The Tinderbox

The Tinderbox

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A novella for the Open Novella Contest III! Prompt #26: "Every time she lights a match, she escapes into a new world." My mother loved folk/fairy tales and would read them to me all the time when I was younger. Now that she's gone, reading these stories with her are some of my fondest memories. When I read this prompt, my mind immediately went to the "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen. That story always made me sad as a child, and I wondered how the girl's life could have been different had she actually experience the things she dreamed of while looking into the flame. I hope you enjoy reading as Gwyneira discovers that life and wishes are more complicated that we initially imagine. **Trigger Warning** There will be some general violence and intimate partner violence in this story. Neither will be glorified, or graphic, but they are present. I know that these are unfortunate realities for a lot of people and that many read to escape the things they hate in their life and I don't want it to take them by surprise.
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opennovellacontest2020
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Humanity is struggling to survive in a world that's no longer theirs. Liv, a scavenger leading missions to the edges of the city for food, medicine, and iron, knows things are getting worse. Every trip feels more desperate than the last. Humanity has an expiration date-the forest, and the creatures that dwell there, just have to wait them out. When a mission turns out to be a trap and Liv wakes up on the wrong side of the tree line-alone, disoriented, and for some reason not dead-she learns the forest doesn't just kill people or take their souls. It changes them. She doesn't know what she's becoming. Only that it's something way stronger than what she was. And that killing things never felt this good. Murderbot meets The Cruel Prince-with a whole lot of psychological horror My entry for onc2025, based on prompt 125: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. - Frank Herbert

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