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!

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.

Zara is a hardworking baker and one contract away from success. David is the corporate king of Abuja real estate, a man who values order above all else. When a collision in a VIP elevator douses one of David's most vital land documents in hot espresso; their two worlds finally clash. David views Zara as a chaotic, sugary mess, Zara sees him as a cold, unyielding wall of stone. But when David is caught in an ugly custody battle with his volatile ex for their daughter, Annabella; David realizes he needs more than just steel to save his family. He needs the one woman who isn't afraid to get her hands messy. Now, Zara and David must decide if they can build a future on the ruins of their first meeting.

Kieran is already dealing with a flirtatious boss, disdainful coworkers and a heavy workload and writhing self-insecurity that gives him a perpetual migraine. Now the cute boy he met as a child had turned out to be a handsome, adorable... werewolf?! Salva opened their wings to their city neighbors in Bellport's greatest time of need, but will the divide between the two cities be greater than the chasm that seperates the them both or can they work together to find the solution to the virus that plagues them both? #ONC2026 #2k #8k Formerly "Now There's Werewolves?!" Genre: Fantasy-Supernatural, Werewolf Mature (16+): Mention of abuse, Bullying, Profanity, Gore/Violence Copyright© 2025 short_flame

The dream always ended the same way: with the salt-spray of an ocean I'd never visited and the warmth of a hand I couldn't quite grasp. He never had a face-just a silhouette cut out of the moonlight-but his voice was a low rumble that vibrated in my chest. "Find me," he'd whisper. "Before the clocks stop." When I woke up, the silence of my apartment felt like a physical weight. I checked my pulse, my skin still buzzing from a touch that didn't exist. I told myself it was just stress. I told myself that "Thorne" was a name I'd probably seen on a billboard or a dusty law book. But then I saw him.

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!

Open Novella Contest 2026 Round One, Two and Three Qualifier ❤️ A⁴ is my submission for the 2026 Open Novella Contest (Prompt 35: The world's last hope is an unexpected zombie) In a world overrun by zombie-like creatures called degenerates, four teens with names starting with A must survive when the last hope of humanity turns out to be one of their own, Sakura Airi, a girl who hasn't fully degenerated.

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."

Two assassins. One mission. Both of them are on a different team. They hate each other. The goal: an ancieng stone. What happens when they both end up in a different world after they get it and now have to work together to find out who they are and why they are here, and how to get back home. Meanwhile, a girl is trying to prove to the world that she is as capable as her mother. What could go wrong when these three meet and go on an adventure together?

When a lottery decides she needs to marry the crown prince, Adaley realises this is her only chance to kill the royal family and end their bloodline for once and all. When she arrives at the palace, she meets a stranger who seems to know her very well, but when she wants to get to know him as well, he is nowhere to be found, and no one seems to know him. As if he never existed. A search for the stranger begins, and in the meantime, Adaley learns that the crown prince isn't so bad as she always thought. Can she change the kingdom where they live without killing him? Or is it too late to save everyone from their death?

Meet Cherry, your average senior in a ponytail and freckles, wearing glasses: the school forum's everyday poster and the lifeline of school K-pop fangirls, nicknamed "Wi-Fi." Her chaotic otaku life with her friends takes random turns whenever they get involved with an online stranger named Prince. This girl always puts a negative review of Cherry's posts and criticizes her harshly. Their tooth and bone fight continues till college, where, by accident, Cherry discovers that Prince is actually a male. Her grudge made this sudden encounter funnier. Cherry met many people in her life. Many came, and many will come and go. But this one? Hell no! It literally left a 'footprint' in her heart. Meanwhile, Prince, hiding his laughter in the corner, says to her on the day of their first anniversary, "Dear, can I buy a star for you?" And yes, he got a smack from Cherry in return. (๑˃ᴗ˂) ﻭ

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.

To stand as a bystander at a wedding--watching a princess walk toward a future she doesn't want, while the knight standing in the shadows sheds silent tears for the love he can never claim--is a kind of agony no story ever prepares you for. The groom waits at the altar, the bride's heart waits elsewhere, and the knight waits for a miracle that will never come. A meaningless bond is about to be sealed, all in the name of duty pressing down on her shoulders. If only they had been given a happy ending. If only there were a way--some miracle--to free them from the torment of separation and let them run away from the heartbreak written for them. I couldn't bear to imagine that fate for the princess--my cousin Lillian--and her knight, Rowan. So, I decided to become that miracle. I became that twist in the tale that gives the lovers their escape. And I succeeded. Except stories don't end when the bride runs away. Because the prince she was meant to marry--the one left standing at the altar--did not take the betrayal lightly. He demanded the security footage, saw exactly who helped the bride flee, and discovered the traitor behind the plan: the bridesmaid. Me. And in his fury, he made it clear that the Mercer family would compensate him. His solution? Replace the runaway bride with the conspirator who helped her escape. Except that I, the conspirator, am ready to face the consequences--oblivious to how grave they may be. . . . This story is part of the Open Novella Contest 2026 based on the prompt "You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems".

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!".....

The Kurczaka Travelling Inn has been in Meluza Dovhun's family for generations, an open door and empty room to all sorts of guests. Suffice to say, Mel has seen her fair share of the unusual, whether from working at the front desk or helping clean out rooms. Really, there's not a whole lot that could surprise her anymore. That is, until a human shows up at the hotel's doorstep, and Kurczak decides to saunter off before Mel can get him to leave. Now, Mel's only hope is to hide the human's presence and pray none of the gods and spirits (or even worse, her grandmother) take notice before she can get him home. (Plus, her sister keeps getting into trouble with the rusalki, her mother is falling into serious religious practices, and the guests are causing trouble left, right, and center.) ONC 2026 PROMPT #113 COVER BY: @AlexandraLing2000

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.

In the Republic of Amica, everyone is promised a soulmate. At eight-teen, your wrist reveals the name of the person you're destined to love. Ari Vale's mark reveals a countdown. And time is running out.