my take on it. Just a heads up, the story intentionally is very messy. POVs and times can jump quite a bit. Updates when I feel like it.

In the year 2082, all paths lead to Kitra IV - a desert planet rumored to be hiding an underground city of life-changing wealth. Four strangers will be forced to set their differences aside and cooperate, stranded amidst the greatest treasure hunt in the galaxy. OST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIlfu9P4AmJM Chapter artworks by https://www.instagram.com/tompi2oo7/ Some things to keep in mind: - This is my first attempt at a full novel. Chapters will drop at LEAST once every three months, as it's been so far. Some chapters may be slightly rewritten to better fit the storyline at some point in the future. The cover art, as well as the in-chapter art, will be added/polished further later on. - English isn't my native language. I apologize for any poorly constructed sentences you might find. - SFW but features swearing, alcohol, and mature topics. - This novel is human-made. Absolutely no generative AI or LLM was used in the writing, music or cover arts. Enjoying the story? Leave a star or a comment! Would love to hear your thoughts.

A character-driven fantasy about survival, trust, and belonging, set in a world of rival species and shifting power structures. The story follows a wounded, reclusive Vulpid named Pallida, who finds herself taken in by a Canid pack after a violent loss. She doesn't speak much and doesn't trust easily, but over time, she becomes an unlikely protector and a quietly essential part of the community she never expected to belong to. It's about survival, trust, found family, and what it really means to carry loyalty - not to systems, but to people.

Samantha Reece is your average, everyday, very normal twelve-year-old girl. She's a starry-eyed, hopelessly romantic geek who desperately wants to fall in love at the camp she's heading to in just a few hours. Where she's from, she's known as the trumpet-playing, comic-book-reading, ancient-Egypt-loving nerd who is just one of the guys. So she yearns to be like the heroines in the stories and books that she reads-to be swept off her feet by some handsome stranger in a whirlwind romance. She wants the kind of passionate, sweet, caring bond that she sees between Rogue & Gambit in her X-Men comics. But then something strange happens. She goes to sleep on May 16th at a camp in Maine, but wakes up in her 17-year-old body. Sam lives an entire day in this future version of herself, then wakes right back up in her small pre-teen body. Was it real, or an incredibly vivid dream? Just in case, she records a tape recounting everything that happened that day. The thing is, it was real. Every few years, Sam wakes up in the body of her future self. As she gets older, she becomes mature enough to plan for these jumps-and the questions become harder to ignore. Why is it happening? Where is she going next? What happens if she changes something her future self already lived? When does it end? And most importantly, what happens when it does? Mixtapes to Myself is a story about finding yourself, appreciating where you come from, and enjoying every step of the journey that gets you to who you will be. It's about finding and losing love, the friendships that come and go, and the ride-or-die friendships you're lucky enough to find. It's about the things you tuck away, the pieces of yourself you may forget, and the people you lose along the way. It's a vivid tale of a girl who becomes a teenager, who becomes a woman, and how much we can change in just a few short years-and just how completely our lives can change along the way. This...is Mixtapes to Myself.

Greenhouse Notes: Kinda crazy, but full of wonder Greenhouse Notes is not a book about having all the answers. It is a record of what happens when you stop demanding them. It began with simple questions-why, where, when, and how-and somehow those questions kept growing. Into gardens. Kitchens. Forests. Relationships. Grief. Joy. Work. Identity. The strange little moments that seem insignificant until you look at them long enough and realize they were telling you something. This is a collection of essays about learning to see. Not just what is happening, but what might be happening underneath it. Not just what something means, but what else it could mean. Not just the feeling itself, but what the feeling is trying to reveal before we rush to explain it away. Like a greenhouse, these pages hold a little bit of everything: things being cultivated, things being neglected, things outgrowing their containers, things that refuse to bloom on schedule, and things that somehow survive despite us. There are no neat formulas here. No five-step systems for becoming your best self. No promise that if you simply understand enough, life will finally make sense. There is only the invitation to look closer. Because sometimes the most ordinary thing becomes strange when you really notice it. A seed can make you think about patience. A meal can make you think about memory. A relationship can reveal the parts of yourself you hadn't met yet. A forest can make you reconsider what you thought you knew about being alive. And sometimes a question doesn't lead to an answer at all. Sometimes it leads to another question. And another. Sometimes they chain and create their own multiverse. And, somehow, that turns out to be the point. This is not certainty. It is curiosity in motion. A little chaotic. A little tender. Occasionally ridiculous. And, hopefully, full of wonder.

A game of chess between 5 members from different Mafia organizations

An investigation into the rumors surrounding Kiara Fried Phoenix (KFP), an up and coming fast food franchise that has been exploding in size since its establishment. Inside are official documents covertly obtained from KFP archives. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

There are worlds beyond the imaginations Explore them with you You are the keys to open the doors to the world In you, In me

Constantine's life didn't start until he met Eden. Eden is lost without Constantine. They've been best friends since they were four years old, and they are each other's worlds. Originally a place of refuge for each other, their relationship quickly grows unhealthy as Constantine becomes obsessed with Eden. Eden feels increasingly trapped as Constantine spirals. Can Eden save Constantine, or will he pull her down too? Sort of non-linear narration (each chapter treats a certain age, but not necessarily in order). Let me know what you think - comments, critiques, even suggested story lines, etc. all welcome. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

BENEATH. 9 characters. 9 lives, 9 perspectives. I welcome(challenge) you to explore them. Each character has four chapters and the way you read them doesn't matter. The story doesn't care. The only thing it cares is you end on The Ending Eza Moreiza, 1-4 Z Melody, 5-8 Professor Reinhart, 9-12 Uko Uzumaki, 13-16 Irides Shards, 17-20 Nyra Armani, 21-24 Ollie Lenz, 25-28 Karez Coloir, 29-32 Enzui Enkonzui, 33-36 The Ending 37-40 Btw, you can also read Irides' chapters in any order. Anyways, that's all from me. I won't hold your hand anymore. Explore BENEATH for yourself. Break your mind. Break your heart. Break yourself. Have fun. ... Ok maybe I will give you a lantern. The Path of the Boring Guy : Eza, Z, Reinhart, Uko,.....you know where this goes. The Path of The Fool : Enzui, Z, Irides, Eza, Nyra, Reinhart, Uko, Ollie, Karez, The Ending The Path of The Wise : Karez, Nyra, Eza, Reinhart, Uko, Irides, Ollie, Z, Enzui, The Ending The Path of Birds : Eza, Ollie, Nyra, Reinhart, Uko, Karez, Irides and Z, Enzui, The Ending The Path of the Damned : Nyra, Reinhart, Uko, Irides, Eza, Ollie, Z, Karez, Enzui, The Ending The Path of Resonance : Uko, Nyra, Karez, Ollie, Z, Irides, Eza, Reinhart, Enzui, The Ending

Lucien J. Root streams conspiracy rants and glitchy gameplay under the name L.U.5.T. - just a vape shop stoner with epilepsy and a cult following. Until a trip mid-shift cracks reality open. A phrase echoes from an Ancient Aliens rerun: ".j-root protocol initiated." Now tech glitches, time fractures, and a rogue Grey starts to feel... Dreams. Memories. Tears. Lucien isn't chasing the truth - he is the error. And the system's coming to delete him.

A middle-aged man recognizes his upcoming death for the first time by watching a thrice-translated script on a pirated television show. He begins to tell stories to try to tie some semblance of what life has meant together. He begins with what he knows: his family and wound care.

Neo-noir meets Texan influences in this 80s fiction about a retired MMA fighter living the rest of his days at a motel. Conall Warner is intent on the simple life until trouble arrives at his doorstep with the death of a close one. A murder to be solved for the cops and a body to mourn for the fighter. The tragedy leads Conall to spiral down a dark path in his mind as tensions emerge within a grim relationship with a resident. Conall must defeat his demons in the fighting cage he left behind years ago and also battle with the ever-deceiving world that he lives in, to claim the title in this slow burning tale. Will Conall be hunted down by his opponent, or will he train his eyes on the fight? Edited by @EvvyRxse

On the eve of independence, a forgotten father makes one final vow not to a nation, but to his child. A quiet monologue about memory, sacrifice, and the kind of heroism history leaves behind.