Onc26 Stories

For Centuries Grim has been collecting souls. It's what he does, it's his purpose. One day, while collecting a soul in the park, he comes across a lost puppy. For reasons he can't explain, the urge to return the small dog to his owner is overwhelming. He soon finds the animal's owner, a woman in her mid-twenties named Maria. He is struck down by her beauty and realizes that he had once claimed the soul of someone she loved. He becomes even more conflicted when he realizes he has just one year to claim her soul.

"You were my brother Zain..." "Exactly... Were!" Kenji the Lucario lived happily with his parents within the Bolryn clan. He came from a long family of mighty warriors and was next in line to take his place serving under King Brindim as one of his loyal soldiers. That all changed in one night Now he finds himself in the wilds with only his unborn egg sibling to keep him company. He can't return home, at least not now... Not while he's being hunted... by someone he once considered family... Update: I did not make it past round 1 of Open Novella so if you're here because it's a tag, please keep this in mind so this story will probably be not as good. You have been warned please do not criticise me, I entered out of pure boredom and clearly some people didn't like what I wrote. Enjoy!

ONC2026 Short List/ Round 1 Embassadors Pick Summer Peterson and her best friend Whitney are both pulled into their unfinished script, a romanticized 1932 crime noir. In the script world Summer and Whitney are pulled apart. Though a series of accidents, Summer pulls an unconscious man into a shack. When he comes to he mistakenly thinks he's been kidnapped. He is none other than Sabastian Lorenzo the powerful Don of the Black Orchid Syndicate! So what does a frightened modern girl do when trapped in a 1932 crime word? She becomes a mafia boss herself! And she bootlegs too! Not whiskey, but modern movies turned into money making theater productions! She's not your average crime leader. And he's not your average villain. All Summer wants to do is find her friend Whitney and return home. Yet everytime she meets with Lorenzo, they cannot help but be drawn to each other. Romantic Comedy / Crime Noir / Meta‑Fiction

"Hello and good whatever time of day it is! It's me, TinyOctopus, coming at you with fresh content." Cameron has heard those words dozens if not hundreds of times. The problem? He's in love with the gamer who goes by TinyOctopus but he's always known her as Brooke, his best friend since middle school. After a long day dealing with 'the customer is always right' he's content to curl up with a bowl of nachos and watch her play and dream that one day he'll have the courage to tell her how he feels. After one of the worst shifts of his life, Cameron falls asleep mid-stream. When he wakes up he's most definitely not at home and everyone in sight is strangely... obsessed with one person. Enter the farmer and with a sinking feeling Cameron knows exactly why this valley looks so familiar.

Her return was supposed to be simple. Go inside, clear the house then file the rapport. Happy ending, she gets her career back. Except she gets greeted differently. And the longer she stays the harder it becomes to tell whether she is investigating the house or someone is investigating her. Based on prompt 82 "You are in love with someone living and someone long dead. Neither one is willing to let you go."

In a kingdom where no one can control winter, and winter is getting so cold that people barely survive. Someone stands up to control the season. But the moment they reach the age to develop magic, winter suddenly disappears. Now the young mage doesn't only need to control winter, but she also needs to get the season back.

OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ENTRY All that was left of him was one voicemail she couldn't delete. She wanted to keep it, just to remember his voice - but every time she pressed play, something changed. A different word. A car honking. A way-too-long pause between words. There were details that didn't belong. She was not sure if she was revealing the truth about his death... or if the message was leading her somewhere she didn't know she could go.

Elodie Argent knows how to lure monsters. In a city of crumbling stone and silvered moonlight, she hunts the creatures that hide in human skin - and survives their bite when no one else can. Then she meets a man who doesn't run from the darkness in her. As bodies fall and the full moon rises, Elodie finds herself drawn to someone who feels dangerously safe... in a world where love lead to death. Some monsters stalk the night. Some walk right beside you.

25-year-old Melody Marsh doesn't believe in magic. She might call herself a witch, but her witchcraft is just knowlegde of plants and a skill for healing people. Magic is just a thing of fairytales and legends, she believes. Until one day a massive black dragon appears in her garden, with his dirty, heavy feet right on her precious plants. He's a messenger of the gods and Melody was chosen for a quest. So after recovering from the trauma caused by the mass murder on her plants, Melody follows the dragon on a journey over the seven seas to the world's edge. It's there where she gets the chance to change one regret from her past, but everything has a catch. What's the right decision in the eyes of fate, when fate herself has been looking over Meldoy all her life? ______________ Written for the English edition of the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2026. Based on prompt 74: You are offered the chance to rewrite one regret from your past, but doing so requires giving up a memory you treasure. The living library awaits your decision.

The last thing Maya wanted was to get caught up in a rivalry within the underground world. Mason, her childhood friend, was supposed to be the one she brought home. Not a crime lord with eyes too calm for a man in handcuffs. She didn't plan to start a war. She didn't plan to be hunted... And she definitely didn't plan to fall for him. But some disasters don't destroy you. Some look at you like you're the only thing in a burning room worth saving. And she's starting to realize... she might be his disaster too. #ONC26 #No. 51

When a magic mirror brings forth an army of reflections to invade her kingdom at her father's wedding to his new bride, Mechtild, Princess Aneira will do anything to save her land. Taken captive by her new stepmother, Aneira escapes Mechthild's clutches through the very mirror that brought the reflections into a far-off land of ice and snow. Hunted by Mechthild's reflections, Aneira quickly learns she won't have to battle Mechthild alone when she finds seven knights with magic powers fighting. Granted a quest to restore both their lands Aneira must travel to plant a golden apple in the center of a tundra and if she has any hope of succeeding, she'll need help from a reflection, one of Mechthild's very own soldiers to guide her along the way. Enjoy this Snow White-inspired story based on ONC prompt 105: You're chatting with someone when you suddenly notice the mirror behind them shows everything except their reflection.

THE LAST SIGNATURE The ink that doesn't fade. Eli never believed his brother's death was an accident. He just never had proof. Until Nora found the yearbook. Hidden inside a wall. Filled with names written in ink that doesn't age. Names that belong to students who all graduated normally, lived quietly - and died exactly three hundred and sixty-five days later. No headlines. No investigations. Just a pattern so clean it could only be deliberate. Now there are five of them who know. One name already inside that shouldn't be. Eleven weeks until the rest of them walk across that stage. And something ancient, patient, and nameless has been collecting signatures for a very long time. It isn't finished yet.

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.

ONC 2026 - Shortlisted ONC 2026 - Longlisted Round 3 Winner & Ambassador's Pick ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── 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 and uncovering answers. But will the price be higher than she can pay? 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: 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! [Word Count: 22,325 (not including Author's Note)] ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── Highest Rankings: ⟢ #2 in Pixie - 30 April 2026 ⟢ #5 in ONC - 6 July 2026 ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── 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.

I gave the Reaper a stern look. "My friends and I intend to protect this world. The moment you give up is the moment all is lost. I haven't given up yet, so don't expect me to stand by and let you destroy the world." I am writing this to compete in the ONC 2026 (Open Novella Contest) Sapphire remembers when magic enlightened the lives of all she knew. The problem is... that was over a hundred years ago. Things have changed, and even though she hasn't changed at all, everyone seems completely determined to destroy the peace. Her own people don't even seem to recognize she's one of them. With her life and freedom on the line, an unusual choice of weapon triggers a change in the world that guides her down a new path.

this book is a onc 26 entry. THe prompt is prompt number 6 and number 63. this is the description for this story ( I edited the prompts to make more sense for this story. IT was just a couple words.). While researching the myths of the lost Greek civilization, lily discovered the forgotten god of mischief, Hermes. After exploring hermes' ancient temple, strange coincidences and uncanny events begin to follow Lily. Something from the deity has touched her life and now she must figure out what Hermes wants. After a bit of thinking before sleep, Lily remembered seeing hermes' caduceus symbol on a rock laying in the woods behind her house. She goes to explore it and finds it is only opening to her because she told a lie to her parents about where she was going.

Fifty years ago, the sky broke. A city fell from the clouds, and from its ruins came the Refractors - humans who resonate with the power of the fallen world. Now, when an underground researcher surfaces with a link to the Glass Horizon event, two assassins from rival factions are deployed to the same kill zone. Rhodian is precise, methodical, a weapon tuned to the pulse of the fall. Ash is chaos incarnate, chasing a past that won't stay buried. When they collide in the same kill zone, their clash ignites something neither faction can control. As they realise there is more to the mission than they originally thought, Rhodian and Ash are forced into a deadly orbit around each other. Two halves of a catastrophic resonance. The only ones capable of stopping what's coming. If they don't destroy each other first.

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

Elijah Matthews was dating Adrian Skyler; that was well known, and everything seemed perfect. But one day at the carnival, it is revealed that Elijah will love two people-one will save him and the other will destroy him. Elijah eventually finds the new boy, Silas, the most perfect boy ever seen, and they begin to like each other. But as more and more signs point to the fact that Silas will eventually destroy him, Adrian starts getting more hot-tempered and secretive. But when the time comes, will Elijah be able to know which one to choose? This story is a part of the Open Novella Contest 2026 and is based on prompt #115. This story has a character from a culture that I do not know much about. If I have written their accent wrong, accidentally made the character too stereotypical, or anything else, please write to me in the comments immediately and it will be fixed as soon as I can!