Onc Stories

When Brie lands a spot on Cheese Whiz, a cheese-themed cooking competition, the last thing she expects is to run into Colby Jackson, the man who left her heart with more holes than Swiss cheese. ~~~ It was supposed to be simple. Enter the contest, win the prize money, open her own restaurant. Easy peasy, extra cheesy. So of course Colby freaking Jackson and his smug, entirely too sexy face just had to come back into Brie's life like an extra stinky wheel of limburger cheese. Surrounded by fierce competitors and legendary amounts of dairy, Brie and Colby exchange barbs sharper than any cheddar. Yet, as the competition heats up, Brie quickly discovers the mozzarella isn't the only thing melting. Against her better judgment, Colby is once again worming his way into her heart. Will Brie find a whey to make things work between them, or will he leave her feeling bleu? 🧀 Rivals to lovers 🧀 Second chance romance 🧀 All puns are fully intended Using prompts 29 and 89 for ONC 2026! Cover and banner by @-DeeIsDead-

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.

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. ____ Cover by @mygoodbones ____ 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."

Kayla, anti-romantic creator of a 26th-century matchmaking system, has to confront Analyst Mathew's theories on love and soulmates in order to defend her life's work from becoming a business disaster. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Kayla Lacson is the brilliant mind behind Dorothea, the most advanced AI dating application of the 26th century, designed to calculate compatibility with extraordinary precision. She trusts data, logic, and predictable outcomes, believing that love is a biological equation that can be solved. Mathew Matel is a Behavioral Analyst as brilliant as Kayla is. He joins her team, and his theories on love and soulmates challenge her belief systems. And when Dorothea's latest revision loses public trust and corporate pressure mounts, he becomes the catalyst that pushes Kayla to uncover the flaws in her creation and fracture her carefully structured world. Despite Dorothea's calculation of their incompatibility, Kayla is drawn to Mathew. Flashes of his face begin to haunt her as she tries to untangle his unexplainable familiarity. And soon she must decide whether love is something to manipulate or something she must surrender to. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ ONC 2026 Round 1 Winner and Ambassador Pick Round 2 Winner and Ambassador Pick Round 3 Qualifier and Longlister ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Genres: Romance SciFi Speculative Fiction Unconventional SciFi Hard SciFi Slow Burn Romance

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In darker not so distant times, monsters ruled the land. They hunted the dark. They swallowed villages whole. No village was safe. No traveler dared walk after dusk. Humanity lived in the shadow of fear-until the Colossus appeared, giants among the land who rose and drove the horrors back with their strength and shimmering magic. In gratitude, The Choosing was born, a ritual of service and submission for the Colossus. Each year, a handful of names are called. Most return home. Some do not. Much depends on which Colossus family presides-some take out of greed, others for duty alone. One thing is known, and it is the ancient Amdir, known for mercy above all, almost always return those they select, never bringing them away from the borders of the towns. Galen, a quiet apothecary with a bad leg and a talent for calming brews, has lived a peaceful, unnoticed life, preferring to remain overlooked, and has always trusted in the mercy of the Colossus. He tends herbs, minds his work, and raises his ward, Lira-a girl prone to nightmares and fainting spells, one he would protect with his last breath. With his young ward, Lira, he dwells at the forest's edge, rising early to gather herbs and hoping each day passes as quietly as the last. That is until The Choosing. When Galen's name is called at The Choosing, he steels himself for sacrifice. When Lira's is called moments later, his world unravels. Reasons as to why they were chosen arise, and long kept secrets are soon revealed.

Cal Porter is Highridge Secret's golden boy. Agile, accurate, and impossible to ignore, he's the striker everyone cheers for. Kess Caldwell is FC Iron Row's wall. She doesn't care how popular Cal is. If he gets close to her goal, she's taking him down. In the Barefield League, cleats are banned during play, and co-ed rivalries get messy fast, both on and off the pitch. Cal and Kess are sworn enemies. Little do they know, their rivalry will lead somewhere they least expect. The more they fight, bicker, and tease each other, the harder it gets to pretend it all still feels like hate.

If you got anyone to describe Jessie Reynolds-Somber in one word, it would be 'lucky.' She survived childhood leukemia (twice), has the best friend-slash-roommate in the world, and she's studying something she loves at the university she's forever adored. But not even November can describe why she feels so incomplete, as though she's forgotten to do something she'll never get a chance to do. Why she feels like she's failed---no, worse, like she's a failure. [FORMERLY AN ENTRY FOR THE 2026 ONC]

When Essa sees their villainous future, they use the prophecy as a ploy to defeat their three brothers and force each one into a better work-life balance. Their first so-called battle restarts an old tradition for family dinner, leading Essa to bond with their brothers, all while struggling to balance their guilt and their alter-ego, Muse, whose name comes with a reputation of its own. **** Written for the Open Novella Contest 2024 (ONC), using prompt 87. Cover by @Nicoismysenpai

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 Goldstien, 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. Longlister in the Open Novella Contest 2026 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.

"Seriously!" Jisung scoffed as he locked eyes with Chan, who was unfazed as ever. "You are not sending me across the country just to steal a necklace!" --- At the far end of the country, where the air was cold, two men stood facing each other. "You sure are cocky..." Hyunjin dragged, his eyes fixed firmly on the older man in front of him, who only gave him a cold look. "Can't help it. Genes." Minho turned around before jumping from the five-story building to a nearby three-story one, making Hyunjin sigh, his breath visible in the cold air. "Yah! At least wait for me-" He paused. "Bitch." --- "Do you believe in love at first sight?" Jisung dragged his fingertips along the numbers etched on Minho's neck, making his breath hitch very slightly. "No." A story where two ominous people are sent against each other to steal the Luciacsa Sigmorica Necklace, worn by the great Queen of Segmantia, also known as the underground mafia jury. But what if those nemeses find out they were already paired by fate... as soulmates... But- Something isn't right. #MINSUNG #ONC-26

Malise is given one last chance to prove herself, or else, she'll be kicked out of her coven. And the world isn't safe for a witch on her own. Elvira hates witches and her only goal is to find a cure for her sister's magic. But when she gets put on trial for witchcraft herself, it changes everything she thought she knew. Enemies, and yet, they slowly find themselves bewitched by each other. This is my entry for the Open Novella Contest 2021, using the prompt: "On occasion, an accusation of witchcraft has the power to set one on a wonderful, dangerous path."

Back in her painfully small town for her 10-year high school reunion, Lenore Davis must reckon with being stuck around her first heartbreak, Morgan Whitaker. *** Ten years after her high school graduation, commitment-avoidant Lennie Davis has only come back to Perkins at her best friend's insistence. There's not much she misses about high school - aside from maybe her old metabolism. So, a high school reunion? Full of people she couldn't wait to get away from? People she intentionally avoided for a decade? Not her idea of a fun getaway. Also not her idea of a fun getaway? Continuously running into her first girlfriend, first love, and worst heartbreak, Morgan Whitaker. Things ended poorly between the pair of them (to put it lightly), and time certainly hasn't healed their wounds. Still, as their paths continue to cross, Lennie can't help but wonder: are these sparks she feels with Morgan? Or is she clinging onto faded memories of the only good relationship she's ever had? *** Contains 18+ content. Viewer discretion advised. Cover image sourced from FreePik.

When you think of vampires, you probably think of Dracula or--shudder--Edward Cullens. You know what I mean: the romanticized, sexy version of a vampire. The one with sparkly skin and a charismatic compulsion. Hot. Sexy. Let's be real here, Gary Oldman really set the bar, right? But what fiction doesn't tell you is that being a vampire is messy and, quite frankly, HARD. It's ugly and lonely, and don't even get me started about tracking down blood. I'm wanted in every province (ever hear of the Bloody Killer? Yeah, that's me. Totally lame serial killer moniker, by the way, RCMP). I didn't have the choice to turn into a vampire, but, boy, did my creator pick the wrong person. Out of control, clumsy, drunk, messy, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. I know, I should probably see a therapist, huh? Well, my trail of bloodless bodies soon catches up to me when a chance encounter with a hottie in a cafe leaves me with his phone by mistake, and I realize just how f***ed I am. And as I do my best to keep him away (while trying to survive as a vampire), I can't help but fall for the cafe hottie, putting a stake on my life. *** ONC '26 prompts: #56 and #81

ONC 2026 | Brynn hates snow. Which is funny, really, a cosmic joke she'd laugh at if her throat weren't so frozen she could barely form words. Every morning as the sun rises, she wakes up in a fucking-freezing forest, snowflakes landing on her cheeks and nose, and her heart skips a beat because she's back there again, on that road, and she doesn't know why. She can't remember who she was; she can't recall the faces of people in her life, neither their voices, nor their names. All she knows is that there's a path ahead of her, down along the snowy slope that stretches for miles, and no way back. So Brynn goes on. Step after step into the treacherous whiteness, until the sun begins to set behind her and the white path is hit by the worst snowfall ever. And there, alone and cold, Brynn dies. Again. And again. And again. Until one day, something... changes. The always-so-straight road forks in two, and, for the first time in an endless list of days, Brynn feels like she has a choice. She can go right, and follow the same snowy path that will lead to her being buried in snow and, well, die... Or she can go left, and walk down the green path she has never seen before. What could possibly go wrong? Brynn doesn't know. But of the many things she doesn't know, there is one she knows for sure: she is tired of being cold. ### Main Prompt: 102. You break into an abandoned cottage for shelter, only to discover three bears that are anything but ordinary. Something in the shadows stalks the house, and every choice you make could be your last. Secondary prompts: 16. »And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.« (Quote by John Muir) 78. You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems. 80. »Monsters don't live under our beds. They live in the recesses of our minds.« (Variation of Edgar Allen Poe's famous quote)

When a cautious Formula One engineer crosses paths with a damaged comeback driver, she discovers that the most dangerous variable she should assess in the sport isn't speed-but attachment. ✦✦✦ Adriana Santos has always known her place on a championship-winning Formula One team is contingent. Excellence, she learned early, is not the same as security. She works in a role the paddock barely understands-simulating failures before they happen, answering 'what ifs' before they become 'what went wrong', and treating the car like a living thing whose future rests in her hands. Her work is quiet, precise, and easily erased the moment she becomes inconvenient. She is careful because she has to be. She knows Joshua Thomas long before she meets him: the driver who changed his name to fit in, the anomaly on a rival team forever tipped for titles. To Adriana, he's a reaction curve that never quite returned to baseline after last season's crash. His comeback is framed as resilience. Many are simply waiting to see him fail. They meet by accident, in a moment stripped of his usual extravagance and pretence. Adriana notices what she always notices-the face behind the mask, the way he laughs through failure like it doesn't frighten him. Adriana doesn't forget him, though. She keeps her distance but Joshua doesn't, and their reluctant friendship begins to bend into something riskier. And they both know exactly what it could cost them. ✦✦✦ ✦ Open Novella Contest 2026 | Prompts 24, 29, 30, 44 ᴄᴏᴘʏʀɪɢʜᴛ © 2026 ʙʏ ᴀᴜᴅʀᴇʏ ᴀʟʟ ʀɪɢʜᴛꜱ ʀᴇꜱᴇʀᴠᴇᴅ.

Araminta was called a witch. Now she's gone. And the last person who saw her is looking for answers. *** A Good Girl's Guide To Murder x Wednesday *** Two years ago, Araminta Green disappeared. Her neighbor and classmate Jordan Thompson was the last person who saw her, walking through a graveyard in the early morning hours. Jordan was intimidated by Araminta. With her pale-powdered face, black lips, spider-web eyeliner, and her love for tarot reading, it was no wonder that people speculated that Araminta was a witch. But Jordan was also intrigued by her dark aura, sensing that she may be as lonely as him. Maybe if he had reached out to her back then, she wouldn't be missing now. When Jordan is tasked with creating an investigative podcast for a college course, there is no question about which case he wants to delve into. With his cat Kiki as his co-pilot, Jordan sets off to answer the question of what happened to Araminta, even as his recordings constantly get disrupted by a cawing crow in the background. Following the trail of Araminta, Jordan discovers truths both about his missing classmate and himself, because while he hasn't vanished he is definitely lost as well. Will he be able to find both himself and Araminta? *** An ONC novella using prompt #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.

[Grand Winner ONC India 2023] Bhairavi, a staunch devotee of Shree Ram, is a tourist visiting Kashmir with her daughter. One night she is going through the pictures she has clicked during the day and stumbles across one that shocks her to the core. It's the picture of a girl Bhairavi knows has been dead for almost a year. Scared yet wanting to uncover the truth, she decides to look into the matter and discovers something she couldn't have imagined in her wildest nightmares. Written for ONC India. Prompt No. 26 Rating: Suitable for all ages Start date: 16th February 2023 Date completed: 30th March 2023 Original story written for Wattpad by @GandalfofspaceAnli © 2023

Originally Posted By Old Account (Romizabooks) Blurb Milo is a vampire new to the mythical community. His father has enrolled him in the mythical boarding school, Mareville Academy. Milo has a big secret-he's not like other vampires. He tries to fit in, but ends up causing trouble. Will Milo be able to stay out of trouble and represent his kind in a just way? # Story is completed and edited. #All places and people are fictional. #An 'Open Novella Contest 2026' entry. #Prompt 81. Unalluring and bumbling, your character is the world's worst vampire. #This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here Earth has been invaded by the demonic and humankind has been brought to its knees. It was beaten into me that tough times create strong men, and I guess I'm one of them, whether I like it or not. They call me the Nemesis and label me as the Vanquisher of Evil. I do not need or seek fancy titles, however, as long as I can do what has to be done. My steel heart doesn't delude itself into thinking I don't purport some manner of evil, but these desperate times call for drastic measures. Love can't save us from a horde of mindless beasts. Takes a monster to beat a monster, and I intend on being the bigger monster. Enough talk, though, it's time to kick some demon ass and drive these invaders away. Prepare to meet your worst nemesis.