Disclaimer: I don't own Heavy Rain the game, the plot, or the characters. However, the Alston family and the Williams family are my characters and I will be very offended if you take them. :3 Thanks!

fall

Chapter I, "A Witness"

It was nights like these when I honestly regretted ever joining the volleyball team. Okay, no, scratch that - it was nights like these when I regretted not bringing a jacket. The air was blistering cold, wind seeming to whip through my skin and bones and leave me with a sickening feeling. It'd been raining often, something I wasn't too fond of as it only worsened the weather. Though, despite my prayers, it rained. And rained. And rained. I stared out into the streets, beyond the comfort underneath the rusted awning, concern burrowed in my eyes as soon as I noticed how dark it was outside. Wow, Adalyn, I cursed to myself, way to be a genius.I sighed, lowering myself to grab a tight hold on my gym bag, and slinging it swiftly over my shoulder. The sound of the fabric brushing against the rough, concrete floors echoed eerily; my grip on the strap only tightened. There was only one thing I hated more than the rain and that was being alone, in the dark.

I took a leap of faith and stepped outside, shutting my eyes at first in protection of the sudden burst of rainwater. I felt a splatter of water seep through my tennis shoes and into my socks, but I continued down the street, forcing my eyes open. I quickened my pace, straying closer to a nearby streetlight. My breath stayed slow and my steps remained steady - rain drops pelted the back of my neck and made the loose hairs of my ponytail cling to my face. I pushed them out of my eyes with the back of my hand and blinked hard to get the water out of my vision. The streets were completely empty - even the cars were scarce, but hell, I wouldn't blame them. Driving in San Francisco in weather like this on a Wednesday night? Even Jesus would weep.

I followed the streetlights absently - I'd walked home in the dark far too many times not to. But in this weather? Oh, no. It was time for a shortcut. I slowed my pace a bit at the next intersection. If I go straight and cut through the train tracks it should be a straight shot, I reviewed the plan with myself. I'd done it plenty of times, it was simple. I let out a breath of air from my lungs and took another in, slowly, then dashed out again to cross the street. I splashed through puddles hastily, determined to make it home before the rain thundered down even harder than it already was. My ankles were nearly numb from the iced water, which was somewhat of a relief. The train tracks weren't far from the intersection, and at the pace I was going, I was bound to be home in no time.

The soft patter of my footsteps against the asphalt faded away and was replaced with a sudden glop as my shoe sank deeper into the mud. I scoffed, but still persisted to trudge through, my steps careful and soft in an attempt to protect my footwear. Things seemed to get even more silent now that I couldn't hear my steps over the rain. There was only the occasional crunch of a leaf or splatter of mud when I stepped to hard. Crunch, crunch, splat, crunch, splat, splat, pfffft.

Wait.

My heart jumped and I instantly raised my foot up. I backed up with the other hastily, my heart still fluttering in my chest like a rabbit's. I must have done this too fast since my foot slipped against the surface; I crashed down into the mud with a disgusting sound, but in my terror, I disregarded it. My eyes searched all around frantically while my hands slipped against the mud underneath me to try and push myself up. I looked down where I had stepped earlier, half expecting to see a poor helpless rock that missed my glace or the sewer monster my old babysitter used to tell me about.

It wasn't either of those. I would've been happier with the latter.

Through my panicked vision, I could see tiny stubs of fingers. I instantly blinked again, either in an effort to clear my sight or to free my mind from it's stupid hallucinations that often try to molest my mind. The fingers formed into a hand. I shuddered, my eyes growing even wider. An arm. My heart sped up and the shaking began. A head, a torso. A body. A fucking body.I wasn't hallucinating this time, it was real.

I found a body.

I'd somehow managed to push myself up into a sitting position through my terror, even though the shivers hadn't ceased. My lips parted open and I expected myself to say something - anything - but all that came out was a tiny wheeze, and even though it was almost inaudible, it seemed to take all the breathe out of me. I stared at the body, dumbfounded and petrified, eyes beginning to tear up simply because the scare was too powerful for my heart to handle. What do I do? Who was this? Why? What's going on? My eyes adverted back down to the hand I'd stepped on and my stomach sank. An origami figure.

Oh, my god. It was him. My throat closed up suddenly; it was hard to breathe.

A million things ran through my head all at once, some of which were irrelevant and the rest just terrifying speculations. What do I do? Police. I needed to get the police. My hands searched frenetically for my cell phone, first to my hip and cursing myself when I realized I was wearing my volleyball shorts. It took me a minute too long to think of where it could have been next, then I instantly went for the gym bag. The first few times I tried to pull it open my fingers were shaking too much. It took nearly all my concentration to ease them and open up the bag, but as soon as I did, my arm dived inside and searched. The longer it took for me to find it, the more fear bubbled up inside. Clothes, clothes, oh… something hard. I snatched it and curled my fingers around it thankfully, knuckles going white from clutching it so hard. I flipped it open, one hand hovering over the screen to protect it from the rain and the other dialing numbers.

951. No, that's not it, stop.

912. Calm down, focus.

Deep breath. 911. Send.

It rang twice. I'd almost convinced myself that they weren't going to answer me until I heard a soft, female voice on the other end: "911, what's your emergency?"

"…" A wheeze again; I had just now noticed that I was crying too hard to speak correctly. "C-…" My throat stung as I tried to speak again.

"Calm down, can you repeat yourself and speak a little more clearly?" The operator spoke again, calm and collected.

"Carter's Street by the t-t-train tracks. I-I found a b-body, origami killer, I think," It was hard to focus on what I was saying, but at this point I couldn't care less if I sounded like an idiot. "I need police to come here, please. Hurry." I sniffed to try and calm the hysterics but the tears kept flowing.

"Alright, ma'am, police are on the way. Do you know who it is?"

"N-no, no." I shook my head to myself, eyes trying to see through the tears and over to the body. "It's a boy," I said this quietly, tearing up more as I stared at his matted head of hair and the mud that crusted away at his face. "I, I think he's dead." More tears. I gasped for air, though it was hard to in all this rain.

"Please calm down, the police are coming, ma'am. Can you explain to me what happened?"

"I just wanted to go home, I just…" I trailed off, biting my lower lip and shaking my head again. "I found him here, accidentally…"

"Alright. Stay calm, okay? Someone will be arriving shortly."

"O-okay." I responded shakily, looking back down into the mud and scattered leaves. I watched the leaves tremble from the heavy rain drops, I watched the leaves slide down the small slopes of the mudded grass, I watched the mud slide off into the streets and down the drains.

I just wanted to go home.


The soft click of keyboards and whirls of phones still hadn't been able to break my of the shaking. The walls were so white and everything was so well-lit, it was overwhelming at first, but even though I'd been sitting in the same seat for so long it still seemed unusual. I felt so out of place - there I was, practically covered in mud, tears still streaming, in my soaked short shorts and volleyball jersey and gym bag in the seat next to me. Everyone else had their white collars and ties on. I kept my eyes on my knees to avoid their stares, and instead, I fiddled anxiously with my hands.

They'd brought me in from the scene for questioning, something I had mixed feelings for. Did they think I was a suspect? That I'd killed him? I was scared, as anyone else would be in my situation. What was going to happen?

"Hey, Miss," I heard a coarse voice directed toward me and I instantly lifted up my head.

Two cops stepped toward me, one seeming to hold some sort of dominance over the other simply by how he strode in front of him. His hair was dark, messy, his eyes seemed to tear right through mine. It almost felt uneasy to look at him. He slowed as he reached me, stretching an arm out to grab a loose chair that had been dangling by a filing cabinet. He scooted it over next to me, and lowered himself to sit, leaving the other to stand. "I'm Lieutenant Carter Blake and this," He nodded toward his standing companion, "This is Agent Norman Jayden from the FBI."

I looked up to the other cop, wiping away the tears again to have a better look. He appeared quite a bit younger, a stern look in his eyes as well, but not as taunting as Blake's. Definitely easier to look at. He looked back down to me, his expression softening until he removed his coat carefully and stepped closer to me. I jumped at his actions at first, about to back away until I felt the warmth of his coat around my shoulders. My eyes met with his as he pulled away from me, a smile appearing on his lips for a second, then fading away as fast as it came up. "We just want to ask you some questions," He said to me, straightening up to his full height and crossing his arms. His voice was calm, melodious.

I cleared my throat abruptly, pulling the coat over my chest. I lowered my head again, tucking my hair behind my ear so it was out of my eyes. It had already gotten back to its wavy state due to the rain. "… Thank you," I finally said, then nodded my head.

"You can start by telling us your name." Blake stated, leaning forward on the chair with his elbows on his knees.

"Adalyn Alston." My voice was starting to grow less and less shaky. "I go to the community college in the middle of town, it's my third year there…"

"22?" Blake added, raising an eyebrow. I nodded my head. He didn't waste any time with the next question. "What were you doing out?"

"I, uh… I play for the volleyball team at the college, I was walking home after practice," I sniffed and wiped some more tears away. I stared down at my fingers to see that they'd blackened. Great, makeup was smearing. "It was raining so hard, and I wanted to get home early… I took a shortcut and then I found him…" I bit my lower lip, gathering the courage to raise my head up to glance at Blake.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair impatiently. "You didn't see anything out of the ordinary while you were walking, or when you got there? Not one thing?" His tone started to grow more annoyed. I sunk deeper in my seat.

I shook my head at first, but finally managed to mutter out, "… No." I quickly tried to redeem myself, "It was raining so hard, I might've… not seen something, but… there wasn't really anyone outside. At least, that I saw…"

Blake groaned, holding his shaking head in his hands. "We're running around in circles 'ere!" I almost didn't hear him say this, but when I finally made it out I frowned disappointedly.

He sighed once more, lifting himself out of the chair and kicking it behind himself aggressively. It flew back to the filing cabinet where it had originally resided. He took a long pause and stared at me before turning away and shouting, "Go home. If you need a ride, ask someone."

And just as mysteriously as he arrived he was gone.

I heard a frustrated sigh come from Jayden and I perked my head up. There was a pause between us - I had expected him to follow but when he didn't I didn't know exactly what to do. "Sweet guy." I muttered. "Probably a joy to work with." Fluent in sarcasm.

"Oh, so you can tell too?" Jayden inquired back, eyes widening with shock. He sighed again, sliding his hands in his pockets and watching me from above. "I'm sorry about him. Listen, you're a real help. It could have been longer before we got to that body."

I felt a smile come through but I fought it, and instead I shrugged. "Never thought finding a body would be a good thing, but if it helps you guys, I guess that eases me a little."

He smiled. "It's a hell of a good thing here, I can tell you that." There was a short pause, but he quickly resolved it. "Do you need a ride back home? I think I could run out quickly to give you one."

I shook my head, then lifted myself out of the chair. "No, it's okay. I'll call my parents, they're probably worried sick." I removed his coat and handed it back to him, finally breaking into a smile. "Thanks again for that. If I ruined it I'm sorry and I'll pay for it."

He laughed, one of those warm one-syllable laughs. "It's no problem. Be safe."

"Mhm." Yeah, I'll try not to run into any more bodies. I lifted my gym bag up and turned, beginning to walk across the glossy, tiled floor to the door.

"Wait, Adalyn!" I heard Jayden call again, then looked behind my shoulder with curious eyes. He was writing something down against the desk, and as soon as he finished he came quickly toward me, handing me a little sheet of paper. I turned my whole body to him again and grabbed it, then looked down to analyze it. A phone number.

"If you remember anything or need something, just call." He smiled again, then gave me a quick nod goodbye, turning away and beginning to slide his arms back into his coat. I watched him walk away, then looked back at the digits with a small smile. I didn't exactly plan on running into anymore problems and I'm sure as hell that I didn't see anything else that might have been of help, but I decided to keep his number. Something told me to. I kept my fingers curled around the note and then turned back toward the doors, making swift steps toward them.

I'm so glad I listened to whatever that was.


Author's Note;
Wow, this took a lot longer than I had envisioned. I haven't written since NaNoWriMo, and that was like, 3 months ago, so please, I'm
really rusty, and I'd really adore it if you'd bear with me. I know my writing's not the best but I'll get better in time. :) I'd superduper love it if you guys left a little review to tell me what you think and what I should work on. Thanks! I plan to have another chapter up soon, if you like it!