Tainted Rose - ONC 2024

Entry for the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2024

For as long as they could remember, Ivan and Vixen have lived their whole lives in Oaksville, your typical town inhabited by folks repeating a menial cycle for decades with seemingly no hope for anything short of a white-collar job. People work, come home, rest, and the routine seemingly repeats for generations without any signs of stopping. The very definition of "Unexceptional"

However, those bygone days would be cut short, and a dangerous game was about to be played. On a fateful night, that cycle is forever broken, and their lives can never be the same again as the town is seemingly terrorised by a serial killer involving sever particular victims with some sort of relation to both Ivan and Vixen.

Ivan and Vixen must learn to keep their friends close, and enemies closer, as the killer plays a long-term scenario of cat and mouse with all proceeding clues leading to one dead end after another, and any eyewitness with clues to the killer's identity is hastily silenced. No one can help them but themselves, and the only lead they have is a proclamation from the killer written in bold

"YOU ARE THE CENTRE STAGE"

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Cover made by @ClaraElisibeth