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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (265)

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300 Followers

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265 Stories

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Recall

Submitted to Contest #172

Trey’s breakfast was ready a few seconds after seven-thirty; efficiency down 0.002 percent. I made a note of it in my logs and continued to my next task.“Good morning, sir,” I said. “Breakfast is served. I will prepare a warm towel for your shower.”“Schedule?” he asked.“Meeting, nine-thirty to eleven with the board. Lunch date at twelve with Leo.” It was all I could do not to spit out the name. I couldn’t stand the man. “Nothing scheduled after. Will you be returning home early this evening?”“Home at six. I want salmon for dinner.”“Yes, sir....

22 likes

Ends of the Earth

Some people make a bucket list and never get around to any of it. I’m not “some people.” I’m luckier than most, I would say. There was no rhyme or reason for me to blow a buck on the lotto, but I did. Winning two-and-a-half million after taxes was the impetus for this trip. There are places I want to see, and many of them only allow a few people a year in to protect them. Those are the places I most want to see. After two years of getting permits and planning travel, I’m checking things off my bucket list. The first time I saw her was at C...

5 likes

Lucky Night

Months of planning, investigation, and surveillance — much of it skirting on the thin edges of the law — were about to pay off. Miranda had him in her sights, and she was going to put him down for good. That’s not to say she was planning to kill him but putting him behind bars was just as good. She’d followed the progress of the last shipment through customs and knew that it would be her best chance to catch him with the goods. She knew the pattern by now. The shipment would clear customs, get loaded on a rental truck, be driven to a wareh...

6 likes

The Bitter Ghosts of Our Past

Fleet Mother Andkura sat before a desk in her ready room. The air above the desk was littered with holograms of reports from systems throughout the Gathering. Her four large, compound eyes took in the chaos. The thin, wiry muscles of her arms writhed under blue-grey skin as her clawed hands opened and closed. Her whip-like tail swished side-to-side in agitation.One notification popped up among the holos, demanding attention in harsh, blue light. With a wave of her hand, the reports closed, leaving only the notification. She motioned to the f...

8 likes

Let's Have an Adventure

Jackson wasn’t sure this was the right one, at first. He’d followed the directions, but this run-down station couldn’t be it. He looked to the crumbling ceiling and saw hints of a faded mural. The outlines of an eagle caught his eye. No, it’s a hawk, he reminded himself. This was the station he was looking for. The same one where he’d waited impatiently as a young boy to meet his grandfather. His mother had taken time to explain the “eagle” he had excitedly pointed out was, in fact, a hawk. Although they could hear the trains from their far...

8 likes

The Volunteer Agent

It is imperative that I get stronger. I cannot rely on others to save me forever. That is why I train in every available moment; to be able to save myself without the serum. No one said that delving into the Otherworld would be easy or safe. That didn’t stop me from volunteering. I thought I was trained enough for the mission, at least until I first encountered them — the inhabitants of the Otherworld. Many are grotesque, warped, hideous, and yet…a few seem normal, almost beautiful. It was one of the beautiful ones that laid me low the fir...

6 likes

Tiptoe

Hervé had long ago stopped answering the phone as Lieutenant Deschamps, so he was surprised by the greeting of the woman calling. “Lieutenant? Detective Julia Thierry, working with INTERPOL. I’m calling to let you know that we have new information on the Tiptoe Thief.” “Really? That doesn’t surprise me. I imagine he made a death-bed confession in a pensioner’s home?” “No, nothing like that. He’s struck again.” Hervé thought about it. He’d chased the jewel thief for the last twenty-two years of his forty-year career. During that time, he’...

2 likes

The Minister's Daughter

“You sure you don’t want to change your account, Carter?” Brianna Carter shook her head and rested her face in her hands. “No.” “Damn it! Ms. Petrova already told us that it was consensual.” Brianna looked at the agent with fire in her eyes. “No. She’s just scared and confused. I…forced her.” “I know you’re lying, Carter. Why?” Special Agent Weaver leaned forward on his elbows, moving into her space. “You’re throwing away your entire career, your pension…and…you’ll be facing some serious jail time.” “Here, or in the states?” “You know ...

1 like

Picking Up a Stray

He had the look in his green eyes; the haunted, startled gaze that saw everything and nothing as threat. Young, away from home for the first time, adrift…completely and utterly alone. The streets are especially dangerous for girls, but almost as much so for tiny boys like him. He was probably underage, but I knew if I asked, he would say he was eighteen. Hell, it’s gotten to where eighteen-year-olds look like babies to me, so he may have been. More likely, though, is that he was another runaway, and discovering for the first time how bad it...

3 likes

Uncivilized Apes

Ambassador Innuluk 2327 had an annoying, sloshing, unease behind all four of its eyestalks. It hoped the translator was wrong. No sapient being could be as obtuse and stubborn as this stiff-jointed, endoskeletal biped that called itself “Carlie” or maybe “Chief of Engineering” or “Human.” It looked at the creature in front of it. Taller than the ambassador currently shaped its body, binary sensory organs placed in an arrangement that suggested a predator. Brown skin showed on the head and manipulators that extended past the creature’s prote...

1 like

The Dinner Vote

Salvatore fumbled with the bow tie, an online video tutorial played on the tablet he’d leaned against the mirror. His pale blue eyes flicked back and forth between the screen and the mirror. The younger man in the video made it seem simple, yet he still struggled. “Try this,” Eliza said, holding the tablet so it was reflected in the mirror. “Tell me again what this dinner’s about? And why I’m not invited?” Salvatore found it easier to copy the movements of the video with it mirrored. “It’s about getting me on the board.” He finished tying ...

2 likes

When the War Came to Mizoo

Papa and Bru-bru got called up for the big war. They said they’d come back heroes and Bru-bru could bring home a new wife or two. Papa was still half crippled from the last big war, and Bru-bru weren’t but fourteen summers. He was decent with a bow, though. He did the hunting and fishing while Papa ran the still and traded what he didn’t drink for vegetables and such. The soldier-men gave Bru-bru a crossbow, and Papa a pistol and a shiny metal bar for his collar. Bru-bru’s hunting bow was still hung up in his room. Mama and me had already m...

4 likes

Cloud-Four

Pre-jump checks were complete, all systems were green, and the crew of four were antsy to get going. The ship was barely more than a cockpit and engines attached to a giant cargo pod. “Cloud-four, this is gate control. Verify your jump plan.” As the copilot, it was Barn’s job to communicate with gate control. Just as well, as the pilot, Merilee, was as likely to chew their head off as give an answer. “Gate, cloud-four. Verify jump to Tau Ceti at rate three-point-seven, immediate re-jump to Linden at rate four-point-zero.” “Cloud-four, I ...

4 likes

His Last Hour

Willard fiddled with the last purple bead on the band around his right wrist. The band around his left was devoid of beads. He’d traded the yellow and orange striped miller’s bead to the blacksmith for one of her black beads, which he then traded to the hunter for a fowl for dinner.The hunter had been too kind. It was usually two for a fowl, three for a hare or a joint of boar or venison. Taking care of the hunter’s lodgings and gardens took time that would have reduced the time he’d have to hunt.When he’d been more in demand, Willard had se...

4 likes

Score One for the Nutters

The ember glowed as the tall, lanky, reddish-brown woman with close-cropped black hair took a drag. It dulled as she passed it to the pale-skinned, gaunt, red-haired woman a full head shorter beside her. “Ta,” the red-haired woman said before taking a drag. “You think it’s over, Red?” “I hope so,” Red said. She held out the cigarette to the other woman whose gaze seemed to be fixed on something on the horizon. “LT?” “Nah, kill it.” The lieutenant leaned back against the truck, the only vehicle not reduced to a smoldering puddle of slag i...

3 likes