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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (281)

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281 Stories

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Big Tom

Thomas “Big Tom” Wilson pulled strips of meat out of the smoker. The hard needles the trees dropped from time to time made an excellent smoke source, somewhat like applewood. The meat came from the small creatures he caught in traps around his garden.He turned off the smoker’s burner coil and doused the still-smoldering needles in the tray above the coil. Satisfied that he wouldn’t waste any smoke fuel, he carried the strips of meat into the cabin he called home…or rather the emergency shelter he called a cabin he called home.After a day spe...

3 likes

Refugees

Jordi held open the door. “Welcome to the cat shelter.” “Knock it off,” Pen said. “I hear anyone, including you, refer to the Strallins as ‘cats’ again, they’ll be relegated to the loading dock.” Jordi led Pen to her new office. “What about the Strallins that refer to themselves as cats — or as nekomimi?” “What are you talking about?” “When they first got here, a Strallin found an old manga somewhere. They thought it was some sort of prophetic thing that we would have drawings of them.” Pen stopped in front of her desk and rubbed her te...

5 likes

Cups and Balls

“I’m knackered. Glad that’s over.” - “You? All you did was sell me out, you Judas. I had to do all the work.” “I’m terribly sorry. I thought he was another tourist. I have a hard time getting simple directions in this city, and I speak English.” - “Yeah, we’ve all heard it…New York sucks and everybody’s awful.” “When I saw a tall bloke in cosplay trying to get anyone to acknowledge him, I stopped to see if I could help. He just said, ‘Show me magic,’ so I thought he was looking for a street performer.” - “You thought that was cosplay?” ...

5 likes

Not Until the Job Is Done

Maria Cointreau looked up at Indri, the tall creature hidden behind the wall with her. Standing on four legs, with two arms with odd joints, four compound eyes, and smooth, grey skin, she looked like a praying mantis from a fever dream. The human-made sub-machine gun she carried just reinforced the image.“I’m out,” Maria said, lowering her assault rifle, “but if we can get to the warehouse by the river, we can re-supply.”“We lost. It’s time to leave.”“Bullshit!” Maria Cointreau spit on the ground, blood mixed with her spittle. “As long as we...

6 likes

Bleeding Through

It was there again for just a split second, then it was gone. A flash in the eye; something off-kilter just a bit. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it made me think I might be losing my marbles. If I hadn’t been too nervous to try when it was offered in university, I would blame it on it acid flashbacks. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and tied it with the spare band I had around my wrist. It served as an excuse to stand outside for a moment longer to gather my wits. The reception had that sterile, cold, hospital feeling down, complete wi...

3 likes

Fighting Monsters

During my second year in the academy, I was still trying to decide what I wanted to specialize in. At that point, it didn’t matter; I was going to do anything that got me into space and away from the outer colonies for good. One afternoon, there was a test of a new vectoring thruster built by the engineering students. It was supposed to be super-efficient or some other thing. There were several of us watching on the periphery; just something to occupy our free time. They were testing on the perpetually “Coming Soon” soccer pitch. It hadn’t...

5 likes

Compliance

There were at least six cameras around the parking lot Grace could see without craning her neck. There were another nine she’d seen as she entered the lot. The counting wasn’t voluntary, it was more an annoying tic. She tried to relax in her car, waiting for the Compliance Office to open, but there was no comfortable position in her tiny commuter one-seater. She looked at the ticket summons on her phone again. “Presence in a restricted zone.” Convenient, she thought, that they can mark an area restricted with no warning and collect fines. ...

4 likes

The Freeze

The only thing worse than a poor night’s sleep is the day after. When it happens every night, however, the days turn into a smear of half-remembered impressions as the world passes by at what feels like double or treble speed. He answered the knocking at his door. “You here to wake me up? You’re a few hours late.” “You’re dragging again.” There was a hint of pity in her voice. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Just like you haven’t been all week?” She moved closer to where he couldn’t avoid her gaze. “You look like a raccoon, and I know you have...

4 likes

A Lady Scorned

She clapped her leathery wings in rage, her eyes glowing like hot coals. Her champion had not only let her down, he’d flat-out betrayed her. As usual, only her favorite brother was here to comfort her.“Relax, sister.” Pride placed his arm and one wing around her. “You knew there was a chance to lose, and you took it.”“Yeah, sure. You can puff yourself up with ‘at least I tried’ but that doesn’t cut it for me; I have to win.”Pride stood, holding his sister close. “There will be others,” he said.“He was to be my champion. I thought he was stea...

5 likes

Achievable

Matthew was certain this arts and crafts project was a waste of his time and patience, but he’d promised the doctor. Things I want for my life, things I can work toward, things I can achieve in the coming year, he thought. It took long hours searching the web, finding just the right images, printing them out on the color printer, and stuffing them in his backpack before anyone could see. The library wasn’t the ideal place for this, but it had to do. He wasn’t about to spend a bunch of money he didn’t have on magazines just to cut out the pi...

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My First Christmas

I should’ve listened when the union rep told me I should wait for another navigator — any navigator — as long as they weren’t human. “Too much trouble,” they said. Noooo, I was in too much of a hurry and hired on the human. It is important to me that I am good captain. To that end, I’ve accumulated a set of rules, guidelines, if you will, to keep me moving in that direction. I’ve written them all down in a tablet; sixty-eight rules so far. Rule thirty-one: Allow the crew to express themselves when it does not interfere with the operation o...

5 likes

A Simple Gesture

When she moved in, I knew nothing about her; even her species and sex was a question to me. Sure, there are a few non-humans on this back-washed mining planet — mostly running away from the law on their home worlds — but she wasn’t even one of the recognized member species of the Combine. News of the war was always slow to arrive out here, but we all knew that it was going well for the Combine, not so well for the invaders. We knew them as the Skags, their proper name replaced even in serious news with the pejorative-sounding pronunciation....

3 likes

The Hanging

I’ve heard that, given enough time, one can get accustomed to anything; to see it as normal. After ten years of this, I can say that’s a load of hogwash.The oohs and aahs of the audience over what amounted to basic sleight of hand annoyed me. Still, I smiled and performed as if for a classroom of five-year-olds. It shouldn’t have surprised me how easily the dupes were fooled, I guess, since they grew up in a world where they knew magic isn’t real.They were wrong, of course, but I didn’t dare show them the real stuff. Instead, I practiced all...

3 likes

Shelter

Anya’s neighbor had been gone for a month. During that time, his brother, who lived in the next house over, had been keeping up the front yard. The HOA frowned on less-than-show-quality yards. He was there now, raking the front lawn. Anya knew, from the vantage point of her own back yard, that the back yard needed some attention as well. She decided to do something about it. “Hey, Carl!” She waved at the elderly man plying the rake. “Anya, right?” “Right. Hey, uh…do you know when they’re coming back?” she asked. “Not rightly sure,” he s...

6 likes

Exponential

As a child, I knew the world was the way it was, and that was that. Changes, even small ones, were difficult to accept. I knew that the world was and would remain static. Our enclave of skin tents in the forest was where I would live, hunting and raising a family, for my entire life. I should’ve paid more attention when the elders talked about how fast the humans advanced. The elders understood that human advancement was exponential, even if they didn’t have the language or math to describe it. Still, I began training as a far-speaker befo...

6 likes