Cynthie's Curse (ONC 2025)

Graduation day is close approaching, and the Mystery Hunters Club is looking for one final mystery to wrap their high school careers up with a bang. They may have found just that when Leia Smith finds an old, tattered yearbook belonging to a missing girl from 1965. This could be the greatest mystery the Mystery Hunters Club has solved yet.

They have no idea how right they are.

After signing the yearbook on a whim, the group inadvertently awakens a sixty-year-old curse. In order to break the curse and save their own lives, the group must follow the breadcrumbs left by the echoes of the past, and solve the disappearance of Cynthia Davis.

This novella was written for the Open Novella Challenge 2025, using the prompt:

"21. A group of high school students discover a cursed yearbook that is linked to the mysterious deaths of previous graduates. After they write their names, eerie events begin to occur and they must break the curse before graduation."