Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (235)

235 Stories

2712 karma pts

?

“Challenge” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #97

Sia was jolted awake by the ringing of something against the hull. There shouldn’t be any debris or asteroids in this region, but there it was again. It was...rhythmic? She sat the pilot’s seat up in time to see a figure in a vac suit slapping their hand against the forward window. A rub of her eyes and shake of her head convinced her that she was awake, and this was real. “I’m opening the airlock.” She hoped they were in firm enough contact with the hull to hear her amplified voice vibrate through the hull and their own suit. The airlock ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Envoy” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #96

Despite stereotypes to the contrary, many small towns remained cold and unfriendly, wildly suspicious of strangers. Doubly so for those outside that town’s main demographic. Skin color, dress, hairstyle, even accent were all excuses to ignore or outright shun strangers. How much more so when the stranger is not even the same species? The envoy landed quietly in the forest, far away from human eyes. This was her first assignment; assessment of humans to determine readiness to join The Community. They’d started exploring their own star system...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Nameless” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #95

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice, If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice - Freewill, Rush (1980) Her naming day was coming, and she still hadn’t decided which name she would choose. Her peers had picked their name as much as years in advance. For the next two days she would still be known by her nickname, “Sprout,” the name of a child. She looked through the list of five names, selected by the priests and priestesses at her birth, again. Each one was pledged to a different god, although which name bel...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Little Bull and the Calf” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #94

...[P]eer power as an extrinsic force is a lot like radiation: a little goes a long way.  Charles D. Hayes Some people, perhaps even most, in the situation Sam found herself would wonder how they got there. She had no trouble pinpointing the moment that led her to be sitting in an interrogation room, wrists cuffed to the table, ankles shackled to the floor. It was the simple sentence: “I dare you.” “I’m Special Agent Angela Mackey. You’re Samira?” “Sam.” “Samira Thibideaux, twenty-six, from New Orleans, Louisiana, correct?” “Yes, ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Damn Wizards” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #93

The Palace Hotel Grand Ballroom was most decidedly not grand that morning. Morning light spilled through the huge windows that overlooked the bay to cast rays on the detritus of the previous night’s soirée. Overturned tables and chairs, spills and stains on the carpets, half of the draperies ripped from the windows, and above it all, the smell of stale champagne and spilled booze.“You ever notice,” Karl asked, “that the richer the party, the worse the mess?”Sera knew what he was getting at, but she’d let him explain himself, again, in order ...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Pair Bonded” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #92

Curfew had less to do with safety or control of the citizens than an innate fear of the dark. The ruling elite, all grens, instituted the curfew to avoid having to go out in the dark, forcing the working class, including the naturally nocturnal baras, to toil away under the sun. As that sun set, the city was awash in streetlights, floodlights, and the lights from windows where the grens huddled in comfort. Philbert was, to his mind, quite a dashing gren; not too tall, suitably bulky, with iridescent green and gold fur. He cut a handsome fig...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Take Me Home” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #91

Martin was the opposite of every stereotypical thing one might think on first glance. He was not the curious, inventive, clever, gregarious, outgoing gnome that most people expected. He was shy, unimaginative, more at home buried in a book than any social situation, and he was painfully lonely. As much as he desired friends, no one he’d ever met gave him the chance to open up, expecting too much too soon. University was meant to be his chance to make a friend or two. After three years with no success, he decided to learn mixology. At least ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“End of an Era” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #90

It was a warm, bright midnight in December, and time for my shift. The skies on the western horizon were tinged pinkish-orange, as they had been for nearly two months. I had a tall glass of water for breakfast, just like the previous day. Even after being in Antarctica for a year, it still shocked me how clean and pure it tasted. Unlike distilled water, which was flat and tasteless, this was sweet with a hint of minerals. How long can a person last without food, I wondered. A lot longer than they can without water. That was the only thing t...

0 comments 0
Read story

“March of the Slabs” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #89

It started on March 1st. Or rather, it ended on March 1st. The world as she knew it, that is.First, GPS and satellite communications went silent, and contact with the ISS was lost. Within twelve hours, the rain of fire started. Satellites, abandoned boosters, and all the junk humans had polluted Earth’s orbit with began to fall. Most of it burned up in the atmosphere or landed in the sea, but that still left enough to bring devastation to population centers world-wide.For people in remote areas that relied on satellites for communication, th...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Ogre That Loved to Dance” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #88

Back when the world was young, the morning skies promised adventurers excitement in undiscovered lands. Hilda, a tall, stout woman, dressed in nothing more than a loose tunic and short trousers, was one of those adventurers, having traveled years, far from her home in the north. She hadn’t wanted to be an adventurer at first. Her people kicked her out for her love of dancing, and every other place she visited wanted nothing to do with her. Over the years, though, she had grown to enjoy her adventures. At this time, however, she was tired an...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Let Them Play” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #87

Horace A. Grimwald was, to any casual observer, a serious little man of indeterminate age with comically thick glasses and salt-and-pepper hair. Closer inspection would show that behind his coke-bottle glasses his bright, green eyes were flanked by laugh lines, and the few other wrinkles he had were consistent with someone who smiled a lot more than he seemed to. His employees knew him as a collection of self-contradictions. Horace encouraged his employees to personalize their workspace, but the only decoration on his desk was a hand-carved...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Missing Pieces” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #86

The doctor said I have to go out today. I don’t know why she’s doing this to me. She doesn’t listen when I tell her I’m not ready. It would be better if she’d said I have to go “outside” today, because I’ve been doing my exercises. Yesterday I stood outside the door forever… well, five minutes, but it seemed like forever. She’d show up, wearing her bright colors and cheery smile. I liked that. There wasn’t much about her I didn’t like, even when she was poking around in my head to find my hurts. It’s just that she’d been going too fast for ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Hellhole” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #85

Mention New Amsterdam, New York and the response is either gushing love or hateful revulsion. When it comes to NANY, there is nothing between the two extremes. Some, however, have learned to embrace both sides. Seth Burdian, NAPD Precinct 47 Captain, was one of those. In elementary school PS 422, he was bullied by the larger students. He was short, even for a gnome, with a “classic” gnome nose, large and straight with wide nostrils, and large, round ears he didn’t grow into until well after puberty. His frizzy, medium-brown hair and olive-t...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Harvest” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #84

Jora sat on the edge of the bed. His warm, deep-brown hand, calloused and strong, ruffled Raz’s auburn hair. When Raz didn’t move under the covers, he shook the larger man’s shoulder. “Raz, wake up.”“I don’t want to.” Raz tried to roll away from the intrusion but was held firm. Jora’s slight frame hid enormous strength.“You don’t want to; I don’t want to. I just want to go home. Shift starts in an hour,” Jora said. “Get up so we can have breakfast together, at least.”“We’ve made it this long,” Raz said. “We can see this through to the end.”“...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Blue Lady of Fallam Lake” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #83

She’s evil, she’s holy, she’s bad, she’s good, she’s a monster, she’s a hero… there are nearly as many descriptions of her as there are people who claim to have seen her. I’m talking, of course, about the Blue Lady of Fallam Lake. It’s said that she lives on the bottom of the lake, or maybe in a cave beneath the water where her hearth is warm and dry. How would that even work? I’m on day eleven of a fourteen-day assignment to try catch the Blue Lady on camera. It’s all a bunch of nonsense, of course, but that’s what they pay me to do. Despi...

0 comments 0
Read story

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

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #156
We/I – read story