Onc2022 Stories

When spring cleaning season hits the Richardson household, sixteen-year-old maid Jane Wexler is less than impressed to find out she's been tasked with cleaning the attic. Upon discovering Lady Catherine Richardson's journal hidden in the chimney breast, Jane's ordinary life is transformed into one filled with mystery and intrigue as she works to uncover why the journal had been hidden. With so many twists and turns in the tale, Jane realises that not everything in the Richardson's seemingly perfect life is as it seems. Based on prompt 48: 'While clearing out the chimney, you notice a loose brick. When you pull it out, you discover something unexpected.' (C)Spruce_Goose

[Book 1 of the DUO, Webtoon coming soon] The Department of Unnatural Occurrences, better known as the DUO, is an organization dedicated to solving the strange happenings in the port city of Portia. Within it is the Investigation Squad, a small group that acts as detectives to solve most, if not all, of the major crimes in the city. After the death of a journalist close to the Squad, Greyson Saffirus, a young member of the Investigation Squad, realizes that the DUO is keeping a secret. The Underworld, a group responsible for the recent string of murders in Portia, is looking for something, and only gives the DUO three pieces of information: its codename is Demon, it's inside the DUO, and they must give it to the Underworld or suffer the consequences. The only problem is that nobody knows what Demon is. With the help of the journalist's notes, Greyson and the rest of the Investigation Squad find themselves faced with a choice: find Demon and give it to the Underworld, or face the group and stop them, even if it's just temporary.

ONC 2022 Longlister! After years of dreaming of a different world and being visited by a bird that defies identification, Miriam Rogers embarks on a mysterious quest to repair something she doesn't understand. Along the way, she meets the crown prince of her dream world who claims she is his soulmate, the prophesied key to saving his world and her own from destruction. Can they reverse the curse from his land and find love for themselves, or are they doomed to watch their worlds disintegrate along with their fledgling bond?

A ghost on the archaeological excavation of a Roman cemetery sounds like a perfect opportunity for Sandrine and Matt, founders of Ghost Guard Inc., to showcase their talent. But when they arrive on Vic's dig site to investigate, the ghost already disappeared - only to pop up in the museum's depot the next day. What should have been a piece-of-a-cake case becomes complicated when the police turns up to investigate a break in. And what is the connection to the mysterious lead tablet found 33 years ago across town? A Ghost Guard cosy mystery This story was originally written for ONC 2022, following the prompt #67: While working on a case, you come across a newspaper dated 25 years ago, and when you start reading it, an article catches your attention.

When a grandmother is declared the Chosen One, she abandons her rocking chair to challenge the Dark Lord who plots to destroy the world. -- Formerly a single mother, now a devoted grandma, Granny Thayer has never left her hometown before, let alone slayed a demon. But she'd better learn fast; she's just been selected as the Chosen One, the only hero who can defeat the nefarious Dark Lord of Devnia and avert a zombie apocalypse. Accompanied by a devastatingly handsome prince, a failed bard, and a werewolf with a dangerous secret, Granny Thayer embarks on a quest full of intrigue and love triangles to save her grandson. This is a collaboration for ONC 2022/2023, written by SophieKestrel and Spelunkadunk. Prompt: "It's always what/who you least expected that blows your mind away."

Jenna struggles to balance her parents' impending divorce with her terrifying and seemingly unallowed feelings for the new girl at school. ~*~ After her dad moves out of the house, Jennavieve Nass refuses to accept the possibility of her parents divorcing and blames her mom for not even making an attempt to make things go back to the way they were. Attempting to distract herself from all of it, Jenna falls into music more than she ever has before, coming to rely on her carefully curated playlists to get her through each day. It's all fine - Jenna has her music, and the animals at the animal shelter she volunteers at, and, to an extent, school (because of her friends and her on-and-off boyfriend of two years). And she also has her dad, even though he may not be living with her anymore. Then Aislinn Garcia moves into town. Aislinn, a girl who is pretty and smart and friendly, a girl who carries a camera everywhere and takes pictures of practically everything, and a girl who makes Jenna's heart race in a way she desperately tries to ignore. Suddenly, everything Jenna thought she knew about herself - and her parents - gets upended in a dizzying spiral until she's left floundering for a foothold in a cliff that's constantly transforming, changing shape before she can even begin to understand it. To Jenna, the solution is simple: Ignore everything she doesn't want to deal with (which turns out to be a lot of things). But that, as she's quick to find out, proves harder than she'd originally thought. --- [ trigger warnings: homophobia, both internal and displayed by side characters ] All Rights Reserved © 2022 ( Cover credit goes to @Lueur_laVespine )

Two men meet each other on the bench of a playground. ONC, Prompt 51: Life hasn't been easy, but it has taught you about all the different variations of what family can really mean This story is a continuation of the Vampire story from my Halloween 3D Vault entry. It's the same world (I'd like to call it the Contest-verse since this, too, is a contest entry), so some lore will be touched on/expanded on. I hope you'll have fun reading, as I hope I'll have fun writing it.

"There was something inside [her] that wouldn't stop until the whole world was blood." The kingdom of Ostrova has been at war for centuries, and to feed the unending cycle of violence, every year, the day after the New Year, every sixteen-year-old in the realm is conscripted. A notoriously difficult exam called the Proving determines where in the military they will be placed. Norah Tasca is a peasant girl from Ostrova's oldest colony, Navaria. When she passes the Proving with a perfect score, she becomes only one of a handful of commoners ever admitted to the Citadel, the training program for Ostrova's future commanders. But at the Citadel, Norah is an outsider, and all is not as it seems. Those chosen to train there were not chosen for the intellect or their aptitudes, but for something else, something that challenges everything Norah has ever known about the world and the balance of power.

Parker Beck was just your average high school girl. Got decent grades, had a part time job, listened to music religiously. When her favorite small-town artist, Soren Sheets, has a concert in her hometown, she was ecstatic about the news, but disappointed that she couldn't go. That is, until she runs into him in Target. It was almost like fate. When he gives her two tickets to his show, she could never have been happier. A few years have gone by since that night, and they suddenly cross paths once again. This time, at a big stadium with thousands of fans. Is this fate striking again?

Cereal is a necessity to Connie Darwin, and so every day she goes down from her room of solitary and opens the fridge to find the milk. Then she pours her milk. Then she plops in the cereal and heads upstairs again. And the cycle repeats, until she finds her best friend, Clementine Lund, dead in her room, where she wasn't before. When her parents call her for a family meeting, she sees Clem again. And from then on, she starts using orange juice, because Connie needs those calories to get her energy up. When you find your friend dead, you don't panic. You investigate. (Follows prompt 68: You saw her dead, but she is having dinner downstairs with your parents)

"People come and go, but video games are always here for you." That is something Felix Baker has decided to fully live by ever since a bad breakup he wishes to completely erase out of his mind. In order to get his life together and move on from his heartbreak, he gets back into one of his old-time hobbies: gaming. Through his gaming journey, where he starts uploading gameplay and gaining popularity and support, he accepts a single friend request. That is the start of a beautiful friendship that Felix cherishes from the bottom of his heart. After three years, the two decide to meet up, but what will happen when the person that Felix meets up with is the one who originally broke his heart by cheating on him? Will he truly be able to recover, or will he be giving his heart a second chance to either be mended or shattered even more? *** [Open Novella Contest 2022] Prompt #77: Having had your heart shattered into pieces by a particularly tough breakup, you turned to a popular multiplayer online game, through which you met your new best friend and virtual soulmate. After three years of talking and playing together every day, both of you agreed you were long due for meeting up in person. But when you meet, you realize it's the same person who broke your heart all those years ago - the person you caught cheating on you. Cover by @calistacyq

["MY HERO ACADEMIA" MEETS "THE MAGICIANS"] Nin, a coffee-obsessed college student, exists in a world ruled by Senses-those with extraordinary Senses become Heroes, while others fall through the cracks and live their lives as Neverheroes. For Nin, appearing Sense-less, it's an uphill battle. ONC Prompt #51: "Life hasn't been easy, but it has taught you about all the different variations of what family can really mean." Word Count: 2,695 **"Coffee Hero" is the creation of W.L. Ink and is legitimately posted to Wattpad. If this story is present on any site other than Wattpad, it was plagiarized and the author cannot guarantee the quality of the story or the safety of accessing it outside of Wattpad.**

Having worshipped at God's feet for the best part of twenty-five years, Father Hendrie should know better - nightmares are only a fabrication of an over-active imagination. But the dreams which haunt him are terrifyingly vivid and all are somehow linked to an ancient mirror in his attic. It had been there when he moved in six months ago, but he thought nothing of it then, planning to get rid of it when he had time. Of late, though, it seemed to lure him - tempt, bait - and his faith is hanging in the balance. The nightmares begin encroaching on his waking day - he sees demons from the corner of his eye, even in the faces of people he knows in the community. Adding to the terror, multiple natural disasters bombard the news stations of the globe - people are living in fear as their homes and families are taken from them by earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and forest fires. The world is in chaos. Things take a turn for the worse for Father Hendrie. After an extremely unsettling visit from what he could only describe as an unearthly creature, he deduces he is going mad. All that he believes is being thrown to the four winds, scattered, invalidated. He finds himself talking to demons, listening to impossible stories of Earth's history and more frighteningly, its destiny. 'Heaven' and 'Hell' are about to collide in a battle for dominance over the human Realm. And Man is about to meet his makers. Commenced 2nd February 2022 Copyright © AJWright 2022

A sorcerer, a genie, and an outlaw - three individuals pulled together by fate through a winding tale of magic, curses, and arrows. Jafar is in search of power. As a sorcerer with the world at his fingertips, there isn't much that Jafar wants for in life but when a long-lost relic from his past emerges once more, he will stop at nothing until it's back in his hands. Karim is in search of freedom. As a genie who has been cursed as a slave to man, granting three wishes to each of his masters for over a thousand years, it's been a long time since Karim has been able to make choices for himself. But all that is set to change when he meets one legendary outlaw. Robin Hood is in search of a way back home to Sherwood. As an outlaw and a thief, Robin is no stranger to sticky situations but when a robbery gone wrong landed him in a foreign realm a long way away from the forest he knows and loves, he's desperate for any way to get home. When a sorcerer hires Robin to retrieve a cursed oil lamp, the legendary outlaw has no choice but to accept or risk never returning home to Sherwood ever again. Three men whose lives have been long fated to intertwine collide in this epic fairytale retelling. *** An ONC 2022 submission with prompt #43: click your heels together three times and say "there's no place like home". You did just that. But where you found yourself next...it was most definitely not home

She wished... She wishes she could be anywhere, but there, though ending up in one of her favorite fandom always seemed like an ideal anywhere. Yet, instead of ending up anywhere, one sixteen, almost seventeen-year-old Sirius Black ended up there, in her world instead, with sixteen-year-old her with all the things about herself that she hated. Of course, Sirius Black is Sirius Black... Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. This is written for Open Novella Contest 2022 for prompt thirty-six. "You've always wished you could enter the world of your favourite video game. Instead, you wake up one morning to find a character from said video game in your room."

Every government has a secret society, but none so obvious as the Movers. When your priceless item goes missing on the journey from one point to the next, it's not an accident. Follow two pairs of Movers as they get stuck on a less than usual heist: a wartime artifact from someone who's A) not planning on moving, ever, and B) dead. Main ONC prompt: 12

Entry for ONC2022 Cheryl is a young woman who runs her own catering company. Her apartment isn't the best looking out there but it is her home. She has a reputation to uphold but what happens when a few customers give her trouble? A new neighbour moves in and immediately starts trouble. What happens when she goes to confront this person? Will it be sunshine and rainbows or will it just blow up in her face? Cover by @Exequinne

When they're sent to stay with their aunt Jessica for the whole summer holidays, Lani and Anya Ferrin don't quite know what to think. Nothing ever seems to change in Terrenfell, but nothing's the same anymore. Between a new aunt and cousin and the strange rumours in the air, things already seem to be unnaturally interesting, but the fairy secret of the old well in the woods is the most fascinating of all. Though some secrets stay far below the surface for a reason... Can Lani and Anya save the world beneath the well, or will their heroism spell their doom? -------- Cover by bookishnxrd!

[COMPLETED] Elliot wants to win the war. An unresolved conflict from the past led Angels and Demons to be at each other's throats. With each time he brings down his sword, it's as if time keeps stretching forward. Every demon he kills doesn't seem to be the last and every dream he wakes up from seems to be more vivid than the last. As soon as he kills the last demon, he's brought back a month before everything begins. The cycle begins again. Only this time, Elliot knows what will happen. And as usual, someone else is trying to stop it. Word count: 4/30/2022: 39100 Started: 2/27/2022 Ended: 4/30/2022 ______________________________________ {3X Featured} » StoriesUndiscovered: Into the Abyss » FantasyPH: High Fantasy » FantasyPH: Spotlight Stories [ENG] Cover by: @Hamloveham Collab by: @aliyahthebooks and @AmHjonk_ #ONC2022