What Are You Afraid Of?

Dallas Winston wasn't afraid of anything.

Or so people thought.

He wasn't afraid of socs or greasers, he wasn't afraid of Rumbles, even when people fought dirty.

He wasn't afraid of blood, or fights. He wasn't afraid to fight dirty himself.

Dallas Winston wasn't afraid to live his life, doing whatever he wanted.

He wasn't afraid of being a hoodlum.

He wasn't afraid of dying without a purpose. He knew it was how he would die someday.

There was a time when he would look in the mirror, and only see his father's vicious eyes staring back at him. There was a time when he feared becoming his father.

But that changed when he saw her.

Hannah was a spitting image of their mother. The hair, the face, even the tired look in her eyes when Dallas came home late, knuckles covered in someone else's blood.

He didn't like watching his sister grow up. He knew that sooner or later, she'd be just like Verna.

He knew that sooner or later, he wouldn't be around to protect her.

Hannah cared too much, that was the problem.

Charlie would die without a purpose.

So would Dallas.

Verna would die believing her purpose was someone else.

So would Hannah.

That's what scares him now.