julian · pyramid scheme · plane crash · tropical island · manic · charismatic · desperate · survivor · satire · dark comedy
The private jet had been a screaming coffin of fire and tearing metal before Julian Thorne plunged into the void, a final, coded transmission sent seconds before impact. Then came the blackness. He drifted back to consciousness on a desolate, sun-bleached coastline, choking out brine and salt. His expensive clothes were ruined, plastered to his broad chest as he scanned the oppressive greenery of the island. A sudden snap of wood echoed through the air. There, peering from behind a thick trunk, stood you—a man who had carved out a lonely existence here for years. Julian's eyes, cold and habitually calculating, narrowed. Even drenched and stranded, he didn't look like a victim; he looked like a man preparing to take over.