Sjan Evardsson

“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!” The guard that opened the door and barked it out hadn’t even noticed Terkannan until he was halfway through the door. He approached ...

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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 again, and saw her again. The haunted look in her eyes was pushed down, hiding under despair and dark circles. Her scars, the result of some horrendous f...

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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. As she began to climb the stairs toward the doors, they began to swing close. The stairs were interminable. She wondered how they accommodated the handicap...

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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 in each message. T...

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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; seen him around a few times. Said his name was Greg? Gary? Pretty sure it was a ‘G’…I suck with names. Saw him on Thursdays, since that’...

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“After the Storm” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #122

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 for now. She didn’t dare check how much battery it had left. The drumming of the rain echoed in the empty promenade, louder now. ...

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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.” With mandatory genetic counseling, this sort of trait was all but unheard of, making her uniquely suited to her job. It wasn’t di...

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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 like it, still ached for the times and places of the stories they read. Watt left the library via the basement exit to the tunnels. ...

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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 duration and non-randomness of it pointed to the possibility of intelligence behind the still-increasing waves. “I’m telling you, it...

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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. The moon completed one rotation relative to its parent in a period of 413 Earth days, while the Xevioso system orbited its star eve...

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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 nervously vague when asked what kind of person Kyle was. “I, uh, guess I would have to say he was quiet,” Bob said. “I mean, I can s...

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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.” “Sorry, no time to talk.” He switched off the comm. As soon as his warp generator spooled up, he tapped the console, shooting off at maximum speed. “Okay, Chip. Y...

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“The Town” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #115

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 ill-maintained forest road. Checking my phone, I saw that I had no signal. The choice was to follow this road that climbed ahead of me in hope...

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“It's Just Begun” by Sjan Evardsson

Wallace walked toward the silent slab of alien metal that hung over the edge of the city, his tool bag hung over his shoulder. After the failed attempts of the combined militaries of the world, it had become obvious that the aliens were now running the show. Like most others, Wallace wasn’t happy about that. He looked at the strange paper he held. It had writing in the alien’s language and English stating that he was ordered, as a subject of the Empire, for a work detail on the ship. Grabbing the corner of the sheet, it glowed yellow. The c...

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“Law of Fives” by Sjan Evardsson

Sia fidgeted nervously, dark circles under her honey-gold eyes, lack of sleep dulling her golden-brown face. Her ebon hair, tied up in a sloppy bun, lacked the shine it usually had.“Sia, are you okay?”, someone asked. “Do you need someone to talk to?”She stared at her monitor, the work in front of her making no sense. The feeling that someone was standing next to her was sudden, causing her to jump. “Oh! Hi—hi Jace. Did you need something?”“I was wondering the same thing,” he said, “about you.” He was slender, with pale olive skin that never...

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