Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town was bad. It turns out it's worse having to attend her estranged father's wedding and letting her childhood best friend break down the walls she carefully built. ***** Mari Chasey's life is suspended. She returns to her hometown in a cold November day following her mother's death, after years of studying abroad in Europe. Pinewood is sleepy in the bitter cold, the deserted shoreline stretching further than she can reach, but that's okay. Mari is good with temporary things and at not lingering. She's not planning to stay for long, just enough to sort out her mother's affairs without poking at open wounds. Then her father returns. Jack Chasey, former renowned superstar, absent for most of her childhood, is getting married to a woman Mari hardly knows. He gets to begin again, build something new, while Mari grapples with a fractured life and all the scattered pieces of herself. Her mother was supposed to live forever; Jack was mercurial and always at arm's length. But now he's here to stay. Enter Kinney St. James. Once Mari's closest friend, then another person that passed by like a comet, she still knows Mari and all the shards of her. Even the sharper ones. In the stillness of winter, Mari reconnects with the quiet life Jack always wanted for her, the softer parts of her that only Kinney can tap into, and what it truly means to be her mother's daughter. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 29, 46, & 77 © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved

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.

An ONC2026 entry Magic is law and every mage is bound by Summon Cards; anchor tools used to call beasts, spirits, and even gods. The gifted train in Terra City where they must choose to either serve Creation, Justice, or Death. But Amara breaks every rule. She can summon without a card; even moreso she can summon Annatah, the god of creation. To the Order of the First, she is a miracle. To the Brotherhood of Night, she is the perfect vessel to incarnate Althera, the goddess of chaos. When eight year old Cassandra Apollos is kidnapped after awakening her abilities and calling forth Python, a rare divine protector, Terra City teeters on the brink of war. With enemies closing in, Amara must shape her own destiny before chaos takes form. An ONC 2026 entry

Main prompt - Prompt 19: <when you accidentally spill coffee on someone, the moment that should have ruined your day becomes the beginning of a surprising and life-changing friendship> 2nd prompt - prompt 24: <staying as friends feels safe, but that doesn't mean it's the path you're meant to take> *********** Ever since she was a child, May always had someone to rely on - her parents, her siblings, her relatives and most of all, her best friend. She's always never had to worry about anything until she and her best friend get into separate universities. Faced with a new environment with no friends, she's terrified. She doesn't know how to survive on her own. She's falling apart. What she doesn't expect is to find someone who'll teach her how to be independent and survive university on her own. And moreover, that person happens to be her best friend's older brother - Asher, the boy she's not familiar with but from what she's heard, he's controlling, annoying and takes life way too seriously. And maybe, just maybe, he might be the one May needs to survive.

She sits at crowded tables, drinks countless glasses of wine, and convinces herself that he loves her. That's what this city is for, isn't it? Reinvention? ***** Sixteenth Street is only supposed to be a job for her to afford the bills in the new city she now calls home. What she doesn't expect is to fall head over heels for a man with enough experience - both in the restaurant and in life - to make her forget the real reason she moved to this new city in the first place. Intoxicated by the world of fine dining and men who taste like her new favorite poison, she finds herself lost and in waiting - for him, for the guests, and, most importantly, for herself. ***** OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 -- prompts 28 & 29

The woods surrounding Crenshaw are haunted by the secret between life and death---a monster known only as the Reaper. For centuries, Crenshaw's Institute for the Dark and Gifted has had one rule that its students are never meant to break: stay out of the woods, or face the Reaper's wrath. Faceless and formless, the Reaper feeds off the blood of those unfortunate enough to wander into the forest, but never touches those who obey the golden rule. That is, until a body is found in the library, drained entirely of blood. With the school halls no longer safe from the Reaper's bloodlust, four gifted students are forced to team up to uncover what the Reaper truly is---and more importantly, how to get rid of it. (Prompt 16: "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.")

#ONC2026 Entry One last assignment to buy her freedom. The final phase of the mission was supposed to be straightforward: slip into the Spanish Royal Palace during the midsummer gala, incinerate the marked documents, and eliminate the crown and its heirs. It was supposed to be easy. At least, it would have been if Elizabeth hadn't arrived twenty-four hours too soon. Forced to play a role her lethal training never prepared her for, the Royal Nanny, Elizabeth must use her supernatural abilities to navigate a world of silk and secrets while protecting the very heirs she was sent to kill. But she isn't the only one on a mission. Thomas, an assassin from a rival organization known as The Pendulum, is already embedded as the palace's head of security. In their battle to outspy each other, they realize they share more than just a job description. Two assassins. One royal secret. A lullaby of steel and secrecy. ~~~~~~~~~ Main Prompt: 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment hides a much bigger truth. Sub Prompt: 33. It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next, you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened. Cover photo from Unsplash, edited in canva. Started: 1st February 2026 Completed: Rated: MATURE (trigger warnings in place) Exclusively on Wattpad.

Tris McCoy is having an uneventful summer. It's the summer before eleventh grade, and it's the last summer she has before she has to start worrying about driving, and college, and a career. With her mom being in the hospital and her dad enjoying the title of father out in Australia, she's left to spend the next six weeks alone. Until she (literally) stumbles across a stack of old letters from her pen pal, July Souders. July lives in British Columbia---four provinces away---but Tris knows of a camp she used to attend. Unwilling to spend the summer alone and desperate for any change, no matter the size, Tris sets off for summer camp.

ALIEN AMONG US is a contemporary sci-fi novella that will give you the giggles, tug at your heartstrings, and leave you wondering if there really is life beyond the stars. ************************************************************************ Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2026 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: here: https://yamur.dijitalkalp.com/story/406004197-open-novella-contest-2026 **Main Prompt** 25. You live with four other housemates, but one of them is secretly an alien trying to learn how to act human. ©2026 E. S. Elias, All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2026 Book Marked as Completed: 00.00.2026 Book Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH Word Count: 2,222 / 20,000 Goals: ✔ Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 2 _ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Round Winner? _ | Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick? _ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter _ Top-5 Winner? _ Rankings: #ONC2026: #ONC #2 02.03.2026

Cover Credit: @thatwomanlywoman321 Four young chefs. Four different specialties. Four unique cultures. Four cravings for victory. One reluctant culinary team. An unforeseen change to a historic school competition throws together a determined, independent chocolatiere, a stoically traditional bread-maker, a charismatically carefree fish-and-pasta chef, and a chronically bubbly pastry chef into one chaotic mix. Will they be able to handle the heat, or have to get out of the kitchen? The famed Ambrosapentia Institute's annual culinary competition, the Fructus Victoriae, has begun, and Lira has perfected her recipe for success. Ceres, Kaede, and Esti are not part of this recipe; unfortunately, none of them has a choice. While struggling to blend their distinct personalities and cooking styles, they embark on a cross-country quest for victory. The most important lessons they learn aren't in any of their textbooks. Will they taste the sweetness of victory's ambrosia, or will they be left without the secret ingredient they never knew they were missing? For best results, heat slowly and stir continuously... This urban fantasy novella puts a delicious new twist on academia and proves that variety truly is the spice of life.