She's not afraid of anything

     The four kids huddled around the small flame of the candle, hoping their bodies would be enough to shield the tiny flame from the massive winds. 

    "So." One of them, a small boy with mousey brown hair and eyes to match, started. "We know that all of us see the monster differently."

    "Yes." The kid next to him, a smaller girl with wide, blue eyes and blonde pigtails agreed. "I've never seen a snake so big!"

    "Right." A second boy with curly, ginger hair and blue eyes responded. "And I saw a big, big dog."

    "The first boy spoke again to bring up, "I saw my doctor with a needle bigger than his arm."

    The ginger boy looked at the last child, a girl with short, brown hair and green eyes. "What did you see, Adeline," he asked her.

    She looked up from where she had been playing with a bug, trying to get it to crawl onto a stick she'd found nearby. "Oh, I-I haven't seen it, yet."

    She wondered what the monster could possibly show her that would frighten her. She wasn't scared of dogs, or snakes, or needles, or spiders, or rats, or, well, anything, really. She was the bravest one in the group, always leading the charge into battle; whether battle be against bullies, a nasty school lunch, or, more recently, a shapeshifter that took the form of your greatest fear and fed off the misery it inflicted upon you until you were so weak and scared, it could easily snatch you up and do only God knows what with you, she never backed down. 

    "I bet you haven't seen the monster yet because you're not afraid of anything!" The girl with the blonde pigtails said, astonishment in her voice.

    "No way, Samantha, Adeline has to be afraid of something!" The brunette boy spoke up.

    "Jose is right, everyone is afraid of something," The ginger boy argued.

    "I'm really not afraid of anything, Bobby, honest," Adeline rebutted. 

    Something caught Jose's eye. He looked up, then bolted.

    Samantha was the next to look up at what had spooked Jose so. She ran, next.

    Bobby looked up then. He screamed "Run, Adeline, the monster!" and ran.

    Adeline turned around and looked up to see her dad standing there. He was holding a bottle of that fowl-smelling alcohol - the kind he only drank when Adeline messed up, and he was swaying slightly. 

    "Adeline..." There was venom in his voice.

    "Hey, daddy, what's wrong?" Her palms started to sweat. Her heart beat faster. She stayed put. She knew at this point, running would make him angrier.

    "You're late coming home. Your mother made a nice dinner and everything, but you're too busy playing with your friends to come and eat it. What an ungrateful, spoiled brat." He spat at her, too drunk to hit her with it, but also too drunk to notice or care.

    "I'm sorry, daddy, I'll come home right away. I didn't hear momma calling or I would have come, honest." Even she noticed the waiver in her voice as he gripped the bottle tighter.

    "Damn right, you're coming home." He reached out and grabbed her arm, ranking her up hard enough to hurt her. She didn't yelp. Crying out would make him hurt her more.

    Just as she was about to start silently following her father home, a large rock hit him in the head.

    He whipped around. Adeline ducked, flinching and hiding her face with her arms, knowing the smack was about to happen, even though she wasn't the one who had thrown the stone.

    "Leave Adeline alone!" 

    Adeline turned at the sound of Samantha's voice. 

    Samantha was holding another, larger rock in preparation to throw. 

    "Leave us alone!" Samantha shouted again. "Slither away, you big, dumb snake!" 

    Adeline blinked. Wait. Samantha saw a snake?

    "Yeah! Leave us alone, you stupid monster!" Jose yelled next, taking off his flip-flop, looking a lot like his abuela at that moment. Adeline had the passing thought that she would be proud of him.

    Another large rock hit Adeline's father, this one thrown by Bobby, who was trembling in fear, too scared to speak.

    Adeline's father walked towards the kids. Bobby took a shaky step back, but otherwise stood his ground. Samantha threw the rock she was holding and scooped up another one, ready to throw more. Jose threw his flip-flop and took off the other one, scooping up some rocks in the process.

    Then, right before their eyes, the thing that looked like Adeline's dad disappeared like mist. 

    "I've never seen you so terrified, Adeline..." Samantha looked at Adeline with new understanding.

    "I don't know what you're talking about, I was totally calm." Adeline fibbed. "But, uh... can I spend the night with you tonight?"