This is it. It's been four months since we all embarked on an astounding journey. A journey that has led us through a discovery of our own writing.

You have all been gladiators of the ink! Fighters of the written word. You have picked up the quill and scratched together hundreds of thousands of words for The Open Novella Contest! Our entire team applauds your contribution. Without you, the contestants, this contest wouldn't have been so successful.

But as all good things do, this contest is also nearing an end. Not without one last hurrah though. Today, we announce our top five winners. These stories have touched us; they have weaved tapestries of stories that will always hold a special place in our collective hearts.

So without further ado, here are the winners of the first ever Open Novella Contest.

Mina Harker (née Murry) was changed by Dracula's attentions, and so were her descendants. Reggie comes from this line of vampire hunters, nature's definitive balance to the darkness. Her whole life has been building up to this one mission in Romania, to face the evil that started everything for her family. Unfortunately there are others with their eyes on Dracula too, and Reggie has run right into them. She must make them allies or remove them from the game before she can face the ultimate foe.

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"In blood born, in blood it ends."

Do you believe in the freedom of choice or in proclaimed destiny?

He had terrorized the lands. He had murdered and killed. He had walked the earth for centuries. Now he is back to fulfill his part of the legend. The legend of he who died once and lived twice. The legend of he who will only be stopped by one person: The last remaining member of the Amawaka lineage. A young girl tossed like a leaf in the winds of fate.

A fantastic, action filled story about fate, heritage and twisted love, inspired by classical and Victorian literature.

Mitsui Iwasaki was born in 1916 in rural Japan, into hopeless, abject poverty, into a life with no choices or beauty for most people, especially a girl in a small village with a drunken father and an exhausted mother. She has too many siblings, not enough food, and no future that doesn't involve dirt, ignorance, and hopelessness.

But Mitsui longs for education, culture, love, freedom, and most of all, a place to call her own. She yearns to be out from under the yoke of of her stern, cruel father, who only sees her as a shameful burden, and away from her thoughtless mother, who only sees her as a means to a financial end.

Follow Mitsui as she blazes her own trail in early twentieth century Japan. She tries to find her way in an indifferent world, searching for independence and fulfillment, ultimately finding that she is strong in ways she never imagined.

The Horseman Famine has fallen, and the remaining Horsemen are looking for a replacement. But times are hard. The pool of suitable applicants is limited. Potential Heralds must be an angel, fallen or otherwise, be in possession of a celestial weapon, and ride an infernal Nightmare.

Michael Childs is an FBI agent on the trail of a sadistic serial killer who is targeting victims born with twelve fingers and twelve toes. In occult circles, they are known as the Nephilim, and the murderer is holding a grudge that begins with ritualistic torture of the body and ends in permanent death of the soul. His only suspect is Marine Corps sniper, Anaba Raines, a decorated special-ops soldier currently listed as killed-in-action in Syria.

From the shedrow of Belmont Park to the sanctuary of a run-down Catholic church in Queens, he finds allies and enemies in the most unexpected places. Can he accept that divine intervention has placed him on a perilous collision course with a rogue angelic cabal and a 3000-year old edict uttered from the mouth of God?

And now for the winner of this four month long journey. One that has given birth to thousands of words on Wattpad and a newfound appreciation for the novella...

The Grand Winner of the Open Novella Contest:

!

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Chronicled within, the life and deeds of Siggi the Sly Wolf, who for want of immortality near cleaved the world in two.

A decade past her prime, barren of womb and fame, Siggi halts in her evasion of the ever-enemy: time. Armed with wits, greed, and her wilting axe arm, she converges on the Anchor of the World, the mountain said to house the legendary treasure of the dwarves.

A mythical artefact, part-weapon, part miracle. Forged from the ore of a fallen star, the myths say. The key to every mystery the gods locked away from Man. To her, it is the quill she will use to write her name in history, even if she must ink it in her own blood.

That's all she wrote, folks! This has been a whirlwind of stories and fun for all of us. You, the participants, have been phenomenal. You have kept the lights on bright in the Open Novella Contest back room as we've been reading all your excellent hard work over the four month period, and for that the entire Open Novella Contest team thanks you for sharing your brilliance with us.

It was a phenomenal four months and maybe there will be a time, sometime in the future, when the calls for the Open Novella Contest are heard across Wattpad again.

Farewell from us! Until next time...