Novella Geschichten

The dream always ended the same way: with the salt-spray of an ocean I'd never visited and the warmth of a hand I couldn't quite grasp. He never had a face-just a silhouette cut out of the moonlight-but his voice was a low rumble that vibrated in my chest. "Find me," he'd whisper. "Before the clocks stop." When I woke up, the silence of my apartment felt like a physical weight. I checked my pulse, my skin still buzzing from a touch that didn't exist. I told myself it was just stress. I told myself that "Thorne" was a name I'd probably seen on a billboard or a dusty law book. But then I saw him.

[featured on @ShortStory, @AmbassadorsIN, @RomanceINDIA and @Ambassadors 2024 and @Romance 2025] Neil had just arrived in Delhi, a few days ago to meet his sister. Exhausted by her endless rants about how he doesn't have any time for the family, he finally decided to show up and make his sister happy! One fine day, when his sister asked him to get the flower pots from the ground floor up to the 7th floor she had a flat on, he had no choice but to take the elevator. What he didn't know was that destiny could sprinkle some magical dust at the very instant and lock him up inside that metal cabinet with a girl who loathes his profession! One chance encounter and Vedika can't help but regret opening her oh-so-ever-excited mouth! [word count: 20K+]

Caspian Valernius never wanted to become his father. But at fifteen, with a legendary surname hanging from his shoulders like armor too heavy to bear, wanting stopped mattering. Appointed Captain of the Guard far too young, Caspian is thrust into a role built on blood, duty, and impossible expectations. Every victory is measured against King Abraxas. Every mistake feels inherited. And then, he learned of the missing princess. Sent all around the Kingdom of Keolia to search for the king's missing daughter, Caspian spends years chasing rumors, ashes, and ghosts. The farther he travels from home, the more the kingdom begins to rot beneath the surface-whispers of dead gods, strange dreams, and a girl who seems to have vanished from history itself. But when he finally finds Ophelia Delsarte, she is nothing like the princess he expected. She is soft where the court is cruel. Haunted where others are hollow. And somewhere beneath her quiet smile, something ancient is beginning to wake. As memories claw their way back to the surface and the gods turn their attention toward Keolia once more, Caspian is forced to confront the truth: he was never sent to save Ophelia. He was sent to bring her home.

A cynical mercenary is hired to hunt down a warlord's runaway son. But when he finds the boy waiting calmly in a cursed forest for the Erlking, he realizes the monster isn't the one they should be running from.

When she is five years old, Fan Chang Ning watches her sister carry a half-dead stranger in out of the snow and decides, in the way small children decide enormous things, that guarding him will be her job. It is the first thing she ever chooses for herself. It will not be the last. This is the story of the girl at the edges of the war. Stolen from a market crowd and sold north into a cold house. Traded back out of the dark. Thrown through the black air above a battlefield, and caught. Somewhere along that road she presses on a lonely boy the only thing she owns that is worth giving, a cricket folded from a blade of grass, and he presses a piece of imperial jade into her hand in return, and neither of them yet understands that the boy will grow into the emperor, or that a scrap of folded grass can come to outweigh a throne. Years later, a decree travels north with her name written inside it. Empress. The court calls it the great fortune the readers of faces saw in her when she was a baby. But Chang Ning has spent her whole life learning to tell a gift from a cage, and she knows the difference better than almost anyone alive, because she has been kept once already, and she will ride the length of the country to refuse being kept again. Told first in her voice and then in his, The Grass Cricket is a story about stolen children and the people who go back into the dark for them. About a young emperor trying with everything in him not to become his father. And about the oldest question love has ever asked. Whether to close the hand, or to open it. A companion to A Name Like Smoke. It stands on its own.

Mystery love letters don't just land in school lockers on their own. ⋆☆⋆ When Elsey Dayton starts receiving paper planes in her school locker, she seeks out to find who the sender is with the help of the shy boy who works at the local diner. ⋆☆⋆ #1 - ya [ 24/04/26] [© ataliass 2026 ]

*New chapters every Wednesday at 3:30 PM (GMT/BST)!* Experience the magic of Constance M. Burge's Charmed as you've only imagined! Join the third iteration of the Charmed Ones as they struggle with the loss of their sister and the implications of her untimely death, and continue their destined battle against the forces of evil. The Halliwell sisters' destiny has been rewritten, and life as they know it has changed-more than they realize. After the tragic loss of their younger sister, Phoebe, Piper wants nothing more than to put her life as a witch behind her, while Prue is consumed with vengeance. However, when the Source of All Evil surfaces, they discover the existence of half-sister, Paige Matthews. As reluctant as they are to accept Paige, Prue and Piper must put aside their feelings to protect her and reconstitute the Power of Three; only then can they begin to uncover the truth about their sister's death and the larger mystery surrounding it. I͏N͏F͏O͏R͏M͏A͏T͏I͏O͏N͏ Genre: Fantasy/Mystery/Drama. Style: Novel format retelling/reimagining, third-person omniscient perspective, American-Style English. Word count: ~1.5-3.5K per chapter (~230K total once completed). Continuation publishing dates: Relaunched 03/03/26. Novella publishing dates: Started 05/08/24, completed 30/08/24, edited 30/08/25.

♪ 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹 ♪ ─♰─ ever since she was young, lennon was alone. she walked through life with nobody by her side ... until she met a strange little boy by the name of adam reed. at the age of six, lennon met adam after she snuck away from her babysitter who couldn't care less about her whereabouts. after meeting adam, her life changed into an adventurous roller coaster with many twists and turns. however, nothing could make lennon leave adam's side, not even an early visit from the future. ─♰─ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ © 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳_

Do you ever feel like your body or your gender doesn't quite match or align? Follow Sam Anderson as he figures out the challenges of fitting in, coming out, accepting who he is and establishing his worth, one coffee sip at a time

When Ishara randomly picked a dessert place to order a butterscotch toast, she didn't expect herself to develop a crush on the handsome and eloquent delivery guy. She also didn't expect him to actually be the rich co-owner of the said dessert place. ──── wordcount: 17k words the sweet bakes compendium # 1 © starlane 2025

We put our hand on the pulse of society and tear its beating heart from its chest, sinking our sharpened teeth into the juicy flesh. That's responsible journalism. Sponsored by Phil's Flame Retardant Undergarments, the Community Supermax Sporting and Seafood Festival Complex, Lynus' Blood Goat Farm, and a mysterious 'Clacking' sound. Brought to you by the direct consequences of the lucidity of your mind. Community News with Waymond Throckmorton - Your only source of information!

Husband and wife attend a dinner party at the lavish home of their friends. What social gathering among mates goes by without a few bruised feelings? Two perspectives. This story follows a young couple through an evening filled with familiar faces and new acquaintances, colorful conversations and tame observations, opinions shared and challenged. Many a thing can happen over the course of one night: old secrets revealed, skeletons from the past unearthed, concealed emotions resurfaced. Will the husband and wife share the same point of view by the end of it? Experiencing the same events through their own pre-trained sets of eyes, guided by the filters already in place - those shaped by memory, bias, and belief. They might or they might not.. But one thing is certain: it would be a night to remember. be a fly on the wall in every room where action takes place, make sure not to miss anything. Point of View. a novella by Mikael Kino

Soiatan is a loser, lacking everything but her looks. Her life changes when she's captured by a criminal group, but it's also ruined.

[ SPORADIC UPDATES ] In which true crime podcasters Simran and Rahul attempt to piece together a cold case - the disappearance of a young student. ─────── © starlane 2026

Reincarnated into a competitive kingdom of healers, Fenway is but a humble side character living in the main characters shadow. Or at last she hopes so. Side characters also have a supreme ultra rare one-in-a-trillion secret abilities and are one of the three daughters of the most powerful royal healers in the entire world... right? She couldn't possibly be the main character, or even worse, the main villain? Right?! | #2 novella 10.2025 | | #1 lifeanddeath 09.2025 | | #1 darkprince 10.2025 | Round 3 Qualifier for the Ambys 2025 MATURE Content advisory: Violence, Explicit language. Genre: Fantasy-Fiction Copyright© 2023 short_flame

Qoltron Zammerstorn of Qizzabettica visits earth and discovers wonders never before seen of his home planet. Sci-fi humor. Stay tuned after the perils of Qoltron for the bonus material.

Megafantastic Man is the greatest superhero on Earth. His little brother Marvin is decidedly not. It's tough living in the shadow of greatness, and although Marvin possesses some super powers of his own, things just never seem to work out quite right. When an especially nasty supervillain pops up to threaten the world just as Megafantastic Man is called on to lend aid to another planet, Marvin might be the only chance at saving the day. Earth just might be in really big trouble.

(ONC 2023 Shortlisted) Shannon Meadows thought he was renting a house in a quiet secluded neighborhood that would allow him to focus on writing his literary masterpiece. Little did he know he was living next door to 80's rock legend Antony LeBon Lacey. Their personalities clash immediately, but soon they are forced to work together to discover what happened when two months disappear overnight and they appear to be the only two people left on Earth. Can they overcome their differences to find an answer to this mystery?

[Shortlist | Ambassadors Pick] Alicia DuMont is telling the truth. Unless you count lies of omission, which she decidedly does not. Twenty-four and finally standing on her own two feet as a hairstylist, she is surprised when she and her friends receive an invitation to the prince's Coming-of-Age Masked Ball. Knowing they are right out of the running for marriage to the prince won't stop them from having a little fun, though! Prince Alejandro has a truth he can't share: his country is weaker than it seems. At nearly twenty-one, his dream of marrying for love is tied up in somehow falling for a down-to-earth woman who can strengthen the monarchy. Hoping his Coming-of-Age Ball will throw such a girl into his path, he's determined to make the most of it. And when he meets the mysterious Alicia, he is immediately drawn to her. When Alicia and Alejandro decide to begin a relationship, royal conventions throw them straight into an engagement. They may be the epitome of poise and grace in public, but behind the scenes questions of Alicia's suitability mix with the threat of national unrest. Every day their connection grows deeper, but if they can't find a way to quiet the growing discontent, they risk losing not only their relationship but also their country. *** This story was written for the ONC 2021 based on prompt #87.