FEAR OF FATE
OVERWATCH TROOPER 12

All I remember was an explosion outside my vehicle and the sound of girls shouting in that direction in horror. To my surprise, a tank near me was covered in flames and from what I could make out, all I saw in the distance was a destroyed Tiger I turret. Afterwards, all I could hear was myself bawling my eyes out in front of the scorched turret.

The funeral service took place on a day like any other: a cold, dark and rainy afternoon. The umbrellas were soaked and the grass was drenched. Everyone cried, for they knew that this service was one that nobody will ever forget. The day seemed to drag on like years in my eyes.

After a long hard and dark two days, everyone went back to their daily lives again, except for those on the Panzerkraft team. It feels like a dark shadow was looming over us and our role in the sport. I felt the worst out of them all. I kept repeatedly disobeying orders and felt like I was getting sidetracked too easily. I asked for a day off or so to re-cooperate my mindset and the Instructor agreed. She even looked more miserable that usually and acted very bitter towards those who gave her problems.

So, I went home. Home as in my actual house and not my dorm on campus. The school probably thought that I looked worse than I felt. They didn't put me in the infirmity like they do with most girls. They simply said, "Your free to go." and all that sort of thing. Nobody was there when I had returned, for my parents work very late and are busy all the time.

However, I was unsure if things were going to get any better or worse for me as the time passed.

It was around the late afternoon when I had a few of my friends come over to see how I was doing. They were nice and gave me a bunch of things that always made me feel better.

"Great. Thank you for everything you've brought over."

"We hate to see you in pain, Itsumi-san." said one of my friends.

"I'm sure that all this will help me go through everything that I am enduring so far."

"White chocolate covered strawberries are your favorite. Thats why we picked them out for you."

Tomaka and Kim were very dear to me in my hour of need. They even decided to stay for a few hours and comfort me if I needed something. We mostly talked to one another, even if I wasn't in the mood to talk to them. It provided a lot of stress relief from my troubles.

It must have been four in the evening (it was winter time here) when we heard a rapid knocking on my front door. I excused myself and went over to answer it. When I opened the door, I damn near fell to my knees crying like an infant. It was the Kommandant! She was alive! For some reason, I couldn't help but to get a little angry at her.

"I thought you were gone for sure!"

She slowly stared down at me with a worried face before asking me a very shocking question.

"Why did you disappoint me? I've trusted you, so why did you do that?"

My other friends leaned over to see if everything was fine. The Kommandant said that she had to leave shortly and she kept asking me why I dissapointed her. It made no sense, but I went with it anyways. I came back in and sat down quietly while wiping the tears from my face.

"Your friend is alive." Tomaka answered joyfully.

"Do you feel any better?" Kim asked with worry.

"I feel so much better." I quietly said.

For some reason or another, I felt very fatigued. I laid my head down on the table and rested my eyes for a while. My friends just watched me from their chairs. I really didn't mind them. I like that kind of company sometimes.

Around 4:30 or so, a half an hour later, the sun was beginning to set. It was a shame that I couldn't see it behind the tree's and the dark clouds that were passing by over me. My friends were busy reading books from my shelf to see if I was doing okay. Sometimes, I regret them for doing that. We heard a knock again and this time, Kim offered to answer it. I laid my head back on the table and breathed softly to myself.

"Man, why am I so tired." I mumbled.

"Hey, Erika." she called, "Its you dead friend."

Tomaka giggled when she heard this. I frowned at her and walked back to the front door. Nishizumi-sama was back at the door, but for some reason or another, she was dressed in her tankery uniform. Earlier, she was dressed in her simple school outfit. Her hair was bit out of place too for some reason.

"Whats the matter? You seem a bit tense."

"Erika. Why would you do that and disappoint me?"

I sort of made this grumbling noise in my throat before inviting the Kommandant in for tea. We were serving black tea and all. When we were settled, I introduced the Kommandant to Kim and Tomaka. Everything went smooth before Nishizumi-sama got up from the table and slammed her cup down on the table almost shattering the bottom of it.

"Calm down, Kommandant. Why are you acting like this?"

She turned towards me with this odd face that sort of creeped me out a little.

"You did disappoint me, didn't you?" she said.

Then, without another word, she left. I turned to my friends, who were staring at the door with confusion.

"Your friend is acting a little strange." said Tomaka.

"Yeah and I don't know why."

With the sun setting, me and my friends said our farewells. After that, I sat down at my table again and looked at the clock hanging on the wall.

"It was getting late. Where are my parents?"

Outside in the twilight, a hard wind was beginning to blow through the trees, causing a heavy whooshing sound to fill the air. The roof above my head began to creek and emit a weird whistling sound. It started to creep me out. I'd figured that it would be wiser to spend my time entertaining myself with my phone rather than worrying about a clock on the wall. The problem was I couldn't get any celluar connection. My mind was so worried on what was happening outside to keep track with the words on the blank web tab.

I wasn't hungry, but I was very thirsty. I blamed the tea and decided to get a drink before sitting down. When I was finished, I carried on with my troubleshooting. Even after all that, something was still bothering me.

After a good twenty minutes of waiting around, I gave up trying and looked at the clock again. It was starting get late and nobody has gotten home yet. I felt a little uneasy. The sky was now black with a bit of dark blue still in the air. I fiddled about with my fingers and waited a little while longer. The wind was more heavier now and the whistling noise has gotten much more louder.

Once more, I heard a knock at my door and I realized that my parents must have came home. When I answered it, though, I got something completely different.

"Kommandant? What happened to..."

My captain looked like a train wreck. Her hair was all over the place and her school uniform was torn slightly in various spots. She even had a large cut or two on her legs. Her face was covered in tears and she was trembling with fear. To tell you the truth, I have never witnessed anything like this before with her.

"How could you!?" she sobbed, "How can you do this to me?!"

"Do what?" I exclaimed, "What are you talking about?"

When I reached out to grab her arm, she scratched me. I swung my arm away in pain and quickly inspected my injuries. Thankfully, the cuts were not bleeding.

"What the hell!? What's the matter with you?"

Now, I was worried. Something really strange was happening.

"What you did was so horrible! What you did was so...so...so..."

She didn't finish her sentence before I closed the door on her. I locked it and backed away from it as fast as I could. That's when the banging began. Maho was screaming now for an answer and began bashing on my door in anger. It was unlike anything that I have heard before. My spine began to tickle as I backed away from the door.

"I'm sorry." I said back, "I'm so sorry, whatever I did."

"You are so cruel, Erika!" she wailed. That comment alone jabbed at my heart. I started to tear up a little myself. I covered my ears and began to walk towards the kitchen, but then I gathered up enough strength and went back to the front door. With a flash, I yanked the Kommandant inside with me.

"Listen, I know your mad at me, but I really need you to calm down."

I took her gently by the arm again and guided her to the bathroom. This time, she didn't scratch me again.

While I sat her down on a chair outside the bathroom in the upstairs hall, I started up a warm bath for her. After the tub was full, I came back out and gently guided her into the bathroom. She was still uttering hurtful words under her breath.

"If you need me for anything, just call me. Alright?"

I left her alone. I began to pace back and forth in the living room downstairs, wondering why on earth was she so hostile towards me all of a sudden and what did I do to make her so mad.

About fifteen minutes had passed and I decided to check on Maho again. When I stared down the hall, the bathroom door was open, but the lights inside were off. I slowly guided myself towards the pitch black room.

"Maho? Are you okay?"

I slowly navigated to the bathroom and flicked on the lights. She was gone! The water had drained down the plug hole and all that was left was an empty tub with small puddles of red still stuck on the floor of it. The shower curtain had appeared to have been pulled down too.

"Was she bleeding in her!?" I yelled out loud.

Somehow or another, she had gotten loose and ran away. However, I was more worried about the mess she had left behind rather than how she ran out of the house undetected. Turning on the cold shower faucet, I washed the the red remains down the drain.

Darkness has fallen over the neighborhood now. With the exception of the streetlights outside, the whole neighborhood was in for the night.

At this rate, I was now extremely concerned. I kept trying on calming myself down and hoping that things would go back to normal again as soon as possible. The wind outside was beginning to die down once more and I was starting to feel a little better. Still, it wasn't enough.

I began to talk to myself, "Where the hell is mother and father at!? They aren't home yet."

I went to my room and rested my head for awhile before I was intrrupted once more. There was another knock at the door, but it sounded more like pounding than a knock. I was now annoyed with the Kommandant and I decided that this will be the last time that I would answer that door tonight.

"Why can't she see that I don't want to talk to you?!" I growled.

Carefully, I opened the door without turning on the porch light, hoping to catch her by surprise if it was a prank.

It was pitch black outside and not a single streetlight was lit on my whole block. All I heard was hard and heavy breathing.

"Hello?"

"IIII knnooooowww nnnooowwwww." muttered a deep female voice, "I know why you did this to me."

I reached back inside and flicked on the porch light. I screamed at the top of my lungs when I saw the Kommandant again.

"Eeerrriikkkaaa." she sang, "I know what you did now."

To start it off, her skin had turned completely pale and colorless. For some reason, she was in her tanker uniform now instead of her school uniform and that one was torn up badly too. On parts of her skin, she had small burn marks that were bruised over.

There was blood dripping all over her from head to toe, leaking from her brown hair that was covered in the fluid too. Her face, hands and knees were also stained with red. Her eyes were the worst. The pupils have shrunken increasingly in size and seemed to be almost glowing red.

"What happened to you!? All this blood and gore!"

"I understand now, what it feels like to loose something great. It really hurts. It really, really, really, really..."

"Damnit! Stop scaring me, Maho!"

Her creepy smile bent into a huge grin. She had completely lost her mind, I swear it. Suddenly, she start chocking and then started coughing up a deep crimson fluid. She lifted a finger into the air and slipped it under her shirt, slowly pushing it upwards.

She finished by revealing a gaping hole where her stomach was. There were no internal organs, except for her broken spine that had snapped on the other side.

"I want you...to...to...to..."

"Please!" I cried, "What is it!?"

"...TO SUFFER..."

I screamed again as blood began to leak heavily from her mouth and eyes and nose. I slammed the door and locked it as fast as I could and ran for my life back to my bedroom. I closed the door behind me and hid in the closet.

I reached into my purse on the floor for my phone, but I couldn't find it. I really began to go crazy. I pulled on my hair and moaned to myself in a far corner of the closet.

"If your going to kill me, then do it now and get it over with!"

Suddenly, I jumped up and ran for my lamp near my bed and slammed on the button to shut it off. I heard heavy rain and thunder pouring outside. Peeking out the window, a face appeared out of nowhere in front of me.

The Kommandant! Her flesh was pealing off of her face! And the blood had completely changed her skin and hair color! She was furious and she was decaying!

While she banged on my window, I fell to the floor and passed out.

I don't know how long I was out, but when I came to, it was super cold in the room. I blinked my eyes and tried to adjust to my environment, but I couldn't gain enough energy to get up. At first, I laid there and waited a few minutes before getting back up.

I was finally hungry. I haven't eaten a single thing for hours and I was beginning to feel weak and ill at the same time. As I carefully picked myself up, I listened to hear if it was still raining. The downpour had stopped and only the sound of the wind can be heard whirling through the trees.

Opening my bedroom door, I was surprised to find all the lights in the house were off. I don't remember turning them off, so maybe my parents had came home. But after opening their bedroom door, all I came upon was a pitch black room and a vacant well made bed.

Going into the kitchen, I located my phone, but when I tried to dial a number, I still had no connection or signal. I turned for the home phone in the next room, but once more, that too, didn't work.

"The power box is outside." I shivered, "Wonder what happened to it?"

Going outside was the last thing that was on my mind, but I realized that I had no other choice. Instead of going out through the front of the house, I decided to sneak out through the back door. I grabbed a flashlight that was near the door for emergencys and stepped out.

The first thing that hit me was the fog that had surrounded the whole yard. I had trouble guiding my way through it. Even with the flashlight, it was still dark enough for me to fall over something easily.

I found it! The box was on the backside of the house right next to the gas meter.

"Alright." I said relieved of my discover, "Let's see what I could do here."

Opening the power box, though, gave me a new challenge: Finding out why all the fuses were sliced.

"You can't be serious!" I wailed, "How am I going to fix this?"

Realizing that there was nothing I can do to fix it at the moment, I returned to my room and sat on my bed. I cried for awhile and continued to ask myself why was this happening to me. What did I do to deserve this!?

Downstairs, I heard my phone ringing. Slowly wandering towards the bright light in the room, my eyes fell on the number glowing on the screen. I didn't recognize the number right away, so I listened the voicemail that I also received.

"Itsumi-san, this is Nishizumi Miho. I just wanted to call you about my cocerns regarding my...sister. You see, we don't know who did it, but somebody...Tr-...did some-...said that the vehicle wa-..."

The voicemail turned into white noise and then ended afterwards. This left me with more unanswered questions that troubled me.

I spent the next few minutes in the living room curled up in a ball while trying to wrap my head around what the Kommandant kept saying to me. There must be some reason why she is tormenting me like this and I was bound to find out why. I tried my hardest to think back to the events that led up to her death and how those could affect the way she looks at me. I talked aloud as I diagnoised the problem.

"The match wasn't a problem. We were doing just fine. We were coming down to the last vehicles and then...bang. The thing is, who fired the shot at her?"

Out of the blue, I had this wild sensation that something was approaching. I turned over and stared at the nearby large window. My heart began to beat faster and faster with each passing second, until...

CRASH!

I emitted a small yelp as I fell onto the floor. Peeking over the side of the family room couch, I saw something big lying on the ground. Whatever it was, it looked heavy and it shattered all the glass in the window. Approaching the object, I could make out a shape that looked familiar to me.

"A tank shell!?"

It was a standardized tank shell. The only problem was that it wasn't the kind the tournaments used. It was an actual tank shell! Who could have been strong enough to throw this through the window?! The scariest part was that the box of white chocolate strawberries was strapped to the shell, oozing a dark thick liquid!

I lost it around this point. I really did. The only way to escape this horrible nightmare was to run as far away from this place as fast as I could. If I can get lucky, I might find someone in this surrounding area that can shelter me, at least till dawn when first light appears.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of sirens in the distance. It was the first thing that I have heard since my friends were over. Not waiting around any longer, I sprinted outside and tried to follow the source of the sirens.

I'm not exactly sure how long or how far that I have ran before the road started to go into the nearby woods. Even with my eyes adjusted to the dark, I couldn't see very well in the thicket. I played by ear to hound out the sirens, but they seemed to get farther and farther away the faster I ran in its direction. Eventually, I lost the chase completely and stood in the middle of the road trying to catch my breath again.

"I smell something. Something's burning."

In the area up ahead, I saw a deep orange glow. It must have been a fire.

"Maybe that's what the sirens were for!" I told myself, "Now's my chance to catch up to them."

At first, I felt a bunch of pressure come off my back and now, in the first time in hours, I was able to communicate with the outside. But when I saw what it was that was on fire, I slowly began to walk towards it. There was a car on fire in the middle of the road and it looked like the whole roof on top had crumpled into the vehicle itself, like it had been crushed or ran over by something bigger.

"Wait. That can't..."

I noticed something familiar about the vehicle. It had the appearance of the same car that...

"Oh, noooooo!"

On the ground before my feet was a license plate that had the same exact code that was on my parents' car. Thats why they never showed up, because they are dead! Blown to shreds and then cremated to ash! They were gone forever!

"You ended me, now I'm ending you!" shrieked a violent voice from behind.

Turning around, my eyes fell upon a sight that would scare anyone. The Kommandant had followed me! Her face wasn't even there anymore, it had long sense began to deteriorate and was already in the stage of melting off her head completely! It was absolutely disguising! Her eyes were no more than two white globs of mush slipping down what was once her face and there was body plasma and blood all over her head! It was terrifying and not only that, it appeared as if she was no longer human, but some kind of horrid faceless monster!

I couldn't let that thing get me! I ran as fast as I could off the road and into the dark forest! I kept running until I was sure that my lungs would burst out of my chest. For a moment, I lost control of myself and threw up in the bushes. I remembered that I hadn't eaten at all because of the power failure back at the house. Once I have recovered from my stomach upset, I pressed on, not spending anytime waiting around for that thing that was once my friend to catch up and kill me!

After running for some time, I decided to take another breather. I was officially lost and I had lost all sense of which direction I was going in. In the dark, I lost my flashlight and must of long forgotten about it in my frenzy to escape. I quietly stood around and listened to everything that was around me, to make sure nobody else was around. The weirdest part was that the nearby trees above me seemed to dance and twist like human spines.

"Well. I guess I lost her." I sighed.

I stood up and found myself on the edge of a cemetery, one of the walls closest to me was bashed open. Wandering inside, I soon came across what appeared to be a giant mausoleum. The great metal door was unlocked, so I hid inside there. When I turned around, I noticed one of the coffin doors at the end busted open and completely ruined. Looking down at the small plating on its edge, I read a small text box, revealing the name of the one who was stored there.

"Maho's grave." I said in awe. "So, this is the Nishizumi Memorial."

Inside the expensive tomb bed was a newspaper. Unfolding it, I found that the text was begining to smudge off the page, but from what I could make out, the headline story was about Maho's death. The article went on to say how she died.

"Student body reports the possibility of a Tiger II crew being the ones responsible for the death of those inside the Tiger I tank. When inspected, the vehicle number matches similarly to the crew commanded by Itsumi Erika..."

From behind me, I heard something slamming open the door. I began to slowly turn myself around to see what it was. Before I turned all the way around, I heard a scream of sadness mixed with fury yell at me.

"YOU! YOU DID IT! YOU KILLED ME!"

I yelled when someone heavy threw themselves on top of me. It was that thing that used to be my team captain! I screamed as I embraced for what it was going to do to me. I emitted one last scream before that monster shoved her hands into my legs and threw me into the coffin, slaming the lid shut and locking it.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I was the one who killed you!"

"Erika! Please, wake up!" shouted someone else's voice.

I opened my eyes to Maho's worried face. I gasped at the sight of her real face compared to that thing that I saw a second earlier. She wasn't alone, though. Mrs. Nishizumi and a few other classmates were there too. They all were looking at me like I had just seen a ghost. I was so frightened that I didn't even realized that I had wet myself.

"Have you recovered from your nightmare yet?" Maho asked me.

I hugged her intentionally and wept. It was too much for me. I had lost my mind in what ended up being a horrible nightmare and a wretched dreamland. I slowly broke the embrace and sat up in bed.

"Is there anything you need before you go back bed?" Mrs. Nishizumi asked me.

"Uhh, no. I think I'm okay for now." I sighed.

She and everyone else with her turned around and left, leaving me and Maho alone.

"Erika. What happened? You gave everyone quite a scare."

"It was horrible. I sniffed, "I thought you were dead. I thought that I had killed you."

I hugged her again and this time she held me in her arms too. There we sat, for another thirty minutes, telling each other that come tomorrow, everything will be back to normal. I lay awake now in my bed, writing in my journal about all that has happened. Hopefully, nobody but myself will even have to read this again. I just hope that our friendship will not end because of this.

Erika Itsumi

31st October, 2033