Onc26 Stories

For Centuries Grim has been collecting souls. It's what he does, it's his purpose. One day, while collecting a soul in the park, he comes across a lost puppy. For reasons he can't explain, the urge to return the small dog to his owner is overwhelming. He soon finds the animal's owner, a woman in her mid-twenties named Maria. He is struck down by her beauty and realizes that he had once claimed the soul of someone she loved. He becomes even more conflicted when he realizes he has just one year to claim her soul.

"Here is the information about your target." The file was handed to Taehyung, along with a shoulder pat. "You got three weeks. I'll let you know when it's the time, then finish him without any suspicions." "Park Jimin, Age 23, the only heir of Park Seojun, the chairman of the biggest real estate group - Park corp..." "Tsk." He clicked his tongue. "It's my first time getting a target the same age as me." ──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── "Hello Jungkook. I've sent you the details of your next target." The female voice said from the other side. Park Jimin, age 23... "He is too pretty to die soon, you know?" Jungkook's laugh echoed in the silence of the office room. ──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── Taehyung and Jungkook - assassins from rival organizations called Shadows and Crimsons respectively. Same target - Park Jimin, 23, blind... What did a blind heir possible do to make two powerful organization want him dead? Will he survive the flames of hate this time? Will they find out the truths behind the flames that never died? ──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

The town of Dogwood in Cross County, North Carolina is a picturesque seaside community with a sordid past swimming in piracy. Smoking Beard, aka Edward Hollingsworth, was the terror of the colonial coast in the 1600's, and one of Dogwood's founding members, before his descent into illegal privateering and eventual decline into madness. Four hundred years later, Bertha Rodriguez, romance novelist, resides in Dogwood along with her best friend Camilla Goldstien, Dogwood's chief of police. Every year the town capitalizes on its founders' past with a week long festival in June. The Founders' Festival brings much needed tourism and a break from the monotony of living in a small town. This year will be different, a huge storm hits the coast two weeks before the festival begins and someone uses it as an opportunity for murder. With their town cut off from the rest of civilization, it falls to Bertha and Camilla to solve the murder before the weather clears and the villain is able to make an escape. Written for the Open Novella Contest 2026 The prompt which inspired this story was number 22: Your book never found much success, but on a train ride you spot a stranger reading it with the biggest smile you've ever seen. Longlister in the Open Novella Contest 2026 No part of this story may be used to program AI. If you see this story anywhere besides Wattpad please make me aware. This is the only place I post stories. I don't have multiple accounts on this site, so this is the only profile this story should be posted on. Thank you, readers.

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) --- Open Novella Contest 2026 Longlister. #1 oceanpunk #1 explorer #1 deepsea #1 flood #1 climatechange #2 acid --- © 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.

The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!

This is the report of Lee's adventure in his phone. Lee downloaded the app "Adventure in Your Phone" and got trapped in the virtual world. To escape, he must complete a series of tasks hidden within his own apps.

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?

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?

With programming and witchcraft skills, two opposite girls attempt to solve their town's mystery. Olivia is a witch from a human family. Alazea is a human-by-choice from a witch bloodline. Five years ago, they basically switched lives. While they don't understand each other's choices, they have grown to like each other through tutoring lessons and class notes exchanges. When an artefact disappears from their town museum, they take the opportunity to prove to each other that their chosen path is the best. Az with her computer and Oli with her potions, the friendly competition makes them confront the idea they have of the other, in more than one way. All visual art in the story is mine. ONC Prompt - (11) The daughter of the most powerful witch is nothing like her mother.

OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ENTRY All that was left of him was one voicemail she couldn't delete. She wanted to keep it, just to remember his voice - but every time she pressed play, something changed. A different word. A car honking. A way-too-long pause between words. There were details that didn't belong. She was not sure if she was revealing the truth about his death... or if the message was leading her somewhere she didn't know she could go.

Cursed storms have been tearing through the port cities, and the constellations are shifting in ways no map can explain. When a stowaway girl is discovered aboard a merchant ship, Elias, the crew's bookish young cook, can't stop watching her. Olive is a mystery in every way. She barely eats or sleeps, and seems determined to get herself thrown overboard every time she opens her mouth. Yet when she somehow navigates their vessel through violent weather, Elias realizes there is much more to her story than he could have possibly imagined. ONC prompt #69: The stars are disappearing one by one and only you can hear their whispers. Percy Jackson meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets astrology (I do not use AI to write my work. I will sometimes use it to research historical details for accuracy but no AI is used to generate creative materials)

ONC'26 "One Spell, One Ghost, Two Handsome Boys, One Witch, and Popularity, what could go wrong... right?" When you become so popular in your Town, you never know that something lurking in the dark around Spring Festival could actually take you on a trip that soon you will regret. It's never easy to be such a popular girl in High School, but when love strikes between hate and popularity, there's no chance to be taken. Will you pay the price for your popularity through your worst enemy, or will you run from the curse and ghost that is chasing you? Tik... Tok... Tik... Tok... time is ticking!

Zara is a hardworking baker and one contract away from success. David is the corporate king of Abuja real estate, a man who values order above all else. When a collision in a VIP elevator douses one of David's most vital land documents in hot espresso; their two worlds finally clash. David views Zara as a chaotic, sugary mess, Zara sees him as a cold, unyielding wall of stone. But when David is caught in an ugly custody battle with his volatile ex for their daughter, Annabella; David realizes he needs more than just steel to save his family. He needs the one woman who isn't afraid to get her hands messy. Now, Zara and David must decide if they can build a future on the ruins of their first meeting.

THE LAST SIGNATURE The ink that doesn't fade. Eli never believed his brother's death was an accident. He just never had proof. Until Nora found the yearbook. Hidden inside a wall. Filled with names written in ink that doesn't age. Names that belong to students who all graduated normally, lived quietly - and died exactly three hundred and sixty-five days later. No headlines. No investigations. Just a pattern so clean it could only be deliberate. Now there are five of them who know. One name already inside that shouldn't be. Eleven weeks until the rest of them walk across that stage. And something ancient, patient, and nameless has been collecting signatures for a very long time. It isn't finished yet.

Aw feck. I died. And now I've transmigrated into some third rate web novel as a cannon-fodder's associate's background character. Still forced to work, now with my freedom in the hands of a tsundere young master Kun. This is the story of how I try to avoid overtime. ONC 2026 prompt #60 "You download a new app that promises to cure your boredom and it delivers far more than you ever expected."

The king has been betrayed and his throne taken from him, locked away withno hope... So he thought unknown to him, the spirit did send hope in form of Princess Emeralda... "what are you doing so far, deep in the forest" startled Emeralda looked around but saw no one.. "down here....beside you....come closer...don't be afraid" the voice kept speaking And so Emeralda walked gently towards the voice , this act took all of her courage,but she kept going, slowly till she got to the flower, so sure the voice came from there, she looked into the flower, to her amazement she saw the most handsome moon face she has ever seen In awe of his beauty and shock of the situation she asked "what are you doing in there!".....

A series of murders, a school magazine and an obnoxious colleague in the way. Suspicious letters pop up in the magazine Zoey Tan heads, she is forced to find the perpetuator who has landed her in the trouble. When the perpetuator proves to be more than just trouble to her, things take a deeper dive. When his low-key persona slips, Yuvan Tejas desperately tries to re-assemble it and protect those who shelter under it. When murder dots the city and the murderer seems closer than he thought possible, tides turn. Together they discover a truth that shakes their worlds.

My ONC Journal 2026.