Losers Never Win, Black Ghost [top 100 books to read txt] 📗

In the southern half of American was a town called Lake City. There, lived a Caucasian teenage male named Cain Barras. He was seventeen-year-old, 5’10” and had spiky dark blonde hair. He spent almost his entire life in group-homes for abused and neglected children.

            Cain tends to have a problem with his temper, which caused him to get evicted from several homes in the past. At thirteen years old he was sentenced to two years in a juvenile detention center to ‘adjust’ his behavior. Unfortunately his jail sentence did little for his attitude, except make it worst.

            Cain stood in front of another teenager named Marco in the bedroom of their group home. Marco had blood dripping down the side of his mouth from a busted lip. Cain balled his fist, ready to strike Marco when a short kid named Denis jumped on his back. Cain took hold of Denis and flung him to the ground violently.

            With his attention on Denis, Cain didn’t see Marco get up and rush him. Marco tried to tackle Cain, but couldn’t bring him to the ground. Cain grabbed Marco by the shirt, punched him in the right side of his face, and shoved him back to the floor. By this time Denis was on his feet. He ran at Cain, getting greeted by a set of hard knuckles to the nose.

            Watching Denis fall on the hardwood floor Cain grinned on the inside. He wiped the sweat from his brow, leaving a few drops of blood on his face from his bruises hands. Cain saw that Denis was finished, so he went to Marco to take his victory. Cain stood over his defeated rival, and started kicking him in the stomach fiercely.

            “Cain! Cain!” Mrs. Linda, the home supervisor shouted. She snatched him by the arm, but was throw off.

            “Get off me!” Cain yelled, continuing his assault. Mr. Wallace ran in the room shortly after, locking eyes with Cain.

            “Cain … that’s enough…” Mr. Wallace said. Cain clenched his teeth in anger and faced Mr. Wallace. He wanted to attack him as well, but experienced his hand to hand training once before. Mr. Wallace walked to Cain slowly, pulling out a set of handcuffs. “You know the drill.”

            Cain kept his eyes on Mr. Wallace as he moved closer. He clutched his fists, breathing hard. His anxiety pumped excess energy through his body and his mind began to think irrationally. Once Mr. Wallace got within striking distance, Cain took a swing at him.

            Mr. Wallace caught Cain’s arm and twisted it back, causing Cain to fall on one knee. The fire in Cain’s eyes still burned, so Mr. Wallace tightened his grip, increasing the pain. He wasn’t going to let go until Cain gave in, which he eventually did.

            An hour later, Cain was sitting in Mrs. Linda’s office in a pair of tight handcuffs. Mrs. Linda sat in her chair looking stressed and aggravated. She was writing on a piece of paper in pen. When she finished, she dropped the pen and stared Cain in the eyes.

            “Cain… I’m sorry, but your stay here is up,” she told him. Cain kept his gaze to the ground, still angry from earlier. “Your too much of a liability to yourself and to the others,” he sucked his teeth to her statement.

            “Liability huh?” Cain said, not believing her.

            “Yes Cain, a liability. You can not continue to do what your doing. You can’t fight your way through life, you’ll end up in jail, or worse...” Mrs. Linda felt sorry for him despite his actions. She felt sorry for all the teens here, which was why she took the job. She wanted to make a difference in their lives, but Cain proved to be a little too much for her. “Cain, look. I know what you’ve been through, and I know how you feel… It’s not easy to…”

            “You don’t know shit about me,” Cain interrupted. “Not, jack, shit.” he lifted his head and stared her hard in the eyes.

            Mrs. Linda sighed and straightened her papers. “Cain, your lucky I’m not pressing charges on you,” She informed, changing the subject. “With that being said, I’m going to make some calls and see if we can find you somewhere else to live, but until then, you ‘Can Not’ stay here another night…” After Mrs. Linda finished her sentence a police officer walked into the room. He glanced down at Cain. “So, you’ll be going with Officer James until we can find you a new home,” Officer James used his head to motion for Cain to get up.

            “Com’ on, time to go,” Officer James said. Cain got up from his seat and crept to the door, stopping in the doorway.

            He glanced back at Mrs. Linda. “Thanks…” he said coldly. “For nothin’.”

            Two hours later Cain was being escorted down the hall of the River county jail. He wore a dark green two-piece jail outfit with brown open toe sandals. The correction officer led him to cell block-C and punched in his code. The door opened and they walked into a large room that held two floors of close door jail cells.

            “Aye! Open cell 29!” the correctional officer yelled at the other guard. Cain looked up and heard the cell door unlock. The correctional officer nodded to let him know he could go to his room.

            Cain clenched his jaw, and headed up the stairs. He opened the door and flung the sack that carried his bed sheets, toothpaste, and toothbrush on the floor. After he fully entered the cell he shut the door, hearing it lock behind him.

            His cellmate was lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He was a black male who seemed to be in his middle twenties. “What up man?” the guy said, looking at Cain.

            “Nothin’,” Cain shot back, glancing around the small amount of living space. He was so upset and angry that he didn’t even make his bed. He just laid down on the mattress, and got ready for a restless night.

On the western part of Lake City was a sixteen-year-old African American female named Serena Woods. Serena’s not too tall standing at 5’4”. She has braided hair, brown skin, and dark lost eyes. She was walking from the corner store with her arms folded, looking uncomfortable.

            Serena headed down the sidewalk with her head titled to the ground. She would constantly glance around; feeling like someone was following her. It seemed as if the people on the street were staring at her, and that made Serena’s heart race.

            She stopped at a street crossing, keeping her head lowered. When a man came behind her she jumped on the inside and spun around, gazing at him with sketchy eyes. The man saw that he frightened her and nodded, flashing a harmless smile.

            “Sorry,” he apologized. Serena didn’t reply. She turned back around and exhaled on the inside.

            When the walk light came on, Serena moved rather briskly. She reached the final blocks that led to the group home that raised her. Coming closer to her building, she saw five other girls that lived there on the porch steps. From the looks of things it was Stephanie and her gang.

            Serena’s group home was composed of eight females from ages twelve to eighteen. The toughest female there was Stephanie. She was a taller dark skin teen who had long micro braids and a bad attitude. Stephanie had a team of girls who followed her every command. If you weren’t apart of their pack then you were prey, and that’s exactly what Serena was. 

            Serena finally reached her home and stopped walking. She moved her eyes to Stephanie who stood strong with her clan behind her. Stephanie grinned when Serena tried to walk around her.

            “Where you goin’ ‘whore-ena’?” Stephanie mocked, purposely mispronouncing Serena’s name.

            “Too my room,” Serena murmured, keeping her eyes lowered. She walked to the door, having to bump through the group. Stephanie watched her entered the house with a look of disgust on her face.

            “I can’t stand that trick,” Stephanie growled, balling her fists.

            When Serena got to her room, she took out her cheap mp3 player and sat on the bed Indian style. She didn’t have that many songs on her player, but the ones she did have never got old to her. Serena pressed play and turned the volume up. A small smile began to grow on her face as she bobbed her head to the music.

            Every since childhood, music has had a special effect on her. Serena stayed in a constant depressed state, but whenever she would play her music, it soothed her. Sometimes, she would actually feel like everything would be okay.

            While listening to her music, Serena started to quietly sing along. She was so into what she was doing that she didn’t notice her door crack open. Stephanie crept inside the room silently with the rest of her group. She saw Serena on the bed seemingly happy, and it sickened her to the stomach.

            “Aye Whore-ena!” Stephanie barked, stepping further into the room. Serena heard something and pulled the ear buds out of her ears. The short smile on her face instantly faded.

            “… What?” Serena timidly asked.

            “Shut… up,” Stephanie retorted, walking closer to her. “Don’t nobody wanna hear yo ugly ass voice.” Serena turned her head from her rival, staring at the wooden floorboards. Stephanie got in her face and knelt down to her level. “Look at me when I’m talkin’ to you!” she exclaimed, grabbing her face by the cheeks. Serena knocked her hands away. “lil’ ass girl, I outta beat yo ass…”

            Serena wanted to say something, but couldn’t muster the courage. She felt weak, and feeble. Not to mention that any word from her mouth would probably result in a group assault.

            Stephanie towered over Serena, waiting for an excuse to hit her. But Serena stayed quiet, and that further angered Stephanie. Just the sight of Serena sitting still flared the hatred in her Stephanie’s heart.

            “Get up,” Stephanie commanded, not able to hold her anger any longer. “Get yo ass up!”  Serena cooperated and slowly stood to her feet. The other girls surrounded her like a pack hyenas. Stephanie locked eyes with her victim, seeing the sadness that lies within. “You think you betta’ than somebody huh?” She turned her ear to Serena as if she were waiting to hear an answer. “Huh?” Serena remained silent, growing on Stephanie’s nerves.

            “It’s 4:30!” a loud female voice echoed from the hallway. “Ya’ll Girls get down here! Time for work!” It was the head lady of the group home, Ms. Andrews. “Girls!”

            Stephanie gritted her teeth, staring at Serena. “You got lucky this time, whore-ena,” Stephanie hissed. She turned around and led her gang out of the room.

            “Girls get down here now!”

            Serena remained still for a little while, and then placed her belongings in the drawers. It was time to go to work at the