Historias de Onc2024

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A vampire named Citlali receives an email from an old lover who broke her heart centuries ago. The message says the immortal is dead and she left a key for Citlali in a bank in New York. But the same message had been sent to two other persons whose identity Citlali ignores and the safe can only be opened if the three of them are present. Dear Citlali is a queer polyamorous paranormal romance. This story is set in the For Centuries Universe but can be read as a standalone. Cover by Bartholomé Girard

2100. A mysterious ship, nicknamed the Chimera, appears in Martian airspace. It bears the symbol of the international space agency, the BASE, but there is no record of such a vessel. Word and rumour quickly spread. BASE investigator Leanne Ziegler is sent to inspect the ship and make contact with its crew. But the Chimera seems completely deserted, other than the imperious AI caretaker, Valkyrie. Down in the fledging Nerio colony on Mars, suspicion grows. The colonists are already turning against the ways of the BASE, creating their own Martian identity. This potential security threat could prove to be the final rift between Earth and Mars. Trying to keep control of the political situation, Nerio sends a mysterious and cold liaison, Ryan, to aid Leanne. But, in ten days, Mars will turn her guns on the Chimera. Leanne and Ryan must work quickly to discover the secret of the ship - and decide whether its fate under the Martian guns is deserved. [ONC 2024 entry]

Based on ONC Prompt 53 - The co-worker who irritates you the most just asked you for a big favour. They're not who or what they appear to be. And they know you're not either.

This is an entry for the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2024 Meet Blair, your average seamstress who works a thankless job sewing dresses for bachelorettes, weddings, and a plethora of other events in dire need of women in dresses. Her hopes and dreams are the same as all of us, owning a mortgage in hopes of affording a better place than her run-down, one-bedroom apartment. When a chance to afford a decent property with a down payment arises, how could she say no? Though unlike all of us, Blair is capable of seeing beyond the veils of our existential plane. She has seen the limbo of the dead, and what she saw has forever altered her life. She will soon discover that this house of hers is a cursed tomb of memories of it's past inhabitants' grudges and unfinished businesses. And she's not the only one... Cover by @MilaForLife

An ONC 2024 entry A regular museum worker one day, Raul Mendez finds his life turned upside down when he gets dragged into a supernatural grapple for power that threatens to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

Everyone can read minds except for Ethan Langdon. And Ethan Langdon has the dumbest (and cutest!) thoughts Lukas Hoffmann has ever heard. ____ Lukas Hoffman's life in Brambleburg is about as boring as you'd expect for a town where everyone can read minds. He's used to his routine of dusting the LPs at the record store where he works and helping out his grandma around the house. Nothing in Brambleburg changes. No one in Brambleburg changes. Until Ethan Langdon stumbles in with the soggy remnants of a paper map, asking for the quickest route to Berlin. Ethan, it turns out, doesn't have telepathy, and as aggravatingly inane as his thoughts are, Lukas hasn't felt the excitement of meeting a stranger since.... well, ever. And the more Lukas listens, the more he starts enjoying Ethan's cute thoughts about life, the universe, and Lukas's dimples. ____ Might bring to mind: "Cherry Magic" but set in a fictive European town where everyone except the love interest can read minds. ____ Written for the Open Novella Contest 2024 using prompts 8, 75, 82, and 85. 8. You start singing along to a movie soundtrack late at night forgetting that your window is open. Someone from the outside starts singing with you. 75. You awake in the middle of the night to a voice saying loudly "May the force be with you..." 82. You wake up on a seemingly ordinary day to discover that your thoughts are not private. There is someone else in your head with you. 85. "If you do that again, I'll throw you out that freaking window. What are you doing?" "Checking how high the drop is to see if it's worth it."

84. A witchy tale from the perspective of the familiar. 81. The town's witch has gone missing and no one is looking for her but her two familiars - a crow and a black cat, plus the teen who has always been scared of her. ~~~ Eclipse is a raven familiar, an invasive Corvus splendens in small-town coastal Louisiana. He serves an outsider called Mamman Simbi, a witch hidden between a Catholic and Voodoo culture, when a new witch is born into Cajun bloodlines (Tammy Broussard, b. 1977). Being overburdened in soul leads to the new witch having dangerous fevers that Eclipse and Simbi protect her from until she's old enough to take over as Mung Bean's witch (Simbi's rescue cat the same age as the girl). Familiars take on that excess spirit and help manage their partners health and daily work, becoming as human as their masters. The process of protecting Tammy leaves her frightened of Mamman Simbi, and parents in denial don't push children to stray outside their culture. But the world has never been safe for their kind, and just as the deep south starts to recover from a painful recession, the witches hiding in their culture start disappearing, leaving Simbi too distracted to reach out to a fearful child. Then Simbi disappears from a gathering during the worst years for murders in New Orleans (1994), with police corruption running rampant. Mung Bean and Tammy, both now 16, run away from home soon after, leaving Eclipse to sort out how much is safe to tell the young witch's parents, Rafe and Dinah Broussard, and Simbi's boyfriend, T-Beau LeBlanc. Can Eclipse find his master, ride herd on two teens (a witch and her familiar), keep mere humans safe, and not lose himself to the humanity he's avoided as a crow? Life wasn't supposed to be so complicated for a bird brain.

Mike Burbank, fresh out of college, believes that a cheery smile and bottomless drawer of fun socks is enough to keep him going at his new career at Infinitech. While all his friends find the work soul-sucking, Mike refuses to let his neighborhood faceless tech company bring him down. When a senior executive tears down Mike's seemingly perfect sales proposal, Mike is forced to relive his humiliation over and over again in a time loop. Will he win over upper management before his sanity crumbles? Is there a limit to how many times one can hear "TGIF" before one's sanity snaps? Only time will tell... (No groundhogs were harmed in the writing of this novel.)

This is an entry for the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2024! Dragons and magical beings. A bond like no other. In a town in the middle of the continent, Silver City is home to some of the most powerful magic wielders. Layla Arclight, an ambitious young magus, who possesses the unique trait of being able to wield two elemental affinities instead of one, learns her way around this magical world, accompanied by her ever-present, ever-nagging Azure Dragon companion Notus who steadily helps her one nag at a time to become the strongest magus in the capital However, Layla shoulders a heavy responsibility beneath her adolescent persona. She guards over a strange magical object. A box that contains the power of divinity that could tip over the power balance of every nation permanently. -- Credit to @Farleykins for this amazing cover!

Aarna Rupa was dead, but not really. -- Waking up in the past after dying of cancer, Aarna found herself living in the year 3247 BCE--more than five thousand years ago, in the civilised land of India. After taking an oath to not disrupt their peace with her information about the 21st century CE, she had decided to live a quiet life, but that was until she stumbled upon a wide-eyed boy with dark skin--Madhava. But Madhava was not just any nineteen-year-old. He was a nineteen-year-old god.

When Lucan Capello dies in a tragic car crash, he receives a notification from his phone that says 'Something went wrong. Please try again.' Upon receiving it, Lucan soon discovers that he is living two distinct lives: one where he is a child again, and another where he is an adult with his own family and responsibilities. But the world is not as it seems, and forces are pulling him in all different directions. Will Lucan escape the grasp of this strange reality? Or will his time run out? Entered into the Open Novella Contest! ^^ I used prompt #6: Your life as you know it has ended. Somewhere in Limbo your met with the message: "Something went wrong. Please try again." Round 1 [ ] | 2,000 words ✔ Round 2 [ ] | 8,000 words [ ] Round 3 [ ] | 20,000 words [ ] LONGLIST | SHORTLIST Cover: Me (@SomeLokiFanatic)

❀ ONC 2024 Shortlister ❀ In a world tinged with whispers of faeries of sort and forgotten bargains, Ayina, a gifted dreamseer, witnesses a chilling prophecy unfold. Every ten years, a girl is offered to the Azenar gate. The gate either chooses to take her in or sacrifice her for all to see. As she witnesses her mother get sicker, Ayina heads to the Choosing ceremony festivities to procure a healer, however her world is turned upside down when her younger sister, Rani is chosen tribute for the ceremony and thrust into the clutches of the dark court, a sacrifice to appease an ancient threat. Driven by unwavering love and fierce loyalty, Ayina embarks on a perilous quest into the forbidden dark realm that had now festered between the borders of two mighty lands, Benar and Elemore. There, she encounters the mad wraith king of the dark court and Haider, a sarcastic Haraseen warrior ostracized for his mixed human and fae blood. As they navigate treacherous landscapes and formidable enemies, an unexpected bond blossoms between them. But a hidden truth awaits, one that forces them to confront a difficult choice: fulfill a prophecy that could save their kingdoms, or defy fate and fight for a love that transcends the boundaries of human and faerie.

Scottish highlands, winter, 1691. A new king sits on the throne, and the clan chieftains have been given an ultimatum: swear their allegiance to the crown or face the dire consequences. The time remaining to take the oath is dwindling, but the MacDonalds of Glencoe are already pledged to the old king. As the snow starts to fall and friends become indistinguishable from foe, will this family be able to survive through the cruelty of these changing times?

Written for 2024 ONC, prompts used: 42, 2 An adventure and platonic retelling of the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus Eurydice seems to have all she wants: A disciplined routine. An awkward friendship with her annoying acquaintance Orpheus. Several essay awards under her belt, a bestselling non-fiction book she wrote at the age of eighteen and a stable paying job at a prestigious journalist agency, even though she's a fresh college graduate. The catch? She's going to die in six days. When Hades gives her the chance to win her life back by tracking his dog down for him, Eurydice jumps at the chance and embarks on a journey that leads her to questioning her moral stances and attitude on life Will she be able to make it back in time and retrieve her soul? Read on to find out.

Prince Farris Lumenne only wanted to find out the secrets of the magical artifact he picked up during the only adventure his father, the King, let him go on. He didn't expect it to end with the elusive villager he had befriended facing imprisonment and impending death... by beheading. Based on prompt #55: You're a young royal in disguise who befriends a villager with a scarred face. One day they are arrested for stealing something you gave to them.

ONC Entry based on Prompt #90: You were officially dead for 2 minutes. Ever since then you can see guardian angels, and not a minute goes by in your daily life that you don't see an annoyed angel doing their job.

IN TIMES OF PERIL, THE ANCIENT DRAGON LORDS WOULD APPEAR, providing aid and salvation to the Empires of the world. Their power brought many victories against the evils that lurked from the Realm of Ruin- the plane of hellish abominations and demonic power. That was- until a new force discovered a way to seal the realm up. Over the decades, the dragons have all but vanished with the dawn of the new age of peace. It was thought that tranquility would last far past Emperor Azrykis's reign, but an unexpected messenger, washed up on the shores of Vazrandin, reveals a dark twisted plot- to unearth a ruthless demon of destruction and gain control of the last remaining Dragon Lord.

He can climb the tower, but can he win her heart? Victoria Grunell loved her job as a personal assistant. Or at least she did, until her absentminded boss of five years decided to suddenly retire and disappear, without leaving even a current phone number, the jerk. And it's the day before her best friend's wedding reception. At the party, she meets Trenton Lloyd, drummer for the hit cover band Aspire, and wonders if her luck is already turning around. Unfortunately, they have no time to explore the sparks between them, as Vicky is kidnapped by an evil organization hoping to coerce Trent to join them. Trent will have to keep his cool to get Vicky home safe from the tower of terrors, but will he be able to show her his heart, to earn her love in return?

A tale about a cat and a crow in search of their witch. Asha, a black cat, and her friend Kyrell, a hooded crow, are living their best lives as the familiars of the town witch Cybele. But as Cybele goes missing, their peaceful lives are threatened and they need the help of a mysterious boy to find her. My entry for the Open Novella Contest 2024.