Onc26 Stories

The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!

Rage coursing through her veins was the only thing keeping River Carter alive. It burned with a need for vengeance against one man. Richard Miller. She had a plan. Befriending his daughter to get into his inner circle was part of the plan. Falling for her wasn't. But she fell, and Wendy is either her salvation, or damnation. (Prompt 45. »Kings have honor, soldiers are brave, poets have heart, and all I have is rage!«)

So... Riven kidnapped the magnanimous King of the Aer Folk because a magical book containing the soul of his cheating ex-boyfriend told him to, but that does not make him crazy, not at all. After all he only wants to revive Jesse, so he can kill him again. Where does Vlad land in all of this, you ask? Well he is that poor, kidnapped King who is now curse-bound to a freaking lunatic. But our wonderful King Valadrius is not sad, not at all. And he is definitely not falling in love with his kidnapper, or kissing him, no matter what the curse tells him to do. #ONC2026 Genre: Fantasy-Romance Copyright© 2026 short_flame

Edmund comes to the remote village of Black Thickett to escape the life grief has carved out of him. He wants silence. Distance. A place where memories can't follow. But Black Thickett is wrong in quiet, unsettling ways. The broken road becomes perfectly smooth the moment he crosses the boundary. The cottages are too neat, too deliberate. And on a noticeboard full of dry flyers, only one poster is wet. A missing boy, smiling as if he doesn't know he's lost. The villagers won't talk about the disappearances. The forest at the edge of the village seems to breathe, and the deeper Edmund goes, the calmer he feels... dangerously calm. The forest can quiet his pain. It can ease his grief. It can make him forget. But not everything that heals you wants you to survive. Welcome to Black Thickett, where you'll find my entry into the ONC 2026.

**𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝. ** Lyra is a werewolf. Well, sort of. Unfortunately, her wolf is not fully awakened, and all of its instincts and urges-hunting, fighting, biting- are instead building up inside her. The result? A tiny "aggression issue". At least, that's how her coaches, the referees, and pretty much every opposing team would describe it. On the ice and on her skates, Lyra is fast, tough, and mercilessly efficient. Off the ice, she reliably stumbles into situations that can only be described as emotional blow-ups. For example, there's Cassian, the hockey star of the Iron Hawks, her rival team. "Cas" is a picture-perfect werewolf, Lyra's personal nemesis, and the alpha male stereotype par excellence. As much as she would love to punch him in the face every now and then, he knows exactly how to push her buttons. And then there's the vampire - Valen. An elite skater who makes it his mission to help her with her aggression on the ice. What starts as a harmless deal quickly turns into a dangerous, emotional wildfire. Because Valen is far too charming, with a damn seductive smile. One that clearly promises things that are neither suitable for minors nor compliant with the rules. One explodes just as quickly as she does. The other still smiles even when everything is burning. Both of them drive her crazy. And both seem determined to take each other out of the game. Lyra wanted to play ice hockey professionally. She didn't want a snappy watchdog with a strong territorial instinct or a vampire as her unofficial mental coach. Above all, she didn't want to fall in love. Because one thing she knows for sure: feelings ruin any statistics. Too bad that life doesn't play by her rules.

Keno and his best friend Rash find themselves in deep trouble after setting the forest outside their village on fire and burning down some very valuable trees.

Weimar Republic, 1932 Democracy is already on its deathbed when young Frenchman Yves Crèvecœur arrives in Magdeburg as an exchange teacher. Soon, however, the gothic halls of the Luisengymnasium reveal two sacred truths: The classroom is a battlefield of politics. And: You can not be neutral when fascism threatens to devour what you love. ▪︎▪︎▪︎ ONC entry for prompts 80 and 57 "Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds." "Everyone loves the polite, charming student on campus. Except when you walk into the room. For some reason, you're the only one they treat with icy distance. You're determined to find out why."

In the elder days before mortal kings etched their borders into stone, before time was measured by crowns and conquests, when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory, there came upon our people an age of quiet sundering. It was a time when Giants still walked the high places, when Dragons passed like storms along the horizons, and when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory. Yet even then, doubt found root. In those days there arose among mortals a whispering hunger, seeded by those who wore borrowed faces. The Changeling Wizards, who fed fear as if it were wisdom. Convincing mortal kings, the magic of the elves no longer served them. What had once been shared truth became superstition. What had once been kinship became a war of wills. From that hour, the old goodwill ended. Thus the space between our peoples widened, until the old paths closed and we were pressed back into the frost-bitten heights of our ancestral lands. And what would happen next would leave the old world in the silent throes of AN UNEASY REALIZATION THAT ALL WAS NOT AS IT SEEMED... A time when love and acceptance became fear and those fears bred greed. Greed bred forgetting. And forgetting became blame. But in that age arose two souls. One born of mortal blood, one of mortal grace. Who chose to stand where others turned away. Alvaro, and Daniela of the western shores, whose names the stone itself remembers. 𖤓𖤓𖤓 ONC Prompt 78 You begin to realize that things are not as they seem.

Against the backdrop of a damp, golden London autumn... ​In 2026 London, history professor Sarah uncovers a centuries-old letter hidden behind an old framed painting in her new flat. As she deciphers its secrets, she becomes entwined in a long-lost love and a mystery that spans generations-leading her to a man who holds the final piece of the puzzle." Participation in the Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompt used: #79 © 2026 by Nermein Sami El-Kurdi. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited #onc2026 #opennovellacontest2026 #oncprompt79

One year ago, Elliot disappeared. When a strange flower spirited her to the Fae filled d'Oré Isles, Serena is dedicated to finding her twin or uncovering answers. But will the price be higher than she can pay, and will she be able to convince the King to help her in her quest? Welcome to my Open Novella Contest 2026 entry! Over the next 12 weeks, I'll be participating in the Open Novella Contest and writing novella of no more than 40,000 words. From this year's prompts, I've chosen Prompt 2 as my main: The first flower to bloom in spring isn't just a sign of the seasons changing. It's a portal. When you touch it, you're transported into a magical world you never knew existed. I look forward to creating a story for you. I'd love if you would support me and my novella by sharing, commenting, voting, adding it to your lists, and, of course, reading along! Ongoing Word Count: 4,775 Cover art created by myself on Canvas with Wattpad provided banners. Chapter art created on Pinterest - I own no part of that art. No part of this novella was created with AI. No part of this novella existed before 1 February 2026.

She was never afraid of the fall-until the moment no one caught her. Kiera Lennox Lang has built her life on height, timing, and trust-until a split-second mistake during a rivalry game sends her crashing to the ground. Injured and shaken, she's forced to confront the one fear she's never had to face: what happens when her body can no longer do what it always has. The last person she expects to be there when it all goes wrong is Jensen Cade Beckett-the rival-school football player who once caught her before she fell, and the same one who carries her off the field when no one else moves. As Kiera fights her way back to cheer, fear clings harder than pain, and the future she's always counted on feels suddenly fragile. At the same time, Jensen begins to outgrow the reckless reputation that once defined him, haunted by the moment he couldn't stop watching-and couldn't walk away. Drawn together in the quiet spaces between recovery and regret, they discover that healing isn't about returning to who you were, but choosing who you become. Because some people don't just pass through your life-they leave footprints that never fade.

After discovered the opposition power and their fragments identity, Scarlet Bright and Lithanine "Lilith" Diesel continue their journey, discovered a new friend, Lucin and Lilith just discovered the new power. And not just that, Lilith will find new fragment identity soon or later. This story was Al-generative chat and edited by me to keep the fixed plot.

The king has been betrayed and his throne taken from him, locked away withno hope... So he thought unknown to him, the spirit did send hope in form of Princess Emeralda... "what are you doing so far, deep in the forest" startled Emeralda looked around but saw no one.. "down here....beside you....come closer...don't be afraid" the voice kept speaking And so Emeralda walked gently towards the voice , this act took all of her courage,but she kept going, slowly till she got to the flower, so sure the voice came from there, she looked into the flower, to her amazement she saw the most handsome moon face she has ever seen In awe of his beauty and shock of the situation she asked "what are you doing in there!".....

(First draft - unedited) Evangeline Winterbourne thrives on the unknown. Driven by an unrelenting curiosity, she has spent her life chasing what history tried to erase. Unearthing ancient knowledge, deciphering forgotten languages, and dragging buried civilizations back into the light. Discovery is what she does best. It has never failed her. Until one expedition does more than leave its mark. Deep within a dense forest, Evangeline and her team uncover an ancient temple tied to a lost civilization. What they find inside refuses to stay buried. Whatever stirred there follows her home, settling beneath her skin, awakening something long dormant. Because Evangeline is not entirely human. Drakonian blood runs through her veins, a fractured legacy passed down through generations. Heightened strength. Accelerated healing. A heritage she never fully understood. Until now. As strange coincidences begin to stack and ancient artifacts whisper of memory and chaos, Evangeline realizes the past isn't finished with her. An ancient presence is stirring, one bound to her blood and to the choices her curiosity keeps leading her to. And it wants to be found.

Santa Claus is an old man in a tattered red coat, limping through a world whose failure to believe in him has caused him to vanish limb by limb. But before he disappears entirely, he has one last round to make - not with gifts, but with letters of apology, delivered to the people whose lives were derailed by a single, cold lump of coal. The greatest burden he ever carried was never the toys. It was his memories of the coal. This is one of my entries in the 2026 Wattpad Open Novella Contest. It is in response to Prompt 79: "A letter arrives addressed to you, written by someone who shouldn't exist."

The town of Dogwood in Cross County, North Carolina is a picturesque seaside community with a sordid past swimming in piracy. Smoking Beard, aka Edward Hollingsworth, was the terror of the colonial coast in the 1600's, and one of Dogwood's founding members, before his descent into illegal privateering and eventual decline into madness. Four hundred years later, Bertha Rodriguez, romance novelist, resides in Dogwood along with her best friend Camilla Goldstein, Dogwood's chief of police. Every year the town capitalizes on its founders' past with a week long festival in June. The Founders' Festival brings much needed tourism and a break from the monotony of living in a small town. This year will be different, a huge storm hits the coast two weeks before the festival begins and someone uses it as an opportunity for murder. With their town cut off from the rest of civilization, it falls to Bertha and Camilla to solve the murder before the weather clears and the villain is able to make an escape. Written for the Open Novella Contest 2026 The prompt which inspired this story was number 22: Your book never found much success, but on a train ride you spot a stranger reading it with the biggest smile you've ever seen. No part of this story may be used to program AI. If you see this story anywhere besides Wattpad please make me aware. This is the only place I post stories. I don't have multiple accounts on this site, so this is the only profile this story should be posted on. Thank you, readers.

Old classmates reunite after 10 years. Happy reunion turns into the worst reunion ever. Zombie outbreak out of nowhere during their celebration and everything turned into chaos

ONC '26 prompt 104. While wandering in the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more then the wind throught the trees until you turn around and realize it wasn't the wind at all (I tried my best) Fourteen-year-old River was only looking for "ghost air" a rare acoustic resonance found in mountain caves. Instead, he tuned into a frequency that shouldn't exist: the rhythmic heartbeat of another world. ​When he steps into a shimmering cave and ends up in Frostfire Glade, he finds himself caught between a glowing city built on stolen secrets and a hidden village fighting to survive. Partnered with Adam, a prince who wears a crown he doesn't want and a scar he can't explain, River must use his field recorder to navigate a forest of metallic trees and echoes that kill. But the deeper they go, the more the static clears to reveal a haunting truth: Adam's dead brother might still be alive, the Queen's brother is tracking their every move. In the Hollow Reach, the truth isn't just spoken.... IT'S HEARD

.....

❝𝙎𝙤, 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙞𝙜 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙨... 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙢 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡?❞ Tsireya was twenty-three, arab, studying a subject she barely even likes in college, and utterly, completely not taken- not even close. Well, maybe because she's been looking every man with an expression of hatred and disgust. But there was one exception: Bang Chan, the nerdy, shy student studying music. Okay, he wasn't really an exception, she still looked at him with utter most disgust, but that didn't make him back away. If anything, it made him more intrigued. Can this random, non-believer, Aussie student really help her escape out of her miserable lonely world? Or would he get rejected, just like every other boy standing in line? Even when he spills a whole cup of coffee on her? ENTRY FOR ONC'26 Started: 03/02/2026 Ended: //