All Chapters of The Current Between Us : Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

*Chapter 11: First Sight* *Hector’s POV.5:04am. I wasn’t supposed to be awake. But Simy dragged me out of bed. “Bro, come see this,” he whispered from his room like he’d found a UFO. He’s 21, I’m 23. We’ve lived in this house at the Cove for 3 years. Ocean in front, cliffs behind, bad signal everywhere else. Every morning he messes with my dad’s old telescope. The brass one Dad used to track storms before he died. Simy claims he’s “studying the horizon.” I claim he’s wasting his life.This morning he was right.He wasn’t at the telescope for the sunrise. He just wanted to see what 5am looked like when the world was still quiet. Sweep the cove, watch the water do its thing before the tide turned. No fishermen yet. No boats. Just gray water and gulls screaming at nothing.That’s when he saw them.“Come check this,” he said again, voice weird. Flat. I walked in sluggish, trainers half-tied, rubbing my eyes. I’d been about to jog. Usual routine. Up at 5, run the bluff, come back nu

*Chapter 13:The Best Feelings .*Beatrice’s POV*I pressed my face into Mother’s chest and stopped breathing.The air above the water was wrong. Too loud. Too fast. It scraped instead of holding. And the things coming down the stone steps had legs. Two of them. Straight and jointed and wrong._Monsters with legs._ The old stories said they took you. Cut you. Never let you go back to the sea.Fear locked my jaw and burned my lungs. I clutched Mother’s arm. She was cold now. Too cold. But her arms were still around me. Her last order without sound: _Hide. Don’t let them see you._I didn’t want to look. Looking made it real. So I kept my face buried and counted breaths. In. Hold. Out.My borrowed legs shook. Human legs. The sea gave them to me. The sea would take them back.Sand shifted. A shadow fell. Hard feet struck stone.I lifted my face.And the fear broke.Because he was there. Not a monster.Tall. Blonde hair cut short, damp at the edges. Green eyes, dark and bright. Eyes that di

*Chapter 15: Warmth*The door closed behind them and the world changed.Sound changed. The wind that had been screaming across the cliff was cut down to a low hum. Footsteps didn’t sink. They echoed. Wood under her borrowed feet instead of sand. The house held air that didn’t move like the sea.Beatrice froze just past the threshold. Her eyes moved fast, cataloging everything wrong.A ceiling. Low and solid. Not sky. Not open. It pressed down. Lamps burned without flame. Glass and metal, humming faint. A box in the corner hissed and cold air came out of it. The smell hit her next: wood smoke, salt, old fabric, and something sweet and heavy. Bread.She’d seen none of it in twelve years. Her world was water, rock, current, fish. This was a cage with furniture.Her legs wobbled. The floor didn’t shift under her. That felt like a trick. She reached out and touched the wall. Solid. Warm from the fire. She pulled her hand back like she’d been burned.Hector didn’t watch her. Not directly. H

*Chapter 17: Love at first sight?Hector didn’t answer right away.The hallway felt smaller than it was. The walls were too close. The air was too warm. And standing in front of him was Beatrice, in his oversized shirt, hair damp, eyes wide and honest and asking him a question he wasn’t sure he could survive.Can I kiss you?The words hung there. Soft. Brave. And they hit him like a wave.Because the truth was, he wanted to. Gods, he wanted to. Since she’d whispered thank you over a plate of eggs like no one had ever fed her before. Since she’d looked up at him with those eyes. Those eyes. Blue. Clear. Steady. They did something to him. Something he didn’t have a name for. They reminded him of home. Of safety. Of a promise he’d made a long time ago and failed to keep. Looking at her felt like looking at a part of himself he’d buried.Her eyes remained him of his mom that murdered in cold blood right in front of him.That was the problem.His hands were shaking. He s

*Chapter 19: Gone*The alarm on Hector’s phone buzzed at 5:00 AM sharp.He didn’t hit snooze.Not today.The house was still dark. The kind of dark that sat heavy before the sun decided to rise. He swung his legs off the bed, feet hitting the cold floor, and dragged a hand down his face. He hadn’t slept much. Maybe three hours. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Beatrice’s face in the hallway. _Can I kiss you?_ And his own hands, shaking.He couldn’t think about that now.“Up,” he muttered to himself. “Move.”Down the hall, Simy’s door was already open. A sliver of light cut across the floor. Simy was lacing up his running shoes. Gray hoodie. Water bottle in hand. He looked up when Hector stepped out.“You’re up early,” Simy said. “Couldn’t sleep,” Hector answered. It wasn’t a lie.They didn’t talk much on the way out. The air was cold and clean. It smelled like salt and dirt. The road out of the house led down to the beach path. That was their route. Five miles. Ever