To Kill a Witch (ONC 2024 SHORTLIST) - L.G. Wyatt - Wattpad

To Kill a Witch (ONC 2024 SHORTLIST)

Reads 791
Votes 113
Parts 15
Time 1h 38m

Reads 791
Votes 113
Parts 15
Time 1h 38m

curses fairytale fantasy forest gothic horror humor magic magicalcreatures mystery novella onc onc2024 opennovellacontest paranormal stories supernatural talkinganimals witch youngadult zombies

Stories say that the Witch rained curses down on Devil's Corner, that she made the woods grow strange and wild, made shadows leap and dance and snatch up stray children for supper. In a small town on the edge of a dangerous forest, stories are never in short supply, and they are held dearer than truth.

Thea lost her hand to the things that live in the wood, and she can't shake loose the voice that lured her there. But her Pa fed her tales of magic and heroes, and promises that even the darkest things have hearts. When her brother is attacked by the Witch's gruesome creations, Thea breaks into her cottage, determined to save him from a fate she knows all to well. Because in Devil's Corner, stories are true, and Thea knows the greatest one of all: the only way to break a curse, is to kill the witch. 

---

COMPLETE - 20,000 words
Written for Wattpad's 2024 Open Novella Contest.
ONC 2024 SHORTLISTERAll Rights Reserved

curses fairytale fantasy forest gothic horror humor magic magicalcreatures mystery novella onc onc2024 opennovellacontest paranormal stories supernatural talkinganimals witch youngadult zombies

Table of contents

15 parts

Sign up to add To Kill a Witch (ONC 2024 SHORTLIST) to your library and receive updates

or

#10talkinganimals

Content Guidelines

You may also like

Rising Powers by Sophia_Grace_Pearson

(74,890 words) The wind rushed past me as my wings beat against the night sky. I noticed a copse of trees up ahead. I slowed to a stop, talons clutching a low-hanging branch. I looked beyond the trees and a pair of glowing golden eyes met my own. Wolf eyes. My eyes widened in fear as I took off. I dodged the trees in my path, but one branch snapped on my wing. My vision blurred, pain lacing through my wing. I continued to flap my wings, clinging desperately to the notion I would make it out alive. More than one wolf was chasing me, their paws a staccato on the ground. They would catch up. They would devour me. I tried to stay in the air, but the pain was unbearable. I fell to the ground, fluttering down like a dead leaf. I snapped my eyes open. Breathing heavily, I sat up. My room shifted in and out of focus as my eyes adjusted. When I was little, my father always told me that dreams were just my imagination, that people were never chased by wolves, and people certainly could never be birds. Vera Stone is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in a small Louisiana town by the bayou. Small, boring, where nothing ever happens. Or so she and her friends think. One night the hidden darkness surrounding their town and their lives comes to the surface. Will Vera and her friends figure out the secrets hidden through their town's history before it's too late?

Haunted by JuliaCoffin

The dead typically want one of two things. Ghosts crave conversation. Spirits seek pain. My name is Bria, and I've been able to interact with the dead for as long as I can remember. Communicating with the deceased might sound like a cool gift, but let me assure you, it's not. Ghosts don't shut up, and not all specters are friendly. In fact, most of them are dangerous. Pretending the paranormal doesn't exist is far easier than talking to the shadows, so I've been avoiding the dead for years. Past experiences have led me to avoid the living too. And for a long time, I've successfully kept my distance. Until a single ghost encounter in the library ruins everything. Now a couple of my classmates know my secret. But as it turns out, they have a deadly secret of their own. Time to talk to the shadows again. _______________ This story contains profanity and violence. [ONC 2021 Shortlister]

✔Secrets of the Amulet | ONC 2023 by AliKatMeow

Shortlisted for ONC 2023! Not all secrets go to their graves. A former librarian's ghost haunts Everett Pepperheart, pleading with him to solve her murder. There's just one problem. The death record shows the elderly woman passed away peacefully in her sleep from natural causes, but she has her doubts. If having a ghost following him everywhere isn't bad enough, an injured bat crashes into the library's door. After rescuing the animal, Everett is stunned to discover the bat isn't what it seems. Main prompt: 75. You have a family heirloom, it's been passed way long before anyone can remember. You inherited this object and discover its secret. This secret will twist your life and change it forever. Amazing cover created by @-DeeIsDead- Word Count: 35,000

The Tragedy of Eden's Gate by Maeve-Ashford

When a dark situation leads Theo to the quiet village of Eden's Gate, where the residents are odd and the pool of friends severely lacking, he's less than thrilled. The town is a miserable means to an end. And, to make matters even worse, he's pretty sure the house is haunted. Cold spots, flickering lights, a shadow that won't stop following him- a recipe for a haunting, and for a complete disaster. Sam is a vengeful spirit, cursed to walk the halls of his own murder scene for the rest of eternity, doomed to an afterlife of dismal solitude. And then his favourite resident goes and dies, the house is given to new people, and Sam discovers - quite by accident - that the boy sleeping in his room can see him. And he is the only one who can help Sam solve his murder. ───── • ⋆⋅⛧⋅⋆ • ───── Status: Complete Story length: 40,000 words ONC 2023 Prompt: • They were not real, everyone told me they were not real. But why are they here? Why are they trying to talk to me? Why are they calling me the ONE? Why are they staring at me like that? (23) Disclaimer: this story contains themes that some readers may find distressing relating to death and mention of domestic abuse. The cover image has been generated for this story using BingAI.

amants maudits | (hiatus) by SaniCybele

When a powerful witch hunts the demons responsible for her parents' murder, she finds herself face-to-face with one of the very creatures she despises. But this demon is unlike any other. Dangerous, mysterious, and irresistibly charming, he offers her something no one else can-answers about her parents' death and the secrets of the dark forces that haunt her. As their paths intertwine, she finds herself drawn to him in ways she never imagined. But trust is fragile, and the more she learns, the more complicated their connection becomes. Her mission for vengeance soon becomes tangled with her feelings for him, and a forbidden bond starts to grow between them-one that threatens everything she thought she knew about love, loyalty, and the demons she's vowed to destroy. In a world of curses and power, they are two souls bound by tragedy and fate. But their love, born from hatred and deceit, may be the very thing that destroys them both. Will she be able to choose between vengeance and a love that might just save her, or will their doomed connection lead to the death of them both? ----- Written for the Open Novella Contest 2025 Prompt 2 - To be in love with a demon was the last thing on your wishlist ----- Cover by @buterflx1 prologue at the end because of the prologue ban

Flickering Creatures | ONC 2024 Longlist | ✔︎ by SmokeAndOranges

When Bryony -- herbalist extraordinaire -- goes missing, Bella knows one suspect stands above the rest. The village's aspiring second witch, Daphne, comes from a family that's tried to take Bryony down before, and Daphne seems determined to carry on that legacy. For someone who's always been terrified of Bryony, she's a little too keen on looking into the disappearance. There's just one problem. Bella's insufferable fellow familiar thinks the kid is innocent... and he's been right about worse things before. If Daphne herself is to be believed, clues on the disappearance lead a whole lot closer to home than Bella would like. As the evidence mounts, Bella must choose to either stand by her values and the woman who raised her, or seek what might be a truth she would rather not uncover. Prompt #81: The town's witch has gone missing and no one is looking for her but her two familiars - a crow and a black cat, plus the teen who has always been scared of her. ❖❖❖ Written for Wattpad's 2024 Open Novella Contest. Longlister. Complete. Comments and critiques are both welcome and appreciated. I write characters from many different backgrounds, with many different experiences. If you share those traits and find that I have misrepresented anything, please let me know! I am feedback-friendly and here to learn :)

The Things You Will Never Know by httpthatrandomgirl

If you go down to the woods today... Well, in this town, you probably won't come back. Unexplained deaths and disappearances are normal around here. In Haltonshaw Grove, we tell these real life horror stories to our kids like bedtime tales. They help us learn from a young age to stay out of the forest after dark. But one halloween, we didn't listen- Me and four boys. We broke the rules and we paid the price. We barely made it out alive and now we live with the trauma, the nightmares, the memories. Seven years later, the events of that night, like most things tend to do around here, have come back to haunt us. We never talked about the night we ran in the forest, never spoke afterwards at all really, but now we're going to need each other if we're going to survive what's coming. Me and those boys I've loved all along. - - ‐ - - - - - - - - - - - - - Our town is haunted. The five of us are cursed. And Halloween is just around the corner... Let's see who makes it to November 1st.

What Are You? by evalyn88

I am 16 years old and finally will have a life out the home I have know for so long. I will be going to a school. The leaders of our city will be picking which school I fit in. Except these school aren't what they seem to the naked eye. They involve monsters no one ever thought real. Vampires, Werewolves, Witches and Shape-shifters. How can I survive learning about these things daily for my whole life?! But, the thing is I won't be learning about them to just...learn. I will be finding out about these creatures because...I am one. New friendships brew while enemies start to boil. Some friends become more than friends. Then some turn on her. She's different. The prophecy says she will start a war. Will she really. How? What will happen? Will people die that she cares about? How can she save them? I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS STORY!! Remember to vote and comment on the chapters. THIS STORY IS UNDER MAJOR EDITING FYI!

Crescent | ✓ by TheConfusedTurtle

For the fae, magic is everything: status, power, wealth, honor. For Vera Reite, a fae born with no magic, it is a shameful reminder that she will never amount to anything. Whispers of a fae-killing monster begin to circulate the Moon Court. It lurks in the woods, feeding off the mana of its victims. Those that go missing and find themselves at the mercy of the beast are never seen or heard from again. Fear quickly takes hold of the fae court; it's only a matter of time before their whole world is destroyed by this creature. However, it offers Vera a glimmer of hope. When she learns of it, she ventures into the wood to kill the beast, believing that she will be able to absorb the magic it has stolen. But the woods are as dangerous as the beast, and Vera soon finds herself lost. In a stroke of luck, she comes across an old manor deep in the forest where a strange boy is sealed away. If Vera wishes to slay the beast, she will first have to uncover the secret of the manor and its prisoner before it's too late. 𝐀 𝐟𝐚𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜. 𝐀 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭. 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝. ||Completed: 8/15/24 Word count: 90,000 - 100,000||

Lenora's Grimoire by Falling-Rivers

Cherish thought she'd escaped her past years ago--settled down in some forgotten, sleepy town, gotten a steady job at the local library, and subtly hidden the witchcraft books donated from the local covens from the public. Cherish Harmond was wrong. Her cedar tree had screamed at her before dying on her front lawn that morning. Cherish hadn't even realized trees could scream. Faced with the desperate plea for help from a stranger, the past she thought she had successfully outrun has returned, and she must come to terms with it, to use her powers for good--because if she doesn't, she might unleash a curse onto her sleepy, normal hometown forever. **Submission for ONC 2021 ***Please note, this is also available on Amazon via ebook and paperback***

You may also like

Slide 1 of 10

Rising Powers cover

✔Secrets of the Amulet | ONC 2023 cover

The Tragedy of Eden's Gate cover

amants maudits | (hiatus) cover

Flickering Creatures | ONC 2024 Longlist | ✔︎ cover

The Things You Will Never Know cover

What Are You? cover

Crescent | ✓ cover

Lenora's Grimoire cover

Rising Powers

(74,890 words) The wind rushed past me as my wings beat against the night sky. I noticed a copse of trees up ahead. I slowed to a stop, talons clutching a low-hanging branch. I looked beyond the trees and a pair of glowing golden eyes met my own. Wolf eyes. My eyes widened in fear as I took off. I dodged the trees in my path, but one branch snapped on my wing. My vision blurred, pain lacing through my wing. I continued to flap my wings, clinging desperately to the notion I would make it out alive. More than one wolf was chasing me, their paws a staccato on the ground. They would catch up. They would devour me. I tried to stay in the air, but the pain was unbearable. I fell to the ground, fluttering down like a dead leaf. I snapped my eyes open. Breathing heavily, I sat up. My room shifted in and out of focus as my eyes adjusted. When I was little, my father always told me that dreams were just my imagination, that people were never chased by wolves, and people certainly could never be birds. Vera Stone is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in a small Louisiana town by the bayou. Small, boring, where nothing ever happens. Or so she and her friends think. One night the hidden darkness surrounding their town and their lives comes to the surface. Will Vera and her friends figure out the secrets hidden through their town's history before it's too late?