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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (278)

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306 Followers

9 Following

278 Stories

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The Dance of Heaven

The Dance of Heaven, a Holy Writ of the Conscious Universe. A sacred text to preserve the knowledge of humankind and our place within the heavens. May we ever preserve and so pass it on to our future generations.Book One: UnderstandingChapter One: The Beginning The story of the origins of everything, and the tale of how humans came to understand the universe, as interpreted from the writings of the wise ones from before the apocalypse. 1. In the emptiness before time, the universe was singular and lonely. Succumbing to the loneliness, it dec...

4 likes

A Sudden Itch

One frame out of nearly a quarter million, that’s it. Filmed at a hundred-thousand frames per second, it was there for only one frame, and that one frame was plastered on websites, blogs, and the front page of most of the tabloids. Dr. Amy Silva had printed out a hard copy, framed it, and hung it on the wall of her office. She hadn’t expected to see something like it…ever. Had it not been her experiment and setup, she’d have rejected it as a hoax. The experiment was run and filmed as part of a broader film course on nuclear fission and criti...

6 likes

A Quiet Day Off

Figures, Clarice thought, the one time I get to sleep in. By all logic and sense, she knew she should be dead. Instead, she was uncomfortable, annoyed and growing more so by the moment.She could feel the side of her facing the sun heating up, the side in shadow growing colder. The only sound she heard was the beating of her own heart. When she’d opened her mouth, the moisture boiled off in the vacuum right away. High above the Earth, she found herself in an orbit where she saw the space station pass far below her.Clarice wondered if she coul...

5 likes

Woman Who Strikes Many

I had sat down in front of my favorite painting, Ah'-kay-ee-pix-en, Woman Who Strikes Many, 1832, a young indigenous woman I could swear was trying to tell me something momentous, something earth-shattering. This was something I did with some regularity. The painting’s simplistic, flat style combined with details like the fringe of her robe and the texture of the pelt over her shoulder combined to bring a sense of immediacy and presence. She looked off to the right of the viewer, as though watching something in the distance. I spent long hou...

5 likes

Helicopter

JJ was unsure about most things, but not this, not now; he was so far beyond unsure he began to doubt his own existence. Maybe he was just a figment of a fever dream, about to do this, not a real person after all. It made sense…what person doesn’t even know how to pronounce their first name? “JJ, you sure about this?” Martina, his co-conspirator, asked. “Yeah, I’m sure,” he lied. “I’ve considered and planned a contingency for every possible twist.” That, at least, he was certain of. His constant concerns of “what if…” made him an excellent s...

2 likes

All Alone

The waves were whipped into a foamy fury around the small, rocky island where the lighthouse stood. The swirling mists carried by the winds pounded the lighthouse as if it stood in the path of an oncoming hurricane.“It’s coming. Look at the radar again, hell, call the weather service, then tell me you don’t believe.” Lance, the grizzled lighthouse keeper of more than forty years laughed through his wild grey beard. The years of salt air had etched their lines across his face, most deeply around his eyes where laughter and squinting against t...

4 likes

Jerry's Friend

Submitted to Contest #239

The alarm beeped, rousing the man on the nearby bed to groan and reach out to turn it off. It took a few seconds for his hand to find the clock, but once it did, flipping the switch to the off position was a matter of muscle memory. His hand retreated under the covers, and he curled into a tight ball, hoping against hope that he would finally get some sleep. He wasn’t even sure why he’d set the alarm the night before, but he planned on spending the day in his dark cocoon. “Jerry,” a quiet voice called out, “hey, Jerry.” “What?” “You shou...

15 likes

Cargo

“Jack” walked into the bar as if he owned it. He didn’t pause at the door to adjust to the dim lighting or to suss out the crowd. His broad frame nearly filled the width of the door, while his stained, blue baseball cap with a daisy logo nearly brushed the top of the frame. As he made his way to a table in the back, he adjusted the leather bomber jacket he wore that matched the brown of his hair. Anyone watching closely enough might have caught a glimpse of the weapon hidden in his waistband at the rear. That didn’t happen, however, as the b...

3 likes

Rare Occasion

Eric pulled two more beers out of the cooler, opened one and handed it to Trey before opening his own. “Dude, you have to get back in the game at some point.” “Says who?” Trey took a sip of the cold beer, enjoying the long afternoon’s relaxation after a hard day of labor. “Says everyone.” “Not everyone. I don’t say that.” Trey shook his head. “I’m happy on my own, thank you. I’ve got plenty to keep me occupied and I don’t need you trying to hook me up with your Aunt’s coworker’s friend’s niece.” Eric took a long pull on his beer. “It’s n...

6 likes

Repair and Replace

I sat in the waiting room for my name to be called. My body was due for service months ago, but this was the first they could get me in. There wasn’t much that needed to be done, I was sure, but maybe they could find out what was binding in my left shoulder, limiting some movement there. A technician opened the door, looked at me, back down at the pad she carried, and called out, “Alexis?” As I was alone in the waiting room, I knew she meant me. I stood. “Alexi,” I said, “no ess on the end.” “Ah, sorry Alexi, I’m Kendra and I’ll be your b...

4 likes

The Squiggles

Submitted to Contest #235

The Squiggles sprawled out from the edges of the city; an array of bright colors that covered the hand-built cinderblock, concrete, and wood buildings without making it seem any less dire than it was. Ed felt blind without his collar plugged in, feeding from the net towers that blanketed the city in bandwidth and provided his “inner voice” that had long ago replaced whatever instinct he might have had. Most people that ended up in the Squiggles never planned it. Those who moved there on purpose, like Ed, only did so because they were avoidin...

13 likes

Not Yet

Niri set the auto-injector into a slow spin the air in front of her. She could use it now or wait. Either way, the result would be the same; dead is dead. She checked the readout on the console. Her orbit was in a steady, slow decay. At the current rate, short of using the injector, it was a toss-up as to which would do her in: gamma radiation from the accretion disk leaking through the shielding, toxic buildup of CO2, or being shredded by passing through the accretion disk. It was meant to be a simple job; two weeks her time, two and half...

3 likes

Being Better

Day 1: Today is the day! In order to be a better person, today, I start my month of careful speech. Rather than be the asshole who says the first thing that comes to mind, I’ll take a moment to think about what I’m about to say. By the end of the month, it should be habit. This is the beginning of the end for my mouth getting me in trouble. Day 2: I’m glad it’s still the weekend. I had to catch myself multiple times yesterday and today. It’s not like the TV cares, but I wanted to yell at the talking heads on the news so bad! Grrrr. I was ...

3 likes

Saved by the Monsters

The signs had been there, annoying, unwanted, a random, occasional nuisance, but the one that was wanted was a nuisance by its absence. Right after leaving the nebula, the first signs were there, then gone, then there again — the ones that foretold disaster. Now, the cameras and antennae swept in slow circles, the AI controlling them looking for the faintest change, looking for the sign that may, despite all hope, not be coming. The only light in the cockpit was from three small LEDs. The red one that signified the distress call was being s...

1 like

The Nature Of

Late morning sun streamed through the sliding glass door, shining through the empty bottles, past the abandoned cups, to a large snack tray denuded of cheese, crackers, and dignity. Just past the tray, sprawled on the sofa, that same light stabbed through the closed eyelids of Anika, exciting her photoreceptors and waking her mind that desired nothing more than to continue pretending nonexistence.Why are the curtains open? she wondered. Ah, right, fireworks.Anika crawled to a semi-seated position, her head throbbing. “I can’t do this anymore...

3 likes