Onc26 Stories

Spring arrives quietly.... soil rich with fertility, petals swaying and a garden that has never known wonder. Until one flower blooms where none should. When reaches for the first flower of spring, the world does not change all but It opens. A single touch pulls her into a place hidden between seasons a world where gardens guard secrets, portals breathe softly and magic has learned how to wait. What was once ordinary becomes dangerous and what blooms beautifully may burn just as fiercely.... because some flowers are not meant to be touched. Some doors do not open without consequence and some creatures long thought to be myths have been watching all along. In a story where spring is a threshold and the garden remembers everything, one choice will decide what is saved... and what is lost forever.

My journey in reading an writing! How I fell in love with expressing emotions through books and and the dangerous beauty of feeling too much and the fragile pieces of myself I found hidden in every story. Oh, and some tips as well!✨🌸

"You were my brother Zain..." "Exactly... Were!" Kenji the Lucario lived happily with his parents within the Bolryn clan. He came from a long family of mighty warriors and was next in line to take his place serving under King Brindim as one of his loyal soldiers. That all changed in one night Now he finds himself in the wilds with only his unborn egg sibling to keep him company. He can't return home, at least not now... Not while he's being hunted... by someone he once considered family... Update: I did not make it past round 1 of Open Novella so if you're here because it's a tag, please keep this in mind so this story will probably be not as good. You have been warned please do not criticise me, I entered out of pure boredom and clearly some people didn't like what I wrote. Enjoy!

An ancient relic, intertwined fate and lives bound by a 50 BCE mystery. An Indian archaeologist and the reluctant son of a powerful chairman find themselves drawn into a truth buried beneath time as a forgotten kingdom begins to awaken and destinies demand revelation.

Summer Peterson and her best friend Whitney are both pulled into her unfinished script, a romanticized 1932 crime noir. All she wants is to find Whitney and escape, but instead she accidentally becomes the boss of a fledgling syndicate, adopts three loyal misfits, and starts bootlegging modern movies in a rundown theater to get her friend's attention. Unfortunately, her rising fame catches the eye of two dangerous men: Sebastian Lorenzo, the feared mob boss she once dragged unconscious into an abandoned house (long story), and Henry Glover, the city's most upright federal agent, who sees Summer as the key to bringing down every syndicate in town. Both men are drawn to the mysterious "White Tiger Lady." Summer just wants to find her friend and go home. But what happens when the script's villain isn't as heartless as he seems, and the world starts rewriting itself around her? Romantic Comedy / Crime Noir / Meta‑Fiction

Lights, camera, action. When an Alien gets curious, too curious, things go... south. Calliope is from the species Llanci, and when her fascination to mankind grows, so does her list of major crimes. Her thirst for knowledge never wavers, quickly snowballing to a dead corpse of a human in her space station. No one can find out the truth. She shifts into the humans appearance, completely replacing the human with herself and taking on its life on Earth. All she has to do is play the part, just like all those humans she sees on those pixel light boxes, and make sure no one finds out. Easy, right?

(First draft - unedited) Evangeline Winterbourne thrives on the unknown. Driven by an unrelenting curiosity, she has spent her life chasing what history tried to erase. Unearthing ancient knowledge, deciphering forgotten languages, and dragging buried civilizations back into the light. Discovery is what she does best. It has never failed her. Until one expedition does more than leave its mark. Deep within a dense forest, Evangeline and her team uncover an ancient temple tied to a lost civilization. What they find inside refuses to stay buried. Whatever stirred there follows her home, settling beneath her skin, awakening something long dormant. Because Evangeline is not entirely human. Drakonian blood runs through her veins, a fractured legacy passed down through generations. Heightened strength. Accelerated healing. A heritage she never fully understood. Until now. As strange coincidences begin to stack and ancient artifacts whisper of memory and chaos, Evangeline realizes the past isn't finished with her. An ancient presence is stirring, one bound to her blood and to the choices her curiosity keeps leading her to. And it wants to be found.

Vincent is having an amazing morning. The most popular guy in the office has given him a high-five, a pretty girl has offered him a coffee, and he's been invited to join the frisbee team. It's almost like they've confused him with someone else. Someone popular. Someone fun. Someone about to bring Vincent's life to a shuddering halt. My entry for ONC2026 based on this writing prompt: 77. Everyone in town remembers you differently, as if everyone has lived a different version of your life. Cover design by @elicatucci

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

In a dystopian future, an acidic flood reigns and the only signs of old life lie in the deep. Alex - an outcast with an inquisitive mind and a set of strangely specific skills - must navigate a world where she is shunned from the safety of the domes and stuck in the water. One day, while exploring a set of deep-sea ruins, she is haunted by a mysterious spirit; a spirit that seems to be warning her of something. The problem is, this ancient being doesn't seem to have any memory of its previous life. With a newly-possessed fish at her side, she must now uncover a secret organisation, find out what it means to do and save both humans and spirits from their plans. --- This is my entry for the Open Novella Contest 2026. Prompts used: 93, 86 (I have listed them in the author's note) --- Round 3 Qualifier for the ONC 2026. #1 oceanpunk | 19/2/26, 7/4/26 #1 explorer | 19/2/26 #1 deepsea | 23/2/26 #1 flood | 10/3/26, 7/4/26 #1 climatechange | 30/3/26 #2 acid | 10/3/26 --- © 2026 | This is original work. Any references to other persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Please do not adapt in any way without the author's permission.

Against the backdrop of a damp, golden London autumn... ​In 2026 London, history professor Sarah uncovers a centuries-old letter hidden behind an old framed painting in her new flat. As she deciphers its secrets, she becomes entwined in a long-lost love and a mystery that spans generations-leading her to a man who holds the final piece of the puzzle." Participation in the Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompt used: #79 © 2026 by Nermein Sami El-Kurdi. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited #onc2026 #opennovellacontest2026 #oncprompt79

Jareth Coppersmith and Pol Flynt have one thing in common. They kill for a living. One works for GAME, the powerful Guild of Airship Mechanics and Engineers and the other, for the Royal Spymaster. But what happens when they are unknowingly sent on the same secret mission? At best they are rivals, at worst, mortal enemies. SciFi / Thriller/ Steampunk/ LGBT

Rivals. Royalty. Brothers. An ailing King gives the two wayward princes a choice. Learn to work together, or watch as their Kingdom falls to ashes and flames under the fury of the Great Dragon. Wattpad Open Novella Contest 2026 Participating Story #4 in Opennovellacontest2026 15/03/2026 #1 in contestentry 16/03/2026 #1 in wattpadcompetition 15/03/2026 #3 in onc26 19/03/2026

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.

A loyal hound will drink saltwater. In the Kingdom of Bevran, vagabonds are offered shelter within the walls of the castle. Orthrus, tired of running for his life, scavenging off of the dead, and never escaping the cold, couldn't think of anything better. But it seems the Queen of Bevran has secrets, plans for invading the Kingdom of Khis. Orthrus and his fellow vagabonds seek to understand how they fit into all of this, what purpose they serve in their Queen's grand schemes. What Orthrus can't figure out is why the Queen would keep her desires secret when Khis is their enemy, the reason Bevran has fallen into ruin. Any Bevrani would devout themselves to defeating their oppressor, no? When the truth comes out, Orthrus must decide on what he's willing to sacrifice in order to survive. ♙♙♙ For the Open Novella Contest 2026 | Cover designed by me | Prompt 80 Current Word Count - 9,760

Mallory has a mission, a purpose, an end in sight. She doesn't need fun or distractions. She's driven and focused to the point of inattention to any and all things going on around her. And that's how it happens. One moment she's checking her mail before heading to her last class of the day, and the next she's staring at the remains of her emotional support coffee all over her shirt, the floor, and the handsome neighbor she's never even noticed until today. His presence in her life is a nuisance and the absolute last thing she would have wanted, but maybe, just maybe, he might be something she needed. __________ Open Novella Contest (ONC2026), 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. I told myself I wasn't going to do it, I wasn't going to attempt two novellas at once when I have so many other things started. But clearly the muse is strong and the will is weak.

Clara Morel arrives at a fashionable Riviera resort after a most determined journey, fully prepared to prevent a wedding she considers both foolish and ill-advised. Unfortunately, she arrives a day too late. The ceremony has already taken place with admirable efficiency. What remains is a nearly empty hotel, a quantity of unused champagne, and a handful of guests whose politeness seems somewhat strained. Each of them appears to have a private grievance, an awkward history, or an inconvenient secret. Clara soon discovers that while she may have missed the wedding, she has arrived in perfect time for something else entirely. After all, in a place where everyone has a reason to resent someone, it rarely takes much for resentment to become murder.

Beth Reynolds is running on three hours of sleep, a dying phone, and a very precarious subway coffee... until the train lurches and she dumps the whole thing on a ridiculously hot stranger. Then she shows up late to the biggest callback of her modeling career and realizes the "coffee guy" is Chris Martinez - her co-model for the shoot. The one she has to get half-naked with. Maybe kiss. For the camera. On set, the chemistry is real enough to make the photographer cry. Off set? Chris is sweet, steady, and somehow still sends mixed signals that make Beth feel like she's losing her mind and her oracle cards aren't helping. So Beth does what any anxious romantasy girl with catastrophic impulse control would do: she buys a love spell on Etsy. And after that... everything she's been dreaming about starts happening. Except now she can't stop wondering: did he choose her... or did she pay for him?

🎏 Author Comment: This tale has been designed and written for younger readers but it can be enjoyed by all. ─ᛰ─ In the elder days before mortal kings etched their borders into stone, before time was measured by crowns and conquests, when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory, there came upon our people an age of quiet sundering. It was a time when Giants still walked the high places, when Dragons passed like storms along the horizons, and when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory. Yet even then, doubt found root. In those days there arose among mortals a whispering hunger, seeded by those who wore borrowed faces. The Changeling Wizards, who fed fear as if it were wisdom. Convincing mortal kings, the magic of the elves no longer served them. What had once been shared truth became superstition. What had once been kinship became a war of wills. From that hour, the old goodwill ended. Thus the space between our peoples widened, until the old paths closed and we were pressed back into the frost-bitten heights of our ancestral lands. And what would happen next would leave the old world in the silent throes of an uneasy realization that all was not as it seemed... A time when love and acceptance became fear and those fears bred greed. Greed bred forgetting. And forgetting became blame. But in that age arose two souls. One born of mortal blood, one of mortal grace. Who chose to stand where others turned away. Alvaro, and Daniela of the western shores, whose names the stone itself remembers. ─ᛰ─ ONC Prompt 78 You begin to realize that things are not as they seem. 🎏 Author Comment: This tale has been designed and written for younger readers but it can be enjoyed by all.

(18. Prompt) At eighteen, Alice begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like her other half. When they finally meet in real life, everything she thought she knew about love and reality begins to shift.