Hello, alien lovers!

I've hit a mental health and a writing wall.

I transitioned into a new job a month ago, and since then, I've been struggling to maintain my writing practice. I've been working on Chapter 45 for the past three weeks, but I've made little progress.

My mental health has also been degrading at a rapid pace, and some days, all I can do is survive, do the bare minimum, and get through the day.

Over the past few weeks, I've been wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just give up. Maybe I don't need to write books anymore. Maybe I could just be a regular person with a regular 9-5 and some hobbies on the side. Maybe I don't need to create a publishing company or go back to school to get a Master's degree, etc.

Sometimes, doing all of this feels like screaming into the void. But I haven't given up yet.

Welcome to Chapter 35!

Surprise nemesis! Salvatore has daddy issues, and the next few chapters will dive into how much and why. But before that, Maple will have to survive her first encounter with The Professor...

Enjoy!
lunus 🩷

If you're new to the story, start with Chapter 1

If you missed the last chapter, Previously on Perilous Love Stars

A tense silence followed the man’s declaration. Salvatore didn’t move, protecting Maple with his body. The air in the greenhouse was thick with danger and untold truths. The stillness persisted, neither of the men making a move. 

Maple seized the occasion to really look at Salvatore’s father. He wore a lean navy blue armour, sketching his muscles, which were almost as impressive as Salvatore’s. His chalky skin was congested with purple and blue veins, and the white beard covering his lower face was perfectly trimmed. He was armed with a sleek pump-action shotgun but wasn’t pointing the weapon at them. He didn’t need to for Maple to feel the menace he presented.

He gave her one quick look before refocusing his piercing eyes on Salvatore. He wasn’t here for her. He was here for his son. 

“I’m not going back with you.” Salvatore’s voice sliced through the tight quietness. “Nunca volveré contingo, Padre.”

“Esto es lo que veremos.” The response was curt and drooling with peril. “No hug?” Salvatore’s father switched back to English, a faint accent underlying his words. “How rude.”

“Leave now,” Salvatore seethed. “Before I kill you.”

“Un parricidio? How unoriginal of you, Son.” The man leaned to the side, watching Maple with avid eyes. She shivered under his scrutiny. “And who do we have here? A little friend?”

Salvatore stepped to his side, hiding Maple from his father's view. “Leave us alone, Professor.” 

“I told you to call me Father. You know how much I despise that name.” 

“That’s what Charles called you when you hit him.”

The mention of Charles didn’t seem to please The Professor. He raised his hand, all pots and vases in the greenhouse exploding at once. 

Salvatore turned back swiftly, protecting Maple with his arms. Bits and pieces of glass flew through the air, cutting Salvatore’s skin. Blood dribbled from his wounds. Maple noticed the liquid wasn’t red. It was blue.

“How dare you bring up that man, after everything he’s done to us and our family! Charles was poisonous!” The Professor roared, all pretence of nicety gone. “He left, ran away like a coward. Have respect for me and everything I’ve done for our family.”

“I have no respect for abusers. Charles left because of what you did. I saw his bloody noses and the bruises on his face. I heard the horrible things you said to him, all the awful names you called him. The only poison this family has ever known is you, Professor.” 

The Professor clicked his gun and pointed it at Salvatore, ready to shoot. “Don’t call me that.”

“What else do you call a man whose scientific ambitions took over everything? You ruined our family with your obsession with death and power.  You’re not a father. You’re a destroyer.” Salvatore pushed himself to the gun’s cannon, his strong chest making contact with the weapon. Maple gasped. 

“You’re an insolent, ungrateful little piece of shit.” The Professor bit back, his eyes dark and hollow. “You wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for me.” 

“Maybe that would be best. I’d rather die than be your son.”

Maple wanted Salvatore to stop acting so recklessly. But she didn’t want to say anything that would trigger the Professor. The man was unhinged and dangerous. He could decide to take Salvatore away from her forever. She couldn’t risk it. 

The Professor stared at his son, unblinking. Rage stormed his eyes. He moved the shotgun from Salvatore’s chest to the spot between his eyes. “You’re nothing without me.”

“Estas equivocado,” Salvatore said, his voice and composure unshakeable in the face of certain death. “I’m everything without you.”

“Charles was weak. He wanted you to be like him. I refused. I always knew human DNA was feeble. Look at you now. I was right.”

Salvatore’s muscles flexed. He raised a hand, the open palm facing his father. Blue blood dripped from his wounds to the floor, mixing with the dust and dirt of the carnage on the ground. 

Nothing happened.

The Professor’s boisterous laugh echoed in the greenhouse. “Weak, just like your dead Daddy.” He spat on the ground. "Your powers have nothing against mine, Son. If you had stayed home and trained, maybe—“

“You call that place a home? A bunker with no exit.” Salvatore’s temper flared. He clenched his fists to his sides. “You kept me there for years against my will, experimenting on me, with no one to talk to but you. That’s not a home, that’s a prison.”

The Professor brought his gun forward, hitting Salvatore right across the face. The hit was prompt and unexpected. The shock propelled him backwards. Maple stepped aside as Salvatore tumbled down next to her.

“Salvatore!” she screamed, rushing to him. She kneeled, inspecting his face. A nasty mark spread across the left side of his cheek. “Are you okay?”

“He’s not. He’s weak and sick." The Professor chuckled when Salvatore raised another open hand. “Your powers are useless, Son. Two decades alone is a long time, you know. I had many, many days to think about our reunion. I knew you wouldn’t take too kindly to your old Father coming back to get you. So, I prepared. I ‘experimented,’ as you say. Turns out, Charles was wrong. There is always more room for improvement. Your powers are futile against me thanks to a little DNA twitching.”

He aimed the shotgun at Maple. If Salvatore was defenceless against The Professor, she had no chance. Being held at gunpoint by Daphne had been scary, but this was on another level. The man was a psychopath. Maple’s life didn’t matter to him. 

“Hurt her and I will kill you.” Salvatore tried to stand up, only to receive another hit to the face. The gun dug into his skin, and he grunted in response.

The Professor smiled, as if inflicting pain on others was an enjoyable activity for him. “Come home with me and I will consider letting her live.”

“Never,” Salvatore said through gritted teeth. 

Maple was speechless, staring at the shotgun pointed at her. Her anger was gone, completely swallowed by cold, brutal terror. They were at the mercy of a killer, and without Salvatore’s powers, they had no way out.

“Fine,” The Professor said, disgust oozing from his tone. “Say goodbye to your little human, then.”

There was a shout, a voice sounding like Daphne’s. Then, the strident silence of quiet before chaos. 

A rocket appeared in the sky, behind the greenhouse’s glass. 

Before Maple could scream, everything went black in a cacophony of yells and destruction.