Time Blood Chapter 2: Nighmares of Memories, a diablo fanfic

Chapter One: Nightmares of Memories

She swung her staff against the creature and it died instantly on the spot without a cry. She immediately turned to kill the other one that was on her back. She cried out and shot an ice bolt at it. The creature froze and exploded into sharp, little spikes of ice.

She turned to ram her staff into the largest of them when she found herself in a desert, sitting to an edge of an oasis. There was a man coming up at her. She couldn't see who he was.

She tried to run and see who it is, but she was stopped. Hellish flames burst and smothered her. She coughed and tried to yell, but can't.

She started clawing at her own skin to stop the burn.

Her skin fell away.

And underneath that was nothing. Just blackness.

"NO!"

"Well well, I am so happy to see you so excited about the Declaration of Independence, Miss. Evans. Is there something you disagree about?" Professor Kingsley looked at her through his glasses.

"I um," Moran massaged her throbbing temples. "I um…can I go to the nurse? I think I need an aspirin."

Professor Kingsley slammed her ruler down on her desk. "Miss. Evans, this is your fourth time in four days and in my class that you be excused to go see the nurse. Honestly, what is wrong with you?"

Moran looked down at her skin and shut her eyes. Peeling it away…nothing but blackness inside.

Her stomach churned.

"Excuse me," she grabbed her books and her bags and dashed out of the class. She ran into the nearest bathroom and threw up into one of the dirty toilets. A few minutes later, the bell rang.

"Moran…are you all right?"

"Hey, Sal," she flushed the toilet and walked out to the sink.

"What's wrong with you?" Sal tossed back her blonde hair. "You've been acting weird all week. Kingsley's gonna report you."

"Look, I can't help it," Moran rinsed her mouth, pushing her long, dark brown hair away from the water. "I haven't been getting much sleep recently."

"Yeah, and I notice you sleeping in class a lot," Sal looked concern. "Nightmares?"

"So what?" Moran shrugged and pulled out a pot of lip gloss. "A lot of people have nightmares."

"Not every night you don't," Sal eyed Moran. "I noticed you're throwing up a lot. Are you-"

"No, I'm not pregnant," Moran slammed her hand on the tiles. "Honestly, I just have this stupid nightmare about the same thing every night. Killing demons and picking away at my own skin in flames. I'm perfectly fine."

She grabbed her bags and books and hurried out the door. She wanted to go home, but awaited her was more trouble. A drunk mother and work to do.

"Back off!"

"What makes you think that?" Moran swung her staff at the Zakrumite.

"Ah!" She bolted from her bed. The sheets and her bed was soaked with sweat. She threw them back and gripped her forehead.

Zakrumite?

"What the hell is a Zakrumite?" She mumbled, even though saying it sounded perfectly familiar. She stood up and went to the large mirror at the other side of her room.

Long, wavy hair that fell nearly down to her waist. Dark brown eyes that turned the shade of honey when exposed to the sun. Perfectly normal, perfectly human. She looked fine, not sick.

What's wrong with me? She slumped on the floor, nursing her head. She never had migraines, but it looks like she did, now. But did migraines bring nightmares of demons and picking at her skin. And now Zakrumites? What the hell are Zakrumites anyway? And why did she always fight with a staff? Damn.

There was a sudden flare of light in the room.

She screamed and leapt over her narrow bed, staring wide eyed at the mirror. It had turned a milky white and looked like it had flashes of lightning crackling over it, like a mesh.

"WALK INTO THE PORTAL NOW!"

She gasped and looked around for a weapon. She grabbed her pair of brass knuckles and a small switchblade from her desk.

"Who-what are you?" She shouted.

"I AM THE ARCHANGEL TYRAEL! INTO THE PORTAL I COMMAND YOU!"

"Archangel? What the fuck-" She gasped as a glowing tentacle of light came from the portal and wrapped around her arm. She screamed and tried to hack it off with the blade but nothing happened.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE WHEN YOU GET TO YOUR DESTINATION!"

She shouted out as the tentacles dragged her to the portal. She dragged the carpet of her room and tried to stop herself, but the tentacles were too strong. "STOP IT!!" She shouted. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Remember, Moranaha. REMEMBER!"

She screamed as she was dragged into her mirror.

She dropped and fell on something soft.

She opened an eye and looked around. This was nowhere like her home. She was in some sort of damp forest. And it was very cold. Trees and remains of what used to be a stonewall stood around her. Her pajamas were ripped on a nearby rock.

"How convenient," she muttered. At least she still had her brass knuckles and her switchblade. "What am I suppose to do?"

She heard the sounds of running water coming from a clearing to her right. She walked towards it, holding herself with her hands. At least some water to drink would be good. Her throat was so dry.

She reached a rather large stream with clear water running through it. She dropped down on her knees and took a drink. She gasped at how cold it was. Then, she drank a few more mouthfuls and sat back, shivering.

Something pierced her arm.

"What the fuck!" She shouted and found what looked very much like a porcupine quill sticking out of her elbow. She swore as she saw strange looking creature making its way towards her. It looked like a porcupine in every aspect-except it was a size of a golden retriever and had a face that resembled a rat that a cat had already chewed on.

It shook itself and the nearly foot long quills quivered.

"Oh damn!" She dodged before another one of its quills could poke her. She gripped the switchblade in her hands, wondering when it would be the best time to sink the blade into the creature.

Something sharp hit her on the back again.

She whirled around to find another one of those porcupine creatures waddling towards her.

"Oh fuck…here goes nothing," she ran towards it and stuffed her dagger into the quills. It gave off a wet, spluttering sound and lay dead. She ran to the other and started stabbing at it. This time it took her two stabs and a punch of her brass knuckles.

"Damn it," she swore again and pulled off the quills. Who knows if these were poisonous? She went to the stream again and washed the cuts. She had to go where there was some source of human DNA in it. Either that or die.

"I am going to kick Tyrael's ass, whoever he is," she mumbled and touched one of the wounds. "If only I had a machine gun."

She started walking again, flinching whenever she thought she saw some movement.

"Wha-" She gaped as she saw a few wagons making its way towards her. "Help! Help!" She cried out, waving her arms.

Her vision started to blur and she felt queasy, like that other day in Professor Kingley's class. What she would give to be back in that ordinary, safe classroom with no such rodent except for the class's pet hamster.

She vomited into the grass and gaped at the dark liquid. Blood.

Before she blacked out, she heard the squeak of the wagon wheels and someone shouting, "Moranah!"

"Moranah," she mumbled. "That sounds like my name."

"I can't believe she drank water from the river. And we thought she would know better."

"Of course not, Nikan. Remember Tyrael? He said she wouldn't remember anything."

"Bother! Looks like some Quill Rats got her. See this on her arm?"

"If we didn't have that leftover antidote-"

"She would have died from poison."

"Will you go away!?" Moran mumbled. She felt very sick, and very drowsy. The noise of those people was bothering her.

She heard some chuckling. "Here's some water."

She parted her lips to except the cool liquid. Gentle hands took her chin and poured the water into her dry mouth. It made her feel better, and she opened her eyes. The blurry room focused into what seem to be a tent with a single lamp hanging from the ceiling.

"Welcome back…Moranah."

She sat up and felt her eyes bugged.

Sitting on her bed was the person who gave her the water. He looked young…in fact, very young, no older than she was, but he had long, pure ivory hair tied at the base of his neck. His eyes were a sparkling emerald green, and red rimmed as if he was crying. A single gold earring sparkle on his right ear and a silver one of his left eyebrow, adding more to his handsome face. His skin was only slightly tanned. Strong muscles rippled over his bare arms and through his partly opened black shirt.

I know him, she thought. She looked away. The more she looked at him, she found some sort of strange pain in her heard. She had a feeling she knew him from somewhere, but where? She didn't know.

The only woman besides her beamed down, as if she had met a long lost friend. Her blonde hair was tied up to the top of her head, and her eyes were a sparkling blue, lined in black. A sword hung from her belt, a shield on the floor besides her chair, and a pile of what looked like javelins at her other side.

Amazon.

The man at her side looked like he could easily bite off both of Mike Tyson's ears plus his entire body. His head was shaven smoothly except for a long, black ponytail growing out from the center. He looked friendly enough, and his black eyes sparkled with mischievousness.

The man next to him had dark, very tanned skin and his eyes were gray, reflecting off a strange light. He had a cross on a chain over his neck and wearing a field plate that made him look exactly like a crusader. His hair was cut in a buzz cut-a black fuzz covering his entire head. He looked very solemn…and very holy.

"Moranah, I thank the good Lord you returned to us," he said.

"What? Where the fuck am I? And who's Moranah?"

The man sitting on the bed who had just gave her a drink looked down at her. "You don't…remember?"

"Kail," the Amazon looked sternly at him. "Tyrael said to let her remember by herself."

"Tyrael?" Moran said. "The archangel? He's damned thing that pulled me into this fucking place. And I want to go home. Now. And my name is Moranah. It's Moran."

"Damned Tyrael?" The large man looked taken back. "Wow. Wait till Tyrael hears this."

"Shut up, Thor," The Amazon said. "Listen…Moran. First, of all, you're a sorceress."

"I know," Moran said, rolling her eyes. "And my mother was Barney the Purple Dinosaur."

"Dinosaur?" The crusader-like man looked at her.

"Nothing," Moran sighed. "And why am I here?"

"You belong here," Nikan said. "And-"

She got off into a very long paragraph, talking about Diablo, The Lord of Terror and how he was taking over the earth. She explained a few more things, about how a sorceress who was Moran was killed by Diablo and to bring her back, they will have to go through killing all the demons again…

Moran only got the part that she was pulled into this world against her will.

"I want to go back home," she said. "Tell Tyrael that I want out of here."

"We can't do that," Nikan said.

"Why?" Moran asked.

"The portal opens only twice, once before Diablo is killed, another after Diablo is killed," Nikan said. "So…the only way for you to go back is after you killed Diablo."

Moran sighed. "So I have to stay with you?"

"Yes."

"Damn," she swore. But a tiny part of her was starting to feel excited. Killing off demons sounded a damn more intresting than…well, getting detention and eating aspirin in the nurse's office.

"Well…should we introduce?" Thorn asked. "I'm Thor, a barbarian."

"Cheers."

"That's Ollan, the paladin."

"He's not a crusader?"

"I was…long ago," Ollan said.

"That's Nikan. She's an-"

"Amazon," Moran said.

"And that man on your bed," Thorn said. "His name is Kail. He's a necromancer."

She looked up at him and was surprised as he lay his large hand on hers. "You don't remember?"

Her heart burned with the same pain. Stop it, she commanded herself. She drew her hand away. "No."

The Necromancer looked away and trotted out of the tent.

"Oh, for goodness sakes…give me something to wear," she said after noticing she was naked underneath the covers.

Nikan handed her pair of leather pants and a cream shirt. "Come outside when you're done." She left with the others and shut the tent.

Moran swung her legs of the bed and winced as her feet hit the dirt floor faster than she expected. The bed was very low.

She was starting to lace up one of the short heavy boots on her legs when she heard them talking outside her tent. She moved closer to the right.

"Damn it, I can't believe it," she heard Kail, the Necromancer say. "She's not Moranah! She doesn't act like Moranah at all!"

"Stop it, Kail," Nikan said, sounding pale. "Of course she's Moranah. She just needs time to remember, that's it."

"Hell, it's almost like another person in Moranah's skin," Kail said, sounding angry, although Moran swear she heard a sob. "She looks perfectly like Moranah but she acts so…"

"Give her time to adjust," Ollan said. "How would you feel if you were dragged into another world against your will?"

"I want to be alone. And tell…Moran not to give the Rogues and us any trouble. You know what? I'm starting to regret this."

Moran felt her skin ripple. What did she do?