Adrift

On his face, desire to murder me wrestles with desire to control his son’s life. Brief struggle, but violent. The ‘winner’ is… well, me.

I tell him I’ll split them up, if he let’s me out of here. He scoffs. I risk another fight to remind him I’m good at breaking up couples.

We stare at each other until it becomes uncomfortable. Takes much less time than I expect — two solitary men, alone with too many ghosts.

I ignore that thought. The more important point here is that Burns wants something I can provide – something /other/ than my charred corpse.

That’s the first thought in my head. Second thought is “Are you /really/ getting jealous of the /boyfriend/?”, spoken in Kaet’s mom’s voice.

No. Kaetlyn sent me the wave. She had to know I’d find the Ante-D ship. Burns’ kid might have sussed it out, but the message was for /me/.

Kaetlyn left, but Burns’ son found clues to follow her – some kind of note, left in the deepest parts of the Drift; an ancient… ship. Oh.

FORBID?! Might as well buy Kaetlyn a dress and honeymoon cruise with a note reading ‘Congratulations! Love, Your new, idiot Father-in-Law.’

Makes no sense; Kaetlyn’s utterly dismissive of romance, let alone marriage. Burns says he forbid his son to see her. Oh. Well… shit.

Burns sees me watching him, shakes his head, and says one terrible word. ‘Eloped.’