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Chapter 13:Crash, Burn, and Rise

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Well, the phone calls were brought up the next semester. I found out that each appointment could not be missed and the date couldn't be changed. The worst part was each one had been placed on a day I needed to be in college. Yes, the foster parents had ruined my life many times and now wanted to ruin my future next.

I was forced to leave campus on the bus for each appointment. After two weeks, I had been kicked out of every class and acquired a large debt. As a foster child, I had free college, but this wasn't covered by the state. I left college for a while, and within a few months, the foster family forced me to do all the chores because I had gotten myself kicked out according to them. I was treated like a personal maid, mechanic, and handyman. During that summer I decided to go job hunting with my brother. It didn't go well, but I was able to run into a few old friends. I saw Emmanuel and Mario face to face for the first time in over a year. I realized I wouldn't say anything personal out of the fear of being abandoned. I didn't know when I started having that fear and never thought I really had it until I talked with them.

When fall came, I was forced to help with some construction job being done at the foster home. There had been a lot of jobs like this throughout my time at that house. This one was actually the first in at least 3 years. I was told I would stay outside and help as long as they were working. Well, they were working on the roof and I was told to stay near them. After an hour of watching from below, I was forced up the ladder to join them. This was fall in Texas by the way. So it wasn't windy yet, but definitely still had a lot of heat and I found out they were working with tar and metal. Apparently, the foster family was actually paying a lot of money not to fix the roof but upgrade it. I knew where the money came from, but I needed proof in case things went south. I asked their first grandchild. He had been going by a new nickname for a year. We called him Sneak because he could find anything that people hid. Not a good name, but it was incredibly accurate. I told him to look around the house for my electronics and I would get him a video game. Yes, I bribed him, but it was easier than telling him the full explanation and I didn't have time.

Three weeks passed, then Sneak told me he found a small drawer filled with phones and tablets. He didn't find the laptop, but he told me there were only 5 tablets and over 15 phones. I knew how they paid for the house to be upgraded. They had pawned a bunch of the electronics I fixed as new items. They had already told me I couldn't do it, but went behind my back and did it on their own. As soon as I got confirmation on the location I went to the foster parents. They brushed me off saying I had probably stolen the entire amount and took my ID because I didn't need it anymore according to them.

After the took my ID I had no chance of getting important things done. I had a call back for a job, and I was told to take a paper copy because the real one wasn't safe with me. I went to the meeting and got the job. For the next year and a half, I would be a fry cook at McDonald's. I had fallen too far and reached the bottom the next summer. I was forced to run every day whether I had work or not. I didn't care as long as I got away from that house. My brother had to babysit, but I was too focused on my own problems.

The next summer my brother lost it. He was left with another foster family and given up by the one who took us in. Around the same time, I noticed I wasn't getting paid as much. I mean, I was on minimum wage, but then I did the math for myself. Oddly, my job and the SSI payments were less than if the SSI payments were sent alone. I sent in my 2 weeks notice as soon as I saw it. That's when the foster parents decided to milk it. They told me I was a failure for quitting and I would continue leaving daily to look for jobs.

During this time I went to a nearby library daily and found out there was an internship position open. I also checked out a bunch of books for friends from my old workplace. Bad news came when they lost them to management. I owed a total of 259$ at that time. Yet, I talked with my old boss to recover them and lower the price to around 25$ in late fees rather than my current boss to freeze the amount owed. When I found out my old boss trashed them the debt increased to double what it was originally. Thanks to this, my position was revoked and I was stuck running daily just to get away again. However, the foster family started going out drinking every weekend. I was forced to go to wait in the car one weekend and stay and babysit the next. Yes, I was in a locked vehicle without keys for over five hours every other weekend. Not at all safe, and they still did it for a total of 6 months before giving me the keys.

The next summer the foster family went to the beach. I went with them because I wanted a change of pace. The foster father decided to take me on an overnight impromptu fishing trip. He told me if anything happened to him in needed to protect his wife. I was taken aback and told him I would do what was needed and nothing more. After that, he was silent for the rest of the night. I started thinking it was odd of him to talk like that when a fish I caught bit him. I clearly saw it bite through his thumb, but there wasn't any blood coming out. It was odd, but I had seen similar things before and didn't connect the dots until two weeks later.

Two weeks later, I was helping at VBS for the church. We left around 6 pm and got back around 10 pm thanks to clean up taking a while. The foster father was going to take a nap when we left, and he was lying on the bed when we returned. We didn't think anything was wrong and the foster mother was going to let him lay there until 1 am. Well, at 1:15 am, I was forced awake by the foster mother screaming in my face. She was in shock, and I was told to yell as loud as I can in the foster father's ears. He had a habit of pulling pranks similar to this predicament, so I ran to him and started screaming until my throat hurt. I got the foster mother's phone and called her daughters and 911. I was told to try to resuscitate him by medical professionals. I did my best, but when they arrived they told me my efforts were in vain. He had been dead since 6:15 pm because rigor mortis had already set in. I took the grandchildren on a late-night run to keep them away from the body being moved. Even then, Sneak knew what happened since he was old enough to remember the foster grandmother. The worst part was that the daughters had another kid each that would never remember their grandfather properly. I took it upon myself to help the foster mother, but I realized 2 days later that she was too far gone. She had just lost her husband and ended up at a bar concert within 2 days. I know because I was in the car that day. I couldn't breathe for two hours and she drove from bar to bar until heading back to her house at 7 am. I was nearly in a coma by 9 am thanks to my medication and how tired I was from that night.

Then came August, I realized by telling the foster father yes I had become a bigger tool to the foster family. I was the only one doing anything in the house. And this continued for all of August and September, halfway through October I ended up being a teacher for a Special Needs class at church. I was signed up because of experience with those kinds of kids after all the foster children that came after me. I was made headteacher of the weekday class within a few weeks. The kids loved the way I taught, but I had to stop thanks to the foster mother going to weekly Bible studies with Earth's father. Once again, I lost something I wanted thanks to the foster family.

After months of the dreary routine of hypocrisy with the foster mother, I got in contact with Pikachu. A few weeks after that, I ran into my dad and my brother at an appointment with my psychiatrist. I couldn't believe my eyes when my brother walked out the door to the office and hugged me. My dad was a surprise after everything I was told by the foster family, but my brother was the one thing I missed for years. I was going to see Pikachu that weekend and invited my little brother.

Then the foster mother went overboard. She told me I was staying to babysit all weekend and then got a call. She was told her grandchildren couldn't go to her house because they were sick. I was ready to leave and had another phone packed in my backpack alongside a few games I had bought. She forced me to get in her car and took the backpack in the front seat. I told her I wasn't going to another club and she needed to find someone else to take if she wanted to go there. She forced me out of the car, took my backpack, and sped off with everything I had gotten ready for the weekend going with her. I knew she went to a few stores for 'supplies' and found her at the nearest one. She started screaming obscenities at me when I entered the store. I told her all I wanted was the backpack and she threw a heavy bag at me and drove off again. She drove back and forth down the street and threw the backpack out the window on her lawn. I returned to her house and picked it up, as I reached the bus stop to head to Pikachu's house I opened the backpack and found out that she took all the electronics out and left an old CD player and one CD. I had been looking for both of those since 8th grade, but I don't know how she got either of them since they weren't stolen with the rest of the electronics. In fact, they had been lost during the summer I went camping and I had them with me at the camp. Yet, that was all that was left. I ran to the library to inform Pikachu and he told me I could stay as long as I needed. I never knew he had this much of a heart, but I was glad I had a friend who could help. I barely made it to his house on the bus thanks to some help from other riders, and I stayed the entire weekend. My brother and dad took me in, and I quickly received everything I needed. Within a few months, I had everything I needed legally.

It's been a year since then, and each bit of news I get about the foster mother still makes me think she deserves it. So far her family has ostracized her, her daughters won't take her in because they know what she'll do, and her grandchildren refuse to help her because they've seen what happens to this who do. I don't blame them, and my promise wasn't broken in my eyes. In the end, the only way to help the foster mother was to let her help herself.

(I want to put another quote below. A quote that helped me during this entire 5-year span of my life)

"Guys, sometimes things just happen. People change, relationships change, life changes. And yes, you're allowed to be sad about it for a while, but, that's just life, you know? Your priorities will change, your friends will change, your feelings will change. And that's okay, life is about adapting, changing,and growing. I'm not upset with how things ended..."

Sultan Sketches

There is one more thing I want to quote, and it's a song that got me through the last 2 years. Yes, this song was great, but it was also accompanied by the start of something new. Now below is One Piece Opening 20 Hope.

"This love in my heart it will burn on forever

granting me courage I hope it will never stop

and no matter where you are

nothing is too far

with our everlasting bonds we'll reach it

We are Hope

I'm so truly grateful I ran into you on that day so long ago

we laughed every moment with tears in our eyes

til we knew we weren't alone

the blowing wind came in and joined us on our way (ahh)

and with it I know we'll rise

we'll be flying up high

why- tell me why are you giving up?

why- tell me why you want to fight alone?

hey, what kind of future do you think you have?

your dream is already in your hands

this love in my heart will burn on forever

granting me courage I hope it will never stop

and no matter where you are

nothing is too far

with our everlasting bonds we'll reach it

We are Hope

on the horizon out on the edge of the world

there is a place I want to take you to

let's head for it then

but as for the way

we already know...

we promised it long ago

you scream but your voice it can't break through the silence

feeling defeated it crushes your helpless heart

I've got your back I swear I'll always be here

Let's put all our faith on this light under the sun

can you close your eyes and just listen to my voice?

let's find the answer together, I'm telling you

in our path I trust that it will lead us.

to another sea, uncharted, cause now We are Hope

on the horizon out on the edge of the world

there is a place I want to take you to

let's head for it then

but as for the way

we already know...

we promised it long ago"

It's a bit long, but this song brought me back from the brink and could easily tell my story from the past 2 years alone. Thank you for reading my story, and this will be the last chapte

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