Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (87)

87 Stories

1837 karma pts

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“…And Child” by Sjan Evardsson

Galen had always had a warm welcome for visitors to his inn, until this one. It was his nature to be warm and open with his guests. She didn’t feel like a guest, though, more an invader. She had crashed through the door with a wordless cry like a soldier storming an objective, disturbing the quiet calm of the lobby. The fire still burned cheerily in large stone fireplace, the morning sun still shed its ...

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“Stranded” by Sjan Evardsson

Cara watched the water reach a boil in the animal skin bag over the open fire. She kept a close eye to ensure the flame never reached higher than the water. She’d crisped one bag that way already and wasn’t looking for a repeat.When the water reached boiling, she removed the bag from the fire and poured it carefully into the hand-carved wooden mug, soaking the crushed dried leaves waiting there. She let it steep for a few minutes before taking a tentative sip.Nodding her approval, Cara sipped at her “tea” until she reached t...

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“Savages” by Sjan Evardsson

His calm was not born of insouciance, but of clarity; he already knew what would happen and how it would play out. He waited outside the Lord High General’s office, letting the harried couriers and lesser generals bustle about. A subtle feeling led him to move to the other side of the entryway as the door swung violently open where he had just been. “The Lord High General calls for the Royal Seer, Terkannan!” Th...

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“I Meant What I Said” by Sjan Evardsson

CONTENT WARNING: themes of drug use, addiction, and domestic violence. The first time I saw her, her eyes were haunted, her scars fresh. She came through the line in the soup kitchen, pointing at what she wanted but never uttering a sound. If I had to guess, I would say she was nineteen or twenty. That was New Year’s Eve, three years ago. Two years ago, I volunteered on New Year’s Eve ag...

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“Late for the Last Time” by Sjan Evardsson

Liv hadn’t been on time for anything, ever, and this was no different. She knew it would still be there later, after all, and she’d had things she had to do. The doors were massive, imposing. She took a deep breath and started toward them before stopping. Liv looked at the summons again. She was more than just a little late. Liv shrugged. What are they going to do, sue me? she thought. ...

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“The Other Me” by Sjan Evardsson

Sometimes it’s easier to pretend that everything’s fine. This wasn’t one of those times. Still, I put on a smile and went through the motions until the end of the workday.When I left at the end of the day I went straight home to try and straighten the whole mess out. I pulled out my phone and looked at the twelve messages I’d received over the course of the day.Each message was, supposedly, sent from my own number. That’s easy enough to spoof, I guess, if one knows how. What concerned me were the intimate details contained i...

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“Method Acting” by Sjan Evardsson

“Okay, again.” He looked in the mirror, took a deep breath and relaxed his posture. He looked at the script again. It couldn’t really be called a script, though. It was broad strokes, with details sprinkled throughout. A believable performance required that he be totally at ease with the story and the character, while recalling the details as if he had lived it. “I met him in the coffee shop in the lobby...

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“After the Storm” by Sjan Evardsson

There were, no doubt, better places to hide out, but this one was available. The storm was coming. Already, the heavy rains pounded against the large glass wall of the main mall entry. Deciding that the glass was likely to turn into shrapnel when the storm fully hit, Angel moved deeper into the pitch-black mall, the crowbar she’d used to break in hanging from one hand. Her phone provided a little light, at least...

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“Hidden Links” by Sjan Evardsson

In all the inhabited worlds there were fewer than five people who had more than a passing acquaintance with Kia Tyler. Her direct supervisor, Adama, was perhaps the one who knew her best, and they never saw each other outside of work. The most important thing that Adama knew about his employee was that her skin was very sensitive, and she was, according to her, “allergic to damn near everything in the universe.”...

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“Another Quest” by Sjan Evardsson

Watt put the book back on the shelf. Reading it had become a monthly ritual. They especially liked the stories about brave knights rescuing fair damsels. Sometimes Watt was the knight, and other times the damsel. Dreams of living in the romanticized version of the Middle Ages frequented their slumber. Watt knew, intellectually, that the stories had no relation to reality. Their heart though, or something very li...

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“Gates” by Sjan Evardsson

It started with a low rumble that continued far too long to be normal. As it continued, the frequency rose and the amplitude spiked in increasingly shorter intervals, causing the volume to pulse faster and faster as the rumble climbed into a ringing, rising tone. In all the years that the Gravity Wave Research Center had been recording and converting gravity waves to sound waves, this anomaly was a first. The du...

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“Stellum and Planetum” by Sjan Evardsson

Habitat Nine, known colloquially as “Hab-9,” was a test platform for colonization. Agé, the largest moon around the gas giant Xevioso, second planet in the Kal system, teemed with life; slender plants that grew tall in the light gravity, a healthy micro-biome, and small creatures similar to nematodes on Earth. Although Agé orbited Xevioso once every nineteen hours, it was almost tidally locked to the gas giant. ...

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“What He Wanted” by Sjan Evardsson

It started with an anonymous missing person tip on the city police website. In the following weeks, flyers began to appear on utility poles like an unlikely pox, spreading out in all directions from the city center. By the time the news picked up the story, it was to tell everyone about the “mysterious disappearance” of Kyle Smith, assistant to the city council secretary. Bob Keller, the council secretary was ne...

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“One Good Deed” by Sjan Evardsson

“Have we got a navigation solution, Chip?” The pilot rushed through his pre-flight checks. “Affirmative. I am unable to activate, however. I apologize, Stefan.” “I understand. Manual entry and activation.” “Attention, cargo vessel Uragon: you are to immediately power down your warp generator until you reach minimum clearance distance of one-hundred-thirty thousand kilometers.”

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“The Town” by Sjan Evardsson

My GPS got me lost…well, that and my desire to take the scenic route and avoid the freeways. The dense woods surrounding the route it had recommended blocked out everything. It was only when the road narrowed and became a potholed mess that I realized that I wasn’t anywhere near where the GPS said I was. I should have been able to see the freeway from here, but there was no infrastructure beyond this il...

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Author bio

Writer with an alter-ego as a software engineer. My degree is in Information Security but my heart belongs to my spouse, my daughters, and science fiction. My first published short story is available > https://books2read.com/DSPSpirit My second published short story is available > https://books2read.com/SpaceBound