The Pen Doesn't Lie || ONC 2025 Finalist

"There's no denying it-either I'm hallucinating or Cole Winton is standing on my porch."

Jamie is used to putting pen to paper. She's been doing it for years, and has a slew of novels to show for it. For the most part, she's left alone to write which is what she prefers.

But this is the first time someone has knocked on her door, insisting they are one of her characters. This is the first time someone demands to know how she knows what she does, declaring it treason.

Armed with only her pen, her notebook, and her cat, Inkwell, she finds out just how much of their own lives her characters have taken on outside of her novels.

(ONC prompt 99)

ONC 2025 Finalist (5th place)