Chapter 2: The Awakening of a Hero

Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo or any of its characters, places, skills, or whatever else. I will not be making money from this story as I am just doing it for fun. All credit for the amazing Diablo series goes to Blizzard.

"Shit." A boy no older than sixteen years said loudly.

The reasons that this particular boy was cussing were because of the large group of people around him. As well as the fact that he was hanging upside down.

"So this is where you went to huh, Holden?" The boy in front asked, as others snickered behind him.

Holden always hated his name and never understood why his parents picked it for him of all names. "Well it's quiet, peaceful, and I don't have to stare at your ugly mug all the time, Jim."

The boy named Jim punched him in the face, possibly knocking a few teeth loose and a broken nose. Well that was would have happened if Holden hadn't lifted his head up to headbutt the fist as it was just gaining speed. It caused a huge headache for Holden but caused Jim to fall back as he cried out in pain. It sometimes paid off to have a ridiculously hard head.

All his life Holden had been bullied by other children, he just never seemed to fit in. It also didn't help that he tended to have a temper that burned fast and quick. So after time and time of being bullied, and him naturally fighting back, he became a decent fighter, which discouraged most people from picking fights with him.

However Jim was never bright and was never one to back down from a fight, expecially against Holden, who he saw as the perfect punching bag, one that fought back and made him stronger. He never was a bad fighter and usually could hold his own against anyone.

"Let me down now Jim, and we can settle this like men." Holden said through his teeth as he grinded them together.

Jim just grinned and walked up to where he was stuck. "How did you get up there anyways?" He questioned Holden.

"Oh you know how it happens: walkin, thinkin, every now and then watching over my back to look out for dumbass punks, sometimes it leads to falling off a ledge and getting your foot stuck inbetween two bars sticking out of the ground." Holden said with a grin, and raised his head again to intercept Jims fist from forming a small crater in his face. "Man, he just does not think, does he?" Holden thought as he was entertained by the look of pain on Jims face, "Does leave a killer headache though doesn't it?" He shook his head at the thought, partially to get rid of the thought, and to try to help the headache.

"Get him down," Ordered Jim to several of the kids that surrounded them, "He wants to fight so bad he can have it."

After several failed attempts at getting him down, he decided to try to help, and pushed himself up a little bit, allowing them to get him unstuck as he fell flat onto his face. Holden pushed himself up onto his elbows and than stood up.

"Alright so when are we gonna st-" Holden started when Jim lashed out with a fist and puched him in the face. Holden staggered back a bit before standing up straight. He was unhappy at the way that Jim hit without waiting until both people were good to go. He had fought other people who waited until both parties were ready and Jim normally did that, hell it was an unspoken rule, but this time something was off.

Jim was relentless as he sent punch after punch at Holden, who was able to hold off the punches by using his arms as guards. Holden finally saw a chance and took it, ducking under one of Jims punches and tackling him and started to punch him while on top. Than everything really started going down hill.

Jim, while on the ground still, had grabbed a large rock from next to him and smashed it into Holdens head, causing him to fall off holding the now bloody wound on his head, and a lot of gasps from the crowd around them. As Jim started to stand with the rock still in hand, Holden lashed out with a foot, catching Jim in the stomach and making him fall back.

"What the hells your problem?!" Holden demanded while he stood up.

Then when he looked at Jims eyes, and saw exactly what the problem was.

They were a dark red color, and not just the pupil, it was the whole eye. They looked like someone had painted them red, and that wasn't everything that he saw. It looked like there was a red mist floating around him. Holden blinked a couple of times but the mist didn't go away.

Jim suddenly screamed in rage and started running at Holden, who only barely managed to get away from him before he found himself backed up against the ledge he had been hanging from and tried to duck away, but not before Jim managed to get a hit in and hit him on the head again. Holden fell to the ground from the sudden blow and tried to sit up blurry eyed, but just fell on his back.

"Son of a bitch!" Heldon spit out as he tasted blood in his mouth. Now he was really pissed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He exlaimed in anger, venting it all towards the boy that stood over him. As he looked at him he saw the red mist start to take form, looking more and more like a snake by the second, until what he was looking at was a skeletal snake like creature that was hissing into Jims ear. Stunned by this reveal he slowly got back his wit and reached out, grabbing the snake by the tail and tried to pry it off of Jim, but much to his suprise the snake hissed at him in a hate filled voice.

"Boy, I'm suprised you can see me, but hear my voice, the voice of the Great Lord Dul'Mephistos's minion. Remember all the fights that this boy has caused, all of the bullying, being left in the dark and left behind behind those you thought cared about you. Hatred is the only path that is open to you, follow it, let it fill you, and kill them all. All of the humans who have hurt you, all those who will hurt you." The voice continued to hiss, seemingly into his head, causing him to blink. and stand to follow its commands.

"It's right, what have they done for me other than bully me, pick fights with me, leave me behind?" Holden thought to himself, "I'll kill them all. They all deserve to die for all the pain they have caused."

However as he stood, he felt a sharp pain in his head and doubled up holding his head in his hands. "Why though? Why follow some kind of weird snakes commands? Whats the point? It's obvious he is using us so why give him the pleasure? We have far more power than this small pitiful snake, so I say screw it. It wants hatred but do we really feel hatred? Use the rage of being used and clear the hate from your mind. I'll help you." a voice talked inside his head. He felt a red hot rage fill his body and mind, clearing it as he saw the situation for what it really was. How he was being used by the snake that had seemingly swallowed the mind of Jim.

Holden roared and tore the snake from Jim. As the boy went limp, Holden lifted the snake with both his hands and pulled with all his might. The voice started hissing into his mind again commanding him to stop, but that just made his rage grow and allowed him to pull stronger than ever before and he ripped the snake apart. In a geyser of blood that seemed to contain far too much blood the beast was still moving around trying to escape.

"You dare go against me and my Lord, Boy?! Even if you survive this night my Master will find you and tear you bit to bit even if it's the last thing he does. However I highly doubt you will survive this night as I have a farewell gift for someone as troubling as you to our cause." The snake hissed before finally stilling. However much to the suprise of the group around them the snake started to disolve into the ground until nothing was there anymore and it all seemed like it was an illusion.

"What just happened?!" Yelled a girl as she stared at the spot where the snake had disolved.

"You could see it?" Holden asked them in disbelief, he had thought that only he could see the creature.

Everyone in the group nodded, "Well only after you were holding it. Before we never saw it, it was like it was invisible." The girl spoke again, explaining what they saw.

"Did it speak to any of you?" Holden asked for clarification, he needed to know if he was the only one it spoke to.

They all looked at each other confused, "No why would we have heard it speak? It was only a snake after all."

"I see..." Holden said to himself quietly, "Nevermind, for now we need to get Jim to somewhere that can check on him and find out if he is ok."

They all moved quickly, gathering Jim in their arms, two of the bigger boys started moving him out of the area.

As they were walking out of the abandoned area, Holden remembered what the snake had said about a farewell gift for him. While he was thinking about this, he suddenly tripped. After what he had just seen and what he had heard, it was understandable that after looking back he just groaned at his horrible luck instead of screaming, when he saw that he hadn't tripped over anything, rather he was grabbed.

The object that had grabbed him was a hand of a long buried and definitly dead person.

This was going to be a long night.

AUTHORS NOTE: I had a lot more fun writing this chapter rather than the previous one, because I am finally getting some of the more important aspects added in instead of just talking (Bleh) and I managed to get action into this one which I was personally looking forward to as I love action. I'm thinking about how to make the stories longer without boring the reader in one go. If any of you guys have any ideas toss them my way and review I would like to know where I can do better on. Thanks for reading!